Badger Football 2021

[homer]

is Brian White calling the plays for UW again?

[pacopete4]

is Brian White calling the plays for UW again?

This stuff is like watching paint dry. I don’t know how many games I’ll watch if this is how it’ll be. No creativity. A guy with Mertz arm ability has to be second guessing himself a bit.

[MrTPlush]

I remember getting hung out to dry by many for throwing PC’s play calling under the bus a few years ago. Of course back then he had Jonathan Taylor to make it look like a decent plan. I always thought his in game adjustments were terrible, but it seems he can’t adjust to a roster that doesn’t revolve around an elite run game either. Just pound it up the middle over and over. They always knew what was coming. The off chance we pass and it seems like we want to throw over the middle where they are loading the box.

 

Hard for Mertz to be awfully upset the way he has performed, but the Badgers have done a comically poor job building the team around his arm. I don’t see practice, so maybe he just really does suck, but is he even allowed to throw over 5 yards? Again, his performance doesn’t really justify it to some extent. He can’t even hit his receivers in the short game. Constantly throwing behind guys and never hitting them on the run.

 

I pondered before the game if Jack Coan > Graham Mertz. Maybe Graham is more talented, but the way PC coaches it feels like Coan is a way better fit to run his offense. Pretty sure PC would find a way to make a guy like Kyler Murray brutally stale and boring.

[PlayerHader]

I think it was clear last year that an experienced Coan would be more effective than upping Mertz. It’s on GM now to learn quick. I don’t see the “arm talent” that was always so talked about.

 

As poorly as he played, particularly in the red zone, he was a simple seam pass away from a game winning TD drive. I’m not kidding when I say I could make that throw. He needs to hit his guy, Chimere, there.

[MrTPlush]

Antwan Roberts (Fresh RB) has entered the transfer portal. He had been suspended over the incident with the dismissed Freshman RB Crawford.

[homer]

Badgers opened as 3 point favorites against Irish. Now up to 5.5

[tmwiese55]

That spread seems like a trap, like Vegas wants money on ND. And I can't understand why they'd want that with how our O has looked. I guess we'll see how the money comes in as the week goes on.

[Pugger]

is Brian White calling the plays for UW again?

 

Isn't Paul Chryst calling the O plays this year? This clown drives me crazy. His demeanor is more like a librarian than a collegiate HC. Watching this team on O is a real snooze fest.

[tmwiese55]

Yes Chryst is supposed to be back to calling plays this year. Yet, so far nothing has changed. Thing is have to remember he was one of the best play callers in CFB in his previous time at UW and then to Pitt. It's really odd how the O has just not taken off since he's been back, it makes no sense. Only thing I can think of is now that he knows he has such a good D that it's allowing him to be way too conservative. Whereas in the past and at Pitt he had so-so Ds so knew they had to score points.

[stoutdude04]

Badgers opened as 3 point favorites against Irish. Now up to 5.5

 

The app I use to get a quick look at the lines has Wisconsin -6.5. That seems awfully high.

[homer]

Badgers opened as 3 point favorites against Irish. Now up to 5.5

 

The app I use to get a quick look at the lines has Wisconsin -6.5. That seems awfully high.

 

Yeah seems off even though I don't think Notre Dame is a top 12 team. Maybe sharps pounce on this closer to kickoff

[tmwiese55]

Badgers opened as 3 point favorites against Irish. Now up to 5.5

 

The app I use to get a quick look at the lines has Wisconsin -6.5. That seems awfully high.

 

And CBS/Caesars says 68% of bets are on ND and it's still gone up. This seems like a weird one. I don't know what they saw in UW last year and first two games this year, but I guess UW has such a solid reputation or track record at this point. I suppose we're off a bye week too.

 

Something similar happened in a UW at MSU game about 5 years ago and they ended up being right, UW won in a blow out.

[PlayerHader]

Badgers opened as 3 point favorites against Irish. Now up to 5.5

 

The app I use to get a quick look at the lines has Wisconsin -6.5. That seems awfully high.

 

And CBS/Caesars says 68% of bets are on ND and it's still gone up. This seems like a weird one. I don't know what they saw in UW last year and first two games this year, but I guess UW has such a solid reputation or track record at this point. I suppose we're off a bye week too.

 

Something similar happened in a UW at MSU game about 5 years ago and they ended up being right, UW won in a blow out.

 

Yup, you see this occasionally where the books essentially bet on one team rather than just taking their cut. They're usually right when this happens.

[stoutdude04]

Yea, typically if I see a line moving this much I pounce on it, but I just have no confidence in this team currently.

[LouisEly]

Yea, typically if I see a line moving this much I pounce on it, but I just have no confidence in this team currently.

It's about UW's defense versus ND's offense, particularly ND's OL. ND gave up four sacks to Purdue, six (!) sacks to Toledo, and four sacks to FSU (who are 0-3 and lost to Jacksonville State).

 

It's also about UW's run game vs ND's run defense. ND gave up 264 yards rushing to said 0-3 FSU and gave up a 100-yard rushing game to Toledo's RB. (Purdue has something like the 2nd lowest running % of any team in FBS over the last several years so they don't count).

 

That's why the spread is what it is. Based on this season's performance, UW is expected to control the line of scrimmage.

[MrTPlush]

They better get to Coan quick or our DBs are going to be absolutely torched by how athletic Norte Dame is. If we can stuff the run and take that out of the equation hopefully we can help out the DBs a little more.

[homer]

Yea, typically if I see a line moving this much I pounce on it, but I just have no confidence in this team currently.

It's about UW's defense versus ND's offense, particularly ND's OL. ND gave up four sacks to Purdue, six (!) sacks to Toledo, and four sacks to FSU (who are 0-3 and lost to Jacksonville State).

 

It's also about UW's run game vs ND's run defense. ND gave up 264 yards rushing to said 0-3 FSU and gave up a 100-yard rushing game to Toledo's RB. (Purdue has something like the 2nd lowest running % of any team in FBS over the last several years so they don't count).

 

That's why the spread is what it is. Based on this season's performance, UW is expected to control the line of scrimmage.

 

This. Just a bad matchup for Notre Dame on paper.

[LouisEly]

They better get to Coan quick or our DBs are going to be absolutely torched by how athletic Norte Dame is. If we can stuff the run and take that out of the equation hopefully we can help out the DBs a little more.

And if you watched their game last week you would have seen that said athletic WRs for ND had hands that make MVS's look like glue.

[Sixtofan]

It will still be stressful to watch them running free down the field - even if they can’t catch.

[homer]

It will still be stressful to watch them running free down the field - even if they can’t catch.

 

I think UW will get that cleaned up.

[CheezWizHed]

Yes, their DB issues looked more like communication/run-fake-bite issues rather than skill breakdowns. I don't doubt Leonard will have those resolved.

 

I'm more curious how Mertz will look in the game. So far he hasn't looked great under pressure (not just pass rush, but big game pressure) and prime time against his former teammate is going to be pressure.

[yourout]

Yes, their DB issues looked more like communication/run-fake-bite issues rather than skill breakdowns. I don't doubt Leonard will have those resolved.

 

I'm more curious how Mertz will look in the game. So far he hasn't looked great under pressure (not just pass rush, but big game pressure) and prime time against his former teammate is going to be pressure.

 

For me the biggest question marks are Mertz and the offensive line.

[MrTPlush]

Anyone actually think they could eventually bench Mertz?

 

Guessing they wouldn’t do it until he blows any chance at bowl game and then they may just let Wolf try for the heck of it.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Badgers offense just seems like too much of a throwback. I don't need them to spread the field and go all up-tempo modern CFB, but against an athletic team, it's hard to grind out yards and wins. They need to win games with 14-21 points, and that's really hard to do in today's game.

[DuWayne Steurer]

At some point, at SOME point, the school and the fan base have to get over the whole idea that we're a running team, we're running back U, and we MUST run the ball all the time. It's fine and good to be run orientated, and be able to run the ball, and grind out yards, and be able to get guys like Melvin Gordon and J. Taylor and the like, but we absolutely can't get guys to come play QB here, we can't get WR commits, because why would they? We throw the ball 20 - 25 times a game, and those type of players will never get a chance to showcase their skills in this system.

 

The whole idea that we have to run 45-50 times a game because "that's the way we've always done it" is stodgy, old, and honestly, holding the program back.

 

Yep, we got a 4* recruit QB, and he looks like he just might suck. He has nobody to throw to except a big TE, that he can't ever seem to find. The WR corps sucks, there's not a SINGLE guy in the group who can run clean routes or get separation, and certainly nobody who's going to burn someone deep. Mertz needs to get better, but he needs help. Our O-line couldn't pass block a group of 8th graders, because WE ARE A RUNNING TEAM DADGUMMIT!!!

 

I am by no means saying lets just run 5 wide sets and abandon everything that got them here, but we need a coach who has at least an inkling of creativity, and it sure looked like PC was gonna be that guy. One might say he's hamstrung by the lack of talent on the roster, but if that's the case, who's fault is that? These are his guys by now, so where's the talent?