Wisconsin has outscored their opponents 94-13 in the last 2 weeks. Do I give Fickell credit, or are Rutgers and Purdue just that bad?

Looking Back: 

Rutgers – 7
Wisconsin – 42

The Purdue win could’ve been a fluke, but 2 blowout wins in a row is a pattern. 

The most convincing part of this win for me is how similar it was to the Purdue win. Wisconsin might actually have an identity on offense.

Step 1: Run Tawee Walker a lot.
Step 2: Take deep shots to Vinny Anthony II and Trech Kekahuna
Result: 40+ points per game

Wisconsin had 500+ yards of offense against both Purdue and Rutgers. The last time the Badgers did that in back to back weeks was 2010 – A Rose Bowl Season. 

The defense has finally made some of the player substitutions I’ve been begging for. They probably aren’t “elite,” but they are much better than they were in weeks 1-3. Elijah Hills, Xavier Lucas, and Tackett Curtis are all on the field much more often. 

Another part of the winning formula that needs to be emphasized: penalties. Wisconsin is 3rd out of 134 teams in least penalty yardage at only 29 penalty yards per game. (1st is Iowa and 2nd is Iowa State). The last time Wisconsin played this clean was 2016.. and that team was pretty good.

Game Preview: Northwestern

Wisconsin at Northwestern

Where: Medicine Field at Martin Stadium – Evanston, Illinois

When: Saturday, 10/19 – 11:00 AM (CST)

How to Watch: BTN

Spread: Wisconsin -7.5

O/U: 41.5

Northwestern Wildcats Current Record: 3-3

Beat Maryland 37-10 last week to get their first Big Ten win. 

Northwestern Is Probably Bad:

Wisconsin is coming off of wins against atrociously bad Purdue and mediocre Rutgers. Northwestern is likely somewhere between those two benchmarks. They have only the 1 P4 win (Maryland), and their losses to Indiana and Washington were of the blowout variety. 

If Wisconsin plays similarly to the last couple of weeks, they should dominate.

Struggles in Evanston:

Despite Wisconsin being the consistently better team than NW, Ryan Field in Evanston has proven to be a house of horrors for many Badgers teams. Going back to 2003 Wisconsin has played there 8 times, they have only won twice.

Last year the pain came north. There were lofty expectations in Madison for the 2023 season, and Northwestern was universally picked to finish last in the B1G West. That didn’t stop NW from taking a 3 Touchdown lead at half and the Badger football team getting booed on their way to the locker room by 70,000 or so in attendance. It was embarrassing. 

The matchup this year is being played at a temporary field right on the lakefront. It is a converted women’s soccer/lacrosse field that had temporary seats added to raise its capacity to 12,000, still much smaller than a typical B1G venue. It will probably be very windy sitting right on the lake, but Fickell didn’t seem to care about that in his weekly presser previewing the game. 

“Wherever they ask us to play or tell us to play, we’ll play. If it’s a parking lot, we’ll play in a parking lot. I don’t think we got a whole lot to say after how […] we performed, and how we played last year. So, I could[n’t] care less where we play them at.” –Luke Fickell on Monday when asked about NW’s temporary field. 

Prediction:

Wisconsin 45
Northwestern 7

With the expected high winds, I’d bet Walker gets 3 more TDs and continues his rise as the next great Wisconsin running back (even if he is only going to be here for a year). 

Bucky keeps rolling, which makes Oct 26th all the more exciting. 

#BuckyByAMillion

Want more Walk On Fan? 

Follow us on X (Formally known as Twitter) here!

This article was written by Cole Tollison and edited by Hayden Breene