Badger Defense Has Lots of Work - Milwaukee Journal

[Iceland12]

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/badg...work-on-after-iowa-b99395983z1-283647751.html

"Against UW, Rudock completed 12 passes to wide receivers for a combined 188 yards. He completed four passes to running backs for a combined 51 yards and four passes for 72 yards to tight end Jake Duzey.

"Quarterback caught fire," UW coach Gary Andersen said. "Quarterback threw some very nice balls. I thought our pass-rushing was not good enough. And to their credit they blocked us well. We brought some blitzes. ... And obviously we need to cover better.

"It is an 11-man defense. It is easy to point the finger and say they are catching the ball over the top of people. That is man coverage. It is going to happen.

"You let the quarterback get into a rhythm and you're going to have some problems. Is the biggest issue the coverage? Yes, because it's the easiest thing to see. But you let a quarterback get comfortable and you're going to have some serious issues.

"Today the quarterback was very comfortable. He is a good quarterback. They've got good wide receivers. They threw the ball down the field and they caught it.

"Lots to work on."

Minnesota has moved to within one victory of a berth in the Big Ten title game on the strength of its ground game. The Gophers' passing game is complementary."..

Quarterback Mitch Leidner is completing only 51.1% of his passes for 144.5 yards per game. However, he made several big throws in the victory over Nebraska. The best was a 38-yard strike to wide receiver K.J. Maye on the Gophers' game-winning 80-yard touchdown drive.

"I like throwing the deep ball," Leidner said after the victory. "We don't take too many opportunities, but when we do we got to take advantage of them."

 

[MrGopher]

If we're throwing the ball that much, it's hard to see us winning.

 

[GopherinFlorida]

If we're throwing the ball that much, it's hard to see us winning.

Its hard to see us winning if we don't complete at least 15 passes against Sconnie.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

If we're throwing the ball that much, it's hard to see us winning.

I think Jerry and Co. will try and exploit whatever can be exploited. We won't throw it 40 times, but I can see 25-30 if that's how we think we can gain yards. But the coaches will come up with something whether it be that or something else.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Northwestern and LSU both ran the ball over 45 times against Wisconsin. If we keep the ball and don't give up the big play on defense, we can do that. Nebraska was the only other team to run that much against them, but their defense was horrendous in that game.