Luke Fickell breaks down Wisconsin's offense in bowl loss

The Wisconsin offense wasn’t exactly explosive during the 2023 season. The Badgers finished 92nd nationally in points per game at 23.5 and ranked No. 106 in the country in plays of 20-plus yards.

However, the unit had some success against LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Even though Wisconsin ultimately lost the game, the Badgers scored 31 points and had more than 500 yards of offense.

It was a performance that was encouraging for head coach Luke Fickell as the Badgers now turn their attention to the 2024 season.

“They did a really good job. They played well,” Luke Fickell said of the Wisconsin offense. “They were aggressive. They made plays. They did some things that we didn’t do, I think, much of the year. And I just mean that in getting us into rhythm.”

Unfortunately for the Badgers, they were unable to slow down LSU’s high-scoring offense. The Tigers rallied for a 35-31 win, after trailing by 14 in the second half.

Even though Wisconsin came up just short, Fickell liked what he saw from his team overall, on both sides of the ball.

“At times the defense played well. It’s just, you’ve gotta give them a lot of credit. We haven’t seen that much skill the whole year. And it was difficult on us,” Fickell said.

“We tried to make some adjustments. I give credit to our guys. They continued to battle. They made some big plays, and they made some big plays down the field.”

The one disappointing aspect of the game was the defensive line of scrimmage for the Badgers.

Wisconsin finished with no sacks on LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, while LSU sacked Wisconsin QB Tanner Mordecai five times.

With time to throw and plenty of weapons, Nussmeier passed for 395 yards and three touchdowns against the Badgers. Fickell believes the score might have been different had the Badgers been able to get some pressure on Nussmeier.

“I think really, if I had to say anything about it, we couldn’t pressure the quarterback. They did a really good job up front of protecting him, buying him time and letting him throw the ball,” Fickell said.

“You can look at it as you didn’t play well on the back end and they threw balls on you, but there’s a balance to that. If you can’t get to the quarterback, you can’t put pressure, you can’t make him throw under duress, I mean it’s really hard to cover those guys.”