The Badgers faded a bit in the fourth quarter against Penn State. How can they change that?
The Wisconsin Badgers dropped a 28-13 game to the No. 3 Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday, competing close for three quarters before the latter pulled away in the fourth for the double-digit victory.
It was a strong defensive performance from Wisconsin, as they held Penn State to just one offensive touchdown through the first three quarters, but it was clear the team was tired heading into the final frame, with players nearing or even playing 70 snaps.
What did head coach Luke Fickell notice from the team after re-evaluating the game?
“Well, obviously, there’s not a whole lot of transition time, as you guys all know, right? I mean, not like, you know, you have a whole bunch of time to reflect back on, you know, Saturday night and spend a ton of time dwelling upon it. But obviously you gotta go about what you’re doing and correct a lot of things,” Fickell said on Monday during his weekly press conference.
“And, you know, it was tough, but as you look back at it, you know, the thing it comes down to is execution and execution in the fourth quarter and then making plays. And kind of like I probably said after the game that they made more plays than we did. And in those situations, especially as it came down late in the game, those ones are the critical ones, and they’re not like plays out of the ordinary. It’s plays that come along with execution and plays that come along with, you know, being poised enough throughout that entire game to be able to anticipate some of those things. And as you look back at it, that’s where to me, I’d say they did a better job in some ways.”
In addition to the playmaking aspect in the fourth quarter, Fickell noted the team’s durability aspect, with players wearing down more towards the end of the game, which was something he put more on the coaching staff.
“[Towards] the end of the game, we got wore down a little bit defensively and I think that in the long run, cost us,” Fickell acknowledged. “And so that’s one of those things where we’ve talked about we got to play more guys. We have the ability to make sure that we’re playing 24 guys of some sorts. And I mean that some version of a significant role that’s not just one play here on dime on third [down]. But, the ability to make sure that we’re going to put ourselves in a position come the fourth quarter to be able to execute and do the things because guys are fresh enough mentally and physically, but that just doesn’t happen, right.”
“It’s got to be deliberate in what you’re doing. And that has a lot to do with the week’s preparations as well. So, you know, not a whole lot of time, right? You have a night game, I mean, it turns over pretty quick, and now we got to move on. And that was probably the biggest message on Sunday, is our ability to kind of regroup, you know, and reload because we gotta get rolling. And so they did that, did a good job on Sunday night.”
When it comes to player snaps, Wisconsin changed things up a bit on Saturday, as they seemed to rely on their top players more often than in previous weeks.
Along the defensive line, the Badgers chose to ride their top three players, Elijah Hills, Ben Barten, and Curt Neal, more, with each earning at least 45 snaps, while backups Dillan Johnson (10 snaps), Brandon Lane (7 snaps), and Cade McDonald (4 snaps) didn’t see much playing time.
At linebacker, Jake Chaney had one of his biggest roles yet, playing 62 snaps, which led to just four for Tackett Curtis. Meanwhile, Jaheim Thomas got 50 snaps, leaving 15 for Christian Alliegro.
In the secondary though is where the snap counts were especially high. Nyzier Fourqurean played in all but one defensive snap with Xavier Lucas not playing on defense, earning 68 snaps. Ricardo Hallman wasn’t far behind with 63 snaps, as Wisconsin elected not to rotate much against Penn State.
So, there was a clear difference at several position with Wisconsin leaning towards their top players more than rotating in against a tough opponent.
That leads to a dilemma for the coaching staff, as you want to have the best players on the field, but also need to keep them fresh. How does Luke Fickell and his staff balance that aspect of the equation?
“There’s a balance,” Fickell said. “If you don’t [rotate] early and if you don’t have a plan for it, it makes it more difficult as you get into the game because, you know, there’s a feel for a game too. And there’s times when guys roll too much, right? We’ve had that a little bit at the tailback position where we thought that we were playing four different guys. And that rotation, you know, where it might keep people fresh, also doesn’t allow them to get into a rhythm. So I think you got to know your guys, you got to know the dynamics of the game and the physicality of the game, you know, but you got to have a plan.
“And I think that that’s probably the thing. If you don’t see guys rotating in sometime in the first three series, it’s probably not something that’s in the plan. And if that’s the case, it is the case, right? There’s often situations obviously at the offensive line that that’s one of them. But you know, I think as you get down the stretch, that’s where you see some of the things that can add up on you and you got to know who can handle it.
“I’ve had guys in the past that, you know, one guy in particular was a defensive lineman. If he played 80 snaps, you know, the first and second ones were no different than 78 and 79. But then you’ve also had guys that anything over 40 snaps. There’s a significant difference in how they play and the effort that which they play with. So it has a lot to do like we talked about with those relations to understand your players as well.”
Heading into a physical matchup against the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Badgers are going to need to find a way to rotate more to keep that level of physicality and toughness through four quarters. As Fickell said, that needs to come sooner than later in the game, so that’ll definitely be something to monitor on Saturday evening.