MADISON — Head coach Luke Fickell met with the media Monday morning for his weekly press conference as the Badgers look to snap their losing streak against a surprisingly feisty Northwestern team.

BadgerBlitz.com has compiled the key takeaways.

The Badgers' loss to Indiana represented a low point for this new regime. Fickell spoke about his team's response on Sunday.

"Obviously tough to get back into it. We all know losing stinks. The best thing for us, at least for me, was Sunday. To get our players back in here, to go through what happened, to watch the game film. Then to go out there on the practice field and actually sweat a little bit to get that taste out of your mouth," he said. "All of us, we talked about it on Sunday as well. There's an expectation, and unfortunately we're not in a position right now that meets those expectations. But we can't allow that to stop us from growing and doing the things that we do...We've gotta find ways to continue to move forward, we've gotta find ways to get our best 11 guys on the field, and ultimately we've gotta find ways to win football games. There's another great opportunity for us this week, but we've gotta have a great week of practice. To be honest, Sunday might've been our best Sunday. I don't know why, but a lot of guys came out there limping and on an injury report, and yet they go out there and do what you ask them to do."

There's little time to dwell on what was a stupefying loss in Bloomington. Wisconsin, now at 5-4, is suddenly on the verge of battling for bowl eligibility while whatever slim hopes at a spot in the Big Ten title game now essentially require the team to win out and get some help along the way.

Tanner Mordecai appears to be progressing extremely fast in his rehab from a broken throwing hand. Receiver Chimere Dike, meanwhile, was also unavailable last week. Fickell, while clearly favoring a competitive advantage answer for both players, provided minor updates for each of them.

"Chim ran around. He warmed up last Saturday as well. That doesn't always mean a lot. It means that their minds are in the right place, they're doing everything they want to be out there...I wish I knew more," he said.

As for Mordecai, he seems to be trending in the right direction, as he was suited up on the sideline and warming up Saturday. Fickell predictably remained mostly mum in regards to providing updates on his starting quarterback:

"He warmed up last Saturday, but it was, hey, he's a possibility, he's an emergency maybe. They're asking you that before the game, because two hours before you gotta report, and I'm like, 'I don't think he's gonna play.' But we put him on there as questionable, only because situational stuff. But not trying to hide anything," he said. "When they can warm up, it's a start, but it doesn't really mean they can actually take you out there and put you in the best position to win a football game...You can't put somebody in there that can't protect themselves and doesn't give us the best opportunity."

For all of the turmoil the Wildcats' program sustained this offseason, from a hazing scandal to losing a head coach of nearly two decades, Northwestern is playing with a fire. It's sitting at 4-5, which is pretty remarkable considering that expectations for this team were non-existent. The Wildcats are making some noise in-conference, too: they toppled Minnesota in overtime, beat Maryland and nearly upset Iowa last week.

"They've got a lot of seniors. You look across the board, you see graduating seniors, 5th-year seniors. You can see that, yes there's been some things that have rattled them, but they've come together. I think they lost only a few guys in the portal...You see those teams that are built from within and built the right way, and what that means is sometimes down the stretch, they've gotten better. They're a little better than what they were, maybe in the beginning of the year," Fickell said. "I think that Northwestern's put themselves in a good position pretty much every week to have an opportunity and a chance. They're smart, they play to their strengths, they don't beat themselves, and they've got a few more guys and playmakers than maybe people recognized from the get-go."

Against Indiana, Wisconsin struggled mightily not only to move the football on offense, but to threaten the Hoosiers' defense with the possibility of a deep shot. Ultimately, the Badgers aren't using enough of the field on offense, and they paid for it on Saturday.

"No, obviously we haven't done a good enough job making guys defend the whole field. Sometimes just spreading the field doesn't do that, you've gotta have the ability to get the ball out there and make some plays, take some shots. There's a balance; we've gotta figure out how to make people play us more honest. Sometimes, that is, as we've said, using 53 and a third wide, but we also have to get the ball down the field. Just haven't found ways to create some of those plays down the field, especially this past week," Fickell said. "We've gotta find ways to make people play us honest and defend the whole field, both laterally and vertically."

Wisconsin hasn't connected on a true deep shot yet this season. Bryson Green's 54-yard catch-and-run last week was the longest play the Badgers have connected on, and most of the yardage came after the catch.

Fickell was asked if, given what's transpired this season, there's something he may have done differently in preparation this offseason. He mentioned the mounting injuries at tailback, and mused that maybe the staff should've spent more energy getting the reserves such as Jackson Acker and Cade Yacamelli more reps to prepare them for the situation they've been thrust into.

"In the big picture, in the whole, you've gotta make sure you have enough guys prepared. When things have happened, we've lost a couple tailbacks, maybe we weren't built and prepared well enough for some of those guys to go into the ballgame. Is that done through the offseason? Is that done through recruiting? I also think it's done through fall camp. Maybe that's where we didn't go live in some of those situations to make sure some of those younger guys are battle tested when they do go into the game," Fickell said. "That might be the one thing I'm looking at right now. Some of the guys that don't have as much experience playing for us, maybe in the spring we didn't do a good enough job of putting them in live situations."

Fickell owned his staff's mistake here in not getting enough players significant reps during the offseason practice periods. Now, it's hard to prepare for your starting quarterback, starting running back and backup running back to all miss significant time, but the head coach took some blame here for the team's lack of success when they've had to turn to reserve players.

True freshman wide receiver Trech Kekahuna got involved against Indiana on special teams. He was in a boot for much of fall camp, and has only recently been able to participate fully. Fickell addressed the young receiver's playing time.

"We'll see. It's hard sometimes, you get into the latter half of the year. Not only has he not played in games, he missed all of camp pretty much. He missed all of preseason. He missed the first five weeks where he really couldn't do anything. So the last four weeks, you try to get him back, you try to get him in some rhythm. He's close to being on the kickoff team. And you're just like, ehh, I love the kid and I love his attitude and his toughness and things like that, but you've never put him in one of those situations," he said. "So it's been a little harder to get him into some of those situations. I think down the stretch, he's gonna have an opportunity. Whether that's on special teams, or finding a way to play a little more offensively. But he's gotta be able to grasp the big picture of those things as you get into (later weeks)...there's no doubt that mentally, he's built a little different and he's got that toughness to him that we're gonna need."

Expect to continue to see younger players getting snaps in the closing weeks of the season as they can now enter games while preserving their redshirt year.

Tight end Riley Nowakowski has seen his snaps increase in recent weeks as he becomes fully healthy once again. Against Indiana, he caught two passes for 31 yards, making it his most productive game so far this season.

"Riley was gonna get a lot of playing time. He got hurt there at the end of camp, missed the first four or five weeks. The next couple weeks is just getting him back in shape...I think what you saw Saturday from Riley is he's got a chance to make some plays. He's a guy that got the ball in his hand, looked physical, broke a tackle or two and turned a 10-yard play into a 20, 25-yard play. That's what we're trying to find, that's what we're looking for," Fickell said. "Regardless of if it's at the tight end position, the wide receiver position, the tailback position. You can get guys opportunities, get them to the second level, get them four or five yards, and then what can we do from there? The game is too hard, methodically, to not be able to create some explosive plays. So I believe he's done a really good job with the ball in his hands, in particular last week. He's seen a lot of action, he's gonna continue to see more. But I think what we've gotta do is get him the ball in his hands a few more times because that's where he's shown up to do a better job than maybe some others."

Wisconsin has gotten very little out of its tight end position this season, and Fickell is right: it needs a playmaker who can turn solid gains into chunk plays. The Badgers need more of that at every position.

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