Well its taken me a while to write this not only because of the start of basketball season but because it has taken me quite a long time to get over the depressing fact that this not only is the worst loss in the school's history but it probably killed our season unless we can pull off an improbable upset of michigan this weekend. we are always great in bounce-back games and haven't lost back-to-back since 2001 but this is the best michigan team in years and playing them at their place doesnt help much. well just a pretty sickening loss that left a bitter taste in my mouth and in every iowa fan's mouth for sure. they way we played in the 2nd though we deserved to lose, so that lessens the impact and the surprise of it all because anyone could see it coming. we jumped on them early with some good offensive balance, albert young still isn't back but simms can hit that hole fast and gave us some nice runs, while a long td pass from tate to scott chandler put us up 21-7 and had me sitting back comfortably thinking this would be our yearly dismantling of a crappy hoosiers team. but im afraid indiana is a team on the rise and they played with a lot of emotion at home and for their coach terry hoepner, coming back from brain surgery only a week ago. the hoosiers' freshman sensation at QB, the athletic and strong-armed kellen lewis, solidified his spot as indiana quarterback of the future while tossing former starter-turned scrub blake powers to the side while putting on an amazing 2nd half, connecting with 6 ft. 7 wideout james hardy multiple times for scores. with tate in there and considering the team we were playing, i didn't get too worried, but we had no answer for their offense and could not sustain a drive either. hardy was such a matchup nightmare for our undersized cornerbacks and their backs were running all over us, it was just a nightmare and really frustrating to watch. no pressure, no stops, no nothing from our defense in that 2nd half. injuries to a bundle of key players hurt us big time as well, as we lost playmaking run-stuffer mitch king in the middle, which hurt our run defense, and our top wideout, dominique douglas, who's been one of tate's favorite options and our most consistent. hard-hitting safety marcus paschal only played garbage time so he made no impact in the passing game and like ive already mentioned, albert young never played so we didn't have that reliability at running back, as evidenced by simm's 2nd half fumble and subsequent tentative running. when you are having a bad day, can't make any stops or sustain drives, it is imperative that you don't turn the ball over but that's exactly what we did, and it's amazing that with all these problems we were still in the game, a testament to how average indiana is as a team. our only 2nd half score came from a goal-line burst from simms, but that was the only time we got in the redzone until our final play, when tate led a spectacular looking drive down the field into hoosier territory and looked like he'd found a perfect rhythm and confidence, until wideout andy brodell let a pass slip off his fingertips as a hoosier cornerback made a diving catch to pick it off. it was a real stab in the heart and i just went numb all over, it took me a few hours to comprehend the fact that we just shot ourselves in the foot and blew our chances at a big-ten title in a season where we really had great expectations. kyle schilcher was also surprisingly bad, missing 2 field goals that could have tied or won the game. i know we will be angry and motivated for michigan but im just not sure if we can ride that energy to a victory over one of the best teams in the nation, i mean who else has to play the number 1 team (ohio state) and the number 2 team (michigan) in the same season? thats gotta be a record or something. well even if we lose next week we can still win out and finish well, landing a spot in another january bowl like we have for the past 3 or 4 years, but i was really hoping for something more this season, i guess that was just wishful thinking because we cannot keep getting by on third-tier recruits like we have in the past...