SCARY SATURDAY IN MADISON

Penn State may have Halloween weekend off this season, but it will enter its own House of Horrors on Saturday when it goes to Camp Randall Stadium to play the Wisconsin Badgers. Since joining the Big Ten, the Lions are 2-3 on the road against Wisconsin but have been outscored 104-66. In three of its last four games in Madison, Penn State mustered only a field goal each time.

But those games were against Wisconsin teams that were ranked in the top 20, this year's version of the Badgers is reeling after two straight losses to Big Ten teams. First, there was the collapse in the Big House when it blew a 19-0 halftime lead against Michigan. Then, last week, the Badgers surrendered a late touchdown drive to Ohio State to officially drop to the Big Ten basement at 0-2.

This was supposed to be a breakthrough year for the Badgers. Coming into this season, Wisconsin was one of just two programs (West Virginia) to have played in four straight January Bowl Games, but it had nary a BCS appearance to show for it. Eight starters returned on offense, including running back PJ Hill and tight end Travis Beckum, and a whopping ten starters were back on defense.

Yet Wisconsin has struggled so far this year, particularly on offense, and the blame is starting to fall on the shoulders of signal-caller Allan Evridge. The senior quarterback is completing just 56% of his passes and has a woeful 5:4 touchdown to interception ratio. Following the setback to the Buckeyes, criticism was plentiful and some questions were raised as to whether or not he would still be the quarterback when Penn State came to town. Head coach Brett Bielema addressed the issue during his weekly exchange with the media:

But bottom line, you know, we’ve got to expect the ball to be delivered with better accuracy. I saw that he made a reference that the Ohio State player made a great play to make a break on the ball at the end of the game. I think he caught the ball in self-defense. It was thrown right at him, you know. So he’s got to see a clearer picture of what we’re trying to get done.

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But Allan is not immune to that, and, obviously, the next guy in would probably be Dustin Sherer. You don’t need to read into it, Allan is going to start on Saturday and, you know, be our quarterback. But, you know, there comes a point in time where you have to make an assessment of where we are as a football team.

There's no question that Evridge will have to play his best game of the season if Wisconsin hopes to pull the upset against Penn State on Saturday, but the real key might be PJ Hill.

The junior running back has seen limited success against Penn State in his first two matchups with the Lions, gaining 227 yards on 50 carries (4.54 yrds/carry) with one touchdown but has seen his carries and yards dip in each of the last three games this season.

The Lions run defense is stout, allowing just 80 yards per game but this will be its most significant test by far. Starting middle linebacker Josh Hull stopped just a little short of pulling a Ricky Jean Francois when asked about Hill earlier this week, but he left no doubt that the Lions will be keying on the Badger running back.

"All three linebackers this week are looking forward to punishing P.J. Hill every time he carries the ball," Hull said on a conference call Wednesday. "We want to hit him from the time the game starts to the time the game ends. We want to make him wish he wasn't carrying the ball by the end."

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Perhaps the biggest opponent the Lions will have on Saturday will be their own memories of past road-game failures. The team will start roughly 14 seniors this weekend, each of whom carries with him the memories of a 6-6 record on the road in the Big Ten and none of those six victories was at Wisconsin.

If the playcalling from the Illinois game was any indication of how this team will approach big games, expect to see a healthy diet of Evan Royster Saturday night. No matter what the approach, there's little doubt that this offense will be able to eclipse the 3-point plateau that has limited Penn State in its last two visits to Madison. But will it be able to do enough to get the win?