Five Burning Questions: Purdue Boilermakers vs. Wisconsin Badgers

BadgerBlitz.com rekindles its "Five Burning Questions" series this week as No. 14 Wisconsin hopes to continue its dominant win streak against an injury-riddled Purdue program.

Wisconsin has had success running the ball against Purdue in recent memory, especially with the junior back in the mix. Facing the Boilermakers twice in his UW career, Taylor has gained 540 yards on 63 carries with four rushing scores to his name.

Of course, 321 of those yards came in the triple-overtime thriller in West Lafayette last season.

This season, Purdue has allowed 172.2 yards per game on the ground. Wisconsin's offensive line has helped Taylor go over 200 yards the past two games and overall has gained 300-plus as a team in those post-bye wins.

How dominant has the run game been against the Big Ten foe? Since the start of the decade, Wisconsin has only missed going over 200 yards rushing twice: 2010 (173 yards) and 2015 (96).

This streak nearly came to an end with that 47-44 contest that went to three extra periods last year. However, more is on the line for Wisconsin this weekend with keeping pace in the Big Ten West race as the team controls its own path to Indianapolis.

In the 13 straight wins, only three contests have ended within one possession (2004, 2017, 2018).

Some quick facts, courtesy of UW's game notes:

*Wisconsin has won six consecutive games against Purdue inside Camp Randall Stadium.

*This is the third-longest current win streak a conference program has over another Big Ten opponent. Only Ohio State's and Michigan's respective streaks against Indiana (24 and 23) have sustained longer durations. For that matter, the Badgers have won 10 consecutive victories against the Hoosiers as well.

GoldandBlack.com's Tom Dienhart laid out some of the injury updates from head coach Jeff Brohm on Monday.

Sophomore sensation Rondale Moore has only played in two games this season due to a hamstring issue, and defensive lineman Lorenzo Neal has not played at all in 2019. From Dienhart's article:

“We are as hopeful as you that at some point both of those guys will be back,” said Jeff Brohm at his Monday press conference. “It’s still at the point we’ll see if they can practice this week. As we get going on Tuesday, we'll see what they can do and how they feel. And really, until that truly happens, I can’t be truly optimistic. But, I’m hopeful that eventually it can happen.”

Moore torched Wisconsin for 114 yards on nine receptions with two touchdowns last year.

It also does not appear starting quarterback Elijah Sindelar or center Viktor Beach will play this week against UW as well.

Jim Leonhard's defense currently sits at 37 sacks through 10 games -- 3.7 per contest -- which ranks fourth in the FBS. They need one against Purdue to double up on its total from a year prior, but they need five overall to match the numbers put up by a dominant 2017 unit.

Inside linebacker Chris Orr already has registered double digits in sacks (10), while outside linebacker Zack Baun is knocking on the door with 9.5. Purdue has given up 25 on the season through 10 games. With Aidan O'Connell (68.1 completion percentage, 404 yards, three touchdowns, two interceptions) likely to get the nod at quarterback on Saturday, can the Badgers rattle the backup?

Dienhart tweeted Brohm's thoughts on Wisconsin's defense, and it has become apparent the Badgers can have issues against offenses that utilize a more spread-like scheme.

Last week in Lincoln, UW gave up 493 yards of offense to the Huskers -- including a season-high 273 on the ground that nearly included two 100-yard rushers in running back Dedrick Mills (188 yards on 17 carries) and quarterback Adrian Martinez (89 on 16)

Illinois' Reggie Corbin, along with Ohio State's dynamic duo in the backfield of J.K. Dobbins and Justin Fields, have also gashed UW for significant chunk plays since mid-October.

Heading into this week, Wisconsin now faces its third team coming off a bye in as many weeks. How Brohm and his offense tries to stretch the Badgers' defense and stress each players' 1/11th of responsibility will be something to watch.

“I got a lot of respect for Jeff as a football coach, and as best you can, getting to know him as a person," head coach Paul Chryst said on Monday regarding Brohm and his offensive creativity and aggressiveness. "I think you hit the two things. It is very creative, and yet one thing I respect and appreciate is still you still see the fundamentals and you see the, it’s not just, ‘Oh I saw this play and we’re going to run it.’ In a different way, it makes you defend a lot of the field and have different things off of kind of the base play. I think it’s really well designed and then they’re executing it and that’s the combination. I think he does a great job of kind of using, and we’ve seen it really, how he uses the personnel and kind of accordingly to what he has and who he has.

"Again it’s a different offense that we have to defend this week, and I think that’s why it’s important that we have a great week of preparation.”