This week 6 afternoon contest appears to be a toss-up between two struggling teams, set out to get their season back on a solid course for a quality bowl appearance. Not to be overshadowed by the offense, the Badgers’ defense recorded its fifth-straight shutout. In this week’s Radio Rewind, Wisconsin athletic director and former Husker Barry Alvarez takes Nebraska-Wisconsin, the strengths of a versatile defense and his impression of the Mike Riley era thus far. He is a smart safety who plays both the run and the pass at a high level. If they drop their second conference game to open the Big Ten schedule, getting back to the conference championship in December would require more magic than this roster has in them.
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Erickson, the Badgers’ top receiver, may not be able to take advantage of Nebraska’s poor passing defense. Without Clement, Wisconsin has split carries between redshirt freshman Taiwan Deal and junior Dare Ogunbowale, who’ve combined for 658 rushing yards on 136 carries, or 4.8 per carry.
“There (are) always things that you can continue to get better at, from the receivers to the offensive line to me”, Stave said. He’s a huge contributor to what we do. I think you see talented guys. Tackles Vincent Valentine and Kevin Williams have been battling injuries, tackle Kevin Maurice is out four weeks with a stress fracture and end Freedom Akinmoladun will miss two weeks with a knee injury.
Westerkamp has 27 catches for 350 yards and four touchdowns. He left the Iowa game in the third quarter with a concussion and has not yet been cleared to play.
Badger of Honor: I’d like to think it was just the Iowa game. Luckily this week for the Husker defense they will play a beat up Badger offense.
Schobert has definitely led the way for the phenomenal Badgers defense, which ranks fourth in the country with only 9.6 points allowed per game. Tommy Armstrong played a painful to watch game as he was 10-31 with 105 yards and an interception. Devine proved that he can be an every down back, but as of right Ozigbo is the number 2 back behind Newby. We’ll check in with him tomorrow. For the Husker offense to have true success Janovich needs to have 15-20 touches.
UW defensive coordinator Dave Aranda believes the Cornhuskers rely on the 6-foot, 195-pound Westerkamp in the same way the Badgers rely on Alex Erickson (26 catches, 350 yards and one TD). He is described as a silent mouse by one teammate, and his reticence has reflected his quiet, steady improvement as a Wisconsin running back. I don’t claim to be an X’s and O’s expert, but I was trying to figure out why Nebraska – in a first-and-10 situation – would call zero coverage here considering how poorly the secondary has played this season.
Bray is also preaching to his team the important of recognizing Wisconsin’s pre-snap shifts and motions – much of it window dressing, but it caused problems for Nebraska in past meetings.
“I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense necessarily – except that we might need him”, Riley said according to the Omaha World-Herald. This should be a very interesting game between these two teams and could go either way.
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Well low and behold when my odds tracker lit up with this week’s opening lines late Sunday, I feel out of my chair damn near it when I saw the Huskers were favored against Wisconsin.
