MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Badgers welcomed the Northwestern Wildcats to Camp Randall on Saturday afternoon, desperate to put their prior loss to Indiana in the rear-view mirror.

They returned home and even welcomed multiple key starters back to the lineup. But none of it mattered. The Wildcats completely dominated the Badgers, creating a 24-3 lead in the first half and holding on to it for nearly the entire game. Nothing seemed to click for Wisconsin, resulting in one of the ugliest performances in years and a 24-10 loss.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from today's loss.

I wish there was a specific issue or weakness on this defense that I could focus on and write about. But everything looked bad today. Wisconsin’s defense is going to need a massive shake-up in either personnel, coaching or both.

This sort of defensive ineptitude would be understandable against a team like Ohio State, not one of the worst offenses in the conference.

Northwestern entered averaging 20.1 points per game. It reached 21 midway through the second quarter. They also entered averaging 292.1 yards per game. They had 294 at halftime.

The Badgers couldn’t even stop them when it countered. They ended up allowing 11 of 17 third downs, but the Wildcats started 10 for 11 on third down.

Starting Wildcat quarterback Ben Bryant hadn’t even played in almost a month-and-a-half. But he came out and looked like one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten. He completed nine of his first 10 passes and finished 18-26 for 195 yards and two touchdowns.

The highlight of the day came when Bryant completed a 41-yard pass to A.J. Henning, who caught it over Wisconsin’s best defender in Hunter Wohler.

Running back Cam Porter entered averaging 42.4 yards per game and 27.5 against Big Ten teams.

The Badgers had no answers for him, especially in the beginning of the game. He ran for 45 yards on six carries in the first quarter alone.

If not for Cade Yacamelli’s garbage-time yards, his 72 rushing yards would’ve surpassed Wisconsin’s team total.

“There’s no answers. We just have to play better. We come out soft, we come out flat, we have zero energy on either side of the ball and we get whooped around the field. There’s no answer to getting smoked. We have to be better. We’re soft. We’re not physical. We’re not doing the things that coaches ask of us. We go out there and we expect to win. That’s not how this game works, especially not in the Big Ten,” Wohler said after the game.

“Guys gotta look inside themselves and find out who they really are, and if they really want to play this game and be a part of this team. Because this is not what I came to Wisconsin for, to be completely honest. This is miles different from what I grew up watching.”

If there are any answers, they don’t seem to be on this current team. Luke Fickell may also need to rethink his staff, or his philosophy. The one certainty is that they’ll look toward the transfer portal in the offseason.

“Our backs are up against the wall like they have never been before. How many guys really do give a shit? About this team, about this program, about the culture, about winning and losing, and about each other,” said Wohler.

“There might be some weeding out that we need to do, because right now, the things we have going on is not what Wisconsin football is. It’s not what Wisconsin football represents.”

Certain mistakes and shortcomings can be somewhat excused, but a clear lack of aggression can’t — especially when the Badgers played from behind for essentially the entire game.

Their first drive was actually pretty successful, because they showed some aggression. Tanner Mordecai got his top target in Will Pauling going early, throwing a few risky passes that paid off. He even completed a 35-yarder to a recent depth-chart riser in Vinny Anthony, which ended up as the longest completion of the day.

They eventually settled for a field goal on 4th-and-9, which was the correct decision at the time. Too bad this was their last score until garbage time.

The Badgers seemingly lost all momentum right after a successful opening drive. The offense quickly began to struggle without the presence of a run game. Their disappearance in confidence was evident by the second quarter. The Badgers faced a 4th-and-3 from Northwestern’s 42-yard-line, and decided to punt. This was after the Wildcats scored touchdowns on their first two drives. Northwestern began at their own 10, before Joseph Himon ran for 32 yards on the very first play of the drive.

“So in hindsight, yeah, maybe we should’ve just went for it. Even if we didn’t get it, we’d be right back where you were after the one play,” Fickell said after the game.

“But all those things make decisions really difficult when you’re not playing very well. When you’re playing really well and you make a bad decision, they overcome it. When you’re playing really poorly and you think you make a good decision, it turns out to be a bad one. They kind of go hand-in-hand. Either way, if we don’t find a way to play better football, all decisions will be bad.”

Even at the end of the first half, when they needed to score down 24-3, most of Mordecai’s passes were far too short to make any sort of impact. This extended into the second half, when the Badgers had plenty of chances to create momentum and get back in the game. Forty of his 45 pass attempts traveled 14 yards or less.

Like most run-first offenses, the Badgers seem to rely on playing with a lead. The vast majority of their plays are runs or short passes. When the running game doesn’t show up, like on Saturday, they rely on short passes to move the sticks. This didn’t even change after Wisconsin had fallen down multiple positions.

They don’t have any knockout punches in their arsenal. Every big play feels like a miracle.

The Badgers were actually lucky enough to welcome a few key starters back to his lineup. Tanner Mordecai looked solid, but he had absolutely no running game to lean on, resulting in a near-instant offensive collapse.

Braelon Allen technically returned, but the coaches soon realized that they made a mistake. He got a few rushes early, but quickly disappeared, finishing with just three carries for as many yards. If they rushed their best player back, that would be a stupid mistake at best, and desperate malpractice at worst.

“We’re gonna give him [Allen] an opportunity to go. But you put them in there and if they can’t go, they can’t go,” Fickell said.

Regardless of his status, the Badgers got nothing important from their backups. Jackson Acker ran the ball just four times for 11 yards and a garbage-time touchdown. Cade Yacamelli didn’t make any impact until the very last drive, when the game was decided and the Wildcats stopped trying. Twenty-four of his 47 yards came on the final drive.

As a team, they began with an abysmal eight rushes for 14 yards in the first half and finished with just 86, 27 of which came on the final garbage-time drive.

It’s easy to point to injuries as the culprit for such lackluster results, but the coaches perhaps shouldn’t have put all their faith in two injury-prone running backs. They used the transfer portal to add talent to every offensive group except one, and it’s costing them.

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