It took some doing, but I managed to find a bar on the Santa Monica pier that was showing the UW-Madison versus Illinois game on Saturday. I was joined by a handful of Wisconsin tourists, businessmen, and Sconnie-to-Cali transplants (as well as two justifiably exhuberent Illini fans). One such transplant summed the game up as such, "looks like this defensive crapfest Bielema has put together finally got served." Crapfest, indeed. That sentiment is echoed throughout the Badgersphere this morning and in the polls from USA Today and the AP where the Badgers drop from fifth ranked in both to 15 and 19, respectively. Not helping matters here in Wisconsin is the Packers losing to...the Bears? I'll be completely honest - I take full blame for the Packers loss. Ever since I moved to Wisconsin four years ago I've been picking the Packers in my football pool for the first five games of the season and they have consistently let me down. This year I decided to try something different by not picking them. With a strong season start I changed that this week and chose the Pack to crush the Bears. Surprise, surprise, they lose. Sigh. But, hey, at least the Brewers finished one of their best seasons in history with an 11-6 win.

Anyway, I'll let the Wisconsin Sports Bar start this Badgersphere Round-Up, "Let the Overrated stories and posts that half the country has been dying to write begin."

The Hot Corner has a suggestion for the coach, "I don’t know what Bielema says or does during halftime, but he really needs to start doing it before the game starts."

Brats and Beers tackles the defense, but also saves some criticism for the offense: "Tyler Donovan looked like Brett Favre from two years ago, constantly throwing into double coverage, and paid for it once. The running game was completely stalled in the early going, gained some traction in the third quarter, then went on the back burner after the Badgers fell far enough behind with time running short."

Terry at Balthazar's Domain gets to the heart of the problem, "Their defense has been anemic this season, and it was only their offense that kept them in all the games they ultimately won this season. It was once again a suspect defense that led to their defeat, with poor tackling being one of the biggest problems."

Troy at Why Am i Doing This? finds the rankings to be a bit dubious, "The Badgers were #5 and lost to #28, were 3 point underdogs, and lost by 5. Somehow, in the AP Poll, they dropped all the way to #19. USC, who was #2, lost to Stanford who was a 40 point underdog and they are #10 in the AP Poll and # 7 in the 2 other polls. Florida lost its second game in a row and are #13 in the AP Poll. It's so fucked up, it's ridiculous."

The Badgers also fell in T Kyle King's personal poll from 10th to 16th, "Wiscy's wins over Iowa, Michigan State, and Washington State all look worse today than they did on Friday, attesting to the fact that the Badgers rose on the strength of a resume that was lighter than air. The laws of physics dictated that Wisconsin drop after the balloon was punctured."

Korkster's Korner puts the Badgers at 16th: "It seems that they have been trying to get completely on track and hitting on all cylinders, but the wheels came off against a hot Illini team. They are still in the hunt so we wont write them off just yet."

Over at Sportsnipe they say it is "about time" Bucky took a tumble: "It was a little reminiscent of the 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes, but we all know that Ohio State team was loaded with far more talent than these Badgers. That #5 ranking was a bit hard to swallow and Las Vegas pointed us in the right direction by placing Illinois as two point favorites. They played even better than the odds, running all afternoon over the Badgers and bottling up their offense enough in the first half to preserve a dwindling late lead."

Sunday Morning Quarterback thinks Illinois could be headed for the Rose Bowl and Wisconsin the Alamo Bowl if both teams continue the type of play shown Saturday: "They were slow, out of position and generally dreadful all afternoon against the spread option - the way Illinois runs it, it's usually just a standard, old school triple option out of the shotgun - even with little threat of Illinois doing anything downfield in the passing game. There's a reason Arrelious Benn's receptions are all on screens, stops and slants, and an even better reason he wasn't involved much in the second half: why throw when you can run it down their throat? Wisconsin has to fix its defense before Mike Hart and Beanie Wells pulverize it into the Alamo Bowl."

Meanwhile, The Magic Number and The Lion's Den are projecting a potential fourth straight Capitol One Bowl...maybe.

DMH at Baseball and Other Stuff has a bold prediction that the Illini will be heading to a bowl game and they proved it by doing something "that's very hard to do - they limited P.J. Hill to just 86 yards on 21 carries and only one score. Hill entered Memorial Stadium as the Big Ten's leading rusher with 133.4 yards per game."

Mr. Mann at Camp Lambeau looks to the future: "As I've said, the defense will probably be hit or miss all season. The offense is gimpy, and can't ride Hill and Beckum forever. But it can still be a successful year. The only game that looks out of reach for the rest of the season is the one in Columbus."

OneEear surveys the devastation in Wisconsin, "It was a 9-11 weekend in sports. First, the politically incorrect native-American themed team from Champaign beat the noble Wisconsin Badgers. Then, despite my ferocious rooting, the NFL team from Chicago that is owned by a woman allowed the noble Green Bay Packers to hand them the game."

And as for how the Big 10 stands? Brian Grummell is absolutely right and Illinois deserves a heaping helping of credit for ending Wisconsin's winning streak, "Strange to say, Illinois is now in the Big Ten championship conversation. Ohio State, Purdue and Michigan may have something to say about that, but who cares? They just ended Wisconsin's national-leading 14-game win streak."