MADISON, Wis. -- Marshall neutralized Wisconsin's biggest strength on offense.

Unfortunately for the Thundering Herd, that exposed its biggest weakness on defense.

One week after Wisconsin ran for 404 yards on 63 carries in a season-opening win over Akron, the Thundering Herd held the host Badgers to 158 yards on 40 carries Saturday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd of 80,396 at Camp Randall Stadium.

Wisconsin junior tailback P.J. Hill scored two touchdowns but managed only 57 yards on 18 carries against Marshall. Hill had 210 yards and two scores on 23 carries against Akron.

Stopping Hill and the rest of the Badgers' running backs was nothing more than a moral victory for Marshall, which allowed No. 10 Wisconsin to throw for 329 yards in a 51-14 home win for the Big Ten Conference powerhouse.

That is Wisconsin's highest passing total since it threw for 385 yards in a 56-21 home win over Michigan State on Nov. 15, 2003.

In the 54 games between those two pass-happy performances, the ground-oriented Badgers (2-0) threw for 300 yards or more only six times and were 3-3 when they did so.

"They were exactly what we expected them to be," Marshall senior defensive end Ian Hoskins said. "They were exactly what we practiced against. Nothing was new.

"Coach (Jerry) Azzinaro and Coach (Rick) Minter did a terrific job this week of showing us exactly what was going to happen. (But the Badgers) mixed a few passes in there, of course, that we weren't expecting. It's Wisconsin, you know? Go figure.

"We're going to take the good from it and build on it and we're going to take the bad from it and learn from it."

Wisconsin senior quarterback Allan Evridge never will be confused with Florida's Tim Tebow or Missouri's Chase Daniel, but Marshall sure made him look like those Heisman Trophy candidates.

A Kansas State transfer, Evridge completed 17-of-26 passes for 308 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. It was his second 300-yard game in college and his first at Wisconsin.

"It's always in the game plan," Evridge said of throwing the football. "Last week, we had a pretty extensive throwing package. We just didn't have to use it with the offensive linemen playing so well. So, it's always there. We just had to utilize it this week."

Marshall Coach Mark Snyder was impressed.

"We wanted to make them beat us left-handed and clearly he beat us left-handed," said Snyder, whose team committed three consecutive turnovers to start the second half, allowing Wisconsin to extend its advantage from 17-14 to 31-14.

"Their quarterback really impressed me. He threw the ball well today. If they can run the ball like they did last week and throw it like they did this week, they're going to have a shot to have a pretty good team this year.

"We stopped the run. I don't know how many yards they had, but I have played Wisconsin a whole bunch and we would have been happy with that rush total. Obviously they beat us throwing the football, and we didn't help ourselves by turning the ball over. There's the story of the game."

Up next for the Thundering Herd is its Conference USA opener.

With Memphis (0-2 overall, 0-1 C-USA) heading to Huntington to face Marshall (1-1, 0-0) at 7 Saturday night, Snyder and his staff must find a quick solution for a glaring problem.

The Tigers like to throw the football, and for good reason. Their wide receivers -- 6-foot-4, 200-pound junior Duke Calhoun; 6-4, 215-pound senior Maurice Jones; and 6-8, 220-pound Carlos Singleton, in particular -- are among the league's most talented.

Marshall also will have to deal with Memphis junior quarterback Arkelon Hall, who completed 29-of-38 passes for 373 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions in a 42-35 loss to Rice on Saturday.

Jones had nine catches for a career-high 173 yards and two touchdowns against Rice to go along with Singleton's 44 yards on five catches and Calhoun's 46 yards on three catches.

"Lick your wounds and you got to get better," Marshall senior free safety C.J. Spillman said when asked what the Thundering Herd must do before it faces the Tigers.

"Don't let the same thing that happened this past week be the same thing that beats you next week. As a player, you have to learn to get better off your mistakes.

"We just weren't playing the ball well (against Wisconsin). When you don't play the ball well, that lets the opposing team make big plays and make those catches that they should make."