EVANSTON, Ill. - The pendulum of the 2024 season took its latest massive swing when Wisconsin stormed into Martin Stadium and handed Northwestern a 23-3 loss.

Quarterback Jack Lausch's struggles returned with a strip sack in the shadow of his own end zone late in the second quarter, and a game-sealing safety in the fourth.

Lausch finished just 9-for-24 for 82 yards, with 55 on the ground, and two turnovers. It was serious deja vu to the catastrophic 24-5 loss out in Washington, but this game fell more squarely on the shoulders of head coach David Braun and offensive coordinator Zach Lujan than their redshirt sophomore quarterback.

Northwestern made far too many mistakes to beat the surging Badgers. There was the disastrous fumble that led to a Wisconsin touchdown, a 52-yard field-goal attempt by Luke Akers that fell well short on a fourth-and-2, a blocked 28-yard field-goal attempt, six penalties and going 2-for-14 on third-down conversions.

"We did not play complementary football today and, at the end of the day, that starts with me," Braun said. "The way we performed today is not a positive reflection on the way I had the team prepared to go... [A] lot of uncharacteristic stuff today and that's on me and I'll own it. We have to flip the script for Iowa."

Here are our takeaways from Northwestern's disappointing loss to Wisconsin in their last game on the lake this season that dropped them to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten:

Decision to pass in shadow of end zone was perplexing: After a near-miss throwing the ball late from their own 5 in the second quarter against Maryland, Northwestern dropped Lausch back to pass again in a similar situation, from their own 8, on Saturday. John Pius stripped Lausch on the sack and the Badgers' Elijah Hill recovered. They scored on the next play to go up 14-0 at the half.

Braun protested that the game was in a different place in terms of clock management and momentum, but that's barely the case.

Lausch fired incomplete on a second-and-11 from the NU 5 with 47 seconds left in the second quarter against Maryland, with one timeout left for the Terrapins. Lausch was sacked on a first-and-15 from the NU 8, with 43 seconds left in the quarter against Wisconsin, with one timeout left for the Badgers.

The Wildcats had converted their first set of downs to reach the 13 and had a chance to drive on the Badgers with two timeouts of their own but had just been knocked back five yards by a false start on Caleb Tiernan.

"On first down, we felt like we had an opportunity to get rhythm and get into field-goal range with Wisconsin starting with the ball at the beginning of the second half," Braun said. "In hindsight, after the penalty, we should have changed our tune and handed the ball off to see if we'd get something started on the ground."

Lausch was in favor of the call, saying it was moments away from breaking big.

"Obviously, I have to get the ball out quicker," he said. "We had a double-move called against a Cover-1 look, it was a great look for it and just an unfortunate play. I was getting ready to release the ball and they made a nice play up front... Could have been a huge play for us. Instead it was a huge play for them. It was close."

It was an inexplicable gamble from a coaching staff and program that prides itself on winning in the margins. Counting on a young quarterback like Lausch to deliver a first-read, double-move behind an inexperienced offensive line in the shadow of their own end zone in a one-score game is reckless, plain and simple. It was a poor decision and the worst possible result. Braun's defense of the decision means a critical coaching failure to reassess after a penalty with the game in the balance.

It's not fair to say it cost Northwestern a win when the final result was a 20-point margin as the Wildcats never scored enough to overcome the 7-0 deficit they faced in the moment. But it did cost them a chance to apply any realistic game pressure on Wisconsin in the second half.

Injuries have hit Northwestern hard: Key players dropped left and right for the Wildcats, with wide receiver AJ Henning and linebacker Xander Mueller both leaving the game the game for good after receiving attention from the trainers. Henning was carted back to the locker room, though Mueller remained on the sidelines.

Northwestern has not provided a long-term diagnosis on either player at this time.

Greyson Metz subbed in for Mueller and recorded eight tackles, good for second on the team. An even bigger nod goes to redshirt freshman Damon Walters, who replaced Devin Turner, who was declared out before the game. The staff originally went with Robert Fitzgerald to replace Turner, but Fitzgerald ended up at nickel more often as Walters was a game-changer at safety. In just his second game with action on defense, Walters recorded a team-high 11 tackles.

Lausch took a big hit late in the game from linebacker Christian Alliegro and went to the tent on the sidelines. The offense would never retake the field but Braun said postgame that Lausch would have been available if they had. Lausch was one of the players made available to the media postgame, signaling there is no long-term concern for an injury.

Up front on the offensive line, right guard Josh Thompson was on the wrong side of a game-time decision and redshirt-junior Anthony Birsa stepped in for his first career start. Despite Braun extolling the value of a healthy Nick Herzog, the team's Week 1 starter at left guard who had missed the bulk of each game since, he did not play.

Cooper Lovelace stayed at left guard, and was replaced for a chunk of the game by true freshman Ezomo Oratokhai. It was unclear if Lovelace was injured or if Oratokhai, a late addition to the Class of 2024, was a direct substitution.

Jackson Carsello continues to start at center as Jack Bailey's injury has officially been ruled season ending. With Birsa, this was the fourth different offensive line that Northwestern has started through seven games. When Oratokhai entered the lineup, it made it the fifth different group to play considerable snaps.

All the ins and outs up front meant another game without a palpable push in the running game. Running backs Cam Porter and Joseph Himon II mustered just 71 yards combined, and Caleb Komolafe was out of the game for an unknown injury.

In a season of games on the margins, the injuries have made it even harder for the Wildcats to emerge with wins.

Defense did what they could: This game was eerily similar to Washington, where the defense wasn't perfect but gave the offense opportunity after opportunity to get into or stay in the game.

Coco Azema snagged an easy interception from a hassled Braedyn Locke to set up the Wildcats at their own 42. The offense picked up two yards in three plays and punted.

The defense pinned Wisconsin deep and forced them to punt out of their own end zone to give the Wildcats the ball at the Wisconsin 42, after a long punt return by Bryce Kirtz. But the offense gained just eight yards and missed a field-goal attempt.

The defense forced a Wisconsin three-and-out of halftime to set up a Northwestern field-goal drive. They forced a fumble on the next drive that enabled the offense to take over at the Wisconsin 44. They picked up three yards on three plays, and punted it away.

The levee broke and the Badgers rattled off a touchdown drive to seal the game for good late in the third quarter, but Northwestern's defense has delivered a competitive opportunity in six of the seven games so far, and the offense has rarely been able to capitalize.

This is a defense that can keep a bowl dream alive, even with the team under .500 and still in search of three more wins. But it needs an offense to provide a semblance of support; if not, there's only so much they can do and this season could get ugly.

Lakeside stadium in review: That's a wrap on the 2024 season at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium. The sore sight on the field was surrounded by the scenic vista of a sun-dappled Lake Michigan, and a solid showing of purple in the stands after the Indiana takeover two weeks ago.

With the 20-point loss to the Badgers, the Wildcats fell to 2-3 at home, a far cry from last season's 5-2 record, when they went 5-1 at Ryan Field and 0-1 at Wrigley Field.

It never felt like Northwestern really got a home-field edge on the lake. The closest it came was a double-overtime loss to Duke when the wind played havoc in the kicking game; but the Wildcats failed to close-out the bowl-bound Blue Devils.

The temporary stadium didn't provide the advantage that many would have hoped, but all things considered, it was a roaring success to play these games on campus rather than at SeatGeek Stadium on the South Side, or another Chicago-area, late-stage solution.

With a full year to live and learn from exorbitant ticket pricing, as well as operational quirks like no down-and-distance information on the scoreboard for much of the first two games, expect an even better experience in 2025.

Looking forward: Why bungee jump when you can watch Northwestern football?

This season's squad has embodied the extremes in the heart of its schedule, with dominant wins over Eastern Illinois and Maryland, and appalling losses to Washington and Wisconsin, with a tough loss to red-hot Indiana mixed in.

After a startling regression to the struggling offense seen earlier in the season at Washington, Lausch remained confident that the Wildcats still have plenty to play for ahead of them.

"The score doesn't reflect how you move the ball sometimes," he said. "I thought we could have executed a lot better, obviously, but I think we're really close."

Lausch is staying optimistic, but the results told a different story. Nine of Northwestern's 12 drives were four plays or fewer. Lausch took two sacks inside his own 5, one for a fumble, another for a safety.

They finished just 2-for-14 on third-down conversions and were hamstrung by six penalties for 45 yards, including a false start the play before the strip-sack, a holding the play before the safety and a false start on third-and-goal from the 4.

The path to a bowl game is narrowing by the week. The Wildcats fell to 3-4 in 2023, too, but their late-season schedule is much tougher this year. They face a Top 5 opponent in Ohio State, and must pick up three wins against Iowa, Purdue, Michigan and Illinois to lock in a bowl, though two might enable them to sneak in on Academic Progress Rate.

Frankly, in terms of offensive execution, the team that played today is a four-win team, assuming they can knock off a hapless Purdue team in West Lafayette on Nov. 2.

Braun continues to preach accountability and the team responded against Eastern Illinois, and again at Maryland. They've bounced back time and time again under his tenure, which is now at 20 games. Braun's 11-9 record in his first 20 is the best mark by a Northwestern head coach in that opening stretch since Robert Voigts in 1945-47.

They'll need to bounce back one more time if they want to stay in the game at Iowa next week.