What in the world went wrong for Wisconsin vs. Indiana?

Wisconsin football should have beaten Indiana football at home on Saturday but did not.

Wisconsin football could have had a signature win over Indiana football, but the Badgers blew it.

Even though the Indiana Hoosiers were the higher-ranked team heading into Saturday’s game, this one was at Camp Randall and Indiana had to play without starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Despite having a major quarterbacking advantage with Graham Mertz over Jack Tuttle, Indiana improved to 6-1 on the season, while Wisconsin stumbled to 2-2. What happened to Wisconsin?

We need to give Tom Allen more credit for being a fantastic head coach

While the Hoosiers are not making it to the Big Ten Championship game this year, Indiana will be New Year’s Six bowl-bound for the first time ever due in large part to its incredible head coach, Tom Allen. Many quality teams do not go into Camp Randall and come out victorious, much less teams having to start a backup quarterback against a Big Ten West juggernaut.

Tuttle outplayed Mertz, as he completed 13-of-20 passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns. Mertz completed 20-of-34 passes for 202 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. Despite outgaining Indiana 342-217 on the day, it was the Hoosiers who proved victorious. Indiana was only plus-one in turnover differential and Wisconsin dominated time of possession. So how did this happen?

The real outlier here was how much more Wisconsin was penalized over Indiana. While the Hoosiers only had one penalty for 15 yards, Wisconsin had eight for 81. That might have been the slightest difference to give the Hoosiers a narrow 14-6 victory. While Indiana is an unquestioned top-three team in the Big Ten this year, Wisconsin is unequivocally no better than fourth-best.

We need to start paying attention more to what Allen is doing in Bloomington these days.

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