Let's keep an eye on this in the early part of Saturday night's home game vs. the Iowa Hawkeyes. Although the Wisconsin Badgers have a halfway decent chance at pulling off the home upset, they cannot afford to let their biggest weakness get the best of them. Iowa is only laying 3.5 points on the road to Wisconsin. This should be a very manageable game for the Badgers, but nothing is ever easy.
Of course, we are referring to Iowa's vaunted pass rush going up against Wisconsin's wet paper bag of an offensive line. On the season, Iowa has amassed 12 sacks over five games, meaning they are averaging more than two a game. Furthermore, they rank 26th in the nation in team sack percentage at 8.2 percent. Wisconsin is a bit off their pace at No. 48 in the country with a 7.19 sack percentage.
On the other side of the coin, Wisconsin allows its quarterback to be sacked 9.09 percent of the time. This ranks 118th out of 136 teams competing at FBS. The only Power Four teams who are worse at protecting their quarterback are Nebraska (9.26), Mississippi State (9.8), Washington (10.67), Illinois (10.88), Michigan State (11.67), South Carolina (11.93) and Auburn (13.58). That is not good company.
So while there could be other things that could contribute to a loss, this is how things might get ugly.
Iowa pass rush has the potential to knock Wisconsin completely out of it
Barring rampant turnovers or some unforeseen injuries, Wisconsin's inability to keep the quarterback upright going up against Phil Parker's defense could be so problematic. Iowa regularly sends pressure from all over the place on defense. With how difficult it has been for Billy Edwards Jr., Danny O'Neil, and now Hunter Simmons, to move the ball down the field, this could be a major issue for Wisconsin.
Overall, the team that gets into the end zone three times first will probably end up winning. It may devolve into a field goal fest with three yards and a cloud of punt deep into the October night. Even if neither team hits pay dirt thrice on offense, how the Badgers go about protecting whomever Luke Fickell trots out there under center will decide if this game has the potential to stay remotely close.
Ultimately, Wisconsin needs to play a B-plus game to have any hope of winning. For Iowa, anything less than a C-minus effort may give the Badgers more life than they probably would have otherwise. Regardless, ball control remains paramount in this game, but holding up in pass protection may be a close second. After all, this is the one way Iowa can take this game and run away with it very early on.
Another blowout loss to Iowa in Heartland will put Luke Fickell on the hottest seat in college football.