Rutgers came to Wisconsin as neither a great team nor a very healthy team, and while the Scarlet Knights did their best to hang with the Badgers for the first couple of quarters, it got away from them quickly. It was just the sort of win that Wisconsin needed to head into the final three games of the season.
Even though the Badgers won, there were still a couple of losers, and one may be more obvious than the other. However, knowing Wisconsin fans, they already know both losers.
Winner 1: Ryan Hopkins
This is an easy one. Madison is aflame with love for the freshman quarterback. Badgers fans have been excited about him since he stepped on campus in the spring. He throws with a ton of zip, can hit all levels of the field with relative ease, and actually will work through his reads.
He had a couple of freshman gunslinger moments where he should have thrown an interception, but one was negated due to a roughing-the-passer penalty, and the other ended up as a tipped-ball completion to Eugene Hilton Jr. He's the clear winner of the game. Now he has to build on it against Maryland.
Winner 2: The wide receivers
This was the best wide receiver game since conference play started. It helps when your quarterback throws for 241 yards, but the pass-catchers helped out tremendously. There were eight different plays to catch the football, with Shamar Rigby and Eugene Hilton Jr. leading the way with four each.
They get to be winners as a unit because they finally have a quarterback zipping the ball around. Now, the negative Nancy in the room will remind you that Rutgers has one of the worst pass defenses in the country, and this is true. So, now the wide receivers need to go out and do it again next week.
Loser 1: Colton Joseph
Joseph literally watched his starting role get hijacked by a freshman, and there was nothing he could do about it. He's had plenty of opportunities to prove that he's the guy, but he continues to fall flat in Big Ten game after Big Ten game.
There's no way Luke Fickell can turn back to Joseph now; Joseph has essentially become the backup quarterback.
Loser 2: The running game
At this point, we should truly be worried about the rushing attack. It's a room loaded with talented running backs, but we've only had a running back eclipse 100 yards all season, and that was against Western Illinois. There have been plenty of weeks where the leading rusher for Wisconsin hasn't even been a running back.
That actually happened again this week versus Rutgers. The leading rusher in yards was Eugene Hilton Jr., who had 39 yards on three carries. In a game where it felt like the backs could truly have their way, it was another dud from the RB room.
This fanbase is desperate to see RBU actually live up to its moniker this season and get the backs going, but the Rutgers game was another example of the opposite.
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