The Wisconsin defense is coming off its best performance of the 2003 campaign, and it came against defending national champion Ohio State. After holding the Buckeyes to just 10 points, senior linebacker Jeff Mack knows the Badgers must refocus and turn their attention to the potent offense of Purdue.
“We have to play the next game. Ohio State is done with,” Mack said, “That’s over with now; it’s in the past.”
This year’s Boilermaker offense is not the same run-and-gun passing attack that featured Purdue great Drew Brees. After six games, Joe Tiller’s rushing attack ranks third in the Big Ten, averaging 190.3 yards per contest. Wisconsin defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove says the key to stopping Purdue is stopping the run.
“They’ve had a lot of success running the football right now,” Cosgrove said, “As with any team you play, you have to be good against the run, because if you’re not good against the run, it gives them two things, you can either run or throw.”
Mack echoed Cosgrove’s thoughts and said the key is to make Purdue one-dimensional.
“When you stop the run, you can kind of dictate what the offense does,” he said. “They have to pass now. If you stop them on first-and-10, you get them in second-and-nine, they’re going to have to pass … you limit the number of things they can do.”
Purdue has also had success its traditional way, throwing the ball. Thus far, the Boilermakers rank fourth in the Big Ten in passing offense. Early this year, the Badgers had trouble against the spread passing attack of Akron, giving up 372 yards through the air to the Zips. Cosgrove downplayed the poor performance against Akron.
“They’re really two different offenses,” he said.
Junior cornerback Scott Starks believes the game against Akron, as well as some of Wisconsin’s other games, served as a learning experience this season.
“They will prepare us a lot. We’ve played against some pretty good quarterbacks,” Starks said, “We expect the ball to be flying around a lot, just like in … the Illinois and Akron games. We just have to be on our P’s and Q’s and play our techniques and our responsibilities to the fullest.”
Mack couldn’t agree more with Starks.
“With the assortment of teams we’ve played that have a passing offense … obviously it always helps you, because you’ve seen some of that type of stuff before,” he said, “You’ve seen the spread offense before, you’ve seen good wide receivers before … you’ve seen all of the different caliber of wide receivers or different caliber of formations and offenses already.”
Purdue will feature two good receivers in Taylor Stubblefield and John Standeford. Starks thinks that playing against Ohio State’s Michael Jenkins and Drew Carter will have the Badgers’ secondary ready.
“They have some pretty solid wideouts. I think O State were some of the best receivers I’ve ever seen, but they rank right up there with O State,” Starks said.
Cosgrove also expressed concern about Boilermaker quarterback Kyle Orton’s ability to scramble for yards in the passing game.
“Kyle’s a big, strong, physical guy,” Cosgrove said, “He’s a drop-back guy, but he has no problem; if there’s pressure or he just sees an opening in the pass rush where he can pull the ball down and run, he has no problem doing that. He’s been very effective at running the football.”
While the Badgers will be trying to stop an intricate Purdue scheme with multiple weapons, Mack says it all comes down to one of the simplest things in football.
“Execute the defense called. That’s pretty much it. Just execute what we have called.”