Week 4 Badgers Preview
Boy, was I wrong about Georgia State. Now, I was not the only one who was wrong, and I was far from it as Las Vegas projected a 35 point Badger win, but I was still wrong. I'll own that. I was right about one thing though, and that is Alex Hornibrook did get to play in the second half. He just got to for the wrong reasons, and now, head coach Paul Chryst announced he will be going into East Lansing as the starter. This is the Big Ten game of the week, in my opinion, and the Badgers will likely be a part of it the next four weeks. The gauntlet is upon us, Grateful Red, so let's get to it.
The Georgia State game would have been a lot smoother had RB Corey Clement played in the game, and I did not know he was hurt until I saw Taiwan Deal take the first carry (and he got hurt too in the game). The running game still was decent, as it rushed for almost 200 total yards and Bradrick Shaw looks like the real deal, but it could have been better. The passing game could have been better too. We should have scored more than 23 points even with how bad we played, and the defense started giving up points once they realized that the pressure to win the game was on them. This game serves more as a wake-up call than a close call, a sign that we need to be ready for these next teams. Ohio State is legit, despite all of those losses, Iowa may be a tad weaker than expected, and nobody really knows about Michigan until they play in a real game.
As for Michigan State, going 2-0 to start the season and leaving South Bend with a victory is not an easy task, no matter how good or bad Notre Dame is. Many at the beginning of the season likely projected it to be a 2-1 vs. 1-1 matchup (with the Badgers losing to LSU on top of Notre Dame beating Michigan State), but that just makes this game that much more interesting. Michigan State has the edge with intangibles, as Mark Dantonio at this point in his career is a better head coach than Paul Chryst. I'm not saying over time Chryst won't become better, but at the moment you have to give the career success to Dantonio. On top of that, the game is in East Lansing, and the last time the Badgers were in East Lansing was the Russell Wilson season, where the Badgers lost 37-31 on a last second Hail Mary. It's not an easy place to play, but it's also a good warm-up for the Big House next week.
My biggest takeaway from the game against Notre Dame was the amount of points Michigan State put up, with a new starting quarterback and a pretty talented Notre Dame defense. LJ Scott and Gerald Holmes are a good duo as well, and Wisconsin's secondary will need to step up next week to stop the passing game. Last week, Georgia State was able to carve up anybody not named Sojourn Shelton, but that was in Camp Randall and not a ranked opponent. Georgia State was so successful throwing the football at times, it made the crowd silent (I know, because I was at the game).
The key to the game for the Badgers is the running game, because the defense still did show up against the Panthers. The Wisconsin defense is better than the Michigan State offense, but at the same time we can't put all of the pressure on the defense and Hornibrook. Corey Clement's health is vital, and the offensive line will need to find ways to block the good defensive line led by #9 overall prospect DT Malik McDowell. The safeties are both really good too, and ILB Riley Bullough could end up the leading tackler on the defense. This defense has six seniors, and the top two prospects are juniors. It will be a challenge to score against them, and expect a low scoring game. I still favor Michigan State here, but not by as much as some. Final score: Michigan State 19, Wisconsin 13
