Coming into the 2014 season, there was no consensus on how the Wisconsin football team would do. With uncertainty at the quarterback position and a completely rebuilt front seven, expectations were tempered a bit, despite having one of the easier schedules in the Big Ten and a Heisman candidate at running back.
Through the first six weeks of the season, those who were a bit more tepid in their predictions have seen their reservations come to light, just in a slightly different manner than might have been expected.
In Week 1, a pivotal non-conference tilt against LSU, the Badgers saw themselves up 24-7 in the third quarter before ineffectiveness at the quarterback position (Tanner McEvoy went 8-of-24 for 50 yards) and injuries along the defensive line (both Konrad Zagzebski and Warren Herring went down) caused their ultimate demise.
After a well-timed bye week that allowed for Zagzebski to somehow return for the next game, the Badgers coasted in their next three games, but it wasn't always as easy as the scoreline showed. In fact, the Badgers had quite a bit of trouble playing a full game at a high level.
At halftime against FCS Western Illinois, the Badgers were up 9-3 and had trouble doing much of anything on offense. Against South Florida, which went 2-10 the previous season, the Badgers were tied 3-3 at halftime.
These slow starts plagued the team in last week's loss to Northwestern when the team went down 10-0 at halftime. This turned out to be an insurmountable deficit as they fell 20-14 and couldn't get anything going in the passing game while struggling to tackle, which comes back to the original two flaws coming into the season.
But in these opening six weeks, five statistics have stuck out as startling, surprising or amazing. Whether it's the impotence of much of the Badgers receiving corps, the cream of the secondary struggling to make even basic plays and some incredible numbers from the Badger backs, let's look at five of the most eye-popping stats.