Minneapolis, Minn. - When a running back has a big performance, some might say that he was “in the zone.” For redshirt junior Dare Ogunbowale and redshirt freshman Taiwan Deal, that expression was much more literal.
The Wisconsin Badgers (6-2 Big Ten, 9-3 overall) switched up their running scheme a bit more against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, and it paid off in the form of a 31-21 victory and the right to hold on to Paul Bunyan’s Axe.
Ogunbowale finished with 161 yards and a touchdown on 33 carries, a 4.7-yard average, and Deal put up 92 yards of his own on 22 carries, punching it into the endzone twice. It was a career high for the running back, and it was the team’s best rushing performance of the season.
“It felt really good coming out and establishing our zone run game,” Deal said. “[Head] coach [Paul] Chryst, [running backs] coach John Settle, and [offensive coordinator and offensive line] coach [Joe] Rudolph, they put together a great game plan.”
This season, the Badgers have called mostly power runs, a man-blocking scheme, but they went to the zone runs more in Minneapolis, Minn., and it worked to near perfection.
“There was a lot of space to run, and having some open field and being able to make guys miss was pretty fun to finally get to do,” Ogunbowale said. “We knew we would get one-on-ones with zone running, and it was just our opportunity and our job to win them, and we did a lot of that today.”
Chryst’s play calling still primarily consisted of power runs, but he mixed in a bit more zone than he’s shown all season, and it gave the Gophers’ defense a different look that it struggled to stop.
The big differences between the two is the direction of the blocks and the reads of the running back. In power-man, there is one hole that the runner is supposed to run through, and every lineman knows which direction they need to move their defender to seal the sides of the lane.
In zone blocking, the entire offensive line moves with the running back, and they try to block their defender a certain direction. Some linemen are asked to make difficult reach blocks, though, and if they can’t get the defender going one way, they use that defender’s momentum and keep blocking them to the other direction.
That leaves the running back to simply read the direction of the blocks in front of him and use the momentum of his blockers to determine where his hole will be. This puts the play in the hands of the runner and takes some pressure off the offensive linemen who let the defenders determine where their blocks will go.
“It was really nice running zone this week,” redshirt freshman right tackle Jacob Maxwell said. “It takes the stress off a lot actually.”
Maxwell made his second start of the season in this game, his first start at right tackle, and the Wisconsin game plan featured quite a few runs off him and redshirt senior left tackle Tyler Marz. Minnesota’s defensive ends lined up in the wide nine-technique position, aligned outside of the tight end or where the tight end would be even when there wasn’t a tight end on that side of the line.
This wasn’t the first defense that the Badgers have faced with wide defensive ends, and Chryst’s offense was able to use that experience to be better prepared for it in this game.
“We knew that those guys were just contain guys who had to get the outside no matter what, so we used that to our advantage,” Maxwell said. “We would just kick them outside and we’d run right behind them, on my butt. It was really nice.”
The Minnesota defense wasn’t completely predictable, though. On occasion, they would have a defensive end crash inside and bring a linebacker or safety around the outside for contain. This look threw off the Wisconsin running backs a little, but it didn’t end up having too much of an impact on their big day.
“Sometimes they slant inside because they’ll be an edge pressure,” Ogunbowale said. “You guys probably saw there were a couple plays that I kind of made a bad read, because the wide-nine slanted in, but I wouldn’t say it affected too much because we’ve played against the wide-nines and wide-fives before.”
The Badgers were able to use their experience against teams with widely aligned defense ends to craft an excellent game plan and adjust to what Minnesota threw at them. Part of it was taking advantage of poor gap integrity by the Gopher linebackers and safeties, and part of it was this Wisconsin offensive line coming together and finishing the season strong.
They were confident in their game plan, and the players executed it just like it was drawn up. The coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for putting Ogunbowale and Deal in position to get in the zone and carry this UW team to victory in the run-heavy fashion that Badger fans were used to.
