The Oregon Ducks bounced back in a big way following their first loss of the season in Week 7, getting a dominant, 56-10 blowout win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Saturday night. Every unit was clicking in the victory, with the offense putting up 750 yards, and the defense forcing three turnovers while competely shutting down Athan Kaliakmanis.
Now, Oregon will look to continue that dominance back at home in Week 9, and looking at the opponent — the Wisconsin Badgers — it seems like they’ve got a pretty good shot at doing so.
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With their tie-dye uniforms on and the Grateful Dead playing in the background, Oregon is going to once again try and prove that it can be a dominant force against the visiting Badgers. But what can we expect to see from this Luke Fickell team, and in particular, what type of challenges will they present? Let’s dive in.
What do the Wisconsin Badgers do well on defense?
While the Badgers’s defense isn’t quite as bad as the Badgers’ offense, they still don’t quite classify as “good” on that side of the ball. The star of the show is linebacker Christian Alliegro, who had ten tackles a year ago against Oregon in Camp Randall. The run defense is what Wisconsin can hang its hat on, allowing just 97 yards per game, which ranks No. 14 in the nation. They are not great against the pass, ranking No. 88 in the nation, allowing over 240 yards per game. So far this year, they’ve allowed more than 35 points three times, all in losses.
Who are the top players to know about?
LB Christian Alliegro
The leading tackler on the team for Wisconsin, Alliegro is one of the best players on the defense, racking up 48 tackles, six tackles for loss, and two sacks. A year ago, he had the best day of any Badger with a team-high 10 tackles against the Ducks.
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LB Tackett Curtis
Curtis has been a known name for Wisconsin for a while now, and he again has been productive in the middle of the defense, second on the team in tackles with 29 to go along with a sack and a forced fumble.
CB Ricardo Hallman
Once again, Hallman is the name to know in the secondary, where he has been a solid player back there once again with one interception to go along with 21 tackles.
Are the Oregon Ducks built to score on Wisconsin?
The Ducks are certainly one of the teams that can score on just about any of the defenses in the nation with relative success. We saw against Indiana that they struggled, credit to the Hoosiers, but they bounced back vs. Rutgers a week ago and put up 750 yards of offense. I don’t see Oregon doing that again, but they should be able to throw the ball with ease against the Badgers and put some points on the board.
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What should we expect on Saturday?
Oregon is currently favored by 34 1/2 points in this game, and in order to cover that spread, they will likely need to score 35 points total. I could seriously see the Ducks’ defense holding Wisconsin scoreless, just as the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes have in the past two weeks. So this will likely be a blowout, but I don’t know if we see quite the offensive explosion that we did a week ago.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: What the Oregon Ducks should expect from Wisconsin’s defense
