SnoTap Badger Preview: Northwestern v. Wisconsin

Wisconsin and Northwestern could share some beers together. Both teams have dealt with a tough loss to Ohio State in their last game. Back in the 70's-80's, the NCAA Tournament used to have a Third Place Game before the National Championship game, and this is basically the B1G version of it. Is that a sad reality for Wildcat and Badger fans? You bet your ass.

This game feels like it has #BEATEMDOWN written all over it. The Badgers are already 10 point favorite against the 19th ranked team in the nation. The men in Las Vegas know something is up with this game if they are out here putting the Badgers as 10 point favorites. Northwestern comes into this game beat up from last week's Super Bowl against Ohio State and now they head to Camp Randall, a place that has not seen Badger football in almost a month. This will probably not end well for the Cats.

The Badgers need to rely heavily on James White on Saturday versus going to Melvin Gordon. Do not get me wrong, Gordon should still be involved, but given what Carlos Hyde did against Northwestern, it seems like power, physical running beats Northwestern. Ohio State would have probably covered with ease versus some batshit way if they ran the football more than they did last week. White should be the main runner on Saturday afternoon. He can wear a defense down and then you go for the home run with Gordon. It is pretty simple.

Although here is my somewhat worry about their offense, I am concerned Andy Ludwig will go to a Joel Stave-focused offense and it will absolutely infuriate me. Stave had a big game against Ohio State and when quarterbacks tend to have big games unexpectedly, it leads to a coach thinking he can do that on a regular basis. Now Northwestern is not a juggernaut by any means, thus Stave could have a big game still yet he is not the first option for this team in any game. Ludwig needs to keep the ball in his running backs' hands instead of Stave.

As for the defense, the Badgers need to be controlled on their blitzes. They struggled a bit with an up-tempo team with Arizona State, and in large part, it had to do with putting cornerbacks on islands versus playing more of a zone style. Further, Kain Coulter is a run-first quarterback and blitzing against a guy like him is probably not the wisest idea. The Badgers need to stay at home more on defense in this game versus other ones they will play this season. If Wisconsin blitz like banshees, it could end up being a closer game than Vegas expects it to be. There needs to be a commitment to staying at home this week for Wisconsin.

Northwestern has not won at Camp Randall since 2000 featuring a crazy double overtime where the Cats shocked the world beating number seven Wisconsin. The last two times these two met at Bucky's Palace, the score differential is 79.  Honestly, if this game is being played a month later, I might have different thoughts about the game, but right now, Wisconsin will roll in this one given Northwestern's current state of mind.  Wisconsin 45 Northwestern 24