The University of Wisconsin football team is reeling, falling to 0-3 in the Big Ten with Saturday's 48-7 thrashing at the hands of Penn State.

It was the Badgers' worst loss in 19 years at Camp Randall Stadium, dating to the Don Morton era, continuing the free-fall of a program that was ranked in the Top 10 just three weeks ago heading into the conference opener at Michigan.

After the game,Capital Times columnist and Wisconsin Radio Network color commentatorMike Lucas answered questions about the game from Cap Times sportseditor Adam Mertz.

A reminder that fans can present their questions for Mike by e-mailing asklucas@madison.com on game days.

Here are his responses from previous games:

Akron: Click here
Marshall: Click here
Fresno State: Click here
Michigan:  Click here
Ohio State: click here

And here is the rundown of tonight's conversation about the loss to Penn State:

Q: Can you pinpoint when the wheels fell off for the Badgers?

Lucas: The only life that Wisconsin seemingly had was after the score, the touchdown, which made it 17-7 (Penn State). I kinda felt then that if they could find a way to get it to halftime trailing by that margin, given the terrible field position they'd had in the first half — particularly the first quarter — you'd think they would have been in decent shape. Not that at any time I thought they'd win this game, based on the level of play by Penn State but also (that) the quality of player was so much better than Wisconsin's.

The turnover just before the end of the half (Allan Evridge's fumble), which results in another score, sucked the life out of not only the stadium but also this football team. Because at the start of the third quarter, Penn State faced very little resistance moving the ball down the field with what had the feeling of a clinching touchdown, pretty much eliminating any hope that remained after halftime.

Q: What's the state of the Badgers? Coming into this game the glass-half-full crowd could talk about being seven points away from undefeated. The program's worst home loss since the Don Morton era — and, peripherally, Michigan falling at home to Toledo on Saturday — really takes the lipstick off the pig.

Lucas: When we look at rankings, polls, I didn't run into one person who felt like this was a Top 10 team, no matter what the scores on those games against Michigan and Ohio State might have revealed, about closeness at the end. The thing that's gonna haunt them, and is haunting them now, is they needed to close out the deal at Michigan, and put that victory in the bank where it would have collected some interest. Where now, they wouldn't have been looking at such a steep hill to climb.

It's an interesting dichotomy, I think, for anybody who's watched these three games, the feeling afterwards. For me, the meltdown at Michigan was really disconcerting, because of the way they played against a very inferior team, a team that has proven that out by losing to Toledo (13-10 in Ann Arbor). Last week's game was also, I thought, gut-wrenching — because of how they lost. And how they played. They played with great energy and passion, but couldn't keep Ohio State out of the end zone on that final series, which results in that emptiness that you feel. Tonight was an old-fashioned butt-kicking, and I thought they were overmatched from the start.

And as I pointed out earlier, it was not only the execution on the part of Penn State, because they didn't do a lot of good things, either, in the first half. But just the number of athletes that they have available, the number of playmakers on offense, stands in stark contrast to Wisconsin right now.

Q: Allan Evridge, who had been hot and cold so far, was totally ineffective Saturday and the coaching staff almost had no choice but to insert Dustin Sherer. He had some success, but the Badgers were trailing by 34 points at the time. How do you assess the quarterback situation? Is Evridge still the starter?

Lucas: I think they have to open it up. It's tough to measure a quarterback who comes in once the outcome is determined ... even if the starters are on the field, they don't have the same edge or urgency, and maybe they relax a bit. That being said, I like some of the things that Sherer did; he got the ball out of his hands, which Evridge has had a problem doing. And I think more so than anything else, they might make a change now just for the sake of making a change. Sometimes that works. They're technically at the halftime of their season, and they're 3-3, well below what expectations were. I would think that maybe a change to a different quarterback might spark the team a little bit, if nothing else, to try to forget the pain of the last three losses.

Sherer did enough tonight to make you believe maybe he deserves a chance. If nothing else, he did enough to show he deserves to play more than he has up to this point.

Q: Brad Nortman, the freshman punter, had a brutal first half that included a 15-yard shank that allowed Penn State to continue its field position dominance, and then had Derrick Williams run one back 63 yards for a score. If nothing else, that shows the value of experience at the specialist positions, the value of a Ken DeBauche, who finished up his career last year.

Lucas: That's the risk you take with a true freshman punter. As it turns out, the field position was awful, and after the shank, I think he was fighting his own confidence. But they weren't giving up a bunch of points until the punt return. And that's the killer. And that you can't lay all on Nortman. The coverage team kind of broke down there.

But they were kind of holding their own — they were getting peppered with jabs, if you want to use a boxing metaphor — but they didn't throw the real hard right until Williams took the punt back for a score. And then now you're on rubber legs.

They were still able to fight back a little bit, with Evridge leading that one drive into the end zone, but the crushing blow, the knockout punch, was the turnover at the end of the quarter. Whatever life you might have expected out of the defense into the third quarter, you saw it wasn't there.

Q: On the other end of things, Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark really looks special. He threw for 244 yards and a score, ran for two more TDs, and his field presence was palpable.

Lucas: Clark was pretty pedestrian in the first half (5 of 10 for 50 yards), but he came out throwing and made plays in the face of pressure, which was pretty impressive to me. Because I'm looking big picture, and I'm thinking that game between Penn State and Ohio State two weeks from tonight will go a long way toward determining the Big Ten champion.

Q: How good is Penn State? We knew coming in that this matchup was going to be more difficult for the Badgers defensively, but just judging from the performances of the last two weeks against a common opponent, they've got a sizable edge on Ohio State when it comes to talent.

Lucas: That's the team to beat, but strange things can happen in Columbus on a Saturday night, and we haven't seen maybe the best out of the Buckeyes yet. It reminds me a little bit of the (2003) national championship team, because they won kind of ugly for a while. But the one thing you can't ignore is the presence of Terrelle Pryor and Beanie Wells. And the (Nittany Lions') defense will get after them.

If you take a look at all the weapons that the Nittany Lions have on offense right now, with the three senior wideouts, with a tight end that didn't even factor into the game tonight who's pretty good ... but Clark has made it go. The tailbacks are fine, but Clark has made it go. You saw some of the pitches he made in the second half, and his ability to run — you've got to account for him as an extra running back. He's huge, 6-2, almost 240 pounds, wears big boy pads, and he's not afraid to use them. I was really impressed.

Q: A lot of people — including Grant, a UW alum who submitted this question to Ask Lucas via the asklucas@madison.com e-mail — are going to be asking what has gone wrong with Wisconsin, which is now 7-7 since last year's loss at Illinois. What is your general feeling about the state of the program?

Lucas: It's tough to draw a conclusion on that overall big picture for this program because the season hasn't played itself out yet. They've shown in these last two games that they don't match up with the best teams in the conference. That's self-evident truth, and a reality. Maybe the greatest test and measure will be how they respond the rest of the year, and what can they gain from the early experiences?

I think we've all learned now the value of stability at the quarterback position — and I'm certainly not laying it all on one player; I wouldn't ever think about doing that. But he hasn't gotten a lot of help this year. These aren't going to fall under the category of excuses, either. The lack of experience in the wide receiving corps. The lack of continuity with his tight ends, Graham and Beckum, conspired against him. And an inability to run the ball like a lot of people really thought they could run.

And now the injuries are starting to mount. You lose Urbik tonight; I think there's some hope that they can get Carimi back for Iowa (next Saturday). But they're going into maybe the most physical game of the season, and so it's not only a challenge mentally to keep this team up to a level where it can have success, it's physical. That's going to be something you'll have to watch from this point forward.

Q: Clearly, whatever goals this team had besides qualifying for a bowl — any bowl — are out the window. Right now, they've just got to worry about getting a win, right?

Lucas: Right now the only goal is survival, and recovery. Whatever goals there were for winning a conference title, they're gone.