Wisconsin Football: Grading position groups from week two

Wisconsin football dominated again this week beating New Mexico 45-14.

The Wisconsin football program had a slow start but finished very strong in its game against New Mexico. The Badgers took a 10-7 lead into halftime before blowing the doors off the Lobos in the second half by putting up 35 points. The final score of 45-14 tells part of the story, but not the whole story.

The slow start was kind of rough to watch. After New Mexico’s first drive, you could tell something had changed. Although New Mexico was still moving the ball, the defense had begun to settle in. It showed. After giving up a touchdown on the opening drive of the game, the Wisconsin defense surrendered only one more score the rest of the game.

The offense took its time settling in though. The first Wisconsin touchdown came on a Jonathan Taylor run with just over two minutes left in the second quarter. Somehow I was never concerned that Wisconsin was ever in danger of losing the game. I’m not sure if that makes me wise or not.

The game was a tale of two halves. The first half was slow, a grind, and not promising. But it was because of how the second half turned out that I had confidence the whole time.

Taylor ended up with a career-high 253 yards of rushing and three touchdowns on the ground. He did lose another fumble, but he tacked on most of his yards after that turnover.

Wisconsin outgained New Mexico 568-211. The score could have easily been more lopsided than it was, but a win is a win. You can’t complain too much about this margin of victory.

Most of the team performed well in the game. There are some things worth criticizing, but all in all, the Badger defense played well enough to keep them in the game until the offense exploded. It was only a matter of time for New Mexico.