The Wisconsin Badgers played their seventh game of the 2024 season and fourth conference game on Saturday afternoon, beating the Northwestern Wildcats, 23-3, for their third consecutive victory.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from Wisconsin’s win.

The Badgers have now won their past three games by a combined score of 117-16.

The offense has garnered some well-deserved credit and attention, but the defense’s ability to repeatedly take the opposition’s soul and kill any chances of gaining momentum is something to behold.

Just as it has the past few weeks, Wisconsin’s defensive success started up front on Saturday.

After coach Luke Fickell complained earlier in the week of being “dominated up front on both sides of the ball” against the Wildcats last season, the defensive line built a wall early in the day that running back Cam Porter could never get around. This allowed the outside linebackers, namely Darryl Peterson, to crash in off the edge and kill any hope of finding space.

There were times when quarterback Jack Lausch was able to roll out and break some tackles, but those were few and far between. Over half of his 55 rushing yards came on a single 29-yard scramble in the third quarter that led to their first and only points of the day. That play also accounted for 23% of the team’s 127 rushing yards.

This led to Lausch having to make plays through the air, which didn’t lead to a much better result. The very first play of the day was a 26-yard pass from Lausch to tight end Thomas Gordon. That was about the extent of their success through the air. After back-to-back 200-yard days, Lausch finished with just 82 passing yards while completing 9-of-24 passes.

But, to be fair, the coaching staff didn’t always put their offense in the best position to make plays. Some of their decisions were simply indefensible.

Northwestern’s first field goal attempt of the day came in the first quarter with the score still 0-0, just a few plays after a 23-yard return from Bryce Kirtz took the ball to Wisconsin’s 42-yard-line. They gained eight yards in three plays, leading to a manageable 4th-and-2 in enemy territory. But coach David Braun decided to kick it, directly into Ben Barten’s hand. The Badgers scored a touchdown on the very next drive.

But the biggest case of coaching malpractice came about a quarter later.

A Badger drive stalled late in the first half, leading to an Atticus Bertrams punt down to Northwestern’s 1-yard-line with just over a minute left. With a struggling quarterback, as far back into their own territory as possible, with barely any time left for an actual drive, the Wildcats ran the ball a few times before calling a passing play. Lausch dropped back and looked downfield, before outside linebacker John Pius came off the edge for a strip sack.

Badger lineman Elijah Hills recovered the fumble and running back Cade Yacamelli scored on the very next play.

The score was now 14-0 at halftime, but felt like much more given Northwestern’s offensive woes.

Over the past three weeks, we’ve seen this defense take control of opposing offenses early and never let go, which is what we saw again on Saturday. They’ll need to continue that momentum heading into the late season gauntlet.

The defense looked just as good as they have over the past two weeks, as did running back Tawee Walker and the offensive line, for the most part. But the same can’t be said for quarterback Braedyn Locke.

Some of the issues and mistakes we’ve seen from Locke this season were amplified against Northwestern in a way we haven’t seen since the losses to Alabama and USC.

Early on, it was clear that the Wildcat defensive front was far better than what he saw against Purdue or Rutgers, and he seemed shaken up. During their second drive of the game, after a few Walker runs took them to midfield, Locke attempted a deep pass that he completely overshot, right into the hands of Northwestern defensive back Coco Azema. C.J. Williams was open over the middle for an easy completion, but Locke instead tried to make another highlight play.

It took him almost a full quarter for Locke to settle in.

After Locke’s rushing touchdown put them 7-0, the offense seemed to have gained some momentum. The next drive was the best of Locke’s day. Three of the first four plays of the drive were all passes, encompassing a total of 54 yards. This took Wisconsin to Northwestern’s 23-yard-line, but only led to a missed kick from Nathaniel Vakos.

He didn’t do much for the rest of the half, or for most of the third quarter. A few big gains from receivers Trech Kekahuna and Will Pauling led to Locke’s only passing touchdown of the day, but they ultimately didn’t need him to do too much.

There were times when I felt offensive coordinator Phil Longo wasn’t putting him in the best positions to succeed. Even after the offensive line gained momentum and were successfully run-blocking, Longo leaned too heavily on the pass at times. It seemed like simple over-thinking.

Ultimately, Locke got hot in the right situations and that was enough for a convincing victory. But that’s not gonna cut it moving forward, against any team remaining on their schedule.

The biggest thing I’ll take away from this game, and from the three-game winning streak as a whole, was that the Badgers finally began to play like a real team.

Over the past season and a half, we’ve seen plenty of instances and flashes of success, but nothing that’s felt as complete as this. Fickell has talked so much about complementary football and dealing with adversity these past few weeks that it’s become cliche. But that’s exactly what we’re seeing.

Against Alabama, when the defense couldn’t stop their offense, it felt like the entire team shut down. The next week against USC, after a strong first half, they immediately wilted once they turned the ball over on downs. The defense was letting down the offense, and vice versa.

It’s obviously easier to be complementary and play consistent football against the comparatively worse teams we’ve seen over the past three games, but the team has played with a sense of unity over the past three games that is new for the Fickell era.

Whenever the Wildcats gained any sliver of momentum, it wouldn’t usually last long. Locke threw an interception on his second drive, and the defense responded with a three-and-out. Northwestern capped off a long third quarter drive with a field goal, then forced a fumble on the next drive. But the defense held them to another three-and-out, which led to Wisconsin’s third and final touchdown of the day.

“They had a drive there, I think they went [59] yards in like 13 plays after the turnover, but the defense did a really good job in the red zone at keeping them out. The quarterback scrambled for [29 yards], which is one of those daggers in the heart. But again, they responded. They didn’t panic. They got him to the ground and gave them an opportunity to continue to play,” Fickell said after the game.

“That’s another one of those things you’d point at that’s a difference in the game. Our ability to handle some of those situational stuff. The poise that those guys have had… That’s not something we saw in the first, I don’t wanna say we didn’t see it in the first few weeks. But the ability to respond and play together has grown a lot.”

At the end of the season, we could look back on these improvements as aberrations, simply a result of the poor slate of teams on our schedule. But for the first time in the Fickell era, we’re seeing sustained, complementary football. This stretch will have even more value than the three straight wins and +101 point differential.

_________________________________________________

*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