I think the injury excuse is valid.
Allow me to disagree, and let me make the exhaustive case.
Assuming modest playing to expectations, UW is 9-3 minimum even with the injuries, maybe better. There's the obvious preseason top-5 to 7-5 thing, but its deeper than that.
UW coming into the season was this, good running game, secretly efficent passing game and a defense that had to reload, but we had faith a good staff would do it. Injuries derailed that last part from the start. The running game somehow got better, but then there's that passing game.
The Badgers returned Alex Hornibrook, an interception-prone passer without the strongest arm who had helped lead a really effective pass game last season. His top target was gone, and we perhaps underrated that tight end, but there were three receivers who had all showed promise (after a date rape case took out the best pass-catcher, which I guess we'll lump in with injuries), plus an awesome line coming back. There were whispers this could be one of the best UW Os in recent memory after they slung it all over Miami in the Orange Bowl.
That pass game sucked. It's around No. 100 in efficiency. Hornibrook regressed. None of the receivers have done a damn thing, and that line, that damn line, has let QBs get hit again and again. UW fell from an average pass pro team to No. 91, and some of the biggest mistakes came when someone tried to make a play under presser.
Let's run through the games. They drop a game to meh BYU where the pass game sputters and a veteran kicker biffs a 42-yarder to send to OT. They hang with Michigan for a while, as that pass game, which was supposed to be pretty good, does literally nothing.
Then comes the QB thing. You might say, Hronibrook got hurt, backup was bad, injuries. But Hornibrook had been so underwhelming, even the most rabid fans were begging for the promising backup. In UGA terms, it would be like Fromm underwhelming and Fields coming out and just sucking. Yes that's an injury, but in a lot of senses it's more. (UW still had a good division title path until that NW game, when UW was kinda game but for a mess of back-breaking turnovers)
And then came the goddamn hope. Coan finally looked OK late against Purdue. Taylor gave a superhuman effort. Danny Davis made two of the few damn plays he's made all year. All this drek could be made somewhat OK. Win against the Gophers AT HOME, salvage 8-4. I woulda been a little proud they stood tall through all that shit.
Then UW turns it over four times, gives up a punt return TD, misses a 30-yard kick (from that same senior). They can't get a big run against a defense that gives them up, get sacked four times, get 5.7 yards per attempt not counting those sacks. UW basically craps all over the field as a 10-point favorite to lose a 15-year rivalry winning streak against a team it would still probably be favored against.
I don't know if that's the worst because Louisville, but if Kentucky and Michigan can feel bad about it, this mess is right up there.
(I thought No.4 was overrated in the preseason. But 9-3 was more than doable, maybe 10-2 without the NW alligator blood. For a program that had a high floor, this stepped down through that, all owing to a disaster on the front that is the head coach's specialty)
