Tale of Two Halves

Watching the first half of Illinois game was some of the most frustrating football I have watched all year.  Illinois, a team who failed to score in the first half in their previous four games put up 17 points and 224 yards on the badgers.  A Wisconsin that was once dubbed as national title hopeful barley looked like Outback Bowl contenders in the first half of Saturday’s game.

Missed tackles plagued the Badgers
the entire first half on Saturday.

It was not so much the offense as it was the defense.  We knew defense wasn’t our strongest point but I did not think they were that bad.  The Illini moved the ball with ease against the Badger defense that had a major issues getting off the field.  One of the more important stats that every Badger fan should take notice to is time of possession.  

Our offense can be our best defense at times controlling the tempo of the game and keeping the opposition’s offense on the sidelines.  Yet in the first half, Illinois held the ball for 60% of the time.  The major cause to the lack of possession was missed tackles.  Every time it seemed like the Badgers were about to get the ball back, another missed tackle lead to a five yard gain keeping Ball and Wilson off the field for that much longer. 

An uncharacteristic fumble by Wilson in Illinois territory kept the Badgers under double digits in the first half.  In fact, had it not it not been for a special teams play, the Badgers might have been held to a goose egg in the first half.  Thankfully this time around, a botched punt led to points for Badgers rather than points against.  Had the Badgers not put these points on the board, I fear the second half would have been the continuation of the first half.

Montee Ball sparked a much needed
flame for a Badger comeback.  

Yet, that was not the case.  The Badgers looked like a different team in the second half and it started with Montee ball.  He ran with tenacity in the second half raking up 164 yards and two scores.  His performance in this game should move him into the top five Heisman candidates (although no one in Wisconsin gets any love).    Ball’s performance trigged a defensive performance that marked one of their best halves all season.  They forced four turnovers and held Illinois to 13 rushing yards after allowing over 130 in the first half.

So every Badger fan is asking the same thing, why we can’t play this style of football the entire game, especially on the road?  Why is it that when we play a good team, it takes us to be down by two scores to turn on the jets?  This cannot happen from here on out.  Sure we might be able to be able to come back against a sub-par offense like Penn State but we do not want to give Michigan State any momentum in the Big Ten championship game.  Even more important, our likely opponent in a possible Rose Bowl game would be the Oregon Ducks.  They have a high flying offense no Badger team has ever seen before.  The Ducks can score 21 points in five minutes even if a defense is not inept in tackling.   I hope Bielema knows tackling should be item number one in practice this week.