[media-credit name=’Derek Montgomery’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]I know that it amounts, more or less, to sacrilege in Wisconsin — suggesting what I'm about to suggest.

But I'm going to suggest it anyway, because Barry Alvarez's squad has the right talent to pull it off and because the system that John Stocco is running right now — you know, the one where the Badgers complete like eight passes per game and barely score– is just downright ugly (boring? futile? weak? A lot of adjectives would work).

UW should try running an option offense.

Give the idea a chance; look at it logically. The Badgers have no passing game at this point … none, whatsoever. They've completed 56 passes in five games; they have a mere 660 total yards in the air on the season. Purdue's Kyle Orton, for the record, has almost twice as many completions and more than twice as many yards — and he's only played four games.

"We've got to get better," Alvarez said bluntly after watching his team put up six fewer points against the Illini than Western Michigan had put up against them two weeks earlier. "Offensively, we've just got to get better."

At this point it's time to admit the problem and come to terms with it. The running game isn't an issue. It was good with Bernstein; it was good with Stanley; it was good with Walker. It's great with Davis. Behind a dominant offensive line, Davis will probably run for a buck or a buck-fifty no matter how much UW's opponents focus on stopping him.

But no team can survive with one threat on the offensive side of the ball; therein lies the problem: no one is intimidated by the UW passing threat. No one is worried that the Badgers may come out and torch their secondary. No one thinks that maybe Wisconsin will start utilizing its receivers (who have caught a grand total of 29 passes this season). Everyone knows this team is going to live and die on the ground.

And if teams lean heavily enough on Badger running backs, UW will continue to put up around 20 points per game and will continue to rank dead last in the Big Ten in offense no matter how well "AD" plays.

"You can't just let [Davis] run; you can't just watch," Stocco commented after the game (in which he completed nine passes for 99 yards and no touchdowns and Davis ran the ball 27 times for 213 yards and three touchdowns). "You've got to try to execute the offense around him and get some things done."

Stocco said it himself: the Badgers need another option on offense. If they can't throw the ball, where else do they have to turn except to a running threat under center?

Marcus Randle El and Tyler Donovan are waiting patiently on the sidelines to answer that question. With either one at quarterback the Badgers would have scary option running attack. Imagine Randle El, Bernstein and Davis all on the field ready to run the ball — I guarantee other teams don't want to.

It's not that Stocco has been bad. He hasn't turned the ball over much, hasn't made bad decisions for the most part and has certainly been gaining poise in pocket (a professional quality offensive line will help do that). And he is 5-0 as a starter.

It's just that he doesn't really bring anything to the field for the Badgers. He doesn't throw well — the passes he did complete Saturday usually required receivers to cut back to the ball and the ones he didn't were nowhere close. He has a strong arm and a good head, but he's been off the mark far more often than he's been on it in 2004. And — though he has looked decent when UW's run the bootleg — Stocco definitely doesn't have the wheels to be a threat on the ground.

I don't necessarily like the option offense more than anyone else. It tends to take some of the flash out of football. But that doesn't change the fact that what Wisconsin is doing isn't working. For UW right now, an option just may be the only good option.