3-2-1: Highlighting Wisconsin's defense as Nebraska week commences

Wisconsin looks to retain the Freedom Trophy and continue its path to Indianapolis when it takes on Nebraska this weekend.

The Badgers (7-3 overall, 5-2 Big Ten) have won six straight games heading into Saturday's matchup (2:30 p.m. CT, ABC), while the Huskers (3-7, 1-6) come off a bye after losing four consecutive contests.

Before turning the page to the Big Ten West foe, BadgerBlitz.com presents our weekly "3Cs" column where we discuss three additional things we learned after UW's victory over Northwestern, ask two key questions heading into this week, and one bold prediction for the game.

I was looking back over my takeaways post from Saturday, and I mentioned that "it was not the cleanest game by the defense's standards this season." There were some big plays by Northwestern in the game, most notably that 19-yard run by Andrew Clair that then turned into a 68-yard total gain after a Nick Herbig strip led to another Wildcat taking it an additional 49 yards.

Pat Fitzgerald's team drove down the field methodically on its first offensive series of the game, but really outside of that and the aforementioned fluky scoop-and-nearly-score series, it goes without saying that Wisconsin played extremely well. Maybe the extraordinary results of Jim Leonhard and his players have set an entirely unfair bar and precedent to live by.

That got me diving into a deeper look at Wisconsin's defense under his mentorship since the 2017 season. Easily put, this crew is on track to be arguably the best since Leonhard took over this unit.

Here's where Wisconsin stands right now in national rankings heading into this week:

*1st in total defense, rushing defense (60.6 yards per game) and third-down conversion percentage

*2nd in scoring defense, passing yards allowed (155.7 yards per game) and team passing efficiency (100.68)

Comparing Leonhard's other seasons as coordinator, UW is on its way to posting its best marks in his tenure in total yards allowed and third-down conversion defense, and that scoring defense number is cut a decent amount when taking away touchdowns scored by opposing defenses and special teams in 2021.

The Badgers are on pace, if they hold the 7.4 tackles for loss per game average, to crush 2019's total even if they play 13 games (by virtue of their bowl eligibility). Their sack totals, currently at three per contest, would put them in line with 2017's defense.

This year, Wisconsin shut down the offenses of Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Rutgers and Northwestern in not allowing any of those programs to score an offensive touchdown. Add on those turnovers that have started to come in bunches -- 16 total in the last quartet of wins, 20 overall (and these include special teams takeaways as well) -- this defense has become that much more daunting to prepare for.

It's just a truly impressive season, and an even more remarkable tenure for Leonhard leading the defense.