MADISON, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin football team has become all too familiar with off-the-field adversity. After all, the Badgers saw their season reduced from 13 to 10 to zero games, seeing other players across the country play while they were stuck watching.

And even when the Badgers got a second chance at their season, they lost week two and three of their season because of a COVID outbreak.

The adversity the Badgers are dealing with today is brand new for this group, sitting down to try and figure out what went wrong during its 17-7 loss to Northwestern Saturday afternoon at Ryan Field.

“It’s the response,” quarterback Graham Mertz said. “In life and the game of football, it’s how can you control your next step. Coach (Chryst) talks about it all the time, and I’m excited to see where this team takes the next step. It’s going to be a great team from this point on. We’re going to learn from it tomorrow, we’re going to flush it and keep the axe.”

Wisconsin – which fell eight spots to No.18 in Sunday’s Associated Press poll – have a lot to figure out before hosting Minnesota (1 p.m., Big Ten Network). For starters, the Badgers need to get healthier on offense. Wisconsin was without senior receivers Danny Davis and Kendric Pryor and, while the few offensive players who spoke to the media downplayed their absence, the season-low seven points suggest it was.

The staff will also have to get Mertz back in a rhythm. He was the conference co-offensive player of the week after he completed 20 of 21 passes for 248 yards and five touchdowns in a 45-7 win over Illinois to open the season, making several remarkable throws and picking apart the Illini’s defense. He was average against Michigan, albeit playing with limited practice reps after dealing with coronavirus, but still threw a pair of touchdowns with no turnovers in a 49-11 victory.

With a week of practice against a better defense, Mertz was out of sync from the start against a top-15 defense that feasts off turnovers and has an aggressive pass rush. The end results were predictable: three interceptions, a fumble and no scoring drives in the second half.

“I do believe what drives him is doing all he can for this team,” head coach Paul Chryst said of Mertz. “When you’re not able to do that or do that enough, it’s a growing situation. This one was painful for a lot of us. We’ve got to learn from it, take what we can from it and go forward. I don’t know that there are many quarterbacks that play that go through those highs and those lows. You’ve got to find a way to continue to work through and be consistent when things are going well, and things aren’t going well. What we learn from it and how we respond, that’s the opportunity we have right now.”

Whether that opportunity comes this weekend remains to be seen. Minnesota (2-3) beat Purdue Friday night without its offensive line coach and 22 players, leaving them with 61 scholarship players. Like Wisconsin, the Gophers didn’t announce the reason for the absences, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize the program was dealing with COVID.

Wisconsin and Minnesota have played every season since 1906.

If the game is canceled, UW won’t qualify for the league championship game for playing fewer than six games, unless the average number of league games drops. That seems like a moot point since the Wildcats hold a two-game lead (with the tiebreaker) over the Badgers with three weeks to go.

With the loss and lack of games compared to other teams across the country, the Badgers also appear to be a long shot for a New Years Six bowl. That’s not the Chryst’s current concern, as UW needs to figure out how to regroup in the short term.

“I’ve always believed that you play it out and then at the end, you see what you’ve earned,” Chryst said. “It’s never been just about the end. If you play a game just worrying if you won or lost, you’re going to miss the best and that’s playing the game.

“The same can be said about a season. If you are just going to be worried and focused with what is at the end, then you’re going to miss the best part of the journey and that’s the day in and day out. We didn’t win. We’ve got to learn from it and then we get an opportunity, hopefully, next week to play. It’s all of our job to take advantage of that opportunity.”