Three takeaways from Wisconsin's 20-14 loss to Indiana

In the sixth conference game of the season, the Wisconsin Badgers lost to the Indiana Hoosiers, 20-14.

The Badgers were looking to improve off of a rough-but-promising 24-10 loss to Ohio State last week. But in the process of losing to the Buckeyes, they also suffered injuries, namely to Braelon Allen.

The loss of Wisconsin’s most important player became incredibly obvious. The Hoosiers controlled the game from start to finish, winning their first conference game of the year.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from today's loss.

Given Allen’s absence, even more pressure was on Braedyn Locke to lead an injury-ridden Badger offense in just his third career start.

Allen suffered a leg injury at the end of the first half against Ohio State, and the offense looked despondent after his departure.

Hopes were higher this week — the Indiana defense pales in comparison to Ohio State’s. But it didn’t matter. Allen’s absence was obvious from the jump.

Jackson Acker and Cade Yacamelli filled in for Allen and looked just OK. Their stat lines were eerily similar — Acker finished with 11 carries while Yacamelli had 10, and both rushed for 48 yards.

They played well, but didn’t make much of an impact, leaving Locke with little room for error. And his errors began almost instantly. On the first few drives of the game, Locke threw more balls to his receiver’s legs than to their hands.

Wisconsin didn’t score until near the end of the first half. Bryson Green caught a short pass then benefitted from some awful tackle attempts, on his way to a 54-yard touchdown.

At the start of the second half, Locke actually led a 75-yard touchdown drive, capped off by a touchdown pass to Will Pauling. That was the only drive of the game where Locke looked truly promising.

This short-lived success began to seem like more of an aberration. By the end of the game, Locke was back to missing easy passes and making mistakes.

He finally made it back to the red zone at the start of the fourth quarter. But this didn’t last long, as he took a sack on second down, then a delay of game right after, leading to a punt from Indiana’s 38-yard-line.

The final frustrating moment took place on Wisconsin’s final real drive of the game. Locke had Pauling open for a short pass on 4th-and-2, but simply overthrew his receiver. They got the ball back again, but hope already felt lost.

Locke optimists will point to the multiple injuries on Wisconsin’s offense, and they have a point. But the redshirt freshman also made far too many mistakes to ignore.

The defensive struggles are far harder to explain.

Wisconsin played one of the worst offenses it's faced all year, and made them look like Ohio State at times.

It started from the beginning. The Badgers kicked off to the Hoosiers, then let them walk right down the field.

They allowed two separate 3rd-and-9 conversions on the first drive alone. Brendan Sorsby consistently found open space, rushing three different times, including once for the touchdown.

Wisconsin also committed their first of three ugly defensive pass interference penalties. The next two were both called on third downs in the second half, giving life to an offense without much of a pulse to begin with.

The Hoosiers gave the Badgers countless opportunities to stick around and take a lead, and Wisconsin wasn’t interested.

Their last touchdown drive took place at the end of the first half, when Donaven McCulley turned into Marvin Harrison Jr. for two plays. He caught a pass on second down and presumably fell on the ground, but he actually landed on Austin Brown, and proceeded to stand back up and pick up 32 yards. A few plays later, he caught a one-handed touchdown in the end zone to give Indiana a 10-point lead.

Wisconsin has accumulated enough injuries to where they’re indistinguishable from one of the worst teams in the Big Ten. They couldn’t even rely on a second-stringer to replace Allen, because Chez Mellusi also went down earlier in the year.

It’s never a positive sign when you’re relying on running backs who didn’t play running back until a few months ago.

Chimere Dike also sustained an injury against Ohio State, and was sidelined Saturday. He’s not nearly as impactful as Allen, but Locke’s options did look limited. He forced more bad passes to Pauling than ever before.

The sneakiest yet most impactful injury may have been to kicker Nathaniel Vakos, who we didn’t even know was injured until it affected them in real time.

On the last drive of the first half, they had the ball at Indiana’s 38, but instead tried to score through the air.

The absence of a kicker became especially frustrating in the fourth quarter, when the Badgers were only down three points, but had no choice but to score a touchdown. They once again had it at Indiana’s 38 at the start of the fourth quarter, then punted. The 4th-and-2 on Wisconsin’s last real drive of the game was at Indiana’s 32-yard-line.

A healthy Vakos, who made a 52-yard field goal against Iowa, could’ve almost certainly tied it up in the second half.

Ultimately, the Badgers were more affected by those missing from the game than those on the field.

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook