[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Through the first eight games of the 2007 season, the Wisconsin defense struggled mightily to force the opposition into turnovers.

With five interceptions and only two fumbles recovered entering Saturday’s game, players in recent weeks often said that it could be a case of one turnover creating a snowball effect that would in turn roll into a string of takeaways.

That was certainly the case Saturday, when the Wisconsin defense forced Indiana to commit five turnovers en route to a 33-3 victory and arguably the Badgers’ best defensive game of the season.

"We were basically fed up with it," linebacker Jonathan Casillas said. "We know we’re a good defense, but we just basically had to prove it. Our coaches have been emphasizing it a lot in practice — tackling drills and different kinds of cut drills and turnover circuits — and basically we just had to execute."

The Badgers didn’t wait long to do so.

On Indiana’s second possession of the game, Casillas forced Hoosiers backup running back Josiah Sears to fumble, and defensive tackle Nick Hayden was there to recover the ball.

"I talked to the defense about attacking the football," Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema said. "Anytime somebody has the ball in their hands, you need to attack the football."

Included in those five turnovers were three recovered fumbles, although that number could have been higher had Wisconsin recovered another loose ball Indiana put on the turf or had Jason Chapman’s second quarter strip of Hoosiers’ quarterback Kellen Lewis not been overturned by video replay.

"We’ve been working all year, stripping the ball out, and today it finally paid off," Hayden said.

The turnovers indeed seemed to snowball, especially in the second half. During one stretch spanning the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter, Indiana turned the ball over on three of four possessions.

"It started off with one, and we really didn’t pay much attention to it," cornerback Aaron Henry said. "But we forced a lot of fumbles today and just went out there and flew to the football."

Being fast to the football meant the Badgers were put in position to pick up the ball when it did pop out.

"Today it seemed like Indiana had a little trouble holding onto the ball," defensive lineman Mike Newkirk said. "Whether it was us or if it was them … there were a lot of times that the ball was on the ground. We were able to pick those up, which is something we weren’t able to do a lot throughout the year."

Coming on the heels of a stellar three-point defensive outing against Northern Illinois, Casillas said that same snowball effect could carry over to the defense’s play as a unit.

"We had two consistent weeks in a row where the defense basically shut the opponent down," Casillas said.

With the turnover-creating issue put to bed following Saturday’s win, the Badgers must now focus their attention in the direction of another trend related to takeaways.

"You like to see turnovers create field position and points," Bielema said. "Great thing was, it’s baby steps around here. We have turnovers. Now we just have to work on the offense … our offense didn’t know how to respond. They hadn’t had gotten many turnovers."

The Wisconsin offense scored zero of its 33 points off of turnovers. The five drives that started thanks to defensive takeaways resulted in three punts and a fumble. After creating the final turnover on an interception with six seconds remaining, the Badgers’ final drive finished with the end of the game.