Wisconsin’s three-headed monster reared it’s ugly head once again as Melvin Gordon, James White and Corey Clement all eclipsed the century mark for the second straight week in a 48-0 rout of Tennessee Tech.
The offense will receive all the buzz for the seven touchdowns, but it’s the Badgers defense that has yet to have a hiccup this season. Soft competition aside, the Badgers recorded back-to-back shutouts to open the season for the first time since 1958.
What It Means: We could go on and on about how Wisconsin’s first two opponents are two of the worst teams in college football and no one would be wrong. But to say we haven’t learned anything about the Badgers through two games is just crazy.
We know that the offense has three very talented running backs. Clement (149 yards and 2 TD), Gordon (140 yards and 1 TD) and White (110 yards and 1 TD) complement a passing game that looked a lot better today. Joel Stave completed 13 straight passes at one point and Jared Abbrederis caught a career-high eight catches.
Defensively, Wisconsin hasn’t shown much of the new scheme and pressures that tantalized the minds of Badgers fans in the off-season. The fact that the unit has posted two straight shutouts (first Big Ten team to do so since Ohio State in 2009) without much scheming is unbelievable. It will be highly interesting to see how they deal with Arizona State’s dynamic offense next week.
Player of the Game: RB Melvin Gordon (Nine carries for 140 yards and one touchdown)
Wisconsin’s offense has played so well, you could pick from a myriad of options in these blowout games. What Gordon did with nine carries was amazing (15.6 yards per carry average). Gordon now has 1,003 career rushing yards on 104 carries which calculates out to a scary career rushing average of 9.6 The kid is a home-run threat every time he touches the ball with a 60+ yard gain in three of his last four games.
At one point in the game, we tried to compare him to a NFL player and names like Chris Johnson, Felix Jones, Jamaal Charles and Clinton Portis were thrown out. Barring any major injury, Gordon could go down as one of the best to ever play at Wisconsin.
Highlight of the Game: With a little over six minutes left in the game, the true freshman Clement took a hand-off from Bart Houston 75 yards for his second touchdown of the game. Clement is two-for-two in his career with a pair of 100 yard games.
Stat of the Game (134): The amount of catches for senior wide receiver Jared Abbrederis, moving him into fifth place on UW’s career receptions list, passing Chris Chambers and Al Toon.
What’s Next: Are you ready for Wisconsin’s schedule to heat up figuratively and literally? The Badgers will head out to the desert to play Arizona State for their first road game of the 2013 season. The Sun Devils are coming off a 55-0 win over FCS foe, Sacramento State, where quarterback Taylor Kelly threw for 300 yards and five touchdowns. It will be UW’s first true test, specifically for the untested and young secondary.
What did you think of the Badgers’ second consecutive win over a soft opponent? Are they ready for Arizona State? Let me know by commenting below.
Nick Grays is a senior writer at the Sports Bank where he covers the Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers. He also enjoys sharing Fantasy Advice and pretends to be a Golf expert from time-to-time. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here or visit his blog Nick Knows Best. If social media is not your thing, shoot him an email at grays@uwalumni.com.
Images obtained from Wisconsin Badgers official Twitter page.