MADISON, Wis. — There were 41 seconds remaining in the third quarter of Wisconsin’s blowout victory against Purdue on Saturday when Luke Fickell had a request for offensive coordinator Phil Longo during a timeout. He asked that the Badgers run the ball from the Boilermakers’ 17-yard line to milk the clock and send the game to the fourth quarter.
The purpose was to flip the field, giving Fickell and his team an opportunity to finally enjoy the post-third-quarter “Jump Around” tradition with a big lead and the ball closer to the student section. In three previous home games, Wisconsin either held a one-possession edge (against Western Michigan and South Dakota) or trailed by 25 points to Alabama at that stage.
Before Fickell’s wish against Purdue could be granted, however, Wisconsin scored another touchdown with 12 seconds remaining on running back Tawee Walker’s 17-yard burst. The play gave Wisconsin a sizable 42-6 advantage in a 52-6 trashing. In other words, the offense executed too well.
That’s not a sentence that had been uttered on many occasions during the 17 previous games of the Fickell/Longo era. But on Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium, everything came together for a performance fans had waited on since Longo was hired. Wisconsin’s 52 points marked its highest output in two years, as did its 589 total yards of offense. The Badgers passed for 361 yards and ran for 228, giving them at least 200 yards in both categories in a game for the first time in three years.
If ever there was a moment Wisconsin and Longo needed this kind of result, it was this one. Purdue coach Ryan Walters acknowledged after the game that “we’re a bad football team right now,” and few will argue with his assessment. That makes it difficult to project whether Wisconsin’s offensive productivity can be replicated against better competition or whether it was a one-game mirage.
Still, a level of enthusiasm has emerged within the program because 52 points doesn’t happen by accident. And Wisconsin has played plenty of inferior opponents and not hung half a hundred on them. The Badgers’ previous high under Longo was 38 points, and they hadn’t put up more than 28 points this season.
With upcoming road games against Rutgers and Northwestern, Wisconsin must hope it has found a formula that can work. The Badgers (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten) have an opportunity to use this three-game stretch to reach 5-2 ahead of the most difficult bunch of games on their schedule, though the Badgers are early 2.5-point underdogs against the Scarlet Knights. Fickell said he knows his team has “a mountain to climb.” But there were enough good things that happened to offer a reason for optimism.
“I think that you’ve got to find and see and feel the positives,” Fickell said. “And when you give guys opportunities to make plays, they start to recognize not only can they do it but how they can do it.
“The thing that I’m happiest about being out there on Saturday, watching it on Sunday and then moving forward, there was a lot of growth. Growth led to some big plays in the game and growth led to a lopsided win. But it wasn’t something that was just kind of handed to them.”
There were a number of positives to take away from the showing. Start with Wisconsin’s offensive line, which played to the high standard many people grew to expect in previous years. The Badgers’ line didn’t allow a sack of quarterback Braedyn Locke and provided outstanding pass protection.
Locke had nearly six seconds to stand in the pocket and deliver a touchdown pass to receiver Trech Kekahuna for 69 yards. Five O-linemen finished with a Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade above 80 — left tackle Jack Nelson, right tackle Riley Mahlman, backup left tackle Kevin Heywood (who played 35 snaps and replaced an injured Nelson), left guard Joe Brunner and right guard Joe Huber. Walker said the offensive line was “trying to punish somebody every time.”
“We’re willing to take that challenge week in and week out,” Brunner said. “We have the confidence to do so. Coach (AJ) Blazek tells us all the time if you want to go and win games, you’ve got to be able to dominate. You’ve got to put it on our backs. We feel like we did that. We can do that moving forward.”
Locke, meanwhile, responded from two early interceptions to finish with 359 yards passing — the seventh most in a game in program history. He completed 12 consecutive passes during one stretch and demonstrated that perhaps there is a higher ceiling for him than he showed in his previous four career starts.
Longo said Locke’s preparation was evident because there were 17 plays throughout the game in which Locke checked into a different call from the one Longo signaled from the sideline based on what he saw from Purdue’s defense. According to Longo, Locke was right on 16 of those checks, including a 25-yard touchdown pass to Kekahuna. It highlighted why giving the quarterback freedom to make those decisions can be beneficial.
Wisconsin succeeded despite a depleted roster that included injuries to wide receivers Will Pauling, Bryson Green and Tyrell Henry. Kekahuna played the best game of his young career, Vinny Anthony caught his second 50-plus-yard touchdown in as many games and CJ Williams grabbed four passes, each of which went for a first down. Fickell said Monday it was too early to know the status of the three injured receivers for the Rutgers game. But the Badgers displayed enough depth at receiver to overcome those problems against the Boilermakers.
Another key development was Wisconsin shortening its running back rotation. Without Chez Mellusi, who stepped away from the team last week to recover from injuries, the top two tailbacks were Walker and freshman Darrion Dupree. Walker scored three touchdowns, while Dupree offered a glimpse of his potential as a runner and pass catcher.
Longo said his process for preparing hasn’t changed for any game this season and pointed out that some of the calls he successfully made against Purdue were the same ones that failed in previous games. What he has noticed is a better execution level from players with more consistent attention to detail. While Wisconsin’s short-yardage performance on fourth down has been criticized for a pair of misses against Alabama and USC, the Badgers have converted 13 of 14 third-down rushing attempts of third-and-3 or shorter this season.
“I keep getting asked this question: What’s the character of the offense?” Longo said. “The character of the offense is taking advantage and attacking the weaknesses of the defense. Do we hang our hat on certain runs and certain throws? Yeah, we have some base foundational plays in the offense that the players will be able to tell you from the get-go; there’s four run plays and eight or 10 pass plays that we will call that are the fundamental foundation of the offense.
“But the character of the offense is us making good decisions pre-snap at quarterback and executing post-snap and taking advantage of what the defense is giving us.”
Wisconsin still has a long way to go offensively with seven Big Ten games remaining. The Badgers rank 72nd nationally in total offense, 85th in yards per play and tied for 105th in plays of at least 10 yards. But the offense at least took advantage of what the defense presented for one game. Now the challenge is to build on it.
“For the players, I’m happy the game went the way it went because the players are starting to realize what they’re capable of,” Longo said. “I always think it helps confidence.”
(Top photo of Dilin Jones: Jeff Hanisch / Imagn Images)
