CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Through the first five weeks of the season, the Wisconsin football team managed to escape, survive and prevail for several victories against supposedly inferior competition en route to a No. 5 national ranking.

The UW defense would tighten up in the second half, and the offense would take care of the ball and come up with enough plays down the stretch to pull out a victory.

Saturday, the Badgers followed that same blueprint again. But this time, it didn't yield a win.

As the Badgers walked off the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium field — tasting defeat for the first time in more than a year — one thing was as obvious as the day was hot (that is to say, extremely).

"The better team beat us," cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu said.

Given recent history, that might seem like a backward thing to say for an Illinois victory in a Big Ten game. After all, before this season kicked off, the Illini had won as many conference games in the last four years as Wisconsin has Capital One Bowls — two.

None of that mattered Saturday, however. Playing in Illinois’ Memorial Stadium — a stadium under heavy construction during renovations — the Badgers played like a team in desperate need of a facelift.

Illinois out-Wisconsined Wisconsin, running for more than twice as many yards as Wisconsin did and keeping the Badgers’ defense on its heels all game.

On the other side, the Badgers tackled as if they were a team reaching for wins (or, in the case of the Badgers' newfound tendency for arm tackling, opposing runners).

This loss was far from surprising, however. In the weeks leading up to this past Saturday, Wisconsin flirted with losses in games against UNLV, Iowa and Michigan State. It was more a matter of when, not if, the Badgers would end up dropping a winnable game.

The loss gives Wisconsin a chance to address several problems that have arisen in recent weeks. When a team is winning, it can be easy for problems to be masked behind those wins. When that team loses, however, it forces problems to be addressed.

The defense needs to go back to focus on the very fundamental basic of tackling and keeping running backs contained.

Offensively, Wisconsin needs to continue to establish the running game more effectively. If Luke Swan winds up being out for any significant length of time, it would leave the Badgers without their top two wide receivers from the beginning of the season.

Quarterback Tyler Donovan tends to lock onto receivers too much, which could be a problem if Travis Beckum is the only experienced pass catcher left standing.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Illinois celebrated its first win over a top-5 team at home since Oct. 5, 1985. It wasn’t a fluke, however, as strange as that may seem.

But considering Saturday's game featured the fifth-ranked team in the country playing as a Vegas underdog against an unranked team and a bizarre, yet refreshingly amazing postgame celebration in which Illinois players stormed the stands and chanted "BCS" with the student section, Illinois outplaying Wisconsin seems to pale in comparison.

"We feel like a lot of teams haven’t respected us," Illinois linebacker J Leman said. "They really shouldn’t because we’ve won eight games, the previous four years. Respect is earned, not given."

After holding off the Badgers Saturday, it is fairly safe to say Leman and the Illini earned some respect.