A muffled silence fell over a once-raucous Camp Randall Stadium. It settled just above the snow-splattered field, which all of a sudden looked barren. As Wisconsin players and coaches sunk their heads and trudged towards their locker room, Northwestern's jubilant players leapt and bounded towards their fans in the southeast corner of the stadium. Fists pumping, smiles were irrepressible, and although the words to "Go U, Northwestern" were muffled by the cold and the snow flying in the direction of the Wildcats, those words were the only meaningful sound in a stunned stadium.
All around, frozen fans lifted their hands to the tops of their heads.