1. Hoosier Versatility

Kellen Lewis, suffering from an ankle sprain, was limited to just a few ineffective snaps. Marcus Thigpen was also a non-factor and the Badger defense throttled the Indiana offense. Without weapons, the Badgers held Indiana to fewer than 60 yards in the second half.

2. Sherer’s Homecoming

Indiana showed why they are so poor against the pass. Still, Sherer was pedestrian and was more inaccurate than he should have been. With 441 rushing yards, Wisconsin did not need to throw the ball so it wasn’t an issue. Nick Toon was moderately productive, thought Garrett Graham was still the primary target.

3. The Sacked and the Sackless

The Badgers notched 3 sacks against the Hoosier quarterbacks and had a number of good hits. The pressure wasn’t overwhelming, but was pretty consistent, which was to be expected given the Hoosier troubles protecting the quarterback.

4. Stayin’ Alive

Indiana was just 4 for 17 on third down, so mission accomplished for Wisconsin in this regard. Indiana had just one solid drive early in the game, but after that could put nothing together. Without big plays (just a couple plays of over 20 yards), the IU offense was hamstrung.

On offense the Badgers were 5 of 10 on third down, and another 2 for 2 on fourth down. Simply put, they executed when they needed to, in large part due to the bruising ground game that left them in very few difficult down and distance scenarios.

5. 4th Quarter Blues

The game was locked up at the end of the third quarter, but the Badgers won the fourth quarter 14-0 just for good measure.

Badgermaniac’s Prediction

No real surprises for the most part. I predicted an easy victory and that is what we got. If anything, the Badgers were even more dominant than I expected (55 points vs. 38 points). Games like this make the tight losses even more frustrating, as thoughts of “What Might Have Been” rear their ugly head.