Another half, another two quarters without any points for the hapless Wisconsin Badgers offense... That being said, they are still in the midst of a potential upset bid across the pound of dirt that is the United States of America. Eternally blessed with the Pacific Northwest phenomenon dubbed Liquid Sunshine, better known colloquially as rain, the Badgers have a shot at the upset bid as of halftime...
For the second time in Big Ten play, the Badgers have shown up defensively. Mike Tressel's unit has been the most consistently strong one for Wisconsin all season long. It was why the Badgers had an outside shot at pulling off the road upset at Michigan before Luke Fickell decided to take all of those timeouts with him into the postgame press conference. When that day comes, we have an interim...
That being said, this first half may be more of an indictment of the fake tough guy nonsense that has become commonplace with the Oregon Ducks for years under head coach Dan Lanning. He woke up and disrespected Fickell so much that he attempted an onside kick, and got it, to start the game. We all played video games against that type of kid growing up. You stopped being friends with him at 13.
Jordon Davison did hit pay dirt just outside of a minute before half, but Wisconsin is not out of this...
Wisconsin Badgers show life on defense in first half vs. Oregon Ducks
Even though Hugh Freeze did not do Fickell any favors on Saturday afternoon by having his crybaby Auburn Tigers beat the Fighting Bobby Petrinos that are the Arkansas Razorbacks, Fickell is still shockingly taking some much needed pressure of his own hide, at least for the time being... Again, we did see a strong effort out of Tressel's defense a few weeks back at Michigan, but that went away fast.
Truth be told, unless there is an unmitigated disaster of a second half out of the Badgers, it will be hard for the current, but incompetent administration to move on from Fickell after this one. Surely, they can spin it as holding their own vs. a top-six team in the country. Oregon is a fake tough team, one that is not built to win the College Football Playoff this season, or probably ever as a program...
Ultimately, if the Badgers were not running the 2023 "Drive to 325" Iowa offense that the Hawkeyes left at home, they might be up in this game. Instead, they trail by what looks to be an insurmountable 7-0 deficit. This Wisconsin offense treats every point the opposition scores like a run in baseball or a goal in soccer. Do they realize that a field goal gets three, a touchdown six, and a safety two points?
For now, this first half was not a complete embarrassment, so we have some progress to be had here.