UW-Indiana thoughts

Finally, a nice relaxing Saturday where the Badgers score a comfortable win. Indiana is bad, and the few talented players they do have are hurt or hurting, but we took care of business with a dominant performance.

Six-hundred total yards. Three 100-yard rushers. Fifty-five points. Every last one of those things is important -- it reminds these guys that when they play to their potential, it takes a helluva team to stop them. The Hoosiers were not close to being that team today.

-When did I say David Gilreath isn't fast? He isn't a traditional burner, but on that 90-yard touchdown run he looked plenty fast. Otherwise he was remarkably shifty and efficient, and Indiana remarkably inept, on that end-around Paul Chryst kept calling. The best game of Gilreath's career (that punt return fumble aside), much welcomed.

That 90-yarder was a thing of beauty, from the blocking to Gilreath's inside deke that froze the Indiana DB just enough to let him sprint to the end zone.

-When P.J. Hill is at his best, his dancing results in better-than-expected runs. When his dancing isn't working ... well, that didn't happen today so let's just enjoy it. P.J. was at his best, showing patience, balance, strength, and bust. Two good games in a row, and 1,000 yards is actually within reach for him now.

-Still love what John Clay is bringing to the table. He chews up yardage with his long strides, and he shows great athleticism, like when he hurdled that guy today. The coaches still need to figure out a rotation that works out well for both Clay and Hill. P.J. was in a groove in the first quarter but had only one carry in the second.

-And what about Zach Brown? That fourth down catch he made in the first quarter was important for getting us off on the right foot and ensuring we played with the lead all day. I've never see that route out of our offense; maybe from Brian Calhoun.

-Thank got the Big Ten Network didn't have a better view of Chappell's fumble late in the first half. I thought that a different camera angle might have shown that his knee was down. The play stood, and we never looked back from there. Great play by Jay Valai to force the fumble.

-So our offensive line, which was healthy last week finally, got two whole plays in today before Eric Vanden Heuvel was hurt. Turned out it didn't matter, but wouldn't it be nice if we were just at full strength for once?

-Gilreath's first touchdown was called a run, but was actually a pass that turned out to be a lateral. That play earlier was not completed and was a live ball. Better execution would make that a slightly forward pass.

-The backup defensive linemen played well. Dan Moore got a good push. Patrick Butrym made a nice play on a fourth-and-1 stop. Jeff Stehle had a sack late.

-Was it just me, or did Bret Bielema's coat seem like the kind you can get for $10 at Steve and Barry's?

-BTN color analyst Chris Martin was using his full vocabulary today. Particularly impressive was when he described Indiana's wide receivers as "linear" who gave Hoosier quarterbacks a good "catching radius." Huh? I guess most receivers are ... non-linear? And lesser receivers give their quarterbacks ... a catching circumference? Leave it to a Northwestern guy to bring these words to a football broadcast.

-Our kickoffs and kickoff coverage were decidedly mediocre. And what was Mario Goins doing fielding kicks? Let Gilreath handle them all, and block, Mario.

-Other lowlights: Matt Shaughnessy roughing the passer, handing Indiana three points; Dustin Sherer's interception was a terrible pass; a delay of game call after an incomplete pass; 12 men on the field on a late Indiana punt. Thankfully the Hoosiers were bad enough that these weren't critical, but don't let the score fool you, the mistakes are still there.

This win was bittersweet. Again, the opponent was lacking, but it showed that we were capable of overcoming sometimes sloppy play to win in dominating fashion. That hasn't happened much this year.

Now let's keep that Axe!

UW-Indiana preview

More than in past seasons, every game the Badgers play this season seems to have major bearing on how I feel about the rest of the season.

After we beat Fresno, I thought we were a bona fide BCS bowl contender. Never mind that our offense didn't do much against a defense that has proven to be lackluster, and our defense gave up big plays to a mediocre offense.

With about nine minutes to go against Michigan State, I was thinking that we had a good chance of running the regular season table, finishing 8-4, and going to a halfway decent bowl game. Never mind that we were being flagged every other play and couldn't cover someone named Blair White.

Now I'm thinking we might lose to a bad Indiana team this weekend and maybe finish 5-7. Never mind that our offense produced two 100-yard rushers last week and our defense held arguably the best running back in the country to less than 60 yards rushing. Who knows?

Kellen Lewis, the one Hoosier who strikes fear in you, has been battling an ankle injury and it looks like he'll play Saturday. Their defensive line is injury-riddled. They have some talented players in the front seven, but are pretty weak at cornerback.

We ought to win this game easily. I won't be satisfied with a team that fulfills the basics of lining up correctly and not committing 10 penalties. This is a must-win game.


Too bad it's a must-win in order to stay in contention for spending Christmas in Michigan, a state which has been nightmarish for our boys this season.

Wisconsin 27, Indiana 17

Ray Small: Becoming a better man

A brief non-Badger excursion ...

During the Ohio State-USC game I heard a funny quote from Buckeye wide receiver Ray Small, who took a recruiting visit to Los Angeles before committing to Jim Tressel.

• "Here at Ohio State, they teach you to be a better man," Small said. "There, it's just all about football."

Funny stuff, right? That quote was on my mind when I read today that Small had been suspended for repeated violations of team rules.

Guess Tressel's got some work to do on this guy.

Even better is Small's dad is squawking that the punishment doesn't fit the crime, that Ray is guilty of nothing more than missing or being late for classes, and the occasional parking ticket. What college kid hasn't? If the Cardinal had suspended editors for those kind of transgressions, What's on Tapp would have had a short shelf life.

But Mr. Small is peeved because of what some of the other naughty Buckeyes have been up to:

• Ken Small cited several other recent legal transgressions by Ohio State players and compared them to the minor problems his son has had. One player a year ago was arrested for propositioning a female police officer posing as a prostitute. At least two players have been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Guess Tressel's got some more work to do.

By no means is this an inference that the Wisconsin football program is squeaky clean. I am fully aware of some Badgers' deplorable behavior. Recently, Lance Smith and Booker Stanley come to mind. While I don't condone this sort of behavior, I also understand that if you have a group of 120 college kids, athletes or not, some of them are going to do stupid stuff ... although I personally never knew anyone busted for soliciting a female police officer posing as a prostitute. At least not that I know of.

But what's funny is how Ohio State tries to cultivate this holier-than-thou, pious attitude about things, embodied by Small's quote comparing Ohio State to USC.

Let's face it, it's all about football at USC, Ohio State, just about any big-time college football program. Just admit it.

Pilgrimage

ESPN.com recently posted an interesting piece on gameday in Madison, part of what appears to be an Orbitz-sponsored series called Pilgrimage. It's not the most insightful piece to a UW alum, but it sure makes me long for autumn in Madison -- and excited to be making the trip to see my homeys next weekend for the Minnesota game.

A couple thoughts on this piece:

-The story references the Babcock Hall Dairy Store which serves Berry Alvarez ice cream. Apparently, it is a state law that any national story or broadcast covering a Badger game and the scene around it mention this.

But ... I've never been there. Have you? Not once in my four years on campus, not once since. I'm sure it's good ice cream, but this place's popularity seems as much a creation of the university PR machine as anything.

-What do you think about this line?

• The level of passion in the student section rises to that of a Duke basketball game, even if the IQ level does not. Vulgar T-shirts are to Camp Randall what clever chants are to Cameron Indoor Stadium. So much for being gracious hosts. But the Badgers will bounce back. They certainly have before.

I'm not going to argue that our student section isn't vulgar. Hell, it was only seven years ago that I purchased a T-shirt prior to the Michigan game that is the most primitive form of vulgarity. But Duke's getting free ride here. Duke fans are organized, passionate, clever -- and also incredibly vulgar at times.

-What do you think of this line?

• UW-Madison is rated 38th in the U.S. World and News Report's 2008 list of best colleges, so you might have received a better education at the college you attended. But you probably didn't have as much fun as they do here.

Apparently the writer believes the majority of his readership went to the 37 schools ranked ahead of UW, and not one of the thousands of colleges and universities ranked behind UW. Thirty-eighth is pretty good, buddy.

Why am I so sensitive today?

Streamin'

Did anyone watch the Big Ten Network's stream of our exhibition game against Augustana the other night? I tried, but my home computer isn't cutting it for that type of work. Maybe I'll be able to sneak back to work tonight for some, ahem, budget work and a quick look at how the boys looked Saturday.

Going off the box score, a few things stuck out:

-Jon Leuer had a nice game with 15 points in 14 minutes. What I like is that he took 11 shots overall, and only three of them were 3-pointers. Shows he's not settling for long jumpers, which is good for his overall game.

-Jordan Taylor got 21 minutes of action and had five assists against one turnover. Shows Bo is getting him ready for some legit duty in relief of Pop.

-Surprised to see JP Gavinski got only two minutes of action. Additionally, Jared Berggren, Kevin Gullikson, and Ian Markolf all saw five minutes or less of playing time. Granted, it's only an exhibition, but this could mean that our primary 4-5 players will be limited to Nankivil, Landry, and Leuer, with Krabby sliding down to the 4 in certain matchups.

Or it could just mean that Augustana was playing a really small lineup.

-Apparently Krabby went into the stands after a loose ball, gotta love the quote from Bo afterward:

"That was his uncle on the other side. He hadn’t seen him in a while. He wanted to go over there and shake hands with him. The scary thing was, our fans parted. They didn’t try to protect him, I thought they would do a better job of catching him. Of course, with all the stitches and everything Joe has on him, he’s not another pretty face. Maybe he scared some people. ..."

Whitewater's next on Tuesday. I love these matchups with WIAC schools, it's so much better than playing Athletes in Action or the Turkgystan under-21 national team.

Comparisons up the Wazzou

Sunday afternoon Charlie and I watched a Big Ten basketball preview on ESPN, an ESPNU-branded superficial look at the conferences the network covers.

The announcing tandem first covered Purdue, then Michigan State, then the Badgers. Analyst Adrian Branch, in describing Wisconsin, referred to the team as a "Midwest version of Washington State." I looked at team statistics from last year, and Wisconsin led the nation in scoring defense, yielding only 54.4 points per game. Wazzou was tied for second at 56.4 ppg.

But even though Washington State has been very successful the last couple years under Tony Bennett, I resent the comparison and implication. Hell, I think Washington State should even resent it. Because no matter how long Bo Ryan has been coaching in Madison, or how much Tony may have changed things in Pullman, the implication is still that these teams play good defense, but it's only because they're limited offensively and are forced to win playing ugly.

Don't get me wrong, I love Dick Bennett and forever credit him for the work he did building Wisconsin basketball in all his stops around the state along the way. But I never liked the fact that in his system, it seemed that offense was sacrificed for defense except in rare cases. Rare was the team or player who had it both ways. It was really nasty basketball at times.

Wisconsin doesn't play like that now. We have guys who are talented offensively but can also be lockdown defenders. Marcus Landry could start for just about any team in the country because of his all-around skills.

We have it both ways. Yes, we led the nation in scoring defense last year, but we were also seventh nationally in scoring margin, averaging 67.3 ppg, a 12.9 ppg advantage. Guess how many times we averaged 67.3 ppg under Bennett? Zero.

Our lowest-scoring team under Bo was his first, 2001-2002, which averaged 67 ppg. Bennett's highest-scoring team was his first, 1995-96, which averaged 66.1 ppg. Those of us who went to a lot of games in '95-'96 might have a hard time believing that.

(Wazzou managed a 10-point spread because they had some guys who could put the ball in the basket, as well as defend.)

Yet college basketball analysts everywhere cling to their outdated opinions of of what Wisconsin basketball is all about.

In the end, though, the most important opinions have to do with wins and losses. To that end, Branch picked the Badgers to win the Big Ten this year. I wouldn't agree, but it's nice to hear.

Monday morning thoughts

We met my folks and grandma for church Sunday morning, and the first thing my dad asked me afterward was if I'd watched the Texas-Texas Tech game Saturday night. I had, and it was an awesome game.

Did you see the ending? Tech students rushed the field prematurely, and the Raiders were flagged for two penalties. They kicked off from their own 7-1/2, as fans ringed the field. It had the makings of another Stanford-Cal, but nothing came of it.

So that's the highlight of my college football Saturday, a Big 12 South game played in Lubbock, Texas, on the campus of my old friend Kurt Reineck's alma mater. Not the Badger pulling out a big win that could have propelled them to an 8-4 record and salvaging a horrible season. A horrible season gets horribler.

Big Ten rankings:

1. Penn State

2. Ohio State

3. Michigan State. Name three players responsible for the Spartans' win over us. Blair White (the wide receiver). Brett Swenson (the kicker). And ... and ... and ... A sure sign of just how thoroughly we beat ourselves in this one.

4. Northwestern

5. Minnesota. And I thought the manner in which we lost was heartbreaking. The fact it came on a dropped pass by class act Eric Decker was satisfying. Maybe his hands were sore from punching defensive backs in the groin.

6. Illinois

7. Iowa

8. Wisconsin. I know we're last in the standings, and anticipate getting ripped for this ranking (as if being eighth-best is worth feeling good about), but this team is six points away from being 4-2 in the conference, angling for a January bowl game. It's also two more weeks of brain dead football from not playing in a bowl. The Badgers showed a lot of good signs Saturday.

9. Michigan. And I thought the manner in which Minnesota lost was heartbreaking. Losing on a hook-and-ladder? I only wish our year was going better so I could enjoy this more. Or that we'd beaten them. Sigh.

10. Purdue. Look out!

11. Indiana. If we lose Saturday ... it could definitely happen. Kellen Lewis will probably play and score four touchdowns.

Sensitive zebras, smart-aleck coach

Finally getting to the computer after a long day on the couch with Charlie, who can't seem to wake up fully today. That's OK, another day to watch my favorite football team, this time professional, lose on a last-second field goal.

Anyone who read the blog yesterday may have come away with the impression that I'm going easy on the Badger coaching staff in regards to blame for yesterday's loss. That's true, but at the time of writing I didn't know that Bielema's remark led to the 15-yard penalty that changed the momentum of the game.

Still:

-Jay Valai gets called for a penalty for bumping into a ref running onto the field after a kickoff?

-Bielema gets flagged for being a smart aleck?

You could argue that neither should have done that, especially Bielema, who should have kept his compusre. You could also argue that this isn't friggin' baseball -- it's football. Players and refs bump into one another. And coaches give it to the refs. How many of the most classic NFL Films moments have been coaches berating officials? Who is this sensitive zebra?

Still, even discounting that, it's easy to question the decision to call timeout before State's field goal attempt. I had the same feeling that I did whenever Ned Yost did or did not make a pitching change in the late innings -- whichever decision he made, it was going to be the wrong one and he was going to get ripped for it.

I'm still not calling for Bielema's head. (Readers of this blog, increasingly, appear to be; from the last 30 days, the search terms "fire bret bielema," "fire brett bielema" and "fire bielema" are three of the top seven queries that have led people to Badgercentric.) He deserves the chance to work through this.

But when a team continues to beat itself, the head coach is the first guy you look at.

UW-Michigan State thoughts

I don't even know what to say. Seriously. This week after week of getting kicked in the balls by one thing after another is really starting to have a residual effect on my psyche.

We should have won this game by three touchdowns. Two 100-yard rushers. Holding Ringer to 54 yards. Their quarterback goes 19-for-44 and their butterfingered receivers drop seven passes.

And yet ...

Sigh.

Deep breath.

(Kick wall.)

-Where to begin? How about the officiating? Looks like in the end we racked up 121 penalty yards. I'd estimate that about half of them were no-doubters, about a quarter of them were toss-ups, and about a quarter of them were ridiculous.

-Kudos to Michigan State's offensive coordinator for his innovative game plan of calling passing plays, having his receivers run near our defensive backs, and lobbying for interference calls. It worked marvelously. Better than actually trying to complete passes to a bunch of guys with hands like that guy from the movie Necessary Roughness, I think his name was Featherstone (same color jerseys, too).

-Then again, someone named Blair White (wasn't she on The Facts of Life?) had 164 yards receiving, so they had something working.

-Can someone explain the back-to-back penalties on our coaching staff following the John Clay touchdown that set up their last touchdown? Bielema just said the refs' explanation was that our defense came onto the field too quickly after the play was over, and that he's never been warned or even talked to about a penalty like that before. Oh my god ...

(Break: Listening to the postgame I just heard a McCain ad featuring a stuttering Joe the Plumber and threw the radio through the window.)

-We ice the game with a rare third-and-1 conversion ... and a hold on Moffitt. Iffy call, seems like John got his arm outside the lineman and the guy fell over, but it didn't even need to be that close. We didn't need to hold their linemen -- we ran the ball so effectively it was like Sinbad was on the Spartans' line.

Second straight week something like this happened. Last week we overcame it, this week we crumbled.

-Why in the hell did Bielema call timeout when State was setting up for that last-second field goal? They were rushing onto the field for what was admittedly a very makable field goal, but we gave them time to get things straight. Maybe if he hadn't wasted our third timeout with that foolish challenge earlier in the half he could have called a third straight timeout.

The radio guys just said calling the timeout was a good move because we only had 10 guys on the field. Oh, so that makes it good coaching. Sheesh.

Bitter cloud lifting? Not yet ...

-If Michigan State is the Big Ten's third-best team, then this truly is an awful conference.

-At least the running game got going today, and found that rhythm in the second half. The only thing that stopped it was our play calling or penalties. P.J. looked confident. Clay ran hard and hit holes. His touchdown run was beautiful, especially the blocking. Chris Pressley got a seal on the outside linebacker. Eric Vanden Heuvel and Kraig Urbik doubled down on the edge. Andy Kemp pulled nicely, and Nick Toon held the cornerback at bay. Perfect execution.

On P.J.'s touchdown run Billy Rentmeester and Gabe Carimi had nice blocks.

-Toon showed signs of being a playmaker at wide receiver.

-Final yardage: Wisconsin 431, Michigan State 312.

-Had a feeling that Phil Welch was going to miss that field goal, but didn't think it would come back to be decisive.

-Also had a feeling State would call a fake field goal, but in the first half. Terrible designed play -- snap to a defensive end? Gee, can't believe he didn't catch it.

-Brad Nortman and Daven Jones had great execution on the punt Jones downed at the 1, but the refs thought otherwise. Which one of them saw that as a touchback? Either way, Bielema should never have challenged it, there was no way a replay could have overturned it.

-One holding call on Niles Brinkley was particularly galling. The refs got him for a hold when there was no contact until after the ball was already past the receiver. Unreal.

-Welch's kickoffs were too short for my liking.

-In a way, this was very similar to our win over Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament. State for the most part outplayed us in that game but foul trouble on their bigs, which their fans would pin on refereeing, let us creep back in, and Flowers' steal stole the game for us late. This was the football equivalent of that, only with us on the losing end. Payback's a bitch ... but I'm glad we got that win.

Another week, another loss like this. If I had any hair left I'd be pulling it out. I can't even take satisfaction with Minnesota and Michigan losing ... maybe just a little.

Jana just handed me Charlie, so I'm wrapping it up. He's smiling, so I guess I should be, too. Our performance today keeps me from wrapping up hopes of doing something else positive this season. But just barely.

UW-Michigan State halftime thoughts

Pretty good first half. Feels like we should be up by more, but I'll take a lead. Ringer hasn't gone off yet, and if we can hold the lead their ability to ride just him is diminished.

-Glad we got points off that last drive, but why spike it with 24 seconds left and two timeouts? Then you have only two shots at a touchdown.

-Made a note that it was good to get Lance Kendricks involved early. Then he goes down in a most bizarre way. Hopefully he'll be okay for next week and the rest of the season. If not, what was a position of extreme depth two months ago is now painfully shallow.

-Ringer has 10 carries for 27 yards. Even if he gets to 25 carries for 100 yards, we should have a shot to win this thing.

-Glad to see Gilreath making plays again. Ray Bentley was talking about him as a big-play guy, and I guess he's our best best, but he doesn't seem that fast, does he?

-Our punt return unit doesn't block opposing gunners very well, does it? Gilreath is either fair catching or catching and getting immediately hit almost every time back.

-The touchdown drive culminating in Sherer's pass to Graham was a total team effort. First, the punt coverage team downs Nortman's kick at the 2. Then the defense forces a three and out. Then a series of nice running plays sets up the play action scoring call. Well done.

-Nice start by Shaughnessy, who is lining up at both sides of the line. That play where he pushed two blockers back into Ringer for a big loss was awesome.

-Our third-and-1 impotence is driving me nuts.

-Mental errors have once again led to points by the opponent. The play call misunderstanding leads to Sherer's fumble which leads to a field goal. Levy's face mask leads to another field goal. This team just doesn't have the margin for error to be making those mistakes.

-P.J. and Clay have had some nice runs, created by some nice blocking, but we still can't seem to get into a rhythm running the ball. What's it going to take? We need the run more than ever, especially considering our quarterback with, as Bentley accurately put it, a "bizarre throwing motion."