MADISON, Wis. – Last season, the Hoosiers couldn’t do it. Will this year be any different?\nAfter losing to Wisconsin on Saturday, the Hoosiers enter the month of November with five wins and three games left on the schedule. IU only needs one victory to become bowl eligible – but will most likely need two wins in order to guarantee a 13th game.\nLast year, IU failed facing the same predicament. With three games in November, the Hoosiers only needed one win to get them to six and a bowl game. Instead, the Hoosiers were outscored a combined 125-48 and lost all three games.\nThe Hoosiers are now 0-for-6 in games that would make them bowl-eligible the past two seasons. You could say, “IU is a team that can’t win the big one,” but a more accurate description would be “IU is a team that can’t win the sixth one.”\nIt wasn’t long ago the Hoosiers were the surprise of the Big Ten. A 5-1 start and convincing wins over Iowa and Minnesota gave IU its fullest bandwagon in years. \nSince then, the Hoosiers have been on a steady decline. Their terrible, horrible, no good very bad day has lasted three weeks and feels like an eternity.\nThe blowout by Michigan State served as a wake-up call. \nComing off two straight wins, IU had a 6-1 start in their headlights. I heard Hoosier fans making half-hearted Rose Bowl jokes all week. But the Spartans hit the Hoosiers like a deer-hungry truck, pummeling IU in every facet of the game.\nThe week after that brought a painful homecoming loss to Penn State. Three costly fumbles by Kellen Lewis and two misplayed punts by Tracy Porter twisted the dagger in IU’s upset aspirations. \nAnd like “The Godfather” trilogy, the Hoosiers saved their worst performance for last. The 33-3 score doesn’t tell the entire story – the Hoosiers fumbled four times and not only failed to get into the end zone against Wisconsin, but barely even got into the red zone. IU crossed Wisconsin’s 30-yard line for the first time with just more than 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter.\nSo what is keeping IU from winning its sixth game? Is the pressure of a sixth win beginning to wear mentally on the Hoosiers?\n“Sometimes I think that guys just look past, thinking we already have the sixth win, so things are cool,” Porter said after the Wisconsin loss. “But for the most part, it’s not a mental block. We’re just not coming in and taking care of business week in and week out.”\nBusiness will be easier for the Hoosiers this November than last. Instead of playing two road games and a home battle against the No. 2 team in the country, the Hoosiers play Ball State at home, at Northwestern and at home again against Purdue. Even after playing Illinois tough last weekend, the Cardinals represent IU’s easiest opponent since Akron. \nBut the Hoosiers will most likely have to take two of their last three to ensure postseason play. Nine teams in the Big Ten already have five wins, and with only seven Big Ten bowls, the Hoosiers will need seven wins to control their own destiny. \nAll season, it has looked like the Hoosiers would make their first bowl game since 1993. After three straight losses, it no longer looks like a sure thing. Last year, the Hoosiers didn’t make a bowl game.\nWill this year be any different?
Prediction: Indiana 17, Wisconsin 31\nActual: Indiana 3, Wisconsin 33
