Exorcising the Ghosts of Evanston

Happy Halloween, everybody.

Appropriately enough, Wisconsin is off to Evanston this week to face Northwestern. Having (fairly) successfully run the Michigan State (then No. 8)-Michigan (No. 4)-Ohio State (No. 2)-Iowa (lolz)-Nebraska (No. 7) gauntlet, the reward for the Badgers’ labors is a trip south to a place they haven’t won at since 1999.

Ryan Field has been a house of horrors for the Badgers over the past 17 years. Neither Bret Bielema nor Gary Andersen won at Northwestern. Lee Evans, Melvin Gordon, Montee Ball, Jim Leonhard—they all came up short.

Despite the Wildcats’ early-season woes, this year’s iteration has improved significantly over the past few weeks and gave Ohio State a game…