Michigan@Wisconsin Preview

Saturday at 11:00 am the Wisconsin Badgers host the Michigan Wolverines. God damn it I hate that team. Jim Harbaugh is a dick, the fans are annoying, they kicked our ass last year, and Shea Patterson is a bitch. It’s the biggest game we’ve played since playing in Michigan last year, although this year we don’t have a loss to an unranked Mormon team on our record. If we win this game it sets us up beautifully to make a deep, highly-ranked run this season. Iowa hasn’t looked all that impressive, Michigan State appears to be down again, and the only game we will probably be an underdog in this season is when we travel to Columbus and take on Ohio State. The biggest bullet we dodged with the schedule this year is not playing at Northwestern at 11:00 am on an October Saturday, Jesus we always lose that game. While we look damn good so far, it hasn’t been against the best competition, although we have pounded the two mediocre teams we’ve played thus far. Looking at Michigan, the only thing that’s scary about them is their ranking. They haven’t looked like a top 10 team in the country, beating middle Tennessee 40-21 in a game that was really a whole lot closer than that as with a minute left in the 3rd quarter Michigan was only up 27-14. Michigan’s offense has looked pretty average, only averaging 230 yards passing a game and 170 rushing. The 170 on the ground isn’t all that terrible, but against Army their top back carried the ball 33 times and only gained 100 yards. Patterson hasn’t done anything to elevate the team, and he hasn’t been a threat with his legs all that much either, with 59 yards off 17 carries. With that being said, he has shown before that he can be a difference maker at least in this level. While he hasn’t thrown any picks yet, the offense has fumbled 8 times and lost 5 of them. Defensively they lost A LOT of talent to the NFL from last year, but they’ve looked pretty solid so far. The pass rush isn’t generating a whole lot of pressure with just 4 sacks, although Army doesn’t pass the ball even if they’re down 40 so that stat may not tell the whole story.   Looking at Wisconsin, as I said before, we’ve looked fantastic against the teams we’ve played. The only problem is that the teams we’ve played aren’t that good. What has stood out is how efficient the Badgers are. Of the 59 first downs Wisconsin has gotten over the first two games, just one of them came off of a penalty, so we aren’t moving the ball by way of any fortunate circumstance. We also are extremely efficient on 3rd down, converting at a rate of 65% which just so happens to be the best in the country. We also have held our opponents to just 14% on 3rd down, which also leads the nation. Michigan comes in at 28th in that category, which is also very impressive, remembering that neither of us have really played anyone special. One area of concern I have is our defensive secondary. This is a young group that although has looked much better this season, has shown struggles in the past and Just lost the best player of the group with Scott Nelson being done for the season with a leg injury. Another area we could improve is our own pass rush, generating just 5 sacks through two games. There has been a lot of pressure on opposing QBs, but getting home more will only help out our secondary. Offensively, While coan hasn’t played perfectly, he’s came pretty damn close, with a completion percentage in the upper 70s and standing 14th in the FBS in QBR, ahead of guys like Trevor Lawrence (17th) and Justin Herbert (21st). If he can have a clean game, keep possessions alive, and hit on more of the deep throws like we saw against CMU, I like our chances. Keys to the game Offensively for Michigan: Get Patterson going through the air to take pressure off of the ground game and open up the playbook. A predictable offense should get picked apart by Jim Leonard and the Badger defense Defensively for Wisconsin: Generate pressure on Patterson to force quick throws and incorrect reads. It should be a close game so any extra possessions we can create with turnovers should exponentially help as well, with fumbles or interceptions Offensively for Wisconsin: Get JT going on the ground. Yes, since he is a heisman candidate, I’m sure a lot of people are going to say “yeah no shit”, but last year he had a horrible performance against Michigan and we got shit canned. While Coan appears to be better than Horni, he hasn’t had to show that he can win a game if Taylor isn’t a factor, so it would just be a whole lot easier if Taylor could run for 250 and 3 touchdowns Defensively for Michigan: This one should be a no brainer, don’t let taylor run wild. Final score prediction: In what should be a lower scoring affair by the badgers 2019 standards, I think Michigan may get on the board early but Wisconsin will pound away and wear them down. Badgers: 28 Michigan: 17 On Wisconsin, fuck Minnesota

Sincerely,

Whitey (the other non-athletic fuck)