All good things must come to an end

I almost called this post "living on the edge." Either titlee fits the seasons of Wisconsin, which had the nation's longest winning steak broken last weekend, and USC, which had the nation's longest home winning streak snapped by a 41-point underdog on Saturday.

For the Badgers thus far, their games have been similar. Fall behind less talented team. Push ahead of less talented team. Let less talented team get back in it. Pull out win in the end.

On Saturday, the Badgers followed the early part of the script, but forgot the rest. I can't say I'm entirely surprised, I had already ranked Illinois #16 coming into the game and as soon as Vegas posted them as favorites I was concerned.

Nonetheless, I mounted the Badger "W" on the front of my house on Saturday morning and hoped for the best.



The score, 31-26, wasn't very Big 10, but the hitting was. Wisconsin WR Luke Swan was knocked out of the game, and his Badger career is now over. Too bad, as he was having a solid season and may have had a chance to make an NFL team next year.

Meanwhile, Illinois lost QB Juice Williams, although Eddie McGee continued to show he is no slouch. WR Arrelious Benn was also injured. Both appear unfazed.

So now the questions are: 1) How will Wisconsin rebound after their first loss in 15 games? 2) How will Illinois players respond to their new found success?

Before the season, I pegged the Badgers only loss this season to be at Penn State this Saturday, although I feel less confident that they will win in Ohio State each week. I think they can win at Penn State, but I'm going to wait and see how the injury report reads before making a pick on this one.

Illinois heads to Iowa, a reeling team with a pathetic offense. Hard to believe, but Iowa has lost eight straight Big 10 games. But Ferentz is 3-0 vs. Zook.

I had Illinois to win this game before the year started. At the time it seemed like an upset but obviously not anymore. Illini are opening as a 3.5 point favorite, but if they lose focus they could slip.

Now to USC. While they have not fallen behind in games like Wisconsin, they have had a tendency to let teams hang around. They finally got burned by Stanford.

USC had won 35 straight home games, with their last loss also to Stanford in 2001. Matt Hayes calls Saturday's result the end of the dynasty. Booty is hurt. Oh no!

I'm not ready to say the sky is falling. This is the nation's most talented team and I don't believe any team will finish the year undefeated. It's going to be tough for them to get back in the title picture, but if they run the table, including wins against Cal, Oregon and Arizona State, they'll have a shot.

Congrats on beating the best team in history, Coach Harbaugh.

Ironically enough, another upset minded team now has the nation's longest home winning steak — Appalachian State.

--Nate Sandstrom