Wisconsin vs. Oregon 2025 Recap: The Badgers Fall to the Ducks, 21-7

The Wisconsin Badgers found themselves in a rain-filled slugfest Saturday night against the No. 6-ranked Oregon Ducks. In a way, the weather conditions Saturday night sort of sum up this Badgers team and their season so far. However, Wisconsin fought valiantly and played their butts off, and even scored a touchdown for the first time in 14 quarters. Wisconsin lost its sixth-straight game and fell to (2-6) on the year, whilst Oregon improved to (7-1). What was the good and the bad? Let’s break it down in this 2025 Wisconsin vs Oregon recap.

Wisconsin vs. Oregon 2025 Game Recap

Defensive Effort

The Badgers traveled to Eugene Saturday night with a multitude of injuries to key players on defense. However, even with them, the defense played inspiring football.

After Oregon surprised Wisconsin with an onside kick to start the game, Mason Reiger got a huge sack on fourth down on the Ducks’ first possession. The defense was flying around, and until midway through the second quarter, Wisconsin was dominating Oregon. Reiger and Sebastian Cheeks both secured sacks on the first two possessions on defense, and true freshman linebackers Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano were playing lights out.

However, the dominating defense didn’t last forever.

Oregon drove 99 yards in 16 plays, which was capped off by a 3-yard touchdown run late in the first half.

The Ducks came out of the locker room in the second half and went on a 6-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, finished with a 20-yard Jordan Davison touchdown run. Oregon added one more touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter on a nifty little touchdown pass to offensive lineman Genorris Wilson.

Oregon gained 335 yards of total offense, with 132 coming through the air and 203 on the ground. Yet stats aside, the Badgers’ defense fought hard all game. Freshman linebackers Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano were the stars of the show, with 13 and eight tackles, respectively. I was especially impressed with the ability of Posa to get off tackles and his sideline-to-sideline speed.

Due to the weather and the Dante Moore injury, Oregon pounded the football on the ground all game long. The Badgers held up until late, and controlled the line of scrimmage for most of the matchup. Ben Barten (who finished with eight tackles) and Jay’Vier Suggs played hard and have been doing so all year. Barten and Suggs haven’t been given enough credit for the work they put in each week and for how well they defend the run.

Wisconsin was actually able to generate some pass rush; and when Moore was in the game, they were able to fluster him at times. Cheeks had arguably his best game of the year. And before Darryl Peterson was ejected for targeting in the third quarter, he was all over the field as well.

When the Ducks did drop back to pass, the Badgers played a lot of zone coverage and kept everything in front. There were no blown assignments in the backend, which was good to see, especially with all the injuries.

Posa, Catalano, and Witt were constantly sent on run blitzes, which worked for a couple of quarters. Unfortunately, the defense would be exposed later in the game by Oregon. The Ducks started to diagnose those run blitzes and were able to move Posa, Catalano, and Witt out of the way for huge gains. All in all, the Badgers should be quite proud and happy with the way the defense performed on Saturday night.

Offensive Explosion

Finally, after a little over 14 consecutive quarters of not scoring a touchdown, the Badgers were able to cross the goal line midway through the fourth quarter. After what felt like years, Hunter Simmons threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Lance Mason to end the streak. The touchdown was set up by a 42-yard catch by Eugene Hilton on an underthrown ball by Simmons.

Jokes aside, the Badger rushing attack led by Gideon Ituka actually showed some promise, and they found a little bit of rhythm and life on offense after multiple poor outings in a row. In a game where no one was throwing the ball, the Badgers were able to establish the line of scrimmage at times and finished with 110 rushing yards. Not amazing by any means, but with Dilin Jones and Darrion Dupree out due to injury and Cade Yacamelli suffering an injury during the game, the Badgers leaned on Ituka.

Ituka showed extreme promise and finished with 21 rushes for 85 yards. Honestly, it looks like he could be the back of the future for Wisconsin.

The Badgers’ pass game attack was still completely nonexistent, but they showed some ability to run the ball, which they haven’t been able to do even against lesser competition.

Struggling Hunter Simmons

The struggling play of Hunter Simmons has been documented in great detail over the past couple of weeks. However, Saturday was about as bad as you can get. Simmons completed his second pass of the game with 14 minutes left in the fourth quarter. No, that is not a typo.

Simmons ended the day completing 7-of-21 passes for 86 yards with a touchdown and an interception. However, 42 of those yards came on the pass to Eugene Hilton. I understand that it was raining and any quarterback would struggle in Saturday night’s conditions; however, Saturday’s performance was bad.

Entering the fourth quarter, the Badgers had 12 passing yards and 11 incompletions, which just can’t happen. Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes tried to get Simmons on the move more on Saturday, and the quarterback did seem more comfortable on the move than stationary in the pocket. However, he was still missing open receivers and tends to lock onto one guy only.

If the receiver he had predetermined before the snap was going to be open ends up not being open right away, Simmons panicked. Some of it is due to the poor pass blocking from the offensive line, which was once again up and down. However, a lot of it rests on Simmons’ shoulders.

Going forward, a shakeup in the quarterback room needs to happen, or Saturday’s touchdown could end up being the last one the Badgers score all year.

Wisconsin vs Oregon 2025 Recap: Other Notes

The Freshman

It’s worth highlighting the freshman again in this contest in Mason Posa, Cooper Catalano, Gideon Ituka, and Eugene Hilton. You could argue that those four players were the Badgers’ best players on the field last night, and they’re all freshmen. With the program turmoil and a coaching change that may or may not happen in the future, it is crucial that the Badgers find a way to keep these four players in Madison.

Injuries

The Badgers had a lengthy injury report before Saturday’s game, with 16 players out and a couple more leaving Saturday night. A couple of interesting notes, FS1 broadcast said that Dilin Jones was out for the year due to injury, and that Danny O’Neil was also injured. There was no word all week from anyone that Jones was out for the year and that O’Neil also had an injury. It appeared the broadcast fixed their mistake in regards to O’Neil by reporting they had it wrong, but there was no mention about Jones.

If Jones really is out all year, it will be a massive blow for the Badgers. It will also be quite interesting that no one knew about the severity of the injury besides the FS1 broadcast.

Dante Moore

Oregon star quarterback Dante Moore left with an injury in the second half after a hard tackle from Mason Posa. Moore was seen with a bloody nose and never returned to the game. The severity of his injury is unknown at the moment, but Dan Lanning did say postgame that he could have returned if needed. He was most likely kept out for precautionary reasons. Due to the conditions and score, Oregon didn’t need to throw the ball anyway. However, it’s just something to keep an eye on for Oregon fans.

Carter Smith

Speaking of freshman, the Badgers have a four-star true freshman on their roster in Carter Smith. With the quarterback struggles the Badgers are having, it’s perhaps time he gets a shot. The Badgers aren’t in win-now mode, and what’s the worst that could happen?

Yes, there is the four-game redshirt rule, and that’s not to say to throw him out there and have him sling it 50 times a game. However, it could be good for him get some reps to see what potential he has. After all, the offense certainly can’t be run any worse than it is now. He should at least get a shot after the bye week to show what he can do, and maybe he can provide a much-needed spark for the offense.

Final Thoughts and Looking Ahead

The struggles of this team and Luke Fickell’s tenure have been a subject of almost every single postgame recap article of  Wisconsin this year. However, with all the turmoil and backlash Fickell has faced recently, it’s worth giving him a shoutout.

This team could easily roll over and stop caring. However, it was quite evident on Saturday that they have not phoned it in and still care. He hasn’t lost the locker room yet, and the players still love playing for each other. If you go by effort alone and how much the players are getting hyped for each other, you’d think this was a top-25 team. Most teams that are on a six-game losing streak hang their head. Wisconsin is not, and they still seem to genuinely care about the program.

The effort at times has lacked a little bit throughout the losing streak. However, after multiple blowout losses in a row, Wisconsin fought, which was encouraging to see, on Saturday night.

No one knows if Fickell will be back next year, or if he even makes it past this weekend. However, as long as Fickell is the coach for Wisconsin, his players will play hard for him, which is now evident more than ever.

Looking ahead, the Badgers will get a much-needed bye week to rest and recoup before welcoming the Washington Huskies to Madison in Week 11.