Wisconsin Falls Short Against Alabama in Week 3, 38-14

The Wisconsin Badgers suffered their first loss of the 2025 season on Saturday at the hands of the Alabama Crimson Tide 38-14. Wisconsin was outmatched and outclassed for the majority of the game, but it wasn’t all bad. There are some positives the Badgers can take from this game as they head into Big Ten play. Let’s break it all down in this Wisconsin vs. Alabama 2025 game recap.

Wisconsin vs. Alabama 2025 Game Recap

Badgers Run Defense

In our game preview, we highlighted that Wisconsin’s front seven would be just fine against Alabama in the run game, which ended up being the case. The Badgers only gave up a total of 72 yards on the ground, with only 45 of those yards coming from running backs.

Wisconsin’s defensive line was physical at the point of attack and didn’t give any ground while the linebackers flowed to the ball nicely. It has been evident the past two weeks, but the Badgers do have a good tandem of linebackers in Tackett Curtis and Christian Alliegro.

Alliegro and Curtis filled the gaps quite well and finished with four and six tackles, respectively. It’s not eye-popping numbers, however, it doesn’t tell the full story. After Alabama’s first drive, they realized the mismatch they had in the passing game (which we’ll cover later), and shied away from the run completely.

As the Badgers head into Big Ten play, they can feel confident with their front seven and their ability to defend the run.

Badgers Pass Defense

Now this is where it got a little ugly. The Badgers came into Saturday confident in their ability to defend the run and force Alabama into long passing situations. As mentioned previously, the front seven held their own, the secondary not so much. Coming into this game, we knew Alabama had more talent than Wisconsin, but it was extremely evident on the outside.

It seemed that Germie Bernard and Ryan Williams were running free every play. Even after securing a catch, the Badgers struggled to tackle in the open field. I was interested in seeing how well Ricardo Hallman and Omilio Agard would hold up against two elite wide receivers in Bernard and Williams. Unfortunately for the Badgers, they were completely outclassed by the Alabama receivers.

Williams finished with five receptions for 165 yards and two touchdowns, while Bernard finished with four receptions for 62 yards and a touchdown. Williams could have had an even better game if it weren’t for some drops on his end.

Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson finished 24-of-29 for 382 yards with four touchdowns. Badgers defensive coordinator Mike Tressel did all he could, mixing man and zone coverage, and found no success. The Badgers’ front seven did great against the run but really struggled to create any sort of pressure against Simpson. He dealt with a clean pocket for a majority of the game and was able to pick the Badgers’ defense apart like it was 7-on-7.

With Wisconsin getting shredded on the backend, Tressel was forced to rush four so he could have seven in coverage. Yet without anyone winning on the defensive line, Simpson was able to take his time and survey the field. Mason Reiger and Sebastian Cheeks were consistently taken out of the game on the edge and didn’t create much pressure at all.

When Tressel tried to speed up Simpson by blitzing and playing man coverage, the speed of the Crimson Tide won instantly on the outside and left the Wisconsin secondary chasing for their lives. Simpson also got the ball out extremely quickly at times against the Badgers, forcing the corners and safeties of Wisconsin to make open-field tackles, which at times they struggled with.

The good news for the Badgers is that Alabama has as much talent at the wide receiver position as anyone in the country. Wisconsin got a great taste of what elite speed on the outside looks like. It should help them as they face great wide receiver rooms like Ohio State and Oregon later in the year.

Wisconsin’s Offensive Struggles

The offense for Wisconsin struggled all game on Saturday, but did see some improved play in run blocking from the line. After the Badgers struggled to run the ball last week against MTSU, the offensive line became a major question mark.

With the nature of the game and the Badgers being down big early, they weren’t able to run the ball as much as they would have liked to. However, when they did, they found more success against Alabama’s front than they did against MTSU. The Badgers finished with 92 total rushing yards, with 25 coming from Dilin Jones and 26 coming from Darrion Dupree. Again, not eye-popping numbers, but an average of over four yards per carry from the two is better than last week.

Wisconsin saw improved run blocking this week, but severely struggled to protect quarterback Danny O’Neil. To be quite frank, Alabama dominated Badgers’ offensive line on pretty much every passing down. It was interesting to see if Wisconsin would make downfield passing, but it’s hard to throw the ball down the field if you can’t protect the quarterback long enough. With O’Neil under constant pressure, offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes was forced to call quick passes and end arounds to keep the pressure at bay.

O’Neil finished 11-of-17 for 117 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions. Both interceptions happened when O’Neil tried to force the ball in zone coverage, and both times, safety Bray Hubbard was lurking. Besides those two mistakes, O’Neil stayed composed and handled the pressure as best he could. Coming into the game, Luke Fickell was concerned about crowd noise, but to my surprise, it wasn’t a huge factor.

The strength of Alabama’s defense is its secondary, and it showed. Besides Jayden Ballard’s 41-yard touchdown against a backup corner, the Badgers were unable to get any separation. Wisconsin receivers were blanketed and shut down by Alabama’s defense, forcing O’Neil to make tough passes all game long.

Wisconsin’s other score of the game came on a Vinny Anthony 95-yard kick return touchdown. Anthony is clearly the Badgers best weapon on the outside and has speed for days. As the Badgers head into Big Ten play, Jeff Grimes needs to find more ways to get Anthony open and find ways to use his speed.

Final Thoughts and Looking Ahead

Saturday was a tough game for the Badgers. Postgame, Coach Fickell reiterated the need to remain positive and the willingness to get better every day. Wisconsin has a brutal Big Ten schedule this year, and this loss can either help them and show them where they need to improve, or it could derail this team.

The Badgers struggled with post-snap penalties on Saturday. That will need to be cleaned up starting next week. The Badgers will be just fine against the run for the remainder of the year. However, the secondary needs to vastly improve if they are going to be successful in the Big Ten.

Looking to next week, the Badgers open Big Ten play against 3-0 Maryland. It’ll be interesting to see if Billy Edwards Jr is able to play against his former team. And if he is, how the offense will look with him under center. This week will be another extremely important week of practice, and improvements need to be made across the board. Look for the Badgers to rebound and start Big Ten play off 1-0.