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Wisconsin’s recent drought against ranked opponents continued in Week 1 loss to Penn State
Published:
Wisconsin had a gut-wrenching loss on Saturday to No.19 Penn State Nittany Lions. The final score was 16-10.
Wisconsin had multiple chances to win the game, including two drives in the final three minutes that ended in picks thrown by QB Graham Mertz.
QB Mertz on the day was 22-37 for a 59.4% completion rate with 185 yards passing, 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. The Badgers ran 95 plays and only scored 10 points.
Now it’s just one game against a ranked opponent, but Wisconsin is starting to have a streak that they would like to stop sooner rather than later. The Badgers have now lost 6 straight games against ranked opponents.
Here are the 6 losses dating back to the 2019 B1G Championship Game:
- Dec. 7, 2019: vs. No. 1 Ohio State (B1G Championship Game) 34-21
- Jan. 1, 2020: vs. No. 6 Oregon (Rose Bowl) 28-27
- Nov. 21, 2020: at No. 19 Northwestern 17-7
- Dec. 5, 2020: vs. No. 12 Indiana 14-6
- Dec. 12, 2020: at No. 16 Iowa 28-7
- Sept. 4, 2021: vs. No. 19 Penn State 16-10
The Badgers will want to buck the trend soon as they still have a few ranked opponents on the 2021 schedule No.9 Notre Dame in the Shamrock Series in Chicago, IL. and No.18 Iowa.
Next up for the Badgers is the Eastern Michigan Eagles; you can catch all the action next Saturday at 7:00 ET on FS1.