The Wisconsin Badgers were never going to be able to puff their chest, flexing one of the nation’s strongest offenses.
After all, with a talent like Jim Tressel at defensive coordinator, you can get away with an offense that is average and still be in contention for several high-level bowl games.
The problem is, Wisconsin is far away from even an average offense. That paltry offense was recently on show in the Badgers’ 30-0 shutout loss against Iowa. In Iowa City, the Badgers totaled 235 yards, including a dreadful 4/13 on third downs.
Unfortunately, Week 9 was nothing out of the ordinary
Across this season, the Badgers ranked 126th nationally in terms of yards per game at 305.7 yards per game.
ESPN’s offensive efficiency metric currently gives Wisconsin a 51.4 rating, the 14th-highest in the conference
and 67th in the country.
For reference, one place ahead of Luke Fickell’s team is Navy (51.6), and one place below are the Pittsburgh Panthers (50.9). Navy, of course, prioritizes the option offense which stalls their offense, meanwhile the Panthers have been without star quarterback Mason Heintschel as in game five of the regular season against Virginia Tech, tearing his ACL, just plays into the second half.
The bottom line is, this is an offense that reeled in high-level offensive transfers like Colton Joseph and Abu Sama III, and since the acquisition, the two haven’t meshed and instead flip between who will have a good game nearly every week.
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This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: How Wisconsin suddenly has Big Ten's fifth-worst offensive efficiency
