Did anyone have a moment where they felt like we were going to win the game? Tbh I never did with the culmination of player errors, bad coaching decisions, bad officiating in crucial moments, and what appeared to be complete confusion and chaos on the offensive side of the ball. I'm upset about the loss to put it lightly, but I'm not shocked we lost. Indiana has a very good team or else we would have won despite the foregoing issues.
The loss feels like a real kick in the pants after it appeared we had really started to gel on both sides of the ball and had a healthy Smith/Tate out there. There were zero answers to stopping IU's pass rush and bad play calls were compounded by poor execution.
I will say on Hartline that as much as I love the guy and think he did his best to prepare the offense for this game, the reality is that he was actively interviewing for jobs and is now preparing for his move to USF. I would never question that his heart is not in the right place, but I'm not sure his head was in this one. I do think it's probably best to have someone else take over his play calling role, the offense was incredibly unprepared and frequently deviated from what has worked all season. He's trying his best and I'm not questioning that, but I think human nature is having him look ahead.
The amount of holds the refs missed on IU was egregious, particularly in critical moments for us. It wasn't totally one-sided, but I would say IU got the better calls or no calls about 75% of the time. Regardless, we should have won despite that.
Moving forward, we'll get our shot at redemption. The pieces are there and the coaches all are familiar with what it takes for a championship. We'll make a go at another title regardless of this game. Go Bucks and I'm off to get some sleep
