Hoosiers comeback stopped short by Badgers

The Hoosiers late comeback fell a bit short while the Badgers won 31-28. On the bright side, the hoosiers secondary held their own for the most part, the receivers played extremely well, and the hoosiers capitalized on some key situations. The only downside was that the Badgers running game was just too much for the hoosiers. Both John Clay and Montee Ball ran for over 100 yards. The Badger offensive line had their way in opening up holes in the running game. This loss will make it very difficult for the hoosiers to get to 6 wins. That would require an upset next week at Penn State followed by a home victory against Purdue to finish out the year. On the bright side, I saw a ton of progress yesterday versus when we played them a year ago.

Chappell threw for 323 yards with 3 TD's and 2 INT's. He made some deep throws that were very good. The wind, just like last week, also played a role in the passing game yesterday. Darius Willis went down with a right left injury but, Bryan Payton came in and played very well. He hit some holes hard and made some good runs to get some pressure off of the passing game. On some keys situations the hoosiers also converted which was promising. On a 4th and goal Coach Lynch put Adam Replogle in at fullback and Trea Burgess plunged into the end zone for a key touchdown. Demarlo Belcher let dropped two keys passes on some important downs only to catch a key pass on 4th and 5 and dragged Wisconsin defenders for a 30 yard game. Tandon Doss finished the game as the leading receiver with 92 yards and 2 TD's.

In the end it was the Wisconsin running game that was just too much for the hoosiers. At least this year they really competed for the whole game. They were down 10 at half time but just kept hanging around and eventually converted on some big plays to cut the lead down to 3. Although it was another tough loss and bowl eligibility might not happen this year the hoosiers are getting to the point where they know we can compete with anybody. A sign of progress for this program.