No. 1 Ohio State 34, Wisconsin 0: Four takeaways from the Badgers' ninth straight Big Ten loss

MADISON – On a day when the Wisconsin athletic department honored the Rose Bowl teams of the 1990s, the Badgers football team took fans back to the John Jaradine era.

Wisconsin suffered a 34-0 loss to No. 1 Ohio State on Oct. 18 in front of announced crowd of 72,795 at Camp Randall Stadium. That loss combined with UW’s 37-0 loss to Iowa give the Badgers their first back-to-back shutout losses since the 1977 season.

That team lost 42-0 to Ohio State and 22-0 to Purdue and went on to finish eighth in the Big Ten with a 3-6 record.

The 2025 Badgers dropped to 2-5 overall and 0-4 in the Big Ten. Wisconsin’s conference losing streak goes to nine games. The 0-4 start is UW’s worst since 1990 when the team went winless in Barry Alvarez’s first season.

Here are four takeaways from the game.

Hunter Simmons not as bad as last week but … .

If you thought you would see Danny O’Neil at quarterback after Hunter Simmons’ three turnover performance against Iowa, think again.

Simmons got the start and with the exception of one second quarter snap got all the work until Simmons left the game at the end of the third quarter with what appeared to be a left leg/foot injury. The version of Simmons we saw Saturday was more akin to what we saw at Michigan. He didn’t make any glaring mistakes, but his performance wasn't nearly good enough. There weren’t many big plays through the passing game.

Simmons finished with 54 yards on 6-of-12 passing and one interception on a pass that bounced through the hands of running back Cade Yacamelli.

Badgers defense can’t get off the field early and pays dearly

Wisconsin faced long odds in trying to upset the Buckeyes, but the Badgers could have helped their cause with third down stops in two situations.

Ohio State faced a third-and-11 from the Wisconsin 33 on the game’s first possession. UW was a stop away from forcing a field goal attempt. Instead Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin trusted receiver Carnell Tate with a throw into double coverage and was rewarded with a touchdown pass. Tate made the grab with safeties Austin Brown and Matt Jung draped on him.

The second situation was a third and 4 from the Wisconsin 10 on Ohio State’s third possession. Down, 10-0, at the time, Wisconsin again could have forced a field goal attempt with a stop. Instead Sayin and Tate connected on a touchdown with 4 seconds to go in the first half. Wisconsin was down, 17-0, a lead that given its struggles on offense might as well have been considered insurmountable.

In the scheme of a 34-point loss those plays lost their meaning, but in the moment the Badgers missed a couple of chances to stay in the game.

UW's lack of production on first down keeps offense off schedule

Wisconsin managed just 69 yards in the first half, production that can largely be attributed to the team’s struggle on first down.

While Ohio State averaged 7.1 yards per play on first down, the Badgers netted 3.6. Wisconsin’s average is aided by a 15-yard gain on one of its first down plays. Without it, UW’s average first down in the first half was 2.3 yards.

That number makes sense. Seven of Wisconsin first down plays went for 2 yards or less. Four of those drives ended with three-and-outs. Another ended with an interception.

Wisconsin gets some younger player in the mix

For the past couple of week UW coach Luke Fickell has talked about using more players.

That turned out to be the case against Ohio State. The biggest beneficiaries were linebackers Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano, who were in a rotation at inside linebacker, and receiver Eugene Hilton. Include punter Sean West in that mix, too. He made his first appearance of the season.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: No. 1 Ohio State 33, Wisconsin 0: UW drops 9th straight Big Ten game