>The Badgers would like to say goodbye to their recent failures on the defensive side of the ball, and this weekend should provide them with the perfect opportunity. This bye week could be one of the most important weeks in the season for UW. The week off should give the Badger defense time to rest and more than enough time to prepare for their upcoming game with Minnesota.

After a seemingly sub-par performance against the Northwestern Wildcats, the bye probably could not come at a much more opportune time for the Badger defense. Although the defense may not need the time off as much as the offense, it, too, will use the extra week to prepare and get healthy for the Golden Gophers. If the defense hopes to shut down the Minnesota attack, it must perform much better than its performance at Northwestern.

The team came out sluggish and uninspired, which led to Northwestern being able to take an early lead and build upon it. The Badgers, again, had problems with a Northwestern offense that likes to spread opponents across the field. The Wildcats have used the spread formation to run the ball on the Badgers in the past, but Saturday they were able to pound the Badger defense uncharacteristically to the tune of 245 rushing yards. By far this was the most yards a team was able to gain on the ground against the Badgers all year.

Even more frustrating to the team is the fact that Northwestern wasn’t really able to throw the ball successfully with 53 of its 176 passing yards coming on Brett Basanez’ touchdown pass to Jason Wright.

“We just didn’t play the way we’re capable of playing. We did a lot of good things at times, but when we needed to we just couldn’t get the ball back to the offense,” defensive coach Kevin Cosgrove said.

The touchdown pass to Wright gave Northwestern an early lead, and the defense did not give up another touchdown until late in the third quarter. The score was preceded by an 80-yard drive capped off by anther Wright touchdown, this one of the ground variety. However, before the score it seemed as if the defense had stopped Northwestern, but a trick play gave the Wildcats a first down and put them on the doorstep. The defense seemed to know the trick play was coming, but was confused on how to stop it. It ended up being the final tally of the game, but it was enough for the Wildcats to get the win.

“We knew they were going to throw something at us during the game,” linebacker Alex Lewis said. “They hustled a lot more than us, and the ball bounced on their side.”

All this aside, the defensive unit only gave up 16 points to a Wildcat offense that rang up 421 yards. What the score didn’t show was the ability of Northwestern to create push on its offensive line to help it chalk up its gaudy statistics. The Wildcats weren’t able to translate all their yards into points, and the defensive unit was able to hold the Wildcats to field-goal attempts a few times. This proved very important considering the poor kicking the Wildcats experienced last Saturday. As long as the Badgers can step up when it counts and hold opposing offenses to field-goal attempts, they should be able to keep UW in the remainder of its games this season.

“We’ll be a mediocre team in the league if we come out and take someone lightly; we’ve got to figure out what our problem is and we’ll fix it,” UW safety Jim Leonhard said.

Despite the poor performance by the defense as a whole, Leonhard was able to garner Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors. The junior defensive back set a career high, leading the team with 19 tackles, including his first career sack. The Big Ten leader in interceptions was also able to snare another pass, bringing him up to five picks on the season.

“When we got that turnover, we were hoping it was going to spark the [offense]. They had great field position, and it didn’t happen, so that’s why I’m saying you just have to dig down and make another play however you have to do it.”

The Badger defense will look toward the bye week in hopes of strengthening its weaknesses in an effort to prevent another shootout with the Golden Gophers of Minnesota.