Tomorrow night is the toughest game on the schedule for Wisconsin football. They will welcome the third ranked Ohio State Buckeyes into Madison under the lights. It’s not often a Wisconsin home game is at night. When it is, it’s an incredible atmosphere and the crowd is always loud. The Badgers need that and then some if they want to pull off a huge upset. Kick-off is 6:30 on NBC. Here is a preview of tomorrow night’s game.
The Wisconsin Defense Must Get Pressure on Kyle McCord
The Ohio State offense presents a ton of problems for the Wisconsin defense. They have the best wide receiver duo in the country in Marvin Harrison Jr and Emeka Egbuka. Harrison Jr will likely be the first skilled player drafted in the 2024 NFL Draft while Egbuka is likely a top 10-15 pick.
The Buckeyes run game has struggled at time, but Treyveyon Henderson and Miyan Williams are big backs and the Badgers have been up and down stopping the run game.
This is a big game for the front seven of Wisconsin. They have not done a good enough job generating pressure on opposing quarterbacks. If McCord has all day to throw, it’s going to get ugly fast. The Badger corners just can’t covers these skilled Buckeye receivers for that long. Look for a player like Maema Njongmeta and maybe Hunter Wohler to be blitzing consistently. I think they have to if they want any chance tomorrow night.
Wisconsin Football Must Play Perfect and Take Risks
I believe Wisconsin football has to get creative if the’re going to be in position to score. This means things like flea flickers, reverses, fake punts, etc. The Badgers are heavy underdogs. They can play with nothing to lose.
I also want to see Wisconsin be aggressive in getting points. Like the Iowa game, they need to go for just about any fourth and shorts. 10 or 17 points won’t win this game. They have to get in a shootout. Their defense isn’t the elite defense it used to be where 17 could potentially be enough.
Prediction
I’ve thought all week about any sort of possibility Wisconsin football can pull this off tomorrow night. It’s not impossible, but it’s going to take a perfect performance and they have yet to do that this year. I think I would be more encouraged if I saw a complete four quarters from this team. However, I have not seen it yet.
Wisconsin football struggled to get pressure on Deacon Hill and the Iowa offensive line. I think Ohio State’s line isn’t as great as years past, but their unit is better than the Hawkeyes unit. I just don’t see how they get a ton of pressure on Kyle McCord.
The Wisconsin football offensive line has been shaky a majority of the year. No doubt Ryan Day will bring the pressure on Brayden Locke and make the redshirt freshman making his second career start beat them, I think they want to stop Braelon Allen and make Wisconsin be a one dimensional team.
Overall, there is too much talent on the Ohio State side. I can see the Badgers making this a game for a half, but I think the Buckeyes pull away in the second half.
Ohio State 31 Wisconsin 14
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