Looking like a team that had lost a key piece to its puzzle, the Wisconsin Badger offense sputtered out of control on Saturday with an ineffectiveness that left people wondering what the team’s potential really is.

“I guess when it rains, it pours,” offensive coordinator Brian White said after the game. “We did not give our football team a chance to win today under any circumstance.”

Through the first two weeks of the season, the Badger offense looked like a unit putting the finishing touches on what was to become one of the nation’s most feared attacks, but in its 23-5 loss to UNLV, it committed five turnovers and gave up eight sacks to a Rebels’ team that allowed Kansas 46 points a week ago.

“They beat us in every phase,” said head coach Barry Alvarez. “They out-coached us, they outplayed us and that’s what can happen in this game if you don’t take care of the football. Anybody can beat you.”

When quarterback Jim Sorgi wasn’t being chased by Rebels, his passes were often off target and overthrown. The Jim Sorgi of yesteryear who played not to lose was back at Camp Randall and the result was atrocious.

“There are no excuses,” Alvarez said. “I’m not going to try and sit here and figure out why he didn’t throw it well.”

In all, Sorgi completed just 11 of 25 passes for 222 yards and two interceptions. With Wisconsin down 10-5 and just under 10 minutes left in the first half, the Badger offense took the field. After a 27-yard run by sophomore Dwayne Smith, the Badgers were poised to push the ball into Rebel territory. Sorgi dropped back to pass, and the ball deflected off Brandon Williams’ fingertips, into the arms of Jamaal Brimmer. The Las Vegas junior returned his first career interception to the Wisconsin 14-yard line, setting up a UNLV touchdown three plays later.

“We shot ourselves in the foot, and that’s one thing we can correct,” Williams said. “Here, we pride ourselves on taking care of the ball and things like that, and we didn’t do that today, and we didn’t put ourselves in a position to win.”

The Badgers started the third quarter down 16-5 and looking to mount a comeback. After a 16-yard Smith run started the second half, Sorgi once again overthrew his intended receiver, Jonathon Orr, resulting in both his and Brimmer’s second interception of the day. Brimmer would return the pick to the Wisconsin 24, setting up another UNLV touchdown and giving the Rebels an 18-point lead.

“You [have] got to hold on to the football,” Alvarez said. “You can’t give somebody points like that … you just can’t keep giving them field position.”

The Badgers did win the field positioning game for a majority of the first quarter. After a UNLV field goal, the Badgers drove the ball to the Rebels’ 6-yard line on a 37-yard screen pass from Sorgi to Smith. With two blockers in front of him on the play, Smith may have been able to score, had he not gotten tangled up in his own linemen. On the next play from scrimmage, Smith fumbled and UNLV recovered.

The UW defense forced UNLV to a three and out, and the Badgers took over on offense at midfield. Smith was once again called upon to carry the ball, and for his second straight touch, he coughed it up. This time Jamaal Brimmer scooped up the loose ball and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown. On the day, Brimmer had two interceptions, two sacks and the fumble recovery, returned for a touchdown.

“I had a horrible day,” Smith said after the game. “I fumbled the ball twice. Once we were on the goaline and we had an opportunity to score, and that could have given us a lot of momentum and changed the game around.”

Smith wasn’t the only Badger to fumble on Saturday. After a huge 28-yard catch by Brandon Williams in the third quarter, UW had the ball on the UNLV 26-yard line, looking to cut into the 23-5 Rebel lead. Williams made his second catch of the drive at the 18-yard line. Refusing to be tackled, Williams twisted and turned to fight off Rebel defenders. Unfortunately for the Badgers, Williams was never tackled on the play and linebacker Ryan Claridge eventually jarred the ball loose, leading to UNLV’s third fumble recovery of the game. Jerone Pettus also put the ball on the ground in the fourth quarter, but recovered the fumble himself.

“I would say that today’s performance would qualify as any offensive coordinator’s worst nightmare, particularly mine,” Bryan White said after the game. “But it happens. It wasn’t a nightmare, it was reality, and my job specifically as offensive coordinator is to find some solutions.”

Lending to the nightmare were eight quarterback sacks given up by the Badgers. UW lost 67 yards on those eight plays, leading to a continual frustration and lack of rhythm in the offensive unit.

“It’s frustrating, in general, anytime you run all that way and look back, and you’ve got a busted play,” wide receiver Lee Evans said. “Turning the ball over like we did and giving up eight sacks … it’s tough to win in a game like that.”

It was the most sacks Wisconsin has allowed since Northern Illinois a year ago, in a game the Badgers won 24-21.

“The blitzing that they did was the same blitzing we saw on tape,” Brandon Williams said. “Today they executed the defensive scheme that they had and they made the plays when they had to make the plays.”

All day, the Badger defense was put in a hole by poor offensive execution, and with their backs against the goal line, they were unable to stop the Rebels in some key situations. Although UW led UNLV in almost every offensive category, it was eventually the turnovers, sacks and third-down efficiency that prevented the Badgers from getting into the endzone.

“The effort was there. Brandon Williams is trying to make a play and, you know, a fumble … and Dwayne [Smith is] trying to get that extra yardage, [and] … a fumble, and they return it for a touchdown,” Sorgi said. “It’s not effort. Everybody’s out there giving 110 percent. But it’s just knowing when to be smart with the football.”

The Badgers couldn’t build any momentum at all as turnovers led to three Rebel touchdowns. The team’s five turnovers for were the most since it committed seven against Northwestern in 1995.

“It’s a real sick feeling, seeing your fans walk out with eight-to-nine minutes left,” safety Jim Leonhard said. “I probably would have if I was one of them, too. I mean, it was ugly.”