The Wisconsin Badgers football team took a 21-10 lead against the USC Trojans across the first half of the game when they traveled to Los Angeles, California, on Sept. 28 but lost the game with a score of 38-21.
So how did Wisconsin's three touchdowns and 11-point lead turn into a devastating 17-point defeat? The same way several of their games have played out this season.
This is a common issue in Luke Fickell’s tenure as head coach of Wisconsin’s football team. Before the game against Penn State, word around State Street was the Badgers had a fighting chance against the 6-0 Nittany Lions.
After the coin was tossed and the Badgers had the ball, Wisconsin took the lead through the first quarter with a field goal in the first four minutes of game time.
While the visiting Nittany Lions achieved a touchdown, running back Tawee Walker got the lead back for the Badgers with a one-yard run into the endzone.
But a close score leading into the second half turned into an embarrassing defeat for the Badgers. After three more touchdowns for Penn State, the Badgers only added a field goal to the score, resulting in a 28-13 loss for Wisconsin.
The second half of the game was detrimental to the Badgers’ hopes of coming away with a win.
“21-21 at USC to start the fourth quarter… and 14-13 to start the fourth quarter… take it right now because that's the position we want to train ourselves to be in,” Fickell said in a post-game interview.
Wisconsin has shown their ability to perform, as they’ve kept several games close through the third quarter. But it's the little mistakes that prevent them from a win.
Rather than gaining a couple of yards, the Badgers have managed to lose them. The change of quarterbacks after Tyler Van Dyke was ruled out for the season also posed a challenge as it was unexpected in the way Wisconsin was working going into the second half.
“The thing it comes down to is execution… they made more plays than we did and in those situations especially as it came down to late in the game those ones are the critical ones, and they’re not like plays out of the ordinary,” Fickell added in a press conference on Oct 28. “It's just plays that come along with execution and plays that come along with being poised enough to anticipate those kinds of things.”
Fickell also said the steady behavior from Penn State is something the Badgers lacked, which contributed to the loss.
“At the end of the game, we got worn out a little bit defensively, and that in the long run cost us,” he added.
Wisconsin has three games left in the regular season, and Fickell has a possible solution to preventing the team's tiredness from continuing the rest of the season.
“So that’s one of the things where we’ve talked about, playing more guys….the ability to make sure we're going to put ourselves in a position come the fourth quarter to be able to execute and do the things because guys are fresh enough mentally and physically,” Fickell said.
The Badgers still failed to find a win to add to their record against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Wisconsin now sits 5-4 ahead of their matchup against the undefeated No. 1 Oregon Ducks.
