Wisconsin football: Badgers offense humbled by Northwestern’s dominating defense

The Wisconsin football program was upset (as a touchdown favorite roughly) by a stifling Northwestern Wildcats defense on Nov. 21.

Turnovers were the story of the day, and the downfall for the Badgers College Football Playoff hopes, at least for now. Wisconsin turned the ball over five times, including three picks from redshirt freshman quarterback Graham Mertz. Coming into this game without a single pick in his career to date, Mertz saw it all fall off the rails.

Mertz finished the day with 230 passing yards, one passing touchdown, three interceptions, 13 rushing yards, and no rushing touchdowns. He was also sacked three times on the day.

What went wrong for Wisconsin football

One of the worst offensive line performances in recent memory forced a lot of the turnovers from Wisconsin in their 10-point loss to Northwestern.

As far as the stat sheet comparison goes, the Badgers looked pretty good. They out-gained the Northwestern offense by 104 total yards. Wisconsin was also pretty undisciplined in the loss. They were penalized eight times for 69 yards, compared to just one flag called on Northwestern for five yards. This was the fourth time Northwestern has pitched a shutout in the second half in their five games this year so Wisconsin fell victim to many of the Cats’ casualties.

Northwestern didn’t see the most efficient day out of quarterback Peyton Ramsey. But he managed to take care of the football better than Mertz and racked up two passing touchdowns with no interceptions. Northwestern also struggled on the ground, getting just 26 rushing yards and no rushing scores. They averaged just north of one yard per carry (22 attempts on the day).

The win for the Wildcats moved them to a record of 5-0 (5-0 Big Ten). They actually have a pretty clear path to the Big Ten Championship Game now. Remaining on Northwestern’s schedule is the Michigan State Spartans and Minnesota Golden Gophers on the road and the Illinois Fighting Illini at home to cap the regular season.

Wisconsin now owns a record of 2-1 (2-1 Big Ten) with a pretty difficult schedule remaining. They still have the Indiana Hoosiers and a rapidly improving Iowa Hawkeyes team on tap.

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