Wisconsin played its seventh and third-to-last conference game of the season against the Northwestern Wildcats, losing 24-10 in Camp Randall on Saturday evening. Luke Fickell and the Badgers will now look to a home, senior-night game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday evening.

BadgerBlitz.com brings you our weekly "3-2-1" series, honing in on the Week 11 loss to Northwestern, and what it will mean going forward.

The Badgers have obviously struggled with consistency, but the problems are deeper than that. Each side of the ball has ebbed and flowed at different times throughout the season, succeeding at almost opposite times.

Last Saturday was the first time that neither unit showed up at all.

The offense actually began the season well, scoring over 30 in each of the first four games. Then injuries started to hit. The Purdue game in the fourth week, when Chez Mellusi suffered a season-ending injury, was the last time Wisconsin reached 30 points.

Their success has only appeared in spurts since then.

In their next game after Purdue, against Rutgers, they scored just 17 points on offense and needed a Ricardo Hallman pick-six to secure a two-possession lead. They were then silenced against Iowa, only scoring six points.

The offensive might’ve peaked against Illinois, when they stumbled through the first three quarters then scored 18 points in the fourth to steal a win.

That performance felt like a potentially massive momentum swing in their favor, perhaps a step back on track. They followed it up with 34 points over their next three games, all losses.

The defense, on the other hand, has progressed nicely throughout the year.

They looked somewhat soft through the first few weeks of the season, allowing an average of 19.5 points and 375 total yards through the first four games. Things began to turn around after the bye. Through the next five games, prior to the Northwestern matchup, they gave up 18.6 points and only 300.6 yards per game.

Most importantly, the defense gave the offense countless opportunities to come back in each of their recent losses.

They made one bad mistake against Iowa, allowing the 82-yard rushing touchdown, but otherwise held the Iowa offense to 13 points. They went up against an Ohio State offense that typically averages 33.3 points per game, then allowed just 24. Despite making countless mistakes against Indiana, the Badgers defense held the Hoosiers to just three points in the second half of a one-score game.

However, last Saturday was the first time that both sides of the ball completely failed to show up. The defense improved in the second half, but were so pitiful in the first that the game already felt over.

Wisconsin had played inconsistently all season, with each unit taking turns stepping up at different times. For perhaps the first time all season, they were finally on the same page.