MADISON - Wisconsin's season took another disappointing turn for the worse Saturday afternoon. Following a humiliating loss on the road to Ohio State in which the Badgers were never truly competitive, UW fell, 34-10, against a divisional opponent it has largely had success against.

Wisconsin received the opening kickoff and marched the length of the field to score on the game's opening drive. The Badgers quickly went up 7-0 and later responded to an Illinois touchdown with a field goal to go up 10-7. From there, however, the team would be blanked, 27-0, and fall, 34-10.

BadgerBlitz.com offers key takeaways from Wisconsin's loss at home to the Illini.

Very few people, if anyone, predicted a Wisconsin upset a week ago when the Badgers traveled to Columbus for a matchup with the No. 3 Buckeyes. The form in which Wisconsin lost the game set off alarm bells at to the state of the program.

While the matter of the loss was unlike Wisconsin, UW will rarely be able to match up with a program the caliber of Ohio State. A return to Camp Randall and a matchup with a Big Ten West foe could have served as a return to form for UW.

After all, Wisconsin has topped Illinois in 11 of the last 12 meetings and hasn't lost to the Illini since 2002. Since the Big Ten moved to its current divisional setup, Wisconsin is 37-9 against the Big Ten West, including 20-3 at home. Illinois could have served as a launching pad to turn things around.

Instead, the game was over midway through the third quarter with a Chase Brown 49-yard touchdown to seal things in favor the Illini.

In the trenches, the offense still can't get anything going on the ground. The rushing attack was held to two total yards with Braelon Allen taking his eight carries for two yards and Chez Mellusi taking seven carries for 16 yards. Conversely, Wisconsin's front seven ultimately wore down. After limiting Brown to 32 yards in the first half, he finished with 129, including three rushes of 10 yards. Controlling the trenches and wearing down opponents. That sounds awfully like Wisconsin's identity.

Saturday afternoon offered an opportunity for the program to rebound from a disappointing loss and assert its continued dominance over the division. It did everything but provide any level of reassurance.

"I’m pretty upset. That’s not the standard," receiver Chimere Dike said. "We expect to win games. There’s things that can be better, but we need to right the ship, and I have confidence that we can. We have a lot of really good players on this team, we just need to execute more consistently and not beat ourselves."

Already dealing with injuries to a number of starters, the injury woes would get much worse during the loss to Illinois.

With Clay Cundiff officially ruled out for the rest of the season, the tight end room was down another body when Hayden Rucci suffered a right leg injury in the first half. Rucci could be seen on the sideline walking around with crutches and a boot on his right foot. The setback leaves Jack Eschenbach, Jaylan Franklin and Cole Dakovich as the lone healthy tight ends.

The hits to skill position players kept on coming in the second half. Returning a kickoff early in the third quarter, Isaac Guerendo stayed on the ground and needed help walking off after getting hit hard. The official designation was a right leg injury. The injury put an early end to what was a productive day for Guerendo. He returned the opening kickoff to the UW 47 and closed with a drive 21-yard reception for a touchdown.

Three plays later, Keontez Lewis landed awkwardly after being hit hard low on a leaping attempt to come down with a catch on 3rd and 8. Lewis would return to the sideline in uniform without any brace or cast of sorts but would not come back in the game.

Quarterback Graham Mertz, who took six sacks on the day, had his left hand heavily taped up after taking a hard hit on his second interception of the day. Throughout the rest of the game, trainers consistently checked in with Mertz and continued to work on his wrist. During his postgame interview, Mertz never exposed his left hand. During the interview, he kept his hand tucked in his coat pocket.

After the game, head coach Paul Chryst had no update on injuries. The injuries will be something to monitor for this Monday when he meets with the media for his weekly availability.

After an encouraging opening drive where the Badgers scored and got off to an early 7-0 lead, many of the same alarming trends continued. The game followed a similar script to that of the early season loss to Washington State.

Mertz threw a pair of interceptions, the second of which was a poor decision after evading a sack. Illinois capitalized on both turnovers with touchdowns. The team was called for seven penalties for 51 yards, two of which came on fourth down with Illinois in the red zone. On the day, the total creeped up to 10 penalties for 77 yards.

"That’s something we’ve had problems with, and we continue to have problems with," senior safety John Torchio said. "So that’s something that continues to come up that needs to stop coming up. I don’t know how you do that, you need to play with better technique, stop grabbing, I don’t know. But that keeps popping up."

UW's third turnover on the day came with a chance to respond to an Illinois score with extended the deficit to 21-10. The Badgers would never get the chance to put together a drive after Guerendo muffed the kickoff.

"You got to get to where you're playing one team, the opponent," Chryst said. "Three turnovers and all three end up being big plays leading to scores giving them good field position. That makes it harder and the penalties. I'm anxious to see some of them."

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