September 12, 1998
Here are my positional grades for the Badgers win over Ohio.
QB: B
Once again, I am grading Samuel on the criteria that the coaching staff presents him with.
In the passing game, Samuel threw 6 of 7 passes well. The one exception was the third down toss to Chambers at about the 5 yard line. His one medium toss to Retzlaff was a beauty. His only deep ball to Chambers was pretty good, very slightly underthrown, but very catchable.
Samuel demonstrated a quick release and made a nice delivery with the rush bearing down on him.
He made a nice read and pitch on Dayne's first TD and showed good elusiveness on the QB draw.
No mistakes equals a good game for Samuel.
Kavanagh threw all four of his passes right on the money. He didn't face as much pressure as Samuel did, but looked competent.
RB: B+
The biggest plus with the running backs was their hard nosed rushing. On numerous occasions, the RBs punished the Bobcat defenders, driving the pile back.
Dayne looked sharp early with some crisp cuts and super power runs. On his second TD run he took about 3 defenders 4 yards into the endzone.
The only negative with Dayne is that he failed to break the big one. I believe his longest run was 18 yards.
Daniels played much better this week. He had one really nice cutback and also had a nice bull rush touchdown. He hit the holes in much better shape than in week one. Carlos still did not run the screen very well.
Martin struggled in his limited time, perhaps due to his injury. He missed a blitz pickup early which resulted in a sack. He also struggled a few times with basic drive blocking.
Kuhns looked good once again.
All in all, a solid effort.
WR: B
Hard to tell with a limited passing attack. However, Chambers made a few really nice runs and there weren't any drops. The deep pass to Chambers was catchable, but it would have been a really nice catch.
Demetrius Brown made a super catch on the sideline deep ball from Kavanagh.
TE: C+
Once again, the tight ends did an acceptable job, though still did not show much of a presence.
Retzlaff made a nice grab at the goaline for his one catch. He seems to have nice hands and I would like to see him utilized more.
His blocking was ok, nothing too noticable either way. He failed to seal his man a few times, but nothing major.
OL: B
The pass blocking, though not bad, was not as solid as last week. They didn't allow any serious pressure, but there was an occasional man running free in the backfield. Samuel made some nice reads to avoid sacks and save some face for the OL.
McIntosh missed an Ohio stunt pretty bad on one play while Costa was slow kicking out on the first pass of the game. Costa seems to be a step slow at times and had me a little concerned at times.
The run blocking was super. Their was outstanding blocking on about 43% of the running plays. Their was poor blocking on only about 4 plays (two of which were very late). Many of the holes were gaping and their was constant push.
Gibson had a few lazy block early, but really dominated in the second half. The Badgers ran quite a bit left with solid success in the game as Gibson manhandled his opponent.
Costa was pushed back into a developing option play which was a concern again but overall, solid play. It was apparent that Ohio just couldn't match up.
DL: A+
Wow!!!! Tom Burke was unreal. Once again, there was no answer for him. He was in the backfield all day, with multiple penetrations that blew up the Ohio play. Without a doubt he was the player of the game.
On the other side, Favret also played well, often running down the QB on the option from the weak side.
Jake Sprague, though only receiveing limited time, also had great pursuit/penetration on two running plays.
The inside push wasn't there for most of the game, possible because Kolodziej was out, but also possibly because of inside responsibilities against the option.
Wendell Bryant showed nice range on a few plays.
Overall, I thought the run defense was poor on only three plays, all when the Bobcats got outside. However, it was excellent on roughly 50% of the time, a great percentage.
The pass rush was solid as Jordan and Wilson had little time to look for receivers, mainly due to Burke.
LB: B+
Tough to read since the DL cleaned up so thoroughly. Donnell Thompson played much better, getting in on the QB on an early blitz and constantly filling and plugging as his positon is designed to do. He did not miss a tackle from what I could find.
Adamov also made himself more of a presence, with a few nice pursuits.
Ghidorzi, all over the field again. He didn't get in on a lot of tackles, but really showed relentlessness.
Knight was invisible again. He missed a tackle on the only play he was isolated on a back. I know they really want Roger on the field, but he is going to have to play better to warrant this.
DB: B-
Special Teams: B
The highlight? Joey Boese. He had the big hit on the first fumbled punt that was ruled down. He downed a punt inside the ten (though called back by a penalty). He had a nice open field tackle on a kickoff. And finally, he recovered a fumbled punt. Oh, and I suppose I could mention his interception as well.
Nick Davis had the one explosive return and did a much better job overall picking his seams. Nice balance.
Stemke improved, but until his last two punts, had not boomed one yet. He will get better.
Davenport made his one FG and Pisetsky put his kickoffs deep.
Overall, another solid workmanlike performance. Anytime you hold a respectable team to 100 yards total offense, you know you have something to be happy about.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen a few more passes downfield in order to work on that part of the game, but overall there wasn't too much more to complain about.
Let's take a quick look at how my keys to the game panned out.
1.) The battle for the lead
2.) Bobcat OT vs. Favret and Burke
3.) Defending the option
4.) Ball Possession
5.) Ohios 3-4 defense
6.) Chris Chambers
7.) Danye, Dayne, Dayne
Here are Badgermaniac's Keys to the Game:
1.) The battle for the lead
2.) Bobcat OT vs. Favret and Burke
3.) Defending the option
LATE NOTE: The rumors out of Ohio are that they may give some time to one of their "throwing QBs" (Jordan???) in order to diversify their attack a bit.
4.) Ball Possession
5.) Ohios 3-4 defense
6.) Chris Chambers
7.) Danye, Dayne, Dayne
PREDICTIONAlthough I have a lot of respect for Ohio, this is one of those games that Alvarez has always prepared the Badgers well for. I just can't see them being able to stuff the ball down the Badgers throat on offense. On the other side of the ball, I think the return of Dayne plus some small but significant improvements in the OL play make for a big game for the Badger offense. I see it as Wisconsin 31 Ohio 14.
After week one, here is how the Badgers and Ohio University rank nationally in the following categories (out of 104 teams):
Rushing offense: Wisconsin 38, Ohio 1
Here are the updated computer projections for this weeks game against Ohio University.
Wisconsin is a 13.5 point favorite. They have a 75% chance of winning. Projected score is Wisconsin 30, Ohio 16.
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Not bad but hard to judge against a team like Ohio. Their was only noticably poor coverage on one play, and there was super coverage on a handful. However, with the pass rush and with Ohio's ineffectiveness with the pass, this is to be expected.
Again, a solid workmanlike effort.
Badgers control game from the opening kickoff. Never a factor.
As 100 yards total offense indicates, the Bobcats were no match for the Badger up front. Coach Grobe of Ohio said after the game that Wisconsin has the best defensive front he has seen since North Carolina's in year one of his Ohio tenure.
Not a problem. The extra work paid off as the Badgers completely shut down the option attack. The secondary was rarely called on for run support.
The Badgers actually had the ball much less than the Bobcats, though they controlled the game in overall tempo. Efficient is the best word I can come up with to describe the effort.
Though not thouroughly dominating on offense, the Badgers handled the smaller Cats easily.
Not a factor. Not needed.
I believe Dayne set the tempo early on his first three runs. It is apparent to anyone having a brain that Wisconsin is simply a different team with the Great Dayne. However, he was not needed on Saturday. It should be interesting to see how much he plays next week.
Neither the Badgers nor the Bobcats are proficient in playing from behind the say the least. If either of them gets down by more than a touchdown entering the stretch run, they are
in trouble. Each team is very effective in milking the clock and shortening the game if presented with the opportunity. Thus, getting ahead is the name of the game.
While the interior positions on the Bobcat OL are manned by veterans, the tackle positions will feature newcomers. Burke and Favret (especially Burke) wreaked havoc with SDSU all game long, against both the run and pass. How the tackles are able to control the Badger defensive ends will go a long way towards determining the effectiveness of their well run option attack.
The fact is that very few teams run the option as effectively as Ohio University. Let by diminutive Kareem Wilson, the Bobcats rank number one nationally in rushing after week one. However, they also rank dead last in passing offense so look for Wisconsin to let their freshman corners play straight up man, leaving the other nine defenders free to get in the box. Key to this run attack should be hard hitting free safety Jason Doering, who led the Badgers in tackles after the SDSU game. Can the Bobcats still gash out 300+ yards on the ground against a team with a very solid front seven? SDSU thought they
would have more sucess yet managed only 58 yards rushing against the Badgers.
As always against Wisconsin, a major key to the game is keeping the ball out of the offenses hands. SDSU was unable to maintain possession and paid for it in the fourth quarter as their defense simply wore down. With a slightly smaller defensive front, it is essential that the Bobcats maintain some long time consuming drives.
With only 3 down linemen, Ohio possesses a defense not typically seen in todays Big Ten. On one hand, it will force the slower Badger linemen to find defenders to block in more space. Yet, with a 4 linebacker setup, can the Bobcats stand up at the point of attack against Gibson, McIntosh, and company. SDSU had some solid success against the Badgers with various run blitzes which probably means that Ohio will try similar tactics, which leads us to....
With the usual 8 or 9 man fronts facing the Badgers, taken with the fact that the Bobcat DBs are young and very questionable, not to mention that WR Torry Holt ate up the Bobcats in the second half of the NCST/OHIO game last week, leads one to believe that the deep strike to Chambers will again be available. However to utilize this advantage, he needs to get more than the 3 touches he got last weekend.
No more needs to be said.
Passing offense: Wisconsin 87, Ohio 104
Total offense: Wisconsin 76, Ohio 39
Scoring offense: Wisconsin 55, Ohio 44
Rushing defense: Wisconsin 20, Ohio 50
Passing defense: Wisconsin 24, Ohio 65
Total defense: Wisconsin 13, Ohio 35
Scoring defense: Wisconsin 30, Ohio 71