MADISON, Wis. - Maybe Wisconsin will win the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl, and Marshall's 51-14 loss to the Badgers won't look so ugly.

It would help if the Thundering Herd turned around and defeated Memphis at home when the teams battle in Huntington at 7 p.m. Saturday. That's the one thing about the MU-Wisconsin game we've known since the Conference USA schedule was released: When it's over, it's really, really over.

The Herd's next two games, the Memphis contest and a trip to Southern Mississippi, will set the tone for the rest of the season. But you knew that, right?

As the Herd picks up the pieces, the challenge is to try to apply this game to conference play. For one thing, there is no way the Herd faces an offensive line like Wisconsin's in C-USA. They won't see three running backs of that nature on any team, either.

No team has two defensive ends like Matt Shaughnessy and O'Brien Schofield. Maybe one, but not two.

But there are practical applications, such as:

Marshall wanted to slow down the run and dare Allan Evridge to win with his arm. The fifth-year senior did that, going 17-of-22 for 308 yards in the final three quarters. He hit passes of 36, 42, 16, 34, 22, 21, 26, 25 and 24 yards.

I won't have the benefit of video study on all these plays, but the defensive backs still are often playing the man instead of the ball. On the longest play, a 42-yarder from Evridge to Kyle Jefferson, I thought T.J. Drakeford had plenty of opportunity to figure out the ball was coming his way and get to it.

Here we go again - a very average quarterback having a Heisman Trophy moment. It's Will Hudgens all over again.

And speaking of Memphis quarterbacks, they may have the most talented receiving corps to work with in the league. They're definitely the tallest, with 6-foot-8 Carlos Singleton and several others not much shorter.

Oh, those Marshall defensive backs have work to do this week. Lots of work.

Two caveats here: (a) Strong safety Ashton Hall was held out with an injury and (b) there will be a better pass rush. Hall was missed dearly in the passing game - Aaron Johnson had 11 tackles but was seen chasing receivers from a distance. He also wore down late, and had trouble tackling.

The pass rush, from Albert McClellan and everybody else, was shut down in the final three quarters and skunked in the sack department in all four. But Wisconsin will do that to you.

It showed in the second half when the turnovers hit one right after another. Nothing went quite right for the rest of the game, it seemed. In many respects, it was like 2007 all over again.

"Second half, and bad things started happening, and I started seeing ugly red flags raising their head again," Herd coach Mark Snyder said. "That can't happen. There's going to be adversity."

It would help if the Thundering Herd turned around and defeated Memphis at home when the teams battle in Huntington at 7 p.m. Saturday. That's the one thing about the MU-Wisconsin game we've known since the Conference USA schedule was released: When it's over, it's really, really over.

The Herd's next two games, the Memphis contest and a trip to Southern Mississippi, will set the tone for the rest of the season. But you knew that, right?

As the Herd picks up the pieces, the challenge is to try to apply this game to conference play. For one thing, there is no way the Herd faces an offensive line like Wisconsin's in C-USA. They won't see three running backs of that nature on any team, either.

No team has two defensive ends like Matt Shaughnessy and O'Brien Schofield. Maybe one, but not two.

But there are practical applications, such as:

Marshall wanted to slow down the run and dare Allan Evridge to win with his arm. The fifth-year senior did that, going 17-of-22 for 308 yards in the final three quarters. He hit passes of 36, 42, 16, 34, 22, 21, 26, 25 and 24 yards.

I won't have the benefit of video study on all these plays, but the defensive backs still are often playing the man instead of the ball. On the longest play, a 42-yarder from Evridge to Kyle Jefferson, I thought T.J. Drakeford had plenty of opportunity to figure out the ball was coming his way and get to it.

Here we go again - a very average quarterback having a Heisman Trophy moment. It's Will Hudgens all over again.

And speaking of Memphis quarterbacks, they may have the most talented receiving corps to work with in the league. They're definitely the tallest, with 6-foot-8 Carlos Singleton and several others not much shorter.

Oh, those Marshall defensive backs have work to do this week. Lots of work.

Two caveats here: (a) Strong safety Ashton Hall was held out with an injury and (b) there will be a better pass rush. Hall was missed dearly in the passing game - Aaron Johnson had 11 tackles but was seen chasing receivers from a distance. He also wore down late, and had trouble tackling.

The pass rush, from Albert McClellan and everybody else, was shut down in the final three quarters and skunked in the sack department in all four. But Wisconsin will do that to you.

It showed in the second half when the turnovers hit one right after another. Nothing went quite right for the rest of the game, it seemed. In many respects, it was like 2007 all over again.

"Second half, and bad things started happening, and I started seeing ugly red flags raising their head again," Herd coach Mark Snyder said. "That can't happen. There's going to be adversity."

You knew this was going to be a tough assignment for a redshirt freshman in his second game. He finished 20-of-39 for 211 yards with those two devastating picks.

On the first one, he fired off his back foot. On the second one, the formation was flipped in his mind - and it certainly looked like a route mix-up from high above.

"It was a miscommunication on my part," Cann said. "I threw the wrong route. It just can't happen anymore."

I thought he erred late in the first half when the Herd ran itself out of time. Eight seconds was plenty of time to run a play to the sidelines, but when he fired down the middle for 21 yards, I knew he didn't have enough time to get up, get set and spike the ball. Surely enough, there was one second on a clock that doesn't split it into tenths of a second. MU coaches argues, but you can't spike the ball in zero seconds.

"You don't know how long that play is going to last, and the plan was to get up there and kill the clock and spike the ball," Snyder said.

The hunch here is the lessons from this game will serve him for the next four seasons. How well they serve him next week is the pressing issue.

From a purely physical standpoint, Marshall's defense should be tough to deal with in the conference. Let's face it: Wisconsin could have run for 3,000 yards on last year's Herd.

Darius Passmore caught seven passes for 95 yards, figures that could double in any given C-USA game. The running game, which suffered a 75-yard siesta Saturday, will be back.

And did you notice Cann, while he had to sidestep a few rushers, wasn't sacked?

"We've got to play like we played in the first half," Snyder said. "I told our team, if we played like we played in the first half, we'll be champions this year. I believe that. I felt that on the sidelines, and I've been around some good teams in my career. And I felt like, in the first half, this team was where it needed to be."

Some parting shots:

They really dialed in on Darius Marshall's fumbling problems of last season, perhaps going overboard. The man has made a concerted effort to hang onto the ball this year, and I think it's paying off.

Shoot, Marshall has forced more fumbles than he has committed so far this year. He forced a fumble Saturday on an interception return, but it went out of bounds and remained in Wisconsin's possession.

Reach Doug Smock at 348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.