Johnny Raider – @johnnyraider29 – October 28th, 2024

Photo By Cameron Schneider ~ The Daily Cardinal

Another opportunity for a signature win squashed in heartbreaking fashion for Coach Fickell and his squad on Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium. The day was crisp after dark on homecoming night, and the stadium atmosphere was the best it has ever been. Not to mention the badgers once again outplayed their opponent in the first half.

It seems this tale is as old as time, but let’s dive into what went wrong. 

Passing Game

It looked like this phase of the offense was improving over the last three weeks, but it regressed right back to where it was against USC and Alabama. QB Braedyn Locke completed 22 of his 42 passes for 217 yards, 0 TDs, and 1 interception. This is the third game of the season that QB Braedyn Locke completed 50 percent of his passes and his first game recording zero touchdowns to his name. The highlight of his day was throwing a 33 yard fade ball to CJ Williams and a seam throw to Will Pauling to put the badgers in position for their lone touchdown score of the day. It seemed all the problems of inaccuracy and reading the field on RPOs returned against a very good Penn State defense. The offense had plenty of opportunities with field position and turnovers but failed to capitalize on any of them. They instead shot themselves in the foot with a perfect storm of play calling and poor execution to throw the game sealing pick-six in the third quarter. 

Running Game 

This one feels extra disappointing solely because of how this is supposed to be the focal point of the Badger Football identity. Just 27 carries for 81 yards and the only score of the game. It seemed the badgers really wanted to attack the B and C gaps out of shotgun solely from Tawee Walker. From the get-go, it was clear that Penn State had this bottled up. However, the badgers were insistent on running the same run on first and second down. As you can imagine, this did not work all too well considering Walker carried the ball 22 times for 59 yards and averaged just 2.7 yards per carry. Not to mention they did not even try giving Cade Yacameli the ball on the outside with his speed. Once again, it looks like the badgers are once again failing to recognize how to use their talent with the philosophy that they are not a running game by committee. Darion Dupree was the only other running back to touch the football for the badgers, and he tallied up just three carries for three yards. It is very disappointing that the badgers cannot figure out the downhill running game against tougher opponents at this point in the regular season.