Eye-test showed transfer Wisconsin football LT was bad but the stats prove it

There was a really obvious problem with the passing attack yesterday: protecting the quarterback. The majority of the pressures seemed to come from the blindside attack, aka the left tackle. Watching new transfer left tackle Davis Heinzen struggle may have been the second hardest thing about the game last night, with the first being the injury to Billy Edwards Jr.

The eye test showed that Heinzen was bad, and then when the stats came out, it only validated what everyone was seeing. He allowed five pressures and two sacks on only 39 pass-blocking snaps against a MAC opponent. Yikes.

Wisconsin transfer left tackle Davis Heinzen had a poor debut

Related: Luke Fickell turned the Badgers' biggest weakness into a superpower

The PFF grades were released this morning, confirming how poor Heinzen's debut was. He scored a terrible 47.8 pass blocking grade, which is not just bad, it's really bad. His overall grade was a 63.2, which was only slightly above that of fellow lineman Emerson Mandell at 62.5. However, Mandell had a significantly better pass-blocking day with a score of 59.4. This is still not a good score, but it's an improvement.

The two of those guys on the same line caused problems for the quarterbacks, and Danny O'Neil had to do a lot of improvising as the pressure continued to mount.

Heinzen was eventually benched after the poor play and Leyton Nelson took some snaps in an effort to help fix the holes.

The hard part is that Heinzen was the big addition for Luke Fickell and the Badgers along the line. They needed another veteran blocker, and Heinzen fit the bill. He was a three-year starter at Central Michigan and played a variety of positions along the line. A native of Wisconsin made it even more appealing.

However, he is not up to speed, and that much is very clear. There will need to be adjustments in the future for him, or he will need to find the bench. His performance was not just underwhelming; it was poor.