UW-Indiana postgame thoughts

Watched the second half under the din of my father-in-law snoring on the couch behind me, an apt metaphor for the game on the whole. I'll take it, though - when Indiana plays that poorly, we should beat them by 30. I'll pick nits later, but let's lead with this thought:

Great game by the defense. This is the game we've been waiting all year to see from that unit. True, IU lost a few offensive linemen, but the effort transcended that advantage.

The defensive line played very well - good pressure on Lewis, but more importantly they shut down his running lanes. The linebackers were outstanding - Casillas and Levy in particular. And what can you say about Ike? Joe Hart's reference to Fletcher-Burress '99 proved to be dead-on - four catches for 17 yards for Hardy - as well as a fumble and a huge penalty. Langford got a right-place, right-time pick, Carter broke up some passes, and Pleasant and Royston were around the ball. And best yet: best tackling of the season, can't think of one blatant missed tackle.

Other thoughts:

-Too many stupid mental errors for the ninth game of the season. An offsides penalty made a third-and-1 into a third-and-6, an illegal shift nullified a terrific Donovan first down scramble, and a blatant offside on a kickoff.

-Great pressure by Hayden and Shaughnessy on Langford's pick.

-Took waaaaaaay too long to put these guys away, thanks to those mental errors and Donovan's fumble.

-Conversely, can't remember seeing worse ball protection than what Indiana showed today, they handled the ball like it was covered with butter.

-Loved to see Thigpen taunting our crowd after his long run, which everyone else knew was coming back because of a penalty on Hardy - which was a good call, Ike would have made that tackle.

-Did Gilreath give back his return record on that atrocious punt return in the third quarter? Oh well, he made up for it with a brilliant return in the fourth.

-Did anyone else notice how often Ike was around the ball on special teams? Is that a new role for him, or has he been on those units all along? Whatever the case, I like the assignment.

-Great to have Hubbard back. He only caught one pass for 30 yards, but he drew an interference penalty to set up a TD late in the third.

-Lance got off to a slow start, but came on late when the IU defense was tiring. Still, we really need PJ healthy next week to have a chance to win in Columbus. On Smith's TD runs he got a lot of nice blocking - Urbik, Rentmeester, and Turner's stood out.

-Speaking of Rentmeester, how great were his two runs, and Pressley's later? That's 45 yards on four carries for the fullbacks, hopefully that's not a gimmick and becomes part of the regular offense.

-Time of possession edge: 35:23-24:37, Wisconsin. Just what we needed.

-Aaron Henry is a playmaker. He caused one of Lewis's fumbles, and twice he was there to scoop up IU fumbles that were later (correctly) ruled down. He would have had big returns on both.

-Charles Davis, the color analyst, is very good. I thought so when he called bowls for Fox last year, and continue to think that for his work with the BTN. He deserves a shot at ESPN or ABC, but we'll see if his lack of a big name will hold him back.

-Well-officiated game.

-Lastly, did you see the video of the law school students trying to catch their canes? Homecoming legend has it that if you catch the cane after throwing it over the goalpost, you'll win your first case. Let me tell you, a lot of those canes hit the ground; too bad for their clients. Nerds!

What did y'all think?