[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]EVANSTON, Ill. — Head coach Barry Alvarez couldn't have asked for more … from his offense that is.

The Badgers lit up the scoreboard with 48 points and 515 yards of total offense, but in the end that still wasn't enough as No. 14 Wisconsin (5-1, 2-1 Big Ten) fell to Northwestern (3-2, 2-1) 51-48 Saturday afternoon in Evanston, Ill.

After falling behind by as many 17 points in the fourth quarter, UW rallied to get within three points and still had a chance to win the contest after a key stop by the defense gave them the ball on their own 3-yard with 1:26 left in the game.

"I completely thought we'd go down and score," Stocco said of his feelings heading onto the field for UW's last drive.

Unfortunately, things didn't go according to plan. In his first play from scrimmage the junior signal caller made a costly error, attempting a pass to senior Jonathon Orr that was picked off by Northwestern's Reggie McPherson, sealing the Badgers' fate.

"Just a mistake I guess on my part, I guess that happens sometimes," Stocco said. "I was just trying to hit [Orr] over the middle and their guy just made a nice play. I tried to keep it low, a safe throw, but he just made a great play on it."

It was one of very few great plays made by the Northwestern defense all game, as the Wildcats had no answer for Stocco and the Wisconsin offense.

Stocco finished the game 24-of-31 with a career-best 326 yards passing and four touchdowns, while junior tailback Brian Calhoun assaulted the record books, gaining 122 rushing yards on 23 carries and also grabbing a team-high 11 receptions for 128 yards. Not only did Calhoun lead his team in both categories, but he also became the first player in school history to amass 100 yards rushing and receiving in the same game.

UW's pair of starting receivers, Orr and senior Brandon Williams, also had a field day against the Wildcats. Williams snared six balls for 93 yards while Orr grabbed five catches for 87 yards and a team-leading four touchdowns.

"I was real pleased with the offense," Alvarez said. "They gave us a chance. When you get in a shootout like that and you can't slow them down on defense, I was pleased that our offense allowed us to be prepared."

Defensive coordinator Bret Bielema's squad, on the other hand, struggled throughout the second half. The Badger defense held the NU offense in check for most of the first half, allowing 13 points, but in the second half, Wisconsin's defense was porous to say the least.

Third quarter dominance has been key for Wisconsin's defense all year as the Badgers had not allowed a single third-quarter point prior to Saturday.

Of course, nobody bothered to inform Northwestern of this fact. The Wildcats went on to score 27 points in the quarter — it would have been 28 had Joel Howells not had an extra point blocked — including 21 points in a six minute span to end the quarter.

"We didn't play well defensively," Alvarez said. "We could tear it apart, there wasn't any phase where we played well. When you give up that many points in the second half, nobody played well. You can talk about pressure, you can talk about coverage, you can talk about tackling; it was not very good."

The shoddy tackling allowed Northwestern freshman running back Tyrell Sutton to control the flow of the game. Despite rushing against a defense that entered the contest allowing just 77.4 yards per game, Sutton finished the day with 244 yards on 29 carries and scored three touchdowns. But perhaps the most telling statistic was the number of yards Sutton lost all day — none.

"He's a tough runner, he'll put his head down in there and try to get some extra yards, and he's a good player, he's quick and he's a tough player," linebacker Mark Zalewski said. "Some little guys want to try and make people miss but he's a type of guy who will put his head down and run somebody over. He's a quality back and we didn't do the right things to stop him today."

Wisconsin's inability to stop Sutton also translated into a big day for senior quarterback Brett Basanez, who threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns while gaining another 70 yards and one more score on the ground.

"There aren't a lot of teams that run pressure against them," Bielema said. "They have enough option game in them that they make it very difficult for you to bring pressure, but the bottom line is we've got to play our game. We can't let it affect us."

Now, the question for UW is how well they will rebound from the loss, especially with a big-time rivalry match-up with Minnesota looming on the horizon.

"Well, our next goal is to try to keep the axe," Alvarez said. "We're still on track with a lot of our goals. So, we haven't lost any of the opportunities to reach all of our goals. So, we'll see if this team is resilient, see if they can bounce back. But we've got to do a lot of correcting obviously."