9/21/2019 football Edit

Gameday Central: Michigan Wolverines Football at Wisconsin Badgers football

Ryan Tice • Maize&BlueReview

Editor

The Michigan Wolverines travel to Madison for a Big Ten showdown with the Wisconsin Badgers in the marquee game of the season for both squads so far.

Each brings a 2-0 record into the game, but they have gotten there in much different ways. The Wolverines came out firing against Middle Tennessee State in the opener, then seemed to coast in the second half to a 40-21 victory. The following week, they survived a scare by pulling out a three-point win in double-overtime over Army.

Now they go on the road for the first time this year to take on a Wisconsin team that has beaten its two foes by a combined score of 110-0. The home team boasts a Heisman Trophy candidate in star running back Jonathan Taylor, who has scored the same number of touchdowns as the Wolverines this year (eight) — despite playing nowhere close to eight quarters due to lopsided wins.

Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor has been held out of the end zone by U-M the last two years, but still averaged 6.5 yards per carry against their stout defenses. (Darren Lee)

Although the Badgers have played just twice this fall — while many others among the national leaders have played in three, or sometimes four, contests — nobody in the country has scored more touchdowns than Taylor entering Saturday.

It will be up to the Wolverines to slow him down, a task they have not had much success with in previous meetings. Although they have been able to hold him out of the end zone the last two years, he has averaged 6.5 yards per carry on 36 totes against U-M's stout defenses.

More information on the matchup and a look back at all of the content from TheWolverine.com is below:

Game Information: No. 11 Michigan at No. 13 Wisconsin

Kickoff: 12:01 p.m. ET

TV: FOX

On The Call: Gus Johnson (play-by-play), Joel Klatt (analyst) and Jenny Taft (reporter)

Radio: Michigan/IMG Radio Network (950 AM in the Detroit Area; SiriusXM channel 202) with Dan Dierdorf, Jim Brandstatter and sideline reporter Doug Karsch, a regular contributor to TheWolverine.com.

Vegas Line: Wisconsin is a 3.5-point favorite by most (via VegasInsider.com)

Pregame Observations: Available here

Weather Forecast

Kickoff: Isolated thunderstorms (45 percent chance of precipitation) with a projected temperature of 74 degrees (feels like 74), per weather.com. Wind is expected to be around 14 m.p.h.

Scattered thunderstorms are expected to stick around as the day progresses, with the chance of precipitation staying in the 40-45 percent range from 2-4 p.m.

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The Player That Will Decide The Game

For Wisconsin — junior RB Jonathan Taylor: The 5-11, 219-pounder is not just the latest great Badger back, he might be the best of them all. Last year, he became the school's fourth Doak Walker Award winner as the country's top rusher with a national-best 2,194 yards on the ground. His 4,171 rushing yards through his sophomore year shattered the FBS record, with former UW star Ron Dayne (3,566) and the legendary Herschel Walker (3,507) as the only others to break 3,500.

Still, it was tempting to go with quarterback Jack Coan, because the Wolverines have severely limited the Badgers passing game in their last two wins in the series — U-M held UW to 7-of-20 passing for 100 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in a 38-13 win in 2018; and 9-of-25 passing for 88 yards, one score and three picks in a 14-7 win in 2016 — but both of those came at home. In the end, the back is the engine that powers the UW offense more than ever.

For Michigan — senior QB Shea Patterson: Injury questions abound around the Wolverines, who have been pretty tight-lipped about them (here's our latest), although it did come out that Patterson has been playing through an oblique injury that happened on the first play of the season opener. Patterson said he's back to 100 percent, and it's time to show it.

The signal-caller needs to play a clean game — he's fumbled four times so far this year, losing three of them — and start looking like a senior quarterback who had one of the better years as a Michigan passer last fall, especially if freshman back Zach Charbonnet is limited in any fashion.