Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Daily Cardinal Est. 1892
Friday, March 29, 2024
Adequately Mediocre: Badgers stumble to win

JJ Watt: JJ Watt was one of the few bright spots for Wisconsin on Saturday. The junior defensive lineman recorded four tackles and one sack.

Adequately Mediocre: Badgers stumble to win

The Badgers may have moved to 2-0 on Saturday, but the performance did not overwhelm many- including the San Jose State Spartans. After starting the game with a 10 play, 77 yard touchdown drive that appeared to be the beginning of a dominating performance, turnovers and defensive miscues allowed San Jose State to hang around before UW ultimately put the game away, winning 27-13.

""We're happy we got a win,"" said senior quarterback Scott Tolzien. [Give] a lot of credit to San Jose State, I thought they came in here and battled really hard and really fought, but we definitely have a lot of things to improve upon.""

On offense, junior running back John Clay led the way, rushing for 137 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries. Clay has now rushed for at least 100 yards in eight consecutive games and tallied his ninth career multi-touchdown game. Personal accomplishments aside, the Badgers struggled to captialzie on numerous opportunities and excellent field position.

Four times, the Badgers started with the ball at their own 40-yard line or better, and four times they came away with no points. Much of the struggle came in the red zone, as freshman running back James White lost a fumble in the end zone and Tolzien fumbled twice inside the ten-yard line (he recovered both).

""That's not how we win games here, and as an offense that's not how we're successful,"" Tozien said. ""We've got to make [red zone offense] a priority and make that a point of emphasis and talk about it but then we have to do it.""

In the first quarter, it looked as if the Badger defense was going to put together it's second straight dominating performance. The Spartans did not manage a first down for the first 13 minutes of play, and mustered just 134 total yards in the first half.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Daily Cardinal delivered to your inbox

In the second half, though, San Jose State found success thorugh the air, as sophomore quarterback Jordan La Secla eventually finished 20-26 for 225 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions.

""We held them to I think 55 yards rushing so that's a feather we can put in our cap, said junior defensive end J.J. Watt, ""But we also gave up over 200 yards passing, which you can't have.""

 The big plays started for the Spartans in the second quarter when freshman wide receiver Chandler Jones got inside senior UW corner Niles Brinkley on a post and senior strong safety Jay Valai tried to undercut the ball but misread its flight badly.

Valai took responsibility for many of the defense's miscues, and said he expects better.

""The only person you should be trying to be better than is yourself from last week,"" he said. ""I think this defense is going to take that to heart.""

Wisconsin lost senior wide receiver David Gilreath to a scary injury early in the third quarter when he suffered a helmet-to-helmet hit during a punt return attempt. Gilreath, who was knocked out for at least a minute according to Bielema, was taken to the hospital and later released with a concussion.

""All of our thoughts and prayers are with David right now,"" said Clay. ""He brings a lot to this team.""

The amount of time that Gilreath will miss remains to be seen, but if the Badgers want to compete with Arizona State next week, the players that are healthy have plenty to work on.

""I'm very disappointed but the best thing about it is that we have things to correct,"" Watt said. ""We're going to come out next week better than we are this week. We're happy with the win. We're 2-0 and you can't be any better than 2-0.""

Support your local paper
Donate Today
The Daily Cardinal has been covering the University and Madison community since 1892. Please consider giving today.
Comments


Powered by SNworks Solutions by The State News
All Content © 2024 The Daily Cardinal