By Pat Harty

MADISON, Wis. – The legend of Josh Jackson continued to grow on Saturday, but that was about the only positive to take from the Iowa football team’s latest head-scratching loss.

The same Iowa offense that shredded Ohio State for 55 points and 487 yards last Saturday was held to just 66 yards and zero touchdowns during a 38-14 loss to sixth-ranked Wisconsin at a chilly Camp Randall Stadium.

The 66 yards is the fewest that Wisconsin has allowed against a Big Ten opponent and the fewest in 19 seasons under Kirk Ferentz.

Take away Jackson's two interception returns for touchdowns and the closest Iowa came to scoring was when it drove to the Wisconsin 47-yard line in the third quarter.

But even that drive ended in disaster as Wisconsin linebacker T.J. Edwards intercepted Nate Stanley’s pass at the Badger 41-yard line.

“To give yourself a chance in a game like this you really have to do well in all three phases and we certainly weren’t able to do that,” said Kirk Ferentz. “Our defense tried to keep us in the football game and did a good job of that for a while. But we just couldn’t do the things you have to do to have any kind of chance.”

That's been the sobering story for the Iowa offense in Big Ten road games where it has scored just two touchdowns in three games, or as many as Jackson scored on Saturday while playing defense.

Saturday’s game was also a painful reminder that Wisconsin is better at playing Iowa’s physical style of football than Iowa. The Badgers have won five of the last six games in the series and they showed again on Saturday that they are the class of the Big Ten West Division.

To help put Iowa’s inept offense in perspective, Jackson had 29 more return yards on his two pick sixes than Iowa had total yards.

Wisconsin committed three turnovers, including two that resulted in Iowa touchdowns, but still won easily against an Iowa team that was the toast of college football just one week ago.

“I think you really need to give them a lot of credit,” Iowa offensive lineman Sean Welsh said of Wisconsin, which improved to 10-0 on the season. “They played very well. They played a great football game. They’re a really good defense.

“But there are certainly a lot of opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of today.”

The same Nate Stanley who torched Ohio State for five touchdown passes last Saturday only completed eight passes against his home-state Badgers. Stanley also was sacked four times and pressured too many times to count.

“They came out with the stuff that we expected them to, but they just played better than us today and executed a little better than we did,” Stanley said.

A little better?

Stanley deserves credit for trying to stay positive, but anybody who watched Saturday’s beat down knows that wasn’t the case.

The Wisconsin defense dominated from start to finish and did so despite being without two of its best linebackers.

Wisconsin’s passing attack left much to be desired on Saturday, but it didn’t matter as freshman running back Jonathan Taylor rushed for 157 yards on 29 carries. He also became the 10^th player in school history to surpass 1,500 rushing yards in a season.

“Wisconsin has got an excellent football team,’ certainly,” Kirk Ferentz said. “The running back, that’s first time we’ve seen him. He’s a really good player, a very strong player.

“And I thought their defense was better than advertised. And I think they’ve been playing well all season long. But I can’t imagine they’ve played a better game than that.”

Enough about Wisconsin.

Iowa fans probably don’t want to hear this right now because they’re upset and frustrated, but it’s important to remember that the situation rarely is as good or as bad as it seems under Kirk Ferentz.

Iowa wasn’t as good as everybody thought after the Buckeye beat-down or as bad as everybody probably thinks now.

The Hawkeyes should be favored in their last two games against Purdue and Nebraska, so this up-and-down season is far from over.

Iowa has no chance of winning the Big Ten West Division anymore, but that was a long shot heading into the Wisconsin game.

The biggest problem with Saturday’s game, besides losing, of course, is that the Iowa offense performed woefully.

The running game was held to 25 yards on 26 carries and Iowa’s longest gain was just nine yards by Akrum Wadley.

Redshirt freshman T.J. Hockenson was the only tight end for Iowa to catch a pass on Saturday, but it covered just six yards.

Hockenson and sophomore tight end Noah Fant combined for nine catches, 125 receiving yards and four touchdowns against Ohio State.

The closet Fant came to catching a pass against Wisconsin was his drop in the third quarter of what was probably Stanley’s best throw of the game. Stanley hit Fant in stride, but the ball bounced off Fant’s hands.

“That’s kind of been us this season,” Kirk Ferentz said. “We’re not good enough offensively not to execute cleanly.”

Iowa isn’t good enough on offense to do much of anything when it can’t sustain a rushing attack. One of the biggest reasons Stanley performed so well against Ohio State is because Iowa rushed for over 200 yards and he had the luxury of using play-action passing.

There was no chance for play action on Saturday because the Badgers dominated the line of scrimmage.

Some fans probably are wondering why Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz didn’t use the same aggressive play calling that worked against Ohio State.

He didn’t use it because the Badgers had no reason to respect Iowa’s running game and because the Iowa receivers struggled to get open on first-second and third down.

“To play bad and lose, you know how that feels,” said junior center James Daniels. “It doesn’t feel very good.”

Daniels was on top of the world just a week ago as an Ohio native basking in the joy of defeating Ohio State.

But sports can be humbling and maddening and the only thing  a player can do is hopefully learn from the experience and move on.

Iowa’s record fell to 6-4 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten, and that has average written all over it.

Good teams find ways to win more times than not, while average teams are hot and cold.

Iowa showed its bitterly cold side on Saturday, and now some fans are bitter again.