BadgerBlitz.com's weekly feature, "The 3 Cs," returns for the 2023 season. The staff takes a look at one thing we're curious, confident and concerned about as Wisconsin prepares to face Northwestern.

Staff writers Seamus Rohrer and Donnie Slusher each give their thoughts on the aforementioned topics for this week.

Rohrer: I'm curious as to what new concepts we see from Wisconsin's offense.

Phil Longo doesn't have much of a choice. With an extremely depleted offense that lacks its three biggest leaders in Tanner Mordecai, Braelon Allen and Chimere Dike, we saw the Badgers' offense break out some new concepts schematically against Indiana. Not many, but there were some. Most notable was a counter sweep to the track star wide receiver Vinny Anthony on a short yardage situation that went for 18 yards. It was one of the more creative, tendency-breaking plays the coordinator has drawn up this season. Wisconsin will need much more of that, especially if the offense remains short-handed.

The Badgers' bag of tricks can only be so deep with how injured they are, but they do have some intriguing options that at this point make very little sense not to try. Quite simply, the offense as it is right now isn't working. Changes must be made.

Perhaps one of the most obvious potential changes is inserting one of the Badgers' backup quarterbacks in certain situations, such as the uber-athletic Nick Evers. Not only could his dynamic speed and arm talent potentially provide a spark, but it could help return the offense to how it was operating when Mordecai was healthy and running plenty of read options.

"Those are thoughts...Right now, we don't believe that's the way to do it. But, as we continue to move forward, we might have to find some other ways. Even if they're little packages, even if they're just opportunities for those guys. But also, you have to make sure you can take care of the football," Luke Fickell said in regards to potentially involving backup quarterbacks. "You throw another guy in there at the quarterback position that's taken zero snaps, boy, there's a lot of things just trust-wise...But we might have to be a little more creative and get some of the guys that can make plays on the field, whether that's with their arm of with their feet."

Slusher: I’m most curious to see if Wisconsin’s defense struggles against a mobile quarterback yet again.

This Northwestern offense is nothing to write home about, but it does have something that’s killed this Badgers defense repeatedly throughout the season — a quarterback who can move.

Washington State’s Cameron Ward handed Wisconsin their first loss of the season after he danced around and evaded Badger defenders for three straight hours. Purdue’s Hudson Card and Rutgers’ Gavin Wimsatt kept some mediocre offenses afloat with their legs.

Even Illinois’ Luke Altmyer killed the defense for three quarters before the Badgers roared back.

Wisconsin’s weaknesses were tested this past week against the Hoosiers, who may have the worst offense of any Big Ten team the Badgers have played. But Indiana managed to pull out a win, mostly because Brendan Sorsby could move.

Even if these quarterbacks didn’t finish with the highest rushing yard totals, their abilities to extend plays and find space to pick up crucial first downs have resulted in close losses, and could kill Wisconsin’s chances in a mediocre Big Ten West.

They’ll now turn their attention toward Brendan Sullivan, who’s averaging 14.7 carries per game in his four games starting, and he even rushed for 56 yards in a close win against Maryland.

If the Badgers let another mediocre offense stick around, I suspect Sullivan’s legs will have something to do with it.

Rohrer: I'm confident that Wisconsin will make a concerted effort to get Bryson Green more involved this week.

The Oklahoma State transfer showed what he can do against Indiana with four catches for 96 yards, including a 54-yard catch-and-run touchdown. Somehow, that's the longest passing play the Badgers have made all year.

Wisconsin's offense has a lot of problems right now, but Green is the kind of player that can cover up some of those issues. He specializes in contested catch situations, meaning that Braedyn Locke doesn't have to be perfect in his ball placement or timing to give the receiver a chance to make the play. Not every completion needs to be schematically impressive — sometimes, the best play is simply to throw it up to your jump-ball receiver with the confidence that he's better than your opponent.

"There's no doubt that when the going gets tough, Bryson's gonna be right there," Fickell said on Monday. "From the day he walked in the door, when I met his dad, knowing the military background...you knew he had something deep down inside, a little bit of a grit, a toughness that you love. You're starting to see that as it gets down to the wire here."

Slusher: The only thing I’m truly confident in is that Saturday will be ugly and low-scoring.

The Indiana matchup didn’t leave me with much confidence at all in Wisconsin’s offense. Without Allen, they looked dead. Locke missed easy passes all day, and his inexperience was truly obvious for the first time.

Regardless of Wisconsin’s injury status, their games have gotten progressively uglier as they’ve played more Big Ten teams. The Badgers’ first four games prior to the bye ended with an average point total of 53. In the five games since, as Wisconsin has suffered more injuries and played better defenses, that average has dropped to 34.4.

They’ll play a Northwestern team with a similarly-limited offense.

The Wildcats are led by a backup quarterback in Sullivan, who’s averaging just 163.2 passing yards in the four games he’s started. Their leading rusher, Cam Porter, is up to 382 rushing yards on the season, but hasn’t even reached 40 since they played Howard over a month ago.

I’m not a betting man, but this game screams “under.”

Rohrer: Where should I start? How about this: I'm concerned that Wisconsin will once again be unable to run the football.

This mostly goes out the window if Allen is available to play. However, that's far from likely. If the Badgers must once again ride Jackson Acker and Cade Yacamelli, I have very little confidence that the ground game will be able to improve upon its 3.6 yards-per-carry it put up against Indiana.

The Wildcats' run defense is nothing to write home about at 157.6 yards-per-game allowed, 86th best in the nation. The Hoosiers run defense, however, was ranked even lower. As I've harped on all week, Acker and Yacamelli have intriguing individual skillsets. That doesn't necessarily make them qualified to handle the bulk of the work in the Badgers' backfield.

If those two once again spearhead the running game for Wisconsin, the offensive line will need to take matters into their own hands and dominate at the point of attack. Allen is the type of running back who can create for himself when there's very little to be had. Acker and Yacamelli, meanwhile, haven't displayed that ability yet.

Slusher: On a similar note, I’m most concerned that this offense simply can’t function without Allen.

The star tailback suffered an injury at the end of the first half against Ohio State, and the offense has scored 21 points in six quarters since.

Nobody missed him last week more than Locke. If the Badgers got anything out of their redshirt freshman, they likely would have beaten the Hoosiers. Instead, he completed just 21 of 41 passes and put up just 14 points on a defense that typically gives up an average of 28.

The most worrying part of Locke’s performance was how his poise and accuracy seemingly disappeared. He missed easy passes all day, such as the overthrow to an open Will Pauling on a game-defining 4th-and-2 in the last five minutes of the game.

Mordecai warmed up prior to last week’s game and was listed as questionable, so it’s a possibility that we see him for the first time since the Iowa game.

Still, it could be his first time playing in almost a month, and we’ve never seen him without Allen. It would be a mistake to expect a quarterback who played inconsistently while healthy, to step back in and instantly fix the offense.

Whether it’s the struggling Locke or the banged-up Mordecai, either will try to bounce back against a defense that just held Iowa to 65 passing yards, and gives up an average of 173.6 passing yards per game, fourth-lowest in the Big Ten.

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook