COLUMBUS, OHIO -- Wisconsin held tight with No. 3 Ohio State until the Badgers met a Buckeyes buzzsaw that resulted in four consecutive touchdown drives en route to a 38-7 loss inside Ohio Stadium.

BadgerBlitz.com presents a quick notebook to dive into more what was said and heard from Saturday's game.

While Ohio State running back J.K. Dobbins gashed Wisconsin's defense to the tune of 163 yards on 20 carries and two touchdowns -- particularly in the second half where he gained 112 on just nine touches -- Chase Young and the Buckeyes enveloped the Badgers' offense and its ground game.

Heading into the game, UW averaged 235.4 rushing yards, good for 17th in the nation. OSU, which came into the contest second in the FBS in run defense (92.7 yards), limited them to 83 on 2.4 yards per carry. The Buckeyes clamped down on anything junior running back Jonathan Taylor could muster in a 20-carry, 52-yard performance.

Two of Taylor's carries went for 26 yards. He gained just 26 on the other 18 touches.

Head coach Paul Chryst was asked after that game that with the struggles running the ball at times, if that was all on the offensive line. Before the reporter could even finish the question, the leader of the Wisconsin football program responded, "No."

"It's definitely not all on the o-line. It's definitely not on 'JT.' It's 11 on offense versus 11 on defense, and I know you guys know that," Chryst said. "It takes everything, and when they're doing certain things, they had a good plan. They came out and kind of went with a heavy look when we were in our couple personnel groups, and we weren't consistent enough in it, and we didn't, and when I say that, running and/or passing. Because you can chase them out. No secret, you're going to take away 'JT' or try to, and to say that it all goes on one group, one unit, I think that's wrong."

A reporter asked redshirt junior left tackle Cole Van Lanen if there is a gap where UW is and Ohio State is in at the level that the Buckeyes are playing at. His answer descended into how OSU played a particular way that seemingly threw off the offense.

“I wouldn’t say that," Van Lanen said. "I mean we came in ready to roll. Like I said, we had a game plan, and they schemed us in a way where we didn’t see any of it all year, and then now we’re digging in, trying to find just things that work and that’s really hard, and that’s what Illinois did too. Now we’re expecting that’s what’s going to happen. People are just going to scheme on things that they see other teams do that we either struggle on, things that we’ve never seen a team do before. I think that’s what's going to happen going forward, so now I think that’s how we’re going to have to game plan going forward.

"That’s just what they did today, and it was very frustrating. We had a lot of good plays coming in. It just they didn’t play the defense they normally do on some things.”

Did Ohio State "borrow" some looks from what Illinois did against Wisconsin a week prior?

"There was a pressure that we were kind of expecting it," Van Lanen said, "because they have kind of a similar defense that they could use, and I believe they used it a little bit on the run."

Perhaps one of the bright spots from the game was when sophomore wide receiver Aron Cruickshank lined up in a Wildcat formation as a pseudo-quarterback, took the snap in a shotgun look and ran 27 yards for a first down early in the game.

That run accounted for 14.1 percent of Wisconsin's offense and 32.5 percent of its rushing attack on Saturday.

"I mean they weren't expecting it, so I feel like we did [catch them off guard]," Cruickshank said.

According to Cruickshank, the offense started working on that about two weeks ago. It was not necessarily a new formation for the second-year receiver, as he played quarterback at Brooklyn (NY) Erasmus Hall.

With the ability to run out of that look or potentially use an RPO, dual-threat like concept, could there also be a potential throwing opportunity for Cruickshank?

"I don't want to say right now, but I hope it's coming."

Wisconsin now sits two games behind Minnesota for the Big Ten West division lead before a critical four-game stretch where it cannot afford a loss -- and for that matter, some help will be needed.

Before November, however, the team will take in its second bye week of the 2019 season. The timing bodes well after a couple of consecutive, stinging defeats, each different in nature.

"I think every bye week you have things to work on as an individual aspect, as a group aspect," center Tyler Biadasz said. "I think you could take away some of things that you've had since the last bye. You can kind of see where maybe you're struggling or where you're getting better and where you can just get better as an individual self and as a group and be sharp. I think we do a good job of honing in on what we need to get better at each week. Coach [Joe] Rudolph, as an o-line perspective, really gives us the honest truth, and that's what we want. There's going to be tough times where we're going to have tough looks, and we're just going to make it happen. Today, like I said before, if one guy is off, the whole play could be off so I think we need to just get better as a group."

Biadasz also mentioned going forward they have to learn from this, to not let it drag them down but bring them up.

"That bite that we had, it's still biting, so we got to come back and come back stronger than we ever have."

From Cruickshank's vantage point, the team has to stick together to help it get back on track after the bye week.

"Let's flush it and then just move on," Cruickshank said. "We have a bye week, let's get our body right and just move on to the next game we have."

There are still four more games this regular season and an opportunity for a Big Ten West division title. Inside linebacker Chris Orr said that will the team's focus.

"November football coming up, that's championship football," Orr said. "We still have pretty much almost all of our opponents from the West left. One of our goals is to win the West, so we're going to come through this bye week, get healthy, heal from this game, learn from these mistakes, and try to do that."