Week 6: Wisconsin at Illinois

The Illini have taken several keys steps this season. The team’s only loss came in the opener to a Missouri team that remains undefeated, and last week’s 27-20 win over Penn State pushed Illinois closer to cracking the top 25 polls.

With Wisconsin heading to town, Illinois coach Ron Zook understands that now is no time for his team to be over-confident.

“It's going to be imperative that our football team understands how we've gotten to where we are,” he said. “I think that we have made progress. I told them that Monday night, but we aren't close to where we need to be.”

What has gotten the Illini to this point is a consistent running game, led by Rashard Mendenhall. The junior has scored at least one touchdown in each of the team’s five games this year, and posted 214 yards rushing against Indiana two weeks ago. He will be important to Illinois’ success against a Badger defense that was chewed up by Michigan State’s ground game last week (241 rushing yards allowed). Wisconsin’s troubles upfront have come as a surprise, seeing the unit had been considered one of the conference’s best entering the season.

Another key to this outing will be the play of both team’s versatile quarterbacks. For Wisconsin, Tyler Donovan has done an excellent job of making plays on the run. He escaped pressure several times last week, and will be asked to do the same on Saturday. The Illini have an emerging defense, led by linebacker J Leman, but are still somewhat vulnerable in the secondary. Forced to work with a thinned receiving corps, Donovan must find tight end Travis Beckum and primary wideout Luke Swan early and often so as to relieve pressure from P.J. Hill and the Badger running game.

The Illini have had success switching up their signal callers. Juice Williams forces opposing defensive coordinators to worry about containing him in the pocket, while Eddie McGee has shown he can beat teams with his arm and feet. Having both gives Zook options.

Wisconsin, which owns the nation’s longest winning streak, can ill-afford to look past Illinois. Last year the Badgers needed 10 fourth-quarter points to rally, and that was at Camp Randall.

Wisconsin by 6