One of the tasks I’ve chosen with Bucky’s 5th Quarter is chronicling the NFL performances for all Wisconsin Badgers playing in the NFL every week.
So, here’s what we saw from our lads in Week 3.
Joe Tippmann: After being a healthy scratch the first two weeks, the rookie allowed zero sacks, pressures, or hits in his 63 snaps.
Yep, he’s a Wisconsin Badger offensive lineman in the NFL. Plug and play for a decade with a smile.
Zack Baun: 19 snaps on defense with nary a Packer tackled.
Ryan Ramczyk: 2 sacks allowed in one of the worst performances of his stellar career. He’s been seeing Rashan Gary in his nightmares this week.
Pittsburgh Steelers (Wisconsin of the NFL)
T.J. Watt: 2 sacks and 3 hurries for the best defensive player on planet Earth. T.J. is the poster boy for why high school defensive stars should want to be a Badger.
Keeanu Benton: A sterling 81.9 PFF grade (2nd on the Steelers behind only Watt). 1 sack and 1 hurry for the rookie DL stud. 2023 Wisconsin misses him as much as 2023 Pittsburgh loves him.
Nick Herbig and Isaiahh Loudermilk : Quiet games for these two Badgers, with no stats for either.
Jake Ferguson: 5 catches for 48 yards in a performance that was eerily similar statistically to CeeDee Lamb’s, so make of that what you will.
Tyler Biadasz: He was out with a hamstring injury, which clearly explains why Dallas’ offense looked like a withering shell of itself against a horrific team.
Rob Havenstein: Played 55 snaps and didn’t yield a sack or hit on Matt Stafford, which is a very good thing for the fragile elder statesman QB who walks slower than I do.
Leo Chenal: 4 tackles, a QB hit, and a QB hurry. The fact that it was against the Bears takes 50% of the shine off of the performance. Sorry, just the way it is.
TJ Edwards: 12 tackles to lead the Bears. A sterling 87.2 PFF Run D grade, too. TJ might end up leading the NFL in tackles this season, because there are a lot of tackles to be had on the Bears.
Jack Sanborn: 1 tackle in another quiet game playing for a Defense that badly needs more sound young tacklers. Not giving Sanborn more run is perplexing, but this is the Bears. He did have a nice interception though in a game that got a lot of television time.
Russell Wilson: 306 yards passing with 1 TD and 1 INT, along with a sterling 86.9 PFF grade in a 70-20 shellacking. Afterward, crusty old cook Terry Bradshaw didn’t blame an invisible defense or poor coaching for the result, instead focusing all of his ire on one of the only Broncos who showed up. Just go away, Terry.
Matt Henningsen: Quiet game for the current Wisconsin academic star/part-time Bronco.
Alec Ingold: Did not stat, but his team scored 70 points so they didn’t need a whole lot of fullback work. It’s wild that Ingold still gets some run in the NFL’s most modern, high-scoring, and experimental offense. Make of this what you will, Phil Longo.
Andrew Van Ginkel: High PFF grade of 83.8 in a relatively quiet statistical game, with 2 Tackles. They must have been pretty amazing ones.
Jonathan Taylor: The NFL’s best RB is on IR until Week 5. It’s looking more and more likely that Taylor has played his last game for the Colts, who are unwilling to offer a new deal to a RB ranked as the NFL’s #5 overall player in 2022. Let’s see how that goes for Indy.
Kevin Zeitler: A rare down game for Zeitler, who allowed 2 sacks. I bet he doesn’t give up 2 total sacks in the next 6 games.
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