Badgers PFF grades: Top 5 defensive players from Week 5 loss to Illinois

Here’s a look at the top 5 highest graded defensive players from Wisconsin’s home loss to Illinois, according to Pro Football Focus:

Madison, Wis. – Head coach Paul Chryst and the Wisconsin Badgers (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten), who needed a bounce-back performance, lost their second straight contest embarrassingly on Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium. 

Wisconsin’s defense allowed an efficient 307 yards of offense to the Illini (167 passing, 137 rushing), failing to make life difficult for Tommy Devito and the nations leading rusher, Chase Brown. 

Jim Leonhard’s young defense is a far cry from UW’s defenses of recent years. They’ve continued to make the same mistakes we’ve seen up to all season: poor tackling, getting pushed around in the trenches, and failure to create pressure of any kind.

The defense registered only four pressures all day long, all of which came from Nick Herbig and Keeanu Benton, who had two apiece. 

It’s hard to take away many positives from this one.

Here’s a look at the five highest-graded defensive players from Wisconsin’s loss to Illinois, according to Pro Football Focus.