In the end it was not surprising that Big, Bad Indiana came into The Lake with an overwhelming army of Hoosier fans and threw a struggling Northwestern team into the not at all briny deep. The Hoosiers are a surprising undefeated Big Ten powerhouse, and Northwestern was unable to keep up as Indiana sadly took care of business on the road against an underwhelming conference opponent in its lakeside stronghold.
At the same time, the game was closer than the final scoreline appears. I know that saying that the game was closer than the scoreline suggests as a fan where your team has just lost by 17 points is silly, a “you should have seen the other guy” for a person who has just attempted to use the chair-based martial art that Stephen Seagal practices against a backhoe, but there were some encouraging signs.