It took a while for Wisconsin to get rolling on Saturday against Georgia Southern, but the Badgers eventually pulled away for the 35-14 win to move to 2-1.

The score was tied 7-7 at the half, but the Badgers erupted for 21 points in the third quarter to help pull away from the Eagles.

The defense was the story of the day, as the Badgers forced 6 turnovers, including 5 interceptions.

Player of the Week: S Hunter Wohler

The junior safety had a monster game, finishing with 10 tackles, 2 interceptions and 1 sack.

When the game was still in the balance, the defense stepped up and no player on the Badgers stepped up more than Wohler. He entered this season with 38 career tackles and 1 interception, but through 3 games this year, he has 34 tackles and 2 interceptions.

Wohler has become a focal point and leader on this defense, and Saturday could have been his introduction to the college football world.

Freshman/Newcomer of the Week:  QB Tanner Mordecai

Wisconsin is the third team that Mordecai has played for, as he started his career at Oklahoma in 2018.

In the 2021 season, he transferred to SMU and that’s where his career blossomed. In the 2021 and 2022 seasons, he threw for a combined 7,152 yards and 72 touchdowns before coming to Wisconsin.

While he is known as a passer, he showed a running element to his game on Saturday, as he rushed 7 times for 36 yards and 2 touchdowns. He had only 4 rushing touchdowns during his time at SMU.

As a passer, he didn’t put up big numbers, but he was efficient and provided enough passing to make it easier for the team to run the ball.

He was 19-of-30 for 236 yards with 0 touchdowns, but he didn’t throw a mistake for the second straight game, which is big.

The Badgers are looking to run the ball and then use the play-action game, and on Saturday, he did what was asked of him at a high level.

Biggest surprise: Defense forces 6 turnovers, including 5 interceptions

The defense had not forced a single turnover in the first 2 games, but that unit broke that streak in a big way on Saturday, forcing 6 turnovers.

The secondary was especially dominant, as the Badgers intercepted Georgia Southern quarterback Davis Brin 5 times. Besides Wohler’s 2 interceptions, Jaison Maitre, Ricardo Hallman and C.J. Goetz all grabbed an interception as well.

If the defense is able to create turnovers and big plays, it is going to make things much easier moving forward into B1G play.

Biggest concern: The Badgers let Georgia Southern hang around through the first half

While it was big for Wisconsin’s defense to force all of those turnovers, the offense struggled to get things going early. As the Badgers enter B1G play, the offense is going to have to be able to generate points and give momentum to the team.

Once the defense started making plays and giving short fields, the offense did its job. However, the offense is going to have to show it can sustain drives and help the defense out on a more consistent level if the Badgers are going to compete for a conference championship.

Developing trend: Issues on 3rd down

One glaring statistic in the win against Georgia Southern was the inability to sustain drives and convert on 3rd downs.

Against the Eagles, the Badgers were able to convert only 3-of-11 3rd downs. The best game Wisconsin has had this year on 3rd downs was the loss to Washington State when the Badgers were 6-of-14.

On the year, Wisconsin is 13-of-37, which comes out to 35.1%, which is tied for 105th out of 130 teams. Those types of numbers aren’t good enough to compete in the B1G, and it is something the Badgers have to fix immediately.

Key Stat: 8 penalties for 88 yards

The Badgers too often were undisciplined on Saturday, as they had 8 penalties for 88 yards. These penalties prevented them from converting 3rd downs, but it also allowed the Eagles to sustain some drives.

Georgia Southern was able to go 9-of-17 on 3rd down conversions and was helped by the penalties of Wisconsin.

This team figures to play in a lot of low-scoring, competitive games. Mental mistakes and breakdowns like committing penalties are some things that could doom this team moving forward.

First impression about Week 4

The Badgers hit the road for their conference opener next week, as they will be taking on Purdue. The Boilermakers are coming off a 35-24 loss to Syracuse that saw the team give up 271 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns on the ground.

Syracuse quarterback Garrett Shrader had a huge game. He threw for 184 yards and 1 interception, but it was on the ground where he took the game over. Shrader finished with 195 yards and 4 touchdowns while carrying the ball 25 times.

This should have the Wisconsin staff very excited to see how much Purdue struggled against the run. If Wisconsin is able to come in and not make mistakes and play its style of football, the Badgers should be in good shape. However, Wisconsin hasn’t shown it can put a full 60 minutes together, and if that trend continues, it could be an interesting night in West Lafayette.