Badgers Facing Must-Win

The term "must-win situation" is about as overblown as any you'll find in sports.

It's used all the time to describe situations in baseball and hockey, where the seasons are insanely long, and must-win situations aren't found until September (baseball) and March (hockey), at the earliest.

In college football, it's still overused, but it's a little different here. Here, it applies. It makes sense.

The Wisconsin Badgers, losers of two straight, are facing a must-win today.

It's not just that the Badgers have lost two straight. It's the agonizing fashion in which they've lost.

You know what happened. They kicked away a 19-0 halftime lead at Michigan. The defense suddenly couldn't stop anything or anyone, and the offense played like it was stuck in mud. The Badgers missed numerous opportunities to put the game away in the first half, settling instead for four field goals.

Then there was that Ohio State game.

First, there was the agonizingly bad clock management in the first half. The Badgers got into field-goal range, chewed up way too much of the clock, then left themselves no chance to take a shot at the end zone when they were stopped inside the five on a long play. The field goal gave Wisconsin the lead at halftime, but they couldn't carry over the momentum.

Ohio State's defense stiffened, Allan Evridge struggled to make reads and accurate throws, and Terrelle Pryor struck late in the fourth quarter. Even though Wisconsin had a four-point lead, they couldn't keep tOSU out of the end zone, and Pryor took advantage of poor communication among the Badgers' linebackers to give the Buckeyes the lead.

According to Bielema, Ohio State changed personnel packages and UW's staff signaled in a defensive call. However, the players appeared to get the call late.

Before the snap, strong safety Jay Valai and all three linebackers - Jaevery McFadden, DeAndre Levy and Jonathan Casillas -– were huddled near the UW 7 trying to get organized. According to Casillas, the crowd noise at the time made it difficult to hear McFadden when he tried to relay the call he had received from the sideline.

"He was right in front of me and yelling and you couldn't understand what he was saying because it was so loud," Casillas said Sunday night after practice. "We were in a state of limbo almost, unsure of where we were. And we ended up getting lined up late."

Never a good thing to read about.

Silly me, I thought that's what timeouts were for (Wisconsin had one left).

Pryor's jaunt into the end zone left Wisconsin with a bit less than a minute and one timeout, since they chose not to use it on that fateful play.

But Evridge threw a ball back across his body after doing a good job avoiding pressure and buying time. It was easily intercepted by Malcolm Jenkins.

The game highlighted many problems facing this Wisconsin team. For starters, the Badgers are struggling to get the defense off the field in the second half. When the defense does finally make a stop, they are too often put back on the field after a turnover or a three-and-out. Evridge is making way too many mistakes. Traditionally, Wisconsin wants their quarterback to simply "manage the game". Evridge is not good at this. He's not protecting the ball in key situations, and his judgment is just not good enough most of the time.

The Badgers are in a rough spot tonight, playing a Penn State team that is clicking on all cylinders. We haven't seen them in a road environment like Madison yet, but unless the Badgers do a better job of simply getting out of their own way, this is going to be a tough night for the Wisconsin faithful.

At least they'll have the band to entertain them, though.