After suffering a heartbreaking loss to Purdue last week, senior captain Lee Evans and the UW football team knew they needed to bounce back and pick up a victory if they wanted to stay in the hunt for the 2003 Big Ten championship.

Jason Wright and the Northwestern Wildcats proved to be too much Saturday, however, and the Badgers dropped their second conference game of the season with a score of 16-7.

“It’s disappointing because we all knew how important this game was for us,” Evans said. “We looked at this as a must-win. We wanted to come out with a worker’s mentality, come out here and work for four quarters and come out with a win. But they out-hit us, they out-toughed us and we just didn’t play very well.”

After a porous offensive start to the game by both teams, Wisconsin was able to march down the field and put senior place kicker Scott Campbell into field-goal range with 4:48 remaining in the first quarter. Campbell’s 36-yard attempt sailed wide right and the Wildcats opened the game’s scoring on their ensuing possession with a 53-yard touchdown pass to star tailback Jason Wright.

Northwestern’s extra-point attempt was blocked, but Wright and the Wildcats’ spread formation caused the Badger defense problems all day long, registering 421 yards of offense on 75 plays.

“We didn’t expect them to run the ball on us as well as they did,” UW free safety Jim Leonhard said. “We knew they were going to try and spread us out … and that’s what they did. They had more success than we thought they would.”

Wisconsin tailback Dwayne Smith scored UW’s lone touchdown of the afternoon on an 18-yard run with 6:55 remaining in the first half, and after a 25-yard field goal by the Wildcats’ Brian Huffman, Wisconsin headed into halftime trailing 9-7.

Despite not playing with much rhythm, the Badgers were still in the game heading into halftime. But according to Evans, the enthusiasm just wasn’t there to carry UW in the second half.

“Coming into halftime we just kept saying, ‘we’ve gotta get up and get into this game,'” said Evans, who had six receptions for 90 yards. “Even though we didn’t play very well going into half, we were only down by two points. We had our opportunities coming in … but the spark that we needed, the emotion wasn’t there.”

After a series of defensive stops by both teams in the second half, Northwestern was able to drive down to UW’s 27-yard line with just under four minutes left to play in the third quarter.

The Badger defense made a stand, putting the Wildcats in a fourth-and-six situation, but Northwestern incorporated a trick play and tailback Noah Herron sprinted to the outside and ran it to the UW one-yard line before being pushed out of bounds. Jason Wright scored his second touchdown of the game two plays later, putting the Wildcats up 16-7.

“We anticipated some tricks in the kicking game,” UW head coach Barry Alvarez said. “We had our field team out there to play it. But the guys lost the ball … the ball was hidden, it laid on the ground. You get movement and someone picks it up … it’s a trick play. You can’t practice every play. But somebody has to recognize it.”

UW defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove, like Alvarez, said Wisconsin anticipated Northwestern’s potential to use a trick play, especially after having two kicks blocked earlier in the game.

“We were in field-goal safe the whole game; we didn’t try to block it once,” Cosgrove said. “We anticipated they would fake, especially after those first two kicks. The kids were alerted and we were in a field-goal safe … but [Herron] got outside of us on the one edge when they reversed the field, and we just didn’t react to it the way we needed to.”

Despite being beaten by the fake play and trailing 16-7, UW still had opportunities to win the game.

UW co-captain Jim Leonhard was able to come up with a diving interception shortly after the start of the fourth quarter, giving the Badgers the ball at the Northwestern 33-yard line with 13:06 left to play. After being forced into a three-and-out, Campbell lined up for his second attempt of the day from 40 yards out. His kick, however, sailed wide left and the Badgers came up empty once again.

“[The missed field goals] were disappointing,” Leonhard said. “But that’s when you’ve gotta get everyone together and tell them, ‘We need to get another one. We’ve gotta get it back again.’ [The offense] is struggling, and the defense has to do whatever it can.”

After another stand by Leonhard and company, the Badger offense got the ball back with 6:48 remaining. UW backup quarterback Matt Schabert was able to pick up a few first downs and marched the Badgers as deep as the Northwestern 45-yard line. But the Badger offense once again sputtered out and turned the ball over on downs with just 2:49 left to play.

“We didn’t have very much personality offensively today,” Evans said. “Our defense kept us in the game. They had a couple big stands and got a couple turnovers … but offensively we just couldn’t get it rolling.”

After Anthony Davis left the game with an ankle sprain in the game’s first half, the Badgers were never able to establish a consistent running game, which, according to Evans, contributed to UW’s demise Saturday.

“The basic chemistry of this team is to establish the run … so when you don’t establish the run, you know, in our offense it’s hard,” Evans said. “You’ve got to try to do different things and they sit on some things and try to put you into a predictable situation. And if the defense can get you to do that, than they have a chance at being successful.”

Wisconsin will have a week off before heading to Minnesota to play the No. 19-ranked Golden Gophers. Among other things, the Badgers will focus on getting starting place kicker Mike Allen, quarterback Jim Sorgi and running back Anthony Davis healthy with the time off.

“We need this (week off),” Alvarez said. “We need this to recharge. We need it to get some guys healthy; we’re a battered football team. So, this week will come in handy.”

“Well, you get a week to clear your mind and get refocused,” added Coach Cosgove. “It is tough … but we’ve got to regroup.”