I’ll admit it, I was wrong about Tanner McEvoy being the right starting quarterback for the Wisconsin Badgers. Yes, shockingly I am not infallible.
You know who is very right at the moment however? None other than Joel Stave! The QB who seemed to have a hard time throwing the ball forward when he had case of the “yips” early in the season has come a long way, and is perhaps the biggest X-factor in the Badgers’ quest for a fourth Big Ten title in five years.
The main job of a Wisconsin quarterback these days is to essentially get out of the way of the rushing attack while making the occasional throw to keep defenses honest. This year that could not be more true, as redshirt junior running back Melvin Gordon is posting a historical season that has him on the Heisman radar.
Even when Gordon decides to be merciful and take a play or two off to rest, sophomore back Corey Clement comes right in and continues to terrorize opposing front sevens.
However, even the greatest backs will have a hard time running when defenses routinely stack the box with more than seven players, and those early struggles were no more apparent than in recent weeks against Iowa and Minnesota when both teams crowded the line of scrimmage, resulting in slow starts for Wisconsin’s vaunted running attack.
The Badgers have needed a quarterback all season long to prevent this, and Stave has finally emerged as that guy. In the first quarter against Iowa, the Badgers had eight plays go for a total of 13 yards, with five of them being running plays. With the Hawkeyes clearly overplaying the run, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig knew he had to put the ball in Stave’s hands and hope that he could make Iowa respect the pass.
Stave delivered admirably in the second quarter, completing five of six passes in the period, including a crucial 12-yard pass on third-and-long to keep the drive going. Undoubtedly thanks to Stave’s second quarter, rushing lanes started to open up in the second half as the Badgers held on for a crucial win at Iowa.
The contest against the Golden Gophers started out similarly with the offense looking anemic through a quarter-and-a-half largely due to the fact that Minnesota refused to let Wisconsin run the ball. One of the turning points, however, occurred when Stave completed a perfect pass to Alex Erickson on third and long that went for 70 yards.
On the same drive on a third-and-goal, Ludwig once again trusted his quarterback and Stave rewarded him with a crafty touchdown pass to Gordon. Stave continued his pinpoint passing day on the next drive by driving Wisconsin 49 yards in 18 seconds to set up a momentum swinging field goal to end the first half. As a result, Gordon and Clement were able to find a lot more daylight in the second half, where they did the majority of their damage.
Stave’s turnaround has really been amazing and has recently been flat-out crucial for the Badgers. He has completed over 60 percent of his passes in four straight games and has averaged an excellent 11.1 yards per attempt in his last two games.
He also hasn’t thrown an interception since the Purdue game Nov. 8. With that kind of efficiency, teams will have to at least think about protecting the pass against the Badgers.
The biggest knock on Stave last year was his deep ball accuracy and his tendency to turn the ball over. I already covered his interception-free streak, but let me also emphasize Stave’s improvement with the long ball.
With defenses playing close to the line of scrimmage to hold the run, opposing cornerbacks will also crowd the line and attempt to jam their receiver while also hoping to maintain outside contain on a running play, which usually leaves the defensive back vulnerable on fly routes.
Well, on two occasions against Minnesota, that exact scenario happened with Erickson getting a couple steps on his defender. In both instances, Stave delivered perfect balls that would have likely gone for enormous gains or touchdowns, leaving the defender only one choice: to interfere.
On both long balls to Erickson, the cornerback covering him committed obvious pass interference penalties, a double whammy because not only is it a 15-yard infraction, but it also forces the defense to provide more help and less press coverage to avoid such mistakes. This leads to easier runs, such as Clement’s 28-yard touchdown scamper which happened to come right after one of those pass interferences.
With a solid passing attack under Stave, the Badgers’ offense only becomes that much more explosive. This weekend marks a sort of revenge game for Stave as he will try to atone for his mediocre performance against the Buckeyes a season ago. If he can maintain his recent performance, that should be no problem.
I’ll let head coach Gary Andersen emphasize one last time the kind of play Stave has put up, with a direct quote from his post-Minnesota press conference: “Trust me, I’m no offensive guru, but I look at him and I think he’s a very talented quarterback playing out there right now and doing a very nice job.”
How much credit does Joel Stave deserve for putting the Badgers in position to win the Big Ten? Email machhi@wisc.edu and tell him your thoughts.
