AAR: Cal Poly

Well, looks like I was the vastly over-optimistic homer, and the good folks over at Badgercentric basically nailed it. It's not often that you win a game you never had a lead in during regulation. For all the games the Badgers blew this season, it was nice to pull out a second one in a row. More thoughts below the highlights . . .



Everyone feels bad for Andrew Gardner, but a team wins and loses as a team. Cal Poly didn't quite do enough to win. And homefield advantage helps, even with a slightly dimished crowd. It did Saturday, rattling a D-1 FCS kicker into missing as many extra points as he's missed since high school.

So, the biggest negative from a nail-biting come from behind victory over an FCS opponent*? Our defense can't defend the option. We did alright against it versus Ohio State, but that was against a true-freshman quarterback in his first or second start. Lots of teams run the option. We need to be able to stop it. If Doeren wants to stick around as the defensive coordinator, he needs to figure out how to coach up his defense against the option.

The biggest positive? Coming back. It showed heart. The defense did what they needed in the end, and the offense kept fighting back.

Players of the game? Sherer and Clay on offense; Langford for the defense. He was the difference doing as well as he did against Barden, who looks to play on Sunday next Fall.

* I know Cal Poly is a good FCS team, and I know some of those teams can really play. However, they are limited by more than 20 fewer scholarships, facilities that don't approach BCS program's stuff, crowds, stadiums, exposure, budget etc. that they can't come close to recruiting like we can. Just like I said about UNLV after my visit there, we should never lose to a team like this; we should never have to go to overtime against them.