After losing to Northwestern in Evanston, Ill. two weeks ago, there has been a general feeling of the season being over amongst the Badger fandom. Yet, taking a break from Badger coverage this weekend only served to prove that Wisconsin is far from out of the race for a Big Ten championship.
We saw Purdue nearly go to Minnesota and win, Nebraska struggle in the first half against Northwestern and Iowa go to College Park, Md. and lay an egg.
As Week 8 ended with Nebraska’s 38-17 win over the Wildcats, one thing became abundantly clear — the Big Ten West is a wide open division, and that means Wisconsin is far from out of it.
Sure, we could focus on a passing game that hasn’t flourished or a defense that loves to give up the big play. But, dwelling on the negatives would only serve to miss the bigger picture.
When the team meets for the first time after a season, the goals for next season remain the same for every team — win your division, win the conference and get to the College Football Playoff.
The Badgers may not reach that third goal this season thanks to its two losses, but its hard to say the Badgers aren’t in control of being able to make winning the division and the Big Ten a reality.
One thing is for sure, the Badgers coaches and players know the season and its goals are far from out of reach.
“It’s the Big Ten, and it’s getting to that point in the season where there are no byes left and we hit straight up our side of the conference games,” safety Michael Caputo said, via Jason Galloway of the Wisconsin State Journal. “It’s about to get real hard, but that’s how it is. That’s how it’s always been. Big Ten play is always tough.”
That’s not to say the Badgers road is going to be easy, with its remaining six opponents currently holding a 30-13 combined record. Of those six opponents, just Purdue sits with a worse winning percentage than Wisconsin.
Yet, the reality is this season is likely to come down to the three weeks many of us pointed to during the preseason — the final three weeks with Wisconsin taking on Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota all in a row.
In fact, for the foursome that seem to be contenders for the division title, every team plays each other during the final month of competition.
Minnesota, who sits as the only undefeated team in the West division at 3-0, may actually have the most difficult road to winning the title. That’s because they not only face Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin…but they must also face Ohio State in between games against Iowa and Nebraska.
Looking at the schedules of the true contenders at this points should give Badger fans the jolt to remember that this season is far from over.
As the second half of the season approaches, lets not lose sight of the big picture. Let’s remember that Wisconsin football could be right where we thought they would be at the start of the season — as Big Ten West division champions.
The power to make that goal a reality still rests firmly in the hands of the Badgers, now its about executing against a much more difficult schedule than the “experts” predicted.
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