Wisconsin - A closer look

Only real "quality win" is Minnesota on the road. Michigan State at home was somewhat deceiving I believe as MSU was in free fall mode at the time. Purdue was impressive in the decisiveness of the win, but they followed it up just sneaking by Indiana much as we did. Indiana put up 28 points against the Badgers as did Minnesota, so their defense is likely not as strong as the Purdue shutout would indicate. Wisconsin, though rock solid in the trenches, prefers to stay in the trenches, and has always been susceptible to fast paced, speed based offenses. Wisconsin is a tough place to play and "Senior day" never helps things as it ussually breeds an inspirational performance. However, Michigan was able to move the ball very consistently against Wisconsin in the second half last year and Koger was very productive. Further, I just don't see Wisconsin as a team that will be able to spread us out with a lot of different looks, hopefully leading to our linebackers developing a comfort level and the safeties being able to play more of a contain style of football. Lastly, given the disparity in Purdue's ability to compete with UW and UM, it may be virtually impossible for Wisconsin to not be over-confident coming into this game. A week ago, I thought this game spelled doom, but upon further review, this game may allow Michigan to rely on their few strengths and kind of "hang around" until crunch time. This defense struggles in a lot of areas, but I kind of think that the throwback, run heavy, pro-sets used almost exclusively by the Badgers may actually be a welcomed breather. Go Blue.