MADISON — Coming off of two straight losses, the Wisconsin Badgers will be looking to right the ship against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Defensively, Wisconsin has proven to be among the best all season. But last week exposed a potential weakness in the stout Badger defense: a mobile quarterback.
While Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard is not J.T. Barrett, Wisconsin’s defense is ready for the chance that Beathard starts to run.
“He’s very smart, especially checking at the line. Run and pass, things like that. He can run the ball as well and we can’t overlook that. A couple naked bootlegs and he can escape the pocket on you,” TJ Watt said.
The key will be getting constant pressure, while containing Beathard. Against Purdue, who failed to get any pressure on the quarterback, Beathard was able to go 10 for 17 while adding two touchdowns. Minnesota, on the other hand, was able to get pressure and Beathard ended up throwing two interceptions.
One of the players who will be asked to contain and pressure Beathard for Wisconsin will be linebacker Jack Cichy. In a monster game against Ohio State, Cichy ended up with 3.5 tackles for loss, 11 solo tackles and one QB hurry.
“Jack’s been doing a great job. Especially in the last game I remember there were a few times where I’m like ‘jeez Jack is really flying around’,” Watt said.
Iowa will also be looking to establish their traditional power offense through their run game through their two running backs Akrum Wadley and LeShun Daniels Jr.
Both Wadley and Daniels have close to 600 yards on the season and have scored eight and six touchdowns respectively.
“You gotta be focused on both [the run and the pass] obviously,” starting safety Leo Musso said. “The Iowa tradition is big powerful offensive lineman with running backs who can run and they got a great quarterback, great receivers on the outside so it’s gonna be a great challenge for us.”
Also looking to put a stop to Iowa’s run game will be Vince Biegel, who will be returning from injury that kept him out of games against Michigan and Ohio State.
Biegel, the defensive captain for Wisconsin, was a true force at linebacker before his injury and left his teammates, who ended tying to do too much at times in his absence.
“There were a couple times in the Michigan game that I know I was trying to do too much and you loss contain and you try to two gap something when you don’t even got your gap alone. So you just have to trust the guys in the back end,” Watt said.
At receiver, Iowa will spread the ball around. Three receivers are over 200 yards receiving and six different receivers have seen the end zone.
One of the players on Wisconsin’s defense looking to shut down the receivers will be cornerback Derrick Tindal.
Tweeting after a tough overtime loss to Ohio State, Tindal seemed to shoulder much of the blame. Although his teammates have reassured him that one or two plays do not define who a player is, Tindal will be looking to turn a new page.
“It motivates me, I wanna win so and I don’t wanna let my teammates down. Like always that’s the biggest for me. I hate letting my brothers down,” Tindal said.
Coming into an Iowa matchup, Wisconsin has a lot to prove and an empty trophy case is still sitting in the locker room to motivate the Badgers.
Wisconsin and Iowa kick off at 11:00am CT in Iowa City on Saturday.