What am I supposed to write?

Indiana’s game up in Madison was every bit as ugly as everyone expected it to be. The Hoosiers were comically outgunned, undermanned and overwhelmed; and that showed itself in spades during Saturday’s 52-point thrashing at the hands of Wisconsin. The Hoosiers went to Camp Randall and were absolutely worked over by a Badger squad capable of dominating far better football teams than this motley IU crew.

From the day the B1G schedule came out, this game was openly acknowledged as one where the Hoosiers may as well concede defeat.

 Wisconsin was favored by as many as 40 points in the week leading up to the game, and just about every Indiana fan that I talked to throughout the week thought the spread was about 10 points too low. If that doesn’t tell the whole story, I’m not sure what does – this game went entirely according to plan (not necessarily Kevin Wilson’s), and taught us nothing in the process.

There may technically be some storylines to draw from this game. One could look on the bright side and say that Indiana lost by 11 points fewer than it did last year against an apparently superior Wisconsin team. One could also take Stephen Houston’s rushing performance as a positive and say that the Hoosier ground game is finally finding some traction. One could go the other way as well, and question some small mistakes the coaching staff made as well as some bigger shortcomings from the players.

As Wisconsin raced to a 28-0 lead though, there was little that either team showed that they hadn’t shown consistently in the first half of the year – the Badgers looked like a well-oiled machine and Indiana looked like an overmatched group still trying to find itself. The only wrinkle early on was a trick play from Wisconsin, and even that didn’t teach us anything (after all, we already knew Bret Bielema was the type of jerk who would pull out a gadget play against an obviously outclassed opponent).

This game was ugly to be sure, and it’s unlikely anyone from the great state of Wisconsin will ever allow any Hoosier friends or relatives to forget the time their boys from the north defeated IU by 114 composite points over consecutive seasons. If next year brings another 50+ point loss to the Badgers, that’s a cause for concern.

At the end of the day though the result of this football game should do nothing to change fans’ outlook of the season. Ball State fans weren’t up in arms about being crushed by Oklahoma and the Hoosiers lost to the Cardinals less than two months ago. Like it or not, IU is a B1G team in a comparable situation to a mid-level MAC team and they’re going to need to deal with that at least for the rest of this year.

Indiana was such a heavy underdog for a reason, and anyone taking this game without the requisite grain of salt needs to understand that this is what happens when one of the worst teams in the B1G (sorry Coach Wilson) goes up against one of the best in the country.

So take a deep breath, IU fans – the season is no more or less lost today than it was at the beginning of last week. Indiana nearly shocked Iowa one week before getting demolished last season, and a similarly competitive game this week against a Hawkeye team that’s currently favored by 21 points wouldn’t surprise me.

There’s plenty of football left to play, and Hoosier Nation is better off forgetting about this one.

Sometimes, the other guys are just better than you.