Week-to-week this season, it's been a familiar script for the Wisconsin Badgers football team (4-1 Big Ten, 7-1 overall). One side of the ball is playing with swagger and success, the other enduring mishaps and miscues.
But the Badgers, with the exception of a loss against Northwestern, have consistently found a way to get the win. Head coach Barry Alvarez addressed that issue and more in his weekly press conference Monday.
'I think it's obvious they're very competitive,' Alvarez said. 'They're resilient. They're a group that stays in the game for four quarters. And that's one thing that we do preach is to play for four quarters and understand momentum swings and understand the pendulum as it swings.'
Against a Purdue team hungry for its first conference win Saturday, the Badgers saw that momentum come from its defense.
'They probably played one of their better games of the season,' Brian Calhoun, the seventh-leading rusher in the country, said after the game.
That they did. More often than not this year it's been the offense trying to compensate for a porous defense. But against a struggling Boilermaker team, the offense was lacking. Calhoun, who entered Saturday's contest averaging 137 yards per game rushing, could gain only 62 against a defense evidently intent on stopping the run.
'We really didn't play well in any phase on offense in the past game,' Alvarez said. 'We didn't play well at all. I know our offensive coaches were very disappointed.'
With three interceptions, a previously embattled secondary stepped into the spotlight. Junior safety Roderick Rogers provided the momentum Alvarez spoke of in the third quarter, with an 84-yard interception return to the end zone. From that point on, the Badgers never looked back.
'It's all about being physical, being tough, and having that attitude,' Rogers went on to say. 'I love turnovers. I love to make big plays.'
Rogers wasn't the only Badger defender making those big plays. Freshman cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu intercepted two passes in the second half, including a decisive 62-yard return for a touchdown on his second.
'I think he's a guy, because of his ability, I think he'll gain more and more confidence,' Alvarez said of Ikegwuonu. 'He certainly has what you're looking for in a defensive back.'
Collectively, the Wisconsin defense made several bold stands Saturday. With a 10-7 lead late in the second quarter, junior quarterback John Stocco threw a pass that was tipped and intercepted. The Boilermakers, as a result, had great field position inside the red zone and were poised to finish the first half with a lead. Purdue was limited to a field goal.
'It was very important, because you go in with a tie rather than being behind,' Alvarez said.
Then, in the early stages of the fourth quarter, Purdue once again was on the verge of striking when freshman defensive tackle Mike Newkirk forced and recovered a fumble at the UW six yard line.
'It was a big turnover,' Alvarez noted. 'And the turnovers made the difference. We talk about sparks; those were sparks in the game. Those were the momentum changes in the game.'
Whether the same tenacious defense shows up this weekend against Illinois remains to be seen. The unit has a laundry list of injuries and, for the time being, is without the luxury of a bye week. Alvarez, well aware of that, has adjusted practices accordingly.
'I'm sensitive to the length of the season and how beat up a lot of our people are,' he said. 'I want them to be fresh down the stretch.'
