One characteristic of a successful sports team is its ability to bounce back.

This holds true for football teams, especially their defenses. UW’s defense gets the chance to rebound from its tough loss when it travels to Evanston this Saturday to take on Northwestern.

“We’re getting ready to jump right back this week,” linebacker Alex Lewis said.

Senior captain and fellow linebacker Jeff Mack echoed those statements.

“We’re still confident and can’t wait to get back on the field Saturday,” Mack said.

The Badger’s defense got off to a rough start last week, giving up two quick drives for touchdowns in the first quarter and offering little resistance.

“We weren’t into the speed of the game yet,” defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove said.

The defense quickly recovered, made some adjustments, and didn’t allow a touchdown in the final three quarters of the game.

“We had to change up our coverages a little and blitz a little more to make some plays,” Cosgrove said.

The Badgers started blitzing Lewis more and had him pass rush when the defense was in its nickel set. The plan seemed to work. Lewis finished with five sacks, six and a half tackles behind the line of scrimmage, and one forced fumble that Mack returned for a touchdown.

“I look forward to helping out any way I can,” Lewis said.

Cosgrove was pleased with the defense’s play, especially with the way they bounced back from their terrible start.

“I thought we did a lot of good things,” he said. “Purdue has a great offense that will move the ball on any team, and once we got settled down, I thought the kids competed well.”

The Badgers’ defense was particularly impressive on one Boilermaker drive when they dominated the line of scrimmage on seven consecutive plays from inside the five-yard line, forcing Purdue to kick a field goal.

Even with their encouraging play in the second half, Mack knows what the defense has to do better if they want to shut Northwestern down.

“Execution. We need to execute every play (the) coach calls, and also make corrections on the field,” he said.

The Wisconsin defense may have a greater challenge this week than most people think.

Northwestern is led by running back Jason Wright, who is third in the Big Ten in rushing, averaging 110 yards per game.

“He’s a very good back,” Cosgrove said. “He’s a big, strong, physical kid, and they have a good scheme for him.”

Mack looks forward to the challenge of stopping Wright.

“Any time you face a good running back, you want to shut him down,” Mack said, “and hopefully we will be able to get the job done Saturday.”

One thing the Badgers cannot do is look past Northwestern and have a big letdown. Mack and Lewis are both confident that this will not happen Saturday.

“We just have to bounce back this week and not look ahead of them,” Lewis said.

Everyone is also fully aware of the importance of going into their bye week with a win.

“It’s extremely important to beat Northwestern before we rest a week,” Mack said.

Cosgrove felt the same way.

“We need to win this game,” he said. “It’s going to be a tremendous challenge, but we’ve got to have it.”

Despite their last game, Mack and Lewis remain confident and think the defense is ready for Northwestern.

“Just because we lost to Purdue, it doesn’t mean our season is done,” Mack said. “We can still accomplish many of our goals and our next one is to beat Northwestern … we lost last week, enough said.”