Feature: Badgers WR Vinny Anthony

 

Vinny Anthony II has begun to take off in his junior year with the Badgers. The big play threat has been all over the field during his first five games of the season. Anthony has proved to be a security blanket for Braedyn Locke. 

Anthony, a junior from Louisville, Kentucky, has rarely been featured on this Badgers offense, throughout his brief career, aside from his special teams role. 

In his first five games, Anthony has already produced more total yards than his previous two seasons with Wisconsin. So far on the season, Anthony has registered 9 catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns in his last two games against USC and Purdue. 

Impressively, Anthony is averaging almost 23 yards per catch in the campaign so far. Anthony currently leads the Big Ten in this category as well. For a wide receiver core predicted to be led by Will Pauling, Anthony is currently carrying the statistical title as the leading receiver thus far for the Badgers. Wisconsin has been looking for that one dynamic receiver for some time. Could Anthony be the one they’ve been looking for? 

Along with his impressive start, Anthony is the first Badger since Jared Abbrederis in 2013 to record multiple 50+ yard catches in a single season. In his previous two games, Anthony has recorded long touchdowns through the air on 63-yard and 52-yard heaves from Braedyn Locke. 

Anthony is embracing offensive coordinator Phil Longo's air raid offense with his big play touchdowns in back to back weeks. Executing big plays down the stretch on offense will be crucial towards the Badgers potential success. 

The air-raid offense has been in question since Longo took the role as the offensive coordinator in Madison. An offense that averaged just over 23 points per game last season, was averaging around 21 points per game this season prior to the Purdue game last Saturday. 

Longo and his air-raid offense came over to the Badgers with Luke Fickell last season. The hype and excitement of the offense was real, but the production was not. We had yet to see its full potential until last Saturday against the Purdue Boilermakers.  

The Badgers dropped 52 points on the Boilermakers operated by Longo's offense. Through the air, Braedyn Locke threw for three touchdowns that were all at least 25 yards. Braedyn Locke registered the most passing yards in a game since Joel Stave in 2015 for the Badgers. 

Wisconsin will head to New Brunswick, New Jersey this weekend to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Rutgers currently ranks as 27th in passing yards allowed per game. The Badgers are currently listed as a 2.5 point underdog going into Shi Stadium. 

Vinny Anthony will have a chance to extend his touchdown streak to three games come Saturday if the Badgers can figure out the Scarlet Knights defense. The game plan is clear for the Badgers: get Vinny Anthony the ball. 

Preview: Jets vs Vikings in London

 

The NFL international slate kicks off tomorrow morning as the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings head to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Sam Darnold will face his old team while getting his Vikings off to an historic start to open the 2024 campaign. 

The Vikings have started off the season with a 4-0 record thanks to magnificent quarterback play from Sam Darnold. Darnold left the Jets after the 2020 season and his since bounced around from Carolina to San Francisco before finding a home in Minnesota. 

New York selected Darnold with the third overall pick back in 2018, but their expectations for him never came true. Since losing Darnold, the Jets had yet another quarterback failure in Zach Wilson and are now onto Aaron Rodgers. So was it the Jets fault for Darnold's miserable three years in the Big Apple?

Gang Green has opened up the season with some big ups and downs to say the least. They will come into this matchup with a 2-2 record after a brutal loss to the Denver Broncos. The defense has been just what everyone envisioned with a dominant start to the season. They combined to allow only 13 points in their last two games, yet the Jets only won 1 of those 2 games. 

The offense was the problem last game. We've seen it year after year, the Jets offense struggles to be any bit effective when there is weather problems. Last week, with the rain being a constant factor, the Jets couldn't get anything going offensively. The fact that they couldn't score more than 10 points against one of the subpar teams in the NFL is not a good sign going forward. 

Now we can blame it all on the offense, but I believe some of the blame has to go to the coaching staff. There needed to be a blip in the game plan, especially with the weather, but there wasn't. This falls directly on Robert Saleh and Nathaniel Hackett. The coaches need to adapt to certain conditions because every game isn't going to have luxurious weather especially come the later months. 

Another thing to point out was the Jets offense not all being on the same page. There were a couple plays late in the game where Aaron Rodgers and Garrett Wilson were visibly not reading the same play book. Breece Hall had the worst game of his career by far didn't help much either. 

The offense needs to quickly get their act together before they fall behind even more. With a win last Sunday, the Jets could have been sitting in the top seed in the AFC East, but luckily they are still in the playoff picture. I know it's early, but it's been 14 years since the Jets last made their fans somewhat happy. 

This is a make or break year for a lot of people in the Jets organization. The players need to start playing more like it. Getting a win against Minnesota in London is the perfect way to start. If the offense and coaching staff can fix their mistakes, I see no reason the Jets aren't smiling on their long flight back to the US.