Pretty much everything under the sun went wrong for the Wisconsin Badgers in their 38-14 blowout loss at the No. 19 Alabama Crimson Tide. They started slow on offense, turned the football over way too much, and could not get much of anything going offensively to start the second half. It did not help that the Wisconsin defense had no answers for Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard in this one.
That being said, the plucky underdog narrative surrounding Wisconsin backup quarterback Danny O'Neil seems to have reached a critical juncture. He may have a bright future ahead of him, but Saturday is proof that he was never going to Wally Pipp Wisconsin's injured starter Billy Edwards Jr. It never felt like Edwards was going to play in this one, but he may need to suit up for the Badgers soon.
On the afternoon, O'Neil only completed 11-of-17 passes for 117 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. While his 41-yard touchdown strike to Jayden Ballard was an absolute seed, the poor guy was scrambling for his life all afternoon behind an increasingly porous Wisconsin offensive line. Unless that unit improves drastically in conference play, it may not matter who starts for the Badgers.
O'Neil did not help himself in this game, but Luke Fickell and the offensive line never gave him a shot.
Danny O'Neil did not take advantage of his huge opportunity in Week 3
There was a notion that O'Neil could flip the script for both teams in this early afternoon game at Tuscaloosa. Alabama would have been on the verge of College Football Playoff elimination heading into Week 5's road game at Georgia. Wisconsin could have had unbelievable momentum heading into Big Ten play with its new starting quarterback. For now, when will Edwards be able to start for them?
Yes, O'Neil will grow from this start, but Fickell has a job to keep. He is once again losing control of the narrative at hand. Fickell continues to struggle mightily vs. the best teams Wisconsin faces. Heck, he struggles to beat even halfway decent teams, ones that only barely get to bowl games. Edwards was tabbed to be the Week 1 starter for a reason. He was far more polished that O'Neil coming in this year.
Unfortunately, the Badgers may run into another issue next week. For as much as Maryland has struggled to defend anyone under Mike Locksley's watch, the Terrapins can always put up points. If the Badgers were to lose back-to-back games to Alabama and then to Maryland, who knows how bad it could get for Fickell's team this season? It is why they might need to go back to Edwards here soon.
If Wisconsin loses to Edwards' former team without Edwards playing, then what would that even say?