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 7, two remaining questions and one bold prediction for when the the Badgers travel to the banks of Lake Michigan to take on Northwestern.

Tailback Tawee Walker absolutely exploded against Rutgers with 198 yards rushing and three touchdowns. It was his second straight week with three scores, and Walker put it all on tape in Piscataway: power, burst, vision, acceleration. He dished out punishment all afternoon but also routinely got to the edge against the Scarlet Knights, displaying just how well-rounded of a back he is.

"Football is a game, especially if you're the visiting team like us, you have to be happy with four, five-yard carries. My motto is just, playing so physical, the defense is gonna start taking wrong angles. The defense isn't gonna wanna tackle someone that's running full speed at them every play," he said after the game.

Walker is now the undisputed RB1 in Madison. When Chez Mellusi was still with the team, the two backs just about split their carries right down the middle. With Mellusi sidelined indefinitely, Walker has been able to post weeks of 19 and 24 carries back-to-back. As a bruising, physical runner, that's the kind of workload that he needs. He gets better as the game goes on, and that was extremely evident Saturday.

Walker's 55-yard touchdown run was the longest rush by a Badger so far this season. It came in the fourth quarter, which further exemplifies the point above. As the game wears on, as the season wears on, Walker has only gotten better.

"I do think he's getting healthier. It was a unique situation in the first game, in the first series, he's in there and he gets dinged up. I also think that he's getting himself into a groove. There is an ability for the offensive line and the running backs to work hand-in-hand," head coach Luke Fickell said. "I think that's what we're seeing with Tawee, and those guys' ability to understand the things that he does well, and how we can continue to rely on him."

Darrion Dupree is now the firm RB2, and Cade Yacamelli continues to run well. But this is Walker's backfield in Madison until further notice.

An early cause for concern, Wisconsin's run defense has made legitimate strides in the past two games. Against Purdue, the Boilermakers were unable to get anything going on the ground to the tune of 99 yards, although that number is deceptive: 35 of those yards came on one carry on which Purdue's halfback fumbled. Against Rutgers and the Big Ten's second-leading rusher Kyle Monangai, the Badgers limited the star tailback to 72 yards on 3.8 yards-per-carry, his worst output of the season.

"I think the edges were a really critical point for us today. Our ability to control the edges, we had to be able to do it. I thought that's where they did a great job, and the back is really patient so we had to make sure we were patient as well," Fickell said. "But also to mix up the edges gave us a chance; they couldn't just tee off knowing where we were. Darryl Peterson, Aaron Witt, Leon Lowery who's a jersey kid, they took some pride in the challenge that I laid upon them on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, that that was going to be a major factor in this ballgame, how we control the edges."

Purdue is obviously a struggling program in every facet, but Rutgers — especially its running game — is no laughing matter. Monangai is a legit NFL talent and the Scarlet Knights were a top-30 rushing offense in the nation entering Saturday's game.

For the most part, Wisconsin was able to gang tackle and play sound gap assignment football. The run fits appear to get better each and every week. Mike Tressel's unit may just be rounding into form.

Despite the back-to-back lopsided scores the past two weeks, Wisconsin hasn't exactly steamrolled anybody without some hiccups. Against Purdue, Braedyn Locke threw two first half interceptions. Against Rutgers, Locke threw an interception on the Badgers' second drive. In both instances, the Badgers flushed the play and played better after the mistake.

"It's showed up the last two weeks. Our ability, when something happens, we've learned from some of those situations that we haven't done really well. The first game, when we dropped punts. The second game when we dropped punts. Or even when Tyler Van Dyke went down, our ability to kinda handle some of those situations. I'll tell ya, these guys are maturing and growing in front of our face in everything that we're doing. The plays shows it, but there's a lot of other things that show it as well," Fickell said.

Against Alabama, a brutal final two minutes of the first half seemed to doom the Badgers. In Los Angeles, Wisconsin surrendered the momentum immediately in the third quarter and never recovered. Against two admittedly lesser foes, the Badgers haven't let the punches they've taken knock them out. To the contrary, they've seemingly only made them stronger.

Locke managing to bounce back from his interceptions has been especially critical. As a young quarterback and newfound leader of this team in the wake of Van Dyke's injury, his demeanor and on-field response to adversity has a disproportionate effect on the Badgers' response when things go wrong.

"The interception was completely on me. Throwing a deep ball post into cover two was a pretty stupid decision. But I was proud of our team, the way we responded, the way we didn't get satisfied at any point in the game," Locke said in Jersey.

Complimentary football has a lot to do with this as well, and both the offense and defense appear to be trending upwards as Wisconsin hits the midway point in the season. But quite simply, this team is playing with more swagger and confidence, not letting an inevitable mistake here or there be their death knell.

This is a larger question moving forward, as improved performances from both the offensive line and front seven have been a major catalyst for the Badgers' improved play as of late. But it's also a pertinent question heading into Northwestern week; Fickell wasn't shy about condemning Wisconsin's play at the line of scrimmage in its loss to the Wildcats last season, the lowest point of the coach's debut campaign.

"They're physical. They play well up front. I thought last year they controlled the line of scrimmage, and particularly better than any other game that we played last year. And when I say they controlled the line of scrimmage, that's probably me not wanting to say that they dominated us up front on both sides of the ball, but in a lot of ways, they dominated us up front on both sides of the ball and in a lot of other areas," he said Monday.

Northwestern's offensive line has been a curious case. They've been rock solid in pass protection, allowing just seven sacks through six games. However, their rushing game checks in at 104th in the nation in terms of yards-per-game.

On the flip side, Northwestern's defensive line has been extremely stout. The Wildcats only allow 87.5 rushing yards-per-game, good for No. 9 nationally. The Badgers offensive line will need to continue its strong play.

"We've had consistency up front, in particular, across the board, and I don't just mean that with how the same five guys start. We've been relatively free of some injuries, and other guys have had to play. But I think their ability to figure out what it is that they do well and play together. I think that's where we're doing a really good job up front,” Fickell said.

Wisconsin barely put any pressure on Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis in Piscataway, but it oddly didn't matter. According to Pro Football Focus, Wisconsin pressured the quarterback 11 times, which was just under one third of his drop-backs. That's a questionable number; it felt like significantly less. Either way, he wasn't sacked and was only hit once.

Still, the Badgers largely dominated on defense. They certainly controlled the trenches, limiting the Scarlet Knights' running game all afternoon. But again, they did it without generating pressure, which is curious to say the least.

"I think a lot of that was discipline in the back end. They showed pretty similar pictures, similar concepts a lot. So it's just kinda being disciplined on the back end," safety Preston Zachman offered after the game as to how the Badgers still managed to be successful even without a pass-rush.

That won't work against everybody; Wisconsin still needs to find a way to apply pressure to opposing quarterbacks. If the Badgers' pass-rush is another no-show against Northwestern, can they win in Evanston?

Locke has fooled me before with seemingly improved play only to crumble the next week, but Saturday in New Jersey was a big step for the quarterback. He followed up his career performance against Purdue with another much-improved outing, continuing to display development in the process. Locke is starting to stack good games, and he's playing like someone I wouldn't bet against right now.

As mentioned, Northwestern is stout against the run. If the Badgers can't establish a rhythm on the ground, that'll certainly hurt Locke's chances of logging another stellar performance. But the Wildcats are also bottom-20 against the pass, allowing 261.2 yards-per-game through the air. That's an interesting dichotomy, but one that should put the game in Locke's hands.

When he walked into the visiting media room for his post-game presser after eviscerating Rutgers, Locke dripped confidence. "Oh, there's a podium here?" he said with mock excitement. "That might be the nicest part of the stadium."

Again, that doesn't sound like a man I would bet against. "Locketober" rolls on in Evanston.

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