The Illinois football players went into Saturday's Big Ten opener against Wisconsin in search of redemption for their three non-conference losses.

As they walked off the Memorial Stadium field with blank looks after their 38-20 loss to Wisconsin, the Illini were just looking for answers.

Linebacker Antonio Mason couldn't explain how an Illinois defense that was expecting a strong Wisconsin rushing game from the start would let the Badgers run all over the field for 307 yards.

"I have no idea," Mason said. "We had a couple mistakes, but nobody should run over our defense."

Receiver Kelvin Hayden couldn't explain why the Illini offense got off to another slow start, falling behind 21-0 by the second quarter.

"I have no idea," Hayden said. "I guess we needed a wake-up call or something for us to get going. We weren't there at first and then we came alive."

And fullback Carey Davis could give no explanation why the Illini have fallen into a 1-4 hole for the second year in a row.

"I have no idea," Davis said. "I couldn't tell you. We work hard in practice. We work hard all week. We make those plays in practice. We just have to take them into the game and make them."

But Davis could explain what the latest loss does to the Illini, who will have to go 5-2 for the rest of the season to even think about a trip to a bowl game.

"A lot of the goals we set are pretty much out the window, but we've got to keep fighting for ourselves and each other and take it one game at a time and hopefully right this thing," Davis said. "There's nothing you can really say to a bunch of guys after we lose close games and keep getting the air deflated out of us."

This week's deflation came mostly because of a pounding by the Badgers offensive line and the tailback duo of Dwayne Smith and Booker Stanley.

While filling in for injured starter Anthony Davis, who has sat out the Badgers' last two games with a sprained ankle, Smith ran over the Illini with 34 carries for 193 yards. Stanley complemented him with 55 yards of his own.

"They were dominating us up front. They had big, powerful backs, and they were bouncing off of us," Illinois head coach Ron Turner said. "We knew they were big and physical and we knew they were going to come in and try and do that. I didn't think they'd be able to rush for 300-some yards like they did."

The Illini had no answer for Smith, who scored three touchdowns, two in the first seven minutes of the game to help Wisconsin's dominating start. He also had one rush for 39 yards that helped Wisconsin set up its final score of the game.

"Obviously, physically we got beat up today but it's just because we weren't doing what we were supposed to do," Illini linebacker Winston Taylor said. "We weren't holding our gaps. We weren't where we were supposed to be.

"They made it public that they were going to try to run it down our throats. That's what we expected. We just didn't respond well."

The Illini offense didn't respond to the opening kickoff.

On their first drive down the field, the Illini got in three plays before punter Steve Weatherford botched a punt for only 19 yards to set up Wisconsin's first score of the game.

On the second drive, Beutjer threw an interception that put the Badgers in position for their second score.

Then, the Illini made it to the Wisconsin 40-yard line before missing another third down conversion. Wisconsin scored again.

"We put a lot of pressure on the offense. Granted they've got to put up points, but we shouldn't put them in the position where they have to score," Taylor said. "As a defense, if they put up seven points, that should be enough for us to win."

The Illini finally scored when E.B. Halsey returned a kickoff 66 yards to set up a John Gockman field goal and scored three more times after that. But they couldn't find the end zone in the fourth quarter, and little mistakes, including five penalties for 40 yards, sent them to the locker room with another loss and few explanations for what they should do now.

Taylor did, however, have one definite answer for a starting point.

"At some point as a team we're going to have stop using (being close) as a crutch. And we've got to stop saying, 'Oh we're so close it's one play here, one play there,'" Taylor said. "I mean, one play or 20 plays it doesn't matter. We're not getting it done, and that's what we need to work on."