Wiscosnin ready to snap out of it?

Wiscosnin ready to snap out of it? October 21, 2007 | 01:54 PM According to this article (though who would know since it wasn't televised here) the UW football team finally took the field with some intensity yesterday. It's about damn time. Jonathan Casillas, among others, say in the article that the fire was missing from the team in the past few weeks. That fire has been missing all season, but I'm happy that it may be there against N. Illinois in week 8. Nobody knew for sure what happened, how the Badgers (6-2) lost their way, only that it was clear from the sidelines during the second half of last week's loss to Penn State that something needed to change. "If you look at our sideline last week, there wasn't too much intensity, wasn't too much passion (or) enthusiasm," linebacker Jonathan Casillas said. That changed in this game. A defense that looked tentative for most of the season suddenly looked like it knew what it was doing. Northern Illinois (1-7) started the game with six straight three-and-outs, and the Badgers built a 31-0 halftime lead. The Huskies only had two first downs in the first half and finished with 99 total yards. "I think everybody was alignment and assignment sound (Saturday)," strong safety Aubrey Pleasant said. "I think overall we played very well." UW quarterback Tyler Donovan noticed the difference in the defense, too. "It was emotion," he said. "They played with high intensity. They kind of wanted to (make) a statement. They did that." We apparently decided to stick with what we know and run the ball and the line finally showed up enough to let us do so. Donovan attempted just 19 passes all game. Nicole