The 2020 Rose Bowl is almost upon us. BadgersWire continues its exploration of the Granddaddy of Them All between Oregon and Wisconsin. It’s a rematch of the 2012 Rose Bowl in which Wisconsin had the ball and a chance to win the game, but quarterback Russell Wilson couldn’t spike the ball fast enough and time ran out before the Badgers could execute one final play deep in Oregon territory. The loss was one of three close losses the Badgers had in the Rose Bowl from 2011 through 2013, their three-year streak of playing their postseason game in Pasadena. With the Ducks on the horizon, this iteration of the Rose Bowl represents Bucky’s last chance to win a Rose Bowl this decade and make a final statement about its stature and staying power over the past 10 years of college football.
As both teams prepare for what’s to come, one thing that stands out when you look at what each team brings to the table is quarterback play. Wisconsin quarterback Jack Coan enters the game having thrown the eighth-fewest interceptions in FBS football. Meanwhile, he has completed nearly 63% of his passes and has a passer rating of 144.1 against AP Top 25 teams. Coan has truly developed and come into his own as the 2019 season progressed, particularly in late November and early December. He has truly become a team leader and a playmaker.
On the other side, Oregon had the presumptive No. 1 overall pick, quarterback Justin Herbert… until Joe Burrow absolutely lit the college football world on fire in his Heisman-winning season at LSU. Anytime you throw for 32 touchdowns and only five interceptions for the Oregon Ducks, it’s going to take a pretty special season from someone else to pip the Heisman Trophy. Burrow certainly had that season, but what Herbert did against AP Top 25 teams wasn’t too dissimilar from Coan’s own accomplishments. Herbert completed 65% of his passes for 715 yards, six touchdowns and zero interceptions against top-25 teams. He also posted a 144.4 passer rating against AP Top 25 teams.
It’ll be interesting to see how Wisconsin plays Herbert. Will the Badgers approach the game similar to how they approached Justin Fields? Herbert isn’t as much of a running threat as Fields, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to tuck the ball and run if the Badger defense vacates the hole for him. Herbert knows how to adjust to games and win games late. Herbert has a passer rating of 171.8 in the fourth quarter. He completes about 73% of his passes for eight touchdowns and only two interceptions in fourth quarters. The kid is a winner and has the ability to punish a defense for its mistakes. Herbert also owns the ability to put his team on his back and guide it to victory.
Whereas Herbert thrives in the fourth quarter, Coan struggles the most in the fourth. Of the four quarters, Coan posts his lowest passer rating in the fourth quarter at 128.6. He completes only about 64% of his passes for a great average of 9.2 yards per completion, but has thrown zero touchdowns and three interceptions. That has to improve if the Badgers are going to compete with the Oregon Ducks. In fairness to Coan, he didn’t need a huge fourth quarter at Minnesota because UW led 31-10 with 11 minutes left. Coan then had to face a nasty Ohio State defense in the Big Ten Championship Game. Trailing 34-21, Coan had to throw on nearly every play, which was not a situation in which he is likely to succeed.
There is potential for the Badgers against Oregon, but they have to take advantage of their opportunities and can’t leave points on the board when the Ducks gift them with an opening.
This game promises to entertain. Both of these teams are equipped with quarterbacks who play smart, take care of the football, and put their teams in the best possible spots to win. These QBs have thrown for a total of 49 touchdowns and only nine interceptions between the two of them all year long. That’s a lot of points and not very many mistakes. Where Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal and Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst agree is that developing offensive line play as a central backbone of a team carries at least as much value as — if not more than — trying to create a football team which primarily depends on its defense.
Cristobal played offensive line, Chryst played quarterback. Same side of the ball, two different ways of running an offense. But both offenses require someone to protect the football as much as they sling it around the field. Both teams have wise, prudent quarterbacks leading their team into the Granddaddy of Them All in 2020. What happens in Pasadena on January 1, 2020 will happen because of these two motherboards behind their respective offensive intelligence systems.
