Letter for a day: "L"

Saturday was not exactly a day of days for the good old US of A, or for certain precincts within it. 

It happens. Sometimes you win; sometimes you get schooled by Hans Brinker and Johan Cruyff 'n' them.

Or you head east feeling like a million bucks, and Rutgers drops New Jersey on your head.

Or you play a better football team tough for a half, the way some folks suspected you might, only to watch the better football team demonstrate why it's better by grinding you down in the second half.

And so, Netherlands 3, U.S. 1 in the World Cup in Qatar.

And Rutgers 63, Indiana 48 (!) in basketball in New Brunswick, N.J. 

And Michigan 43, Purdue 22 in the Big Ten Championship football game in Indy.

Three sports, three locations, same "L". Or not the same, actually.

In Qatar, the young U.S. men finally paid for not having a go-to striker, and got an education from the disciplined, experienced Dutch. They got to see up close what it takes to win in the knockout round, knowledge they'll no doubt file away for future reference. Four years from now, when the World Cup comes to the United States, the home side will be four years older and wiser, and  thus presumably look very much different than it did in Qatar.

If so, they'll have Clockwork Orange to thank for that, in part. And maybe this time, they'll be ready to win a knockout game as a result.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey ...

You could almost see it coming, couldn't you?

Here came your 10th-ranked Indiana Hoosiers, three days after clocking defending national champion North Carolina by 12 in a game that wasn't that close. And here was Rutgers, unranked but always dangerous in its own house.

For three days, the Hoosiers had been reading and hearing all the Indiana Is Back! business that blooms like a hardy perennial every time they beat someone of note. They were riding a high, which frequently is an excellent place to be brought low. And so they were.

Trace Jackson-Davis had a minor double-double (13 and 10), Miller Kopp went for 21 and stuck 5-of-9 tries from behind the 3-point arc, and everyone else ... vanished. The Hoosiers got six points off their bench. Two starters (Race Thompson and Trey Galloway) did not score. Xavier Johnson missed nine of the 11 shots he got up, emblematic an Indiana team that shot 30.4 percent (17-of-56) and 24 percent (6-of-25) from 3-point.

So what does this tell us?

Well ... that Indiana is a really good team that can be really bad when the circumstances are right. And they were all kinds of right for all kinds of reasons yesterday.

But enough about that. Let's move on to Purdue, and football.

The Blob suspected this wasn't going to be a walkover for No. 3 Michigan, and for a half the Blob was right. Michigan and Purdue traded punches in the first half, which ended with Michigan clinging to a 14-13 lead. 

But Donovan Edwards, on his way to a 185-yard night, ripped off a 60-yard run on the first play of the second half, and Kalel Mullings burrowed in from a yard out to cash the six.  Then Edwards busted out a 27-yard score, and the Wolverines had put the Boilers in their wake for keeps.

 The Boilermakers did outgain the Wolverines (456 yards to 386), piled up 27 first downs to Michigan's 17, and Aidan O'Connell did Aidan O'Connell things, throwing for 366 yards. But he also threw two picks and zero touchdowns, as Purdue repeatedly ran aground in the red zone; the Boilers got there six times but cashed only five field goals and a touchdown for their troubles.

As Purdue Jeff Brohm said later, matching touchdowns with field goals rarely results in W's". And it didn't this time.

Some days the letter for the day is "L." It happens.