At halftime Saturday, 30 minutes were all that stood between the Badgers and a spot atop the Big Ten standings. And then everything went awry.
Wisconsin allowed No. 11 Iowa to reel off 20 unanswered points, 17 in the second half, and lost 20-10 at Camp Randall Stadium. The defeat dropped the Badgers to 5-2 on the season and marks the third straight season in which they could not rebound from the first loss of the year.
""We have a very disappointed football team,"" Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema said. ""We prepared all week to put ourselves in a position to win a big football game against a quality opponent, and we just weren't able to finish the deal.""
The second half opened with the Badgers leading 10-3, but junior quarterback Scott Tolzien threw an interception on the first drive. The Hawkeyes then marched 54 yards in nine plays, ending with junior quarterback Ricky Stanzi dodging a blitzing Badger corner and delivering a 24-yard scoring strike to senior tight end Tony Moeaki.
The Badger offense shut down after that, resulting in three consecutive three-and-outs. Iowa's continued scoring eventually forced Tolzien to try to go deep against the disciplined Hawkeye defense, and he turned the ball over three times in the half.
One area where the Badgers especially struggled in that second half was third downs, both on offense and defense. After allowing the Hawkeyes to convert only one third down in six tries before the break, the UW defense could not get off the field. That unit gave up five third-down conversions, all on Iowa scoring drives.
""That's something we can't have as a defense. Third-down conversions really killed us,"" sophomore defensive end J.J. Watt said. ""It's extremely frustrating for us to play so well in the first half and come out in the second half and do what we did.""
The UW offense only converted one of its six second-half third downs, and sophomore kicker Philip Welch continued to struggle, missing a 38-yard field goal that would have given Wisconsin the lead after Iowa tied the game at 10.
Injuries also struck Wisconsin in a big way, as three top contributors went down. Freshman linebacker Mike Taylor, the team's top tackler, suffered a knee injury in the second quarter, and senior tight end Garrett Graham suffered a concussion.
Perhaps the biggest injury came on the Badgers' third drive when several players fell on sophomore running back John Clay's ankle.
""I just got bent up backwards, kind of rolled my ankle a little bit, but I thought I damaged it more than I did,"" Clay said, adding that his ankle went numb for a few moments after the play.
Up to that point, the Racine native had run for 68 yards on 12 carries and carried the Badger attack.
True freshman running back Monte Ball finished that drive off with a 10-yard scoring run, but from then on Clay, who returned for the next UW drive, was the only Badger to carry the ball. That was not a good thing for offensive coordinator Paul Chryst's unit, as Clay looked tentative and ran for only seven yards after the injury.
Had the Badgers been able to hold on to the win, they would be tied for first in the Big Ten, since Ohio State was upset by Purdue Saturday. Instead they head into a bye week in fifth place, looking for some way to return to the form of their first five weeks.
The frustration players and coaches felt was also apparent in the stands just after the game.
While the Badgers were leaving the field after the final whistle, a few loud fans hurled abusive comments at Bielema and his team. It stood as a contrast to two weeks ago when, in a similar scene, an overjoyed Bielema waved to adoring supporters in Minnesota as he entered the tunnel with an undefeated squad.
""We can't accept this, we can't accept this feeling as a loss, we can't get comfortable with this feeling because I felt like that kind of happened last year,"" said senior defensive end O'Brien Schofield, who had two tackles for loss. ""That's not going to happen this year, I promise you that ... We just can't beat ourselves, and that's really hurt us in these last two games.""
