When the No. 19 Northwestern Wildcats (4-1, 0-1 Big Ten) visit Madison Saturday for a Big Ten matchup with Wisconsin (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten), a lot more is on the line for both teams than just another “W” in the win column.
Sitting at one loss apiece in the Big Ten so far, courtesy of Ohio State in consecutive weeks, Wisconsin now sits a game back from leading Ohio State, while Northwestern fell behind Legends frontrunners Michigan, Nebraska and Michigan State.
One more loss by either team could dash both teams’ Big Ten Championship dreams for the 2013 season.
While Northwestern still has its fate in its own hands, with an important game scheduled with likely title contender Michigan in Evanston, Ill. next month, Wisconsin’s loss to Ohio State on Sept. 28 leaves them with just one option: win out the remaining games on the schedule.
“It’s definitely a motivating factor,” redshirt sophomore cornerback Darius Hillary said. “Things happened in the Ohio State game that we didn’t want to happen, but we just have to put that behind us and take every game one at a time moving forward.”
Coming off of its first of two bye weeks this season, Wisconsin will benefit from the return of a number of players who were dealing with injuries over the past week, including redshirt sophomore running back Melvin Gordon, redshirt junior center Dallas Lewallen and junior wide receiver/kick returner Kenzel Doe.
For head coach Gary Andersen, the break could not have come at a better time.
“In the bye week, preparation is to evaluate ourselves as coaches, and we do that, evaluate the team as a whole, and try to make sure that we’re using the kids the best we can to help them win football games,” Andersen said at a press conference Monday.
“That’s important, and I guess that comes with different structure, different ideas and different philosophies that you look at that you may not have time to evaluate during a normal week game.”
Wisconsin currently boasts a four-game active win streak against Northwestern at home, but the team it will face Saturday has a different look to it than in previous years when it handled the Wildcats easily, winning 41-9 in 2006 and 70-3 in 2010.
During the past two seasons, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald has used an unconventional two-quarterback system on offense featuring redshirt junior quarterback Trevor Siemian and senior quarterback Cain Kolter.
While the season still may only be a couple of months in, the combo has already proved their effectiveness during Northwestern’s first five games when the Wildcats reached as high as No. 16 in the rankings before falling to No. 19 after a close contest with Ohio State last Saturday.
Together Kolter and Siemian are averaging more than 250 passing yards per game, although Siemain has taken the bulk of the passes, attempting nearly twice as many passes as Kolter and averaging 183.2 passing yards alone in 2013. The two have also thrown for a combined nine touchdowns.
Despite Siemian’s reputation as a slightly more effective passer than Kolter, Kolter’s involvement in the game is more than just a gimmick. The senior is a triple-threat quarterback who has completed 83 percent of his passes, has rushed for an average of 50 yards per game and, most recently, has been used as a wide receiver as well — catching one pass for a nine-yard touchdown from Siemian against Ohio State.
With both quarterbacks in the game and sometimes even on the field at the same time, Saturday will present its difficulties. Hillary said both quarterbacks have different enough strengths that whoever is under center will likely give away much about the play.
“We’ve seen a couple of tendencies that one quarterback has and one that the other has,” Hillary said. “We definitely don’t bank on that, but that helps us and kind of gives us a measure of what we are supposed to expect … [and] how we should play from there.”
Add to their dynamic passing game Doak Walker Award watchlist running back Venric Mark and Northwestern boasts a balanced attack that won’t be easy to shutdown.
On offense, things don’t get much easier for Wisconsin.
The Wildcat defense has forced three fumbles and 11 interceptions this season, most recently forcing No. 4 Ohio State to turn the ball over three times Oct. 5 in Evanston.
Coming into the season, turnovers were also a big area of emphasis for Wisconsin’s defense as well. However, Wisconsin has been far less successful in 2013, earning four interceptions and three fumbles this season.
“That’s been our emphasis from day one, ever since [defensive coordinator Dave Aranda] walked in the door,” redshirt senior linebacker Ethan Armstrong said. “We started out doing a pretty good job of it, but over the last week or two we didn’t get … what we wanted. That’s something that we have been focusing on in practice to reverse.”
Armstrong, who has recorded one fumble recovery this season, believes the turnover ratio could be the critical statistic Saturday afternoon as both teams have offenses that are plenty capable of putting points on the board.
Either way, Armstrong and Co. realize they will be the underdogs as they try to climb their way back into the Big Ten Championship game for a third-straight year.
“It’s a big game, and we need to perform well. We need to go out and win it,” Armstrong said. “Flat out, to accomplish the things that we want to accomplish this season, we need to win every game on the rest of our schedule.”
