The University of Wisconsin football team got off to a slow start Saturday before rallying past Marshall to the tune of a 51-14 victory at Camp Randall Stadium.

Afterward, Capital Times sports columnist and Badgers Radio Network color commentator Mike Lucas took time to answer questions about the Badgers' victory.

Q: Gosh, Mike, things looked ugly early for the Badgers. How come they started so slow?

A: I thought, from the start, Marshall felt confident it could force Wisconsin to throw the ball. I think that was part of their game plan. Knowing (defensive coordinator) Rick Minter as I do, from his previous stops whether it be as a head coach at Cincinnati or as a defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, he's pretty good at scheming against run-first teams. I think they felt physically they could hold up on the line of scrimmage. The real key to the game was whether their secondary could come up and make tackles to force Wisconsin to throw. They got pretty much what they wanted.

I'm sure they exceeded all expectations and their wildest dreams to take a 14-0 lead. The single biggest play of the game was probably the (ensuing) kickoff when they kicked the ball out-of-bounds. This year, the ball is placed on the 40 instead of the 35. Moreso than anything else, it created field position for Wisconsin. If you think back, the first play was a fumbled exchange between Evridge and Clay; they were second-and-12. Nothing had really turned yet as far as momentum. On that second-and-12, Evridge found Lance Kendricks on the near-boundary on a screen. The defensive back for Marshall, No. 17 (DeQuan) Bembry, had as good a coverage as you could find in that type of situation. So it took an absolutely perfect pass and concentration to the end to make the completion. That seemed to be the springboard for Wisconsin offensively and the entire game seemed to swing.

Coaches forever talk about the pendulum. It was one of (Barry) Alvarez's pet phrases, that teams have to hang in there until the pendulum swings back in your favor. But the good teams are resilient enough to take a punch and then when that pendulum swings your way you have to do something to capitalize. That's what I'm saying. The kickoff kind of opened that door a little bit because it gave Wisconsin the field position it needed to change the kind of play-call they were going to come with on second-and-12. Evridge and Kendrick did the rest by making the big play.

Q. Mike, is it just me or was it fitting that two guys who needed to prove themselves today connected on that long pass play -- Evridge after last week and Kendricks subbing for Beckum at tight end?

A. Very true. I think everybody, this week, has been wondering can UW be one-dimensional on offense and sustain success with the chains? The one thing a lot of people around here who haven't seen Evridge weren't aware of, when he was at Kansas State he had his moments throwing the ball. He threw for like 357 vs. Texas A&M and he threw for over 200 yards in a couple other games. It's not like he's never been forced to throw the ball. It was just a matter that in this situation -- with this team and under these circumstances -- can he make a play through the air?