The Wisconsin Badgers have suffered perhaps one of their worst losses of the season to the Iowa Hawkeyes away from home.
While the Badgers and fans alike knew it would be tough to take on the home team Hawkeyes, a performance like what was delivered was not quite expected. The Wisconsin Badgers looked lifeless on offense as the team had no answer on the ground against running back Kaleb Johnson. Wisconsin will again have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what is going wrong for the team.
With just three games left on the schedule now, the Badgers are entering a much needed bye week before playing top-ranked Oregon. Wisconsin still must play Oregon, Nebraska, and Minnesota, who are quite frankly three teams the Badgers should not want to face at this moment.
I’ve seen enough. New episode of @The_Camp_WI tomorrow. Send your questions/rants. pic.twitter.com/nohUzV0yoQ
— Zach Heilprin (@ZachHeilprin) November 3, 2024
Oregon has looked incredible and nearly every team they play does not have any sort of answer for the powerful offense. Nebraska is a gritty team in a similar position as Iowa and could provide the same problems the Hawkeyes did to the Badgers. Finally, Minnesota is a surging team that just clinched bowl eligibility and is looking to continue to build momentum.
With just three games left, the pressure to win is really on the shoulders of the Badgers after high expectations were placed on the program again this season. A season ago, the Wisconsin Badgers expected to make strides with coach Luke Fickell leading the team but quickly realized it may take more time than originally expected.
The Wisconsin Badgers allowed the Iowa Hawkeyes to score 40 or more points for the third time this season at home.
How Can the Wisconsin Badgers Stop the Bleeding and Return to Winning Games?
With just three more chances for the team to become a bowl-eligible squad, the Wisconsin Badgers need to find more consistency on offense.
So far this season, the most daunting aspect of football for the Badgers has been first down, with the team struggling to do much to kickoff drives. First down is often a time to reset and work the offense the way the staff wants to, but the Badgers have not been able to do so this season. When Wisconsin does have success on first down, they win games confidently like Rutgers and Purdue wins this season.
Another issue the Badgers staff must address moving forward involves the interceptions on offense. The Badgers have had an interception every game for the past seven games, and more recently the interceptions have become costly. The pick-six against Penn State in particular was massive and allowed the Nittany Lions to win the game.
The Wisconsin Badgers need to figure something out quickly, as the interceptions are seemingly affecting the entire offense. The offense has been on a steady decline since the win against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and it has been hard to watch for some fans.
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