At times last season, players on the Wisconsin football team (2-1 Big Ten, 5-1 overall) sounded like brainwashed drones, endlessly dispensing sound bites about how the team just needed to \go 1-0 this week."" But after Saturday's defensive meltdown in Evanston, during which the Badger defense surrendered nearly 700 yards and seven consecutive scoring drives to Northwestern in the stunning 51-48 loss, head coach Barry Alvarez was spinning a far more disturbing broken record.
Consider what Alvarez had to say about his defense Monday:
""Much like the first week ... you have to correct mistakes and show where we had breakdowns,"" Alvarez said. ""That's something that we'll have to correct. You go back to fundamentals.""
If this sounds somewhat familiar, it is. Here is what he said about defensive fundamentals after Wisconsin's season-opening 56-42 win over Bowling Green, in which the defense yielded more than 500 yards.
""You try to give an emphasis to them to give back and trust what you practice,"" Alvarez said Sept. 5. ""I don't know why they did practice. They could have done what they did just by showing up on Saturday.""
The needle also appears stuck in a groove when it comes to communication issues on defense.
""I think for five games the communication ... has been pretty good,"" Alvarez said Monday. ""That wasn't the case [Saturday] and why? I don't know.""
Alvarez could have easily substituted this remark from Sept. 5:
""We had some guys that abandoned some of the things that we just worked a month on. And you can't play unilaterally. You can't do your own game.""
Senior linebacker Dontez Sanders echoed this sentiment in his assessment of the defensive play against the Wildcats.
""The first half we came out and played pretty well,"" Sanders said. ""The second half was just rough for us. We were playing different calls at times.""
Perhaps just as distressing as the mental lapses were the physical errors. Freshman running back Tyrell Sutton hammered the Badger run defense for 244 yards and three touchdowns, often gaining extra yards after contact.
""[There were] a lot of missed tackles, a lot of wrapping up and then the running back getting three more yards,"" said sophomore defensive tackle Nick Hayden.
Ironically, another factor for the defense's poor performance was the flawless execution of the Wisconsin offense.
""We were scoring so fast, a lot of times there wasn't time on the sidelines for the coaches to [have] conversations to know what the problem was before the [defensive players] were back out on the field,"" Alvarez said.
Indeed, during Northwestern's critical second-half stretch of six consecutive touchdowns, the high-octane Wisconsin offense had three scoring drives that lasted just 2:18, 1:34 amd 1:07.
Hayden would have preferred to have the offense score a bit more slowly.
""It's a lot better because then we can talk about more stuff and get a little more rest,"" he said.
""That's something that we can't control,"" countered Sanders. ""You can't ask them to stop scoring so fast.""
Sanders can help stop the other team from scoring so much, however, and promised the team will rebound from Saturday's debacle.
""We're done with shootouts for the year,"" he said. ""If we just practice good this week, we'll be alright.\
