Badgers National Championship Hopes Dashed

That's more like it. There really has been too much success in Wisconsin Sports lately. Superbowl wins, undefeated teams, October baseball - I really don't know how to react to them, but heart breaking defeat, I am accustomed to. See 4th and 26, 2008 NFC Championship game, the TO catch, horrible NCAA defeats to Davidson, Butler, and Cornell just to name a few. Last night's Wisconsin Badger loss was the latest of these bitter pills to swallow. This one is so hard take not only because of the tough breaks and bad plays on the field - two ints, a blocked field goal, a blocked punt for a touchdown, a phantom fumble out of bounds, questionable timeouts at the end, fluke Hail Mary - but because this is the best Badger football team we have ever had. All the pieces are there. The Big Ten has no power teams and people (the polls) actually respect Wisconsin. I sent out a text last night saying I guess we'll have to settle for the Rose Bowl. I don't think that is hyperbole or shows signs of entitlement. I just think this team is that good. So instead of an amazingly electrifying season where every game matters, we're left with more "if onlys" and "what ifs". And that's what Wisconsin sports have almost always been about for me.

This one had an eerily similar feel to the Rose Bowl against TCU. Often times we thought, how are we losing this game? We are the better team. Why don't we keep running down the middle? If we get to OT, this game is ours. Arrgghh!

Another thing that really irks me about this game is now Michigan State will be under the illusion that they are a good team. Really Spartans? You won on a lucky, poorly defended heave. You had one nice reverse, a 4th down pass play with bad tackling, and a 3rd down pass play with bad tackling. It was much more a case of Wisconsin giving this one away. Now I guess I'll be rooting for Michigan State for the next 5 weeks only so we can play them in Indianapolis for the Big 10 Championship and rip them a new one.

Final Thought: It's tough to look only at that last play because, as said early, there were so many mistakes by Wisconsin, and it would have only brought overtime, but, NICELY TIMED JUMP Jared Abbrederis!