Despite gaining only 275 yards of total offense and rushing for a season low of 68 total yards last weekend against Northern Illinois, the University of Wisconsin Badgers came out with a 24-21 come-from-behind victory. It wasn’t pretty, but the Badgers managed to get the win and improve their undefeated record to 4-0. Next up for the Badgers are the Arizona Wildcats.

Arizona comes to Madison boasting a 2-0 record and the nation’s second-leading passing attack. The Wildcats’ and their gunslinger quarterback Jason Johnson come into Saturday’s game averaging 411 passing yards per game.

In order for the Badgers to come away with a victory against Arizona this weekend, they are going to have to be much more efficient on offense than they were against Northern Illinois. Brooks Bollinger was sacked ten times for a loss of 71 total yards, and Anthony Davis only managed 49 total yards on 14 carries.

“On certain plays it was breakdowns between the lines, sometimes the backs, and sometimes the wide receivers on their routes,” said center Al Johnson. “We’re trying to address it as a whole group so we are all on the same page, and we can all work together to try to work out the kinks.”

The one bright spot in UW’s offensive attack was the pass efficiency of Brooks Bollinger. UW’s field general completed 15 out of 23 passes while throwing one interception. This week, Bollinger and the Badgers will have to deal with an Arizona defense that plays a different style than that with which the Badgers are familiar.

“They play a little bit of a different look than we’re used to,” said Johnson. “In the same respect, as long as you block someone, the holes are going to be there, so we just have to do our part no matter what defense they play.”

Last year, with the emergence of Lee Evans, the Badgers began to go to the air more often and utilize their passing game. Wisconsin football has seen a transition from the days of run, run, run and run some more to a more even distribution of running and passing plays. With the emergence of freshman wide-outs Jonathan Orr and Brandon Williams, the Badgers have become more and more comfortable throwing the ball.

UW’s passing offense (59th) is actually ranked higher than its running offense (63rd). Neither ranking is near where coaches expect it to be by this point in the season.

This Saturday’s game will mark the first-ever match-up between these two schools on the gridiron. Despite never playing Arizona, Badger head coach Barry Alvarez has experienced above-average success when matched up against Pac-Ten opponents. Alvarez has a career record of 6-3-1 against Pac-Ten teams, with three of those victories coming in Rose Bowl wins in 1994, 1999 and 2000.

“We matched up with every team we’ve played, every Rose Bowl that we have played in. They were good match-ups for us,” said Alvarez. “We have played against UCLA a few times, Stanford a few times. We just matched up well.”

Also, there is a slight possibility that UW senior wide-out Lee Evans will make his long awaited return this weekend against Arizona. Originally Evans was slated to make his return for the Big Ten opener, but his rehab has been extremely quick and promising. Despite the good rehab, however, Alvarez will not count on Evan’s return to bolster an offense that has lacked consistency and has been somewhat unable to get behind opposing defenses.

“It is going to be Lee’s call. I am not even going to speculate when,” said Alvarez. “We are going to prepare as if he will not. If he’s ready, he will play.”

The Badgers enter the week ranked 22nd in the Associated Press poll and 17th in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, and they have an opportunity to move higher with a win over Arizona. The Badgers will have a bye the following weekend and will have two weeks to prepare for their Big Ten opener against Penn State.

“Going into the bye week without a loss would be huge for us,” said Johnson. “We’re very happy that we are 4-0, and now we’re just trying to do what we can to correct the problems that we do have to make sure that we’re 5-0.”