Wisconsin football: Chase Young roundtable

The Wisconsin Badgers were outclassed, out-schemed and outplayed on Saturday against the Ohio State Buckeyes. The game was 10-7 at the beginning of the third quarter, but the outcome was never really in doubt as the Buckeyes took the ball right down the field on the ensuing possession and scored to take an insurmountable lead.

Everything, except for the special teams shockingly, was terrible and Drew, Belz, Tyler and Ryan attempt to sift through the rubble for any useful bits of information for you.

Is there anything good or useful that can be taken from the ass-paddling that Ohio State gave Wisconsin?

Belz: Anthony Lotti punted well. That’s about all I’ve got.

Tyler: …Well… Not really. The defense was ok at times with the pass rush. Didn’t matter though.

Ryan: We don’t have to play them again for a while..?

Drew: The pass rush found Justin Fields for five sacks and, yeah, Lotti did punt well! That couldn’t have been easy in that weather. Also, Alexander Smith blocked that punt. Actually, the special teams played really well for the Badgers. I’m really struggling to remain positive here.

What do the Badgers need to work on heading into the bye week before finishing off their season with four straight division games?

Belz: The offense in general. The running game has struggled the past few weeks, and the pass protection was very poor against OSU. If Wisconsin wants to rebound, it starts with the offense getting back on track.

Tyler: Offense needs to figure it out. The first few games this team had schemes and concepts that looked new. Now it appears we’re back to the same old stale BS that they used last year. I expect this team to bounce back and make a run but they better get it right before taking on an Iowa front seven like that.

We talk about the run game a lot but let’s remember that this wideout corps is probably the deepest UW has ever had and those four hardly touched the football these last two weeks. It starts up front but someone has to help out JT as teams have him figured out.

Ryan: Protection schemes. If we aren’t able to keep Coan upright, we have no chance with a one dimensional offense.

Drew: The offensive line has not been good enough the last two weeks, and quite possibly all year but I don’t know enough about blocking schemes to comment on that. What I do know is that the Badgers ran the ball 34 times for 83 yards (2.4 ypc) against Ohio State and no one could keep Chase Young away from sacking Jack Coan. The amount of times there was only one person blocking Young on Saturday was simply staggering. It was like the coaches had never heard of him and thought he was just another defensive player.

Photo by Adam Lacy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

A baffling list of coaching decisions led the Badgers to give up sack after sack to the best player on the field. I understand the theory of “letting the best player get his” and then shutting everyone else down in basketball, but I can’t understand it in football when they player you are “letting get his” is ending possessions. If my advanced statistical research is correct you do get fewer possessions in football than basketball so I think letting Young do what he did was a bad decision.

How many of you would scientists have to clone before you could stop Chase Young from getting to the quarterback?

Belz: In a hypothetical red rover scenario, at least 8. The way I figure this is the best formation to slow him down:

Matt - Matt - Matt - Matt

Matt - Matt - Matt - Matt

He will have to run through two of me no matter where he goes. That will give the quarterback at least 3 seconds. The two ran through clones are rushed to the ER shortly thereafter.

Tyler: I don’t think anything in my DNA would equal to that. He’s a beast. Maybe a beast that we should block with someone other than Jake Ferguson 1v1.

Ryan: Ten, maybe? Dude is an animal.

Drew: I never played competitive football in high school due to medical issues and I am now a fragile, mid-30s man who makes noises when he gets off the couch to grab more chips while watching football...so what I’m trying to say is that there is no number of Drew clones that could stop Chase Young from his holy mission of destroying all quarterbacks in existence.

Who gets your game balls on offense and defense? As always, these do not have to be Badgers.

Belz: I don’t think anyone from Wisconsin can get a vote on offense. The Badgers only gained 191 total yards. J.K. Dobbins was very impressive for OSU, and obviously Chase Young on the defensive side. Noah Burks would be my pick if I had to choose a Badger player.

Tyler: Dobbins, Young…. Nobody else deserves to be mentioned.

Ryan: J.K. Dobbins on offense and Chase Young on defense.

Drew: Dobbins and Young, duh. For the Badgers, Zack Baun deserves a mention. He had to have a great game for Wisconsin to have a chance and he did. It’s not his fault the offense was inept.

What are your revised expectations for the rest of the season? Are the Badgers still the favorites in the West?

Belz: The Badgers are no longer the favorites I would think. Two losses behind now means that Wisconsin needs help. Wisconsin will need to get back on track and win for a chance to represent the West division in Indianapolis. That Minnesota game will be the Gophers Super Bowl no matter the outcome of their contests with Penn State and Iowa. I still like Wisconsin to get to nine or ten wins, but will it be enough is the real question.

Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images

Tyler: I don’t think they’re the favorites and maybe I’m just being optimistic but I think this team will rally and run the table to win the West. They’ll need some help but I think Minnesota is a lot like that Iowa team in 2012… *cough* frauds *cough*. Maybe you get to Indy and Penn State pulls off an upset to get there too and things happen. I doubt it, but hey, might as well give it a shot. We’ll probably end up in the Citrus Bowl against Auburn and the over/under will be 35 points. Fun.

Ryan: I wouldn’t say we’re the favorites at this point, but there is a chance we could still win the division. If we can run the table, Minnesota has a tough road ahead of them and even if they lose once, if we tie them record-wise, but win the head-to-head, we will own the tie breaker and be on our way to Indy. Although after today, I am not sure I want to play OSU again… Maybe Miami will win out and we will play them in a bowl again this year.

Drew: Based on math, the Badgers are not the favorite anymore. The Minnesota Golden Gophers, no matter their schedule, are undefeated and two games ahead of both the Badgers and the Iowa Hawkeyes. Now, Minnesota does have the most difficult part of its schedule coming up and SHOULD lose to Penn State and at least one of Iowa and Wisconsin so if the Badgers win out they could go to Indianapolis still. I never really thought that UW was a legit CFP contender this year, despite their lofty ranking, but I did think they could make a NY6 bowl. That is pretty much completely off the table and I think winning the West division and getting blown out by the Buckeyes again is a good season now.

What are you going to do next Saturday? Something relaxing? Visit a spa? Get yourself cloned like on that new Paul Rudd Netflix show?

Belz: No plans as of yet, refreshing.

Tyler: Go to a bar and wish I stayed home. ORRRR stay home and wish I was out. Might try and hit a spa or a float tank that sounds refreshing.

Ryan: Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we’re going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don’t know, I don’t know if we’ll have enough time.

Drew: Planning on going to Glam Doll Donuts in NE Minneapolis at some point in the morning. There are a couple of new breweries that I haven’t been to yet that I’d like to check out as well. There are no good B1G games next weekend and the only national game of note is The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, so a weekend off from college football may be in order.