BadgerBlitz.com brings you our weekly "3-2-1" feature of the 2024 season, where we take a look at three things we learned from Week 3 and the bye week, two remaining questions and one bold prediction for when the the Badgers travel to New Jersey to face Rutgers.

Before breaking out with 52 points against the Boilermakers, Wisconsin's offense had struggled mightily through four games. There were flashes, like the first half in Los Angeles, but there was no semblance of a complete performance from this unit. One of the many talking points surrounding this anemic offense was the lack of involvement from redshirt freshman wideout Trech Kekahuna.

After an eye-popping offseason in spring and fall camps, and a productive Week 1 outing against Western Michigan, the slot receiver was nowhere to be found in the Badgers' offense. There wasn't even an effort to get him involved after the opener until the USC game, but even against the Trojans he was unable to corral any of his four targets. Against Purdue, Kekahuna reminded Wisconsin just how explosive he can be, and finally affirmed what reporters saw in practice all offseason.

He finished with six grabs for 134 yards and two touchdowns, looking mightily impressive in the process. On his first score, he found the soft spot in the zone coverage, caught the pass and weaved untouched through the Boilermaker defense for a 69-yard score. On his second, he reeled in a pass Braedyn Locke lofted to the end zone with a defender draped all over him.

"It's a blessing. It's been a long time since I've been in the end zone," he said. "It's been two years, I think. The last time I scored was our state championship game at Bishop Gorman."

Wisconsin also clearly made a concerted effort to get him involved early, signifying the coaching staff's recognition that they need to utilize their dynamic slot receiver. He notched multiple touches on jet sweets against Purdue as the Badgers looked to gash the Boilermakers' putrid outside run defense.

"Coach (Phil) Longo said get ready for it, loop outside and go make a play and I did," Kekahuna said after the game.

An in-game injury to Will Pauling was certainly a catalyst for Kekahuna's uptick in touches, but especially after this performance, it would be mind-boggling if the Badgers didn't continue to actively implement Kekahuna into the game-plan.

If Kekahuna's breakout game shed light on the sleeping giant of a playmaker that he is, the same could be said about plenty of other players on both sides of the ball that got more involved against Purdue for a variety of reasons.

"There's a lot of those guys that got opportunities today that didn't get any of those opportunities last year. We never put ourselves in a situation or position where we felt like those guys could get some good work," head coach Luke Fickell said. "Those guys got some good work, and it's gonna be valuable; we're gonna need it down the stretch here. You never know how things happen, we've got a stretch of games that's gonna, 'this is brutal'...We talk about having 22, 25 guys on that side of the ball that can play."

Staying on the offensive side of the ball, true freshman tailback Dilin Jones had a coming out party as well. It wasn't the first action of his career, as he logged four carries for 14 yards against South Dakota. Against Purdue, he didn't just play; he was a difference-maker. His 47-yard dash was the longest run Wisconsin has ripped off this season.

With Chez Mellusi out indefinitely, the tailback rotation has a firm one and two: Tawee Walker and Cade Yacamelli, respectively. Past those two, Darrion Dupree has emerged as a potential RB3, while Jackson Acker is still good for a carry or two a game. But Jones displayed a level of explosiveness that Wisconsin has sorely missed on the ground, and he presents another intriguing option in this deep Badger backfield.

Defensively, Wisconsin had to go deeper into its outside linebacker rotation with Aaron Witt unavailable. That meant North Carolina transfer Sebastian Cheeks got an opportunity, one he certainly made the most of.

Cheeks finished with 1.5 sacks, creating some havoc off the edge that the Badgers had been lacking. It was only the second game he's played in all season, but he proved that he could be a difference-maker, albeit against a suspect Purdue offensive line. With edge-rusher production, or the lack thereof, being a hot topic for this Wisconsin defense, Cheeks may have earned himself more opportunities moving forward.

Locke has had a curious career in Madison. There's times where he's looked like a surgeon operating this offense, and there's times where he's made some of the most head-scratching throws you'll ever see. There was good and bad against Purdue, but the good far outweighed the bad and it led to a carer day for the redshirt sophomore signal caller.

Locke had a rocky first half, tossing interceptions on back-to-back drives in the second quarter. It's hard to blame him for the first, as while his throw to Pauling was a touch low, it hit the receiver's breadbasket only to bounce into the waiting arms of Purdue's nickel corner. The second was thrown right to the same corner, Kyndrich Breedlove, and was entirely on Locke.

"The Will one was a great play on their part, Will's gotta come down with that ball. The next one was probably a little bit behind," Fickell agreed.

In the past, we've seen Locke get off to a shaky start and fail to bounce back. Against the Boilermakers, however, the quarterback's rough start only seemed to fuel him. His performance in the second half was superb, and he finished the game with 359 yards and three touchdowns.

"I don't know if I saw a different demeanor, I don't know if I saw a different body language, a different attitude," Fickell continued. "He processes things, he's able to come back, he's able to have confidence in what he's doing, and I thought he did a great job today. I know he wants those couple balls back, and we all do. But I think that's what, as I said in the locker room, makes this that much better — there was adversity."

Not only did Locke get ahold of himself and proceed to carve up Purdue's defense, he grew up right before our very eyes in the process. On a third down from his own eight yard-line, Locke stood tall in the face of pressure, took a shot and delivered a strike to CJ Williams to move the chains on what would eventually become a scoring drive. Other times, he deftly navigated the pocket, stepping up to avoid pressure while keeping his eyes downfield. On his third touchdown, he recognized single-high coverage, made a check at the line of scrimmage and threw Kekahuna a perfect ball. When Locke is playing like that, his confidence is boundless and that translates to the rest of the offense.

Wisconsin was without its starting wideouts Pauling and Bryson Green for the majority of the Purdue game. Pauling played 13 snaps, while Green played 12. Meanwhile, the Badgers worked with a top group of Kekahuna, Williams and Vinny Anthony, all three of whom put great things on tape.

We've already broke down Kekahuna's monster performance. Williams' 60 yards were a career high, and he made a huge play right before halftime, climbing the proverbial ladder, to set the Badgers up for an easy touchdown run. Anthony, meanwhile, scored his second long touchdown in as many weeks, splitting the flat defender and the safety before turning on the afterburners for a huge 52-yard catch-and-run.

That begs the question: do some of these receivers start to get more opportunities? Pauling has struggled with drops this season but his talent is undeniable; he'll be on the field whenever healthy. Still, Anthony has looked like Wisconsin's most explosive perimeter wideout and Kekahuna is dynamite with the ball in his hands. Do they begin to collectively eat into Green's snaps?

The Badgers played a bad offense in Purdue. It was the Boilermakers' first game under interim play-caller Justin Simmons, and they looked and played like it. Their offense was and remains a mess, but nonetheless, Wisconsin's defense played lights out all afternoon. Was that a flash in the pan, a situational result given a weak opponent? Or have the Badgers begun to figure some things out on that side of the ball?

Wisconsin limited Purdue quarterback Hudson Card to 52 percent completion for just 117 yards. It only allowed the Boilermakers to convert just 1-of-11 third down attempts. It held them to under four yards-per-carry, and on their longest run, Jaheim Merriweather coughed up the ball.

What's more, the Badgers were excellent situationally. Purdue made it to the red zone twice, both times coming off an interception from Locke. Both times, however, Wisconsin tightened the screws, forcing the Boilermakers to settle for field goals.

Rutgers will present a different, and far more difficult, challenge. The Scarlet Knights' passing attack is rather tepid, sitting at 102nd in the nation. The rushing game, led by star tailback Kyle Monangai, is a different story. Rutgers has the 22nd-best rushing attack in the country and Monangai already has 667 yards and six scores. This offense knows exactly who it is, and the Badgers' front seven needs to be ready for a fist-fight.

Rutgers, as mentioned, lives and dies by the ground game and it's star ball-carrier Monangai. Last year, however, Wisconsin completely shut him down in its win over the Scarlet Knights.

Monangai had eight carries for 16 yards against the Badgers in Madison, easily his lowest rushing output of the past two seasons. He was completely stymied, and that was a major catalyst for Wisconsin winning the game. He's coming off his worst performance of 2024 against Nebraska with 19 carries for 78 yards. I'd expect a major bounce-back is in store this week.

First of all, Nebraska has a top-10 rushing defense in the country. Wisconsin's running defense hasn't been abysmal, but it's right in the middle in terms of yards-per-game allowed nationally. The Huskers and the Badgers pose entirely different challenges for Monangai.

The Badgers run defense has struggled at times, and Monangai is quite simply a phenomenal back. You're lucky to bottle him up once, let alone twice in consecutive seasons. Without asserting how this affects the outcome of the game, I firmly believe Wisconsin will struggle to contain the electric tailback.

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