Wisconsin running attack badgers IU

Following Saturday's game against Wisconsin, IU Coach Kevin Wilson said his team was embarrassed.

He had a good reason.

After allowing 564 rushing yards against Wisconsin (7-3, 4-2), the Hoosiers (4-6, 2-4) fell to the Badgers 62-14 in front of a Senior Day crowd of 43,240 at Memorial Stadium.

“They ran phenomenally well, and we didn’t play good D,” Wilson said. “We just kind of got spanked.”

During Wisconsin’s the first drive of the game, the team ran the ball seven times for 69 yards during a span of 3:54, ending in a Montee Ball touchdown run. By the end of the first 15 minutes of the game, the Badgers had already compiled 176 rushing yards.

“They just outworked us,” sophomore linebacker David Cooper said. “They were more physical, and we didn’t come to play. Credit to them. They came out better than we did today.”

An even more deflating moment by the Hoosiers’ defense came at the end of the first half. After stopping the Badgers on three straight drives and keeping their offense to only three yards all quarter before the start of the drive, on a third-and-long with less than a minute remaining, Wisconsin running back James White broke free for a 69-yard touchdown run.

The Hoosiers trailed at halftime 24-7, and had allowed 274 total yards, 264 of them on the ground.

“It felt like maybe some of the defense was taking that play off because there was 13 seconds left,” Cooper said. “They busted one on us and we didn’t execute well.”

Things did not get any easier for IU’s rush defense in the second half, either. On Wisconsin’s first drive to open the third quarter, the Badgers ran nine times on 11 plays, spanning 75 yards. The final play of the possession ended with a Ball touchdown once again.

It did not get any easier. Wisconsin scored every time the offense had the ball in the second half — except for the final drive of the game where they ran out the clock — and the team added an additional 300 rushing yards to its halftime total.

The end result was a 48-point loss for the Hoosiers and the most points the defense had allowed since the Badgers scored 83 on it in 2010. It was also the most rushing yards IU had ever allowed in Memorial Stadium.

From its progress during the past two weeks, the IU defense has returned to the drawing board, Wilson said.

“We had a good week of practice and felt like we were getting better,” Wilson said. “To come out and not play a little bit better is disappointing. We have work to do.”