I think there are quite a few comments suggesting Northwestern is just not very good and we 'should' be able to handle them. But based on their opponents and the final scores alone, one would surely be able to conclude their defense is pretty good. Nobody is really scoring a bunch and even Wisconsin's power ground attack was pretty much stifled. If we can core over 30 today offensiviely, we better feel that was our best performance of the year. Defensively, we need to find ways to make some critical stops and get a couple turnovers to help the offense find the end zone a couple times as well.
As always, penalties, turnovers, field position, blocking and tackling will be critical. We need a strong, determined TEAM effort. Our struggles this year, so far, have been TEAM struggles really. It is not fair to point at Adrian Martinez primarily. He has played winning caliber football (except for Ohio State anyway). The O line and RBs and WRs have played well enough for maybe 50% of the snaps. The D line maybe for 75%. The LBs and seconday maybe 65%. Special teams play overall - maybe 65% but 20% of the punts and place kicks were not good. Kickoffs around 50% or so were OK. Coverage units have been mostly OK.
Today, the variosus position groups match up much better physically and athletically so if they play as well as they can play, there is reason to be optimistic. But it will likely take 4 quarters (not just a fraction thereof) to win!