Mistakes lead to misery

Talk about a schizophrenic football team. \nThe Oct. 6 Hoosiers were the Dr. Jekyll of football, just going all out crazy. The Oct. 13 Hoosiers were the alter-ego Mr. Hyde: in other words, a washout.\nWhich one of these personalities do you think wins football games?\nYup, it wasn't the team that went crazy making plays against the bewildered Badgers. It was the doormats who couldn't get going on offense, reached a stalemate on defense, and couldn't execute on special teams. The Mr. Hyde Hoosiers lost to Illinois 35-14 after a dreary, mistake-filled game.\n"If we play good, mistake-free football we are a good football team, and if we don't, we aren't," coach Cam Cameron said. "When you play good, solid teams and make mistakes, you know you're going to have a tough time, and that's what happened."\nIt seemed like the Hoosiers were off to another "playing on the edge" start that was similar to the opening drive against against Wisconsin. Illinois quarterback Kurt Kittner lofted the ball, and IU sophomore cornerback Michael Hanley intercepted the pass and returned it 10 yards.\nThen came the offense's opening drive, a performance that was repeated throughout the game. A couple of plays took place, but nothing much came out of them, and IU was forced to punt after a huge stop by the defense.\n"That was very frustrating, because I know the defense prepared well this past week," senior running back Levron Williams said. "They worked hard out there today, and they were stopping them, but we couldn't capitalize. We kind of blew the game ourselves because we didn't capitalize on big plays."\nThe Hoosiers scored their first touchdown on a Williams run to come within a point of the Fighting Illini. But then another missed opportunity came when freshman kicker Bryan Robertson's point-after attempt was blocked. \nTo round out the first half debacle, the Hoosiers drove the ball from their own 2-yard line to the Illinois 10, and yet went into the locker room, trailing 7-6 after Robertson missed the field goal attempt. \nDefense was strong in the first half, and the offense was so-so, but the worst performances of the IU team would come when the Hoosiers took the field after the half. \n"We scored, we had momentum, and we've got to get to the point where we can kick an extra point," Cameron said. "Then right before the half, you have an opportunity to go up 9-7, and you let that slip away. Obviously those become momentum things. We all know athletics, especially football, is a game of momentum. When you have it, you need to keep it. And we just weren't able to do that."\nThe defense did its best to try to get the momentum going, but by the second half, the defense was battling the wind, rain and little help from the offense to get a chance to relax. It's the last couple of seasons reversed.\nThe biggest blow to the Hoosiers was in the beginning of the third quarter. Illinois tried to pick up a first and ten on its fourth down, but sophomore linebacker Robert Brown and senior linebacker Devin Schaffer prevented the Illini's running back from picking up the one yard.\nBut less than a minute after the IU defense ran from the field in celebration, they had to go back. Senior quarterback Antwaan Randle El sandwiched one complete pass in between two incompletions, and then punted.\n"You're running off the field, and you're excited and you're like, 'The offense is about to score,'" senior linebacker Justin Smith said. "Then we're sitting down and we hear punt alert. It's kind of demoralizing, but I was just thinking when we got on the field we had to do what we did before and get their offense to go three and out."\nNot quite three and out on the next play, but the defense did cause and recover a fumble, which Randle El promptly returned to the Fighting Illini on the next drive. He threw an interception that led to an Illinois touchdown.\nThe final blow to the Hoosier morale came after a penalty-filled drive that ended the disastrous third quarter and started the welcomed fourth. The drive consisted of three plays that went for a 12-yard loss and lasted for two minutes and 42 seconds. \n"In the Big Ten, you can't go against a team and make mistakes," junior tackle Enoch DeMar said. "I'm one of those guys who takes pride in the offense and when the defense does good, we want to capitalize. It makes me angry that we aren't capitalizing on what they are giving us. But the offense is going to put it together"