Wisconsin Football: Game balls from the win over Army

The Wisconsin football was able to improve their record to 3-3 on Saturday night with a too close for comfort 20-14 victory over Army.

This game was a tale of two halves. In the first half, the Badgers seemed to have a good handle on the triple-option offense, only allowing Army to muster up 48 yards of total offense in the first half on 20 carries. But as we all know, their offense is more of a slow burn that’s intended to wear you down – which is exactly what happened. Army would make adjustments at halftime finish the game with 179 yards rushing and 266 total yards of total offense.

Then with just 4:25 remaining in the 4th quarter, Army was essentially driving to win the game. Thankfully, due to some late-game heroics, the Badgers were able to escape with a much-needed victory.

Wisconsin became the first team to win the time of possession battle against Army this season. They would narrowly with the TOP battle 30:47 to 29:13.

So, with that in mind – it’s time to hand out game balls for both offense and defense.

Offense: Braelon Allen

The 17-year-old Fon du Lac, Wisconsin native followed up his strong performance against Illinois last week with another impressive game on the ground.

Instead of preparing for the high school playoffs like he would have been, Braelon Allen ran for 108 yards on the ground on 16 carries – becoming the first true freshman for the Wisconsin football team to post back-to-back 100-yard rushing efforts since Jonathan Taylor in 2017.

Braelon Allen showed good patience and burst for someone his size on his 33-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

At this point, it’s safe to say that the Badgers found have found their 1, 2 punch in Mellusi and Allen moving forward.

Defense: Leo Chenal

Inside linebacker, Leo Chenal turned in an absolutely masterful performance against our nation’s service academy. Chenal was seen playing the gaps given to him and timing his pursuit perfectly en route to blowing up play after play for Army.

Leo Chenal would end the night with a career-high 17 tackles, including 2.5 TFL, one sack, and a forced fumble that would prove to be the games defining play.

Leo Chenal now has a team-high 42 tackles on the season despite having missed the first two games of the year. The Grantsburg, Wisconsin native has been disruptive and downright dominant this season.