Wisconsin Football Report Card From 24-13 Win Over Rutgers

The Wisconsin football program added another one to the win column with a 24-13 victory over Rutgers. The Badgers looked much more polished in Saturday’s contest compared to their first four weeks of play, giving some optimism for the rest of the season.

Here are my grades for Wisconsin’s offense, defense, and special teams in the win over the Scarlet Knights. 

Wisconsin Football Offense Grade: C

The offense had some momentum heading into the bye week with a string of solid performances against Georgia Southern and Purdue. However, Phil Longo‘s crew looked a bit disjointed at times in Saturday’s contest.

Though it wasn’t an overly impressive showing by Tanner Mordecai, the sixth-year senior did precisely what he needed to do. Mordecai hit 17 of his 31 pass attempts for 145 yards and a touchdown, plus he added 50 yards on the ground. Mordecai also deserves some flowers for his ability to handle poor snaps from Tanor Bortolini. It’s been a topic of conversation for some time now, but this was far and away the worst showing from the Badgers center. Still, Mordecai managed to corral some of the bad snaps and make some plays.

The ground game was also a bright spot, but I’m most impressed with Jackson Acker in his first real reps as a backup. The sophomore tailback logged 13 carries for 65 yards on Saturday, a good sign for the future as Wisconsin navigates the rest of the season without Chez Mellusi. Braelon Allen is clearly dinged up, but he still managed to register 21 carries for 101 yards and a touchdown. He lost a fumble, which brings his grade down a bit, but he still had a solid overall performance.

Though there were some bright spots, there were several miscues. Fumbles lost from Allen and Hayden Rucci, poor snaps, and middle-of-the-road receiver play outside of Will Pauling all added to a hit-or-miss performance from this Badgers offense. Luckily, these are all things that can be cleaned up, and I’m confident they will be as the season chugs along. 

Wisconsin Football Defense Grade: A-

I never thought I would say this after the first four weeks of play, but Wisconsin’s defense showed out in Saturday’s clash. 

Going into this game, I wrote about how I was worried about the Scarlet Knights’ rushing attack against a lackluster Wisconsin run defense, and I couldn’t be happier to be wrong. The Badgers limited Rutgers to just 64 yards on the ground, effectively shutting down the tailback duo of Kyle Monangai and Ja’Shon Benjamin. This was not the Badgers run defense we saw for the first four weeks, and we can only hope UW stays on this trajectory with some talented tailbacks coming later in the season. 

With Wisconsin limiting the run game, Rutgers had to air it out more often. The Badgers were able to go up big when Ricardo Hallman snagged an inaccurate pass from Gavin Wimsatt for a 95-yard pick-six, and they never looked back. Wisconsin limited the Rutgers QB1 to only 16 completions on 35 attempts, one touchdown, and an interception.

Overall, the defense significantly improved over the bye week, with fewer missed tackles, fewer chunk plays allowed, and holding Rutgers to 2-of-12 on third down. I have reservations about saying this Wisconsin defense will keep this up, as Rutgers isn’t the best competition, but this was a step in the right direction for Mike Tressel’s crew.

Wisconsin Football Special Teams Grade: B

The special teams unit has been a bright spot for Wisconsin early in the 2023 season, but this game was a bit of a quiet one.

Nathanial Vakos was 1-for-2 on field goal attempts on Saturday, marking his first missed field goal attempt of the season. It’s worth noting that his missed attempt was from 53 yards out, and it did have the distance, so there’s no reason to worry about the former Freshman All-American. 

Jack Van Dyke continues to struggle with kickoffs, as he sailed his fourth kick out of bounds through five games. This trend can’t continue, and he desperately needs to get that cleaned up. 

The Wisconsin football program remains the only unbeaten team in the conference play in the Big Ten West, and they’ll square off against Iowa next weekend in a pivotal matchup for the division race.