The Badgers' Regular Season Struggles

The Badgers just finished a 7-5 regular season. It's their worst season in four years (that's honestly a bit of a surprise to me, that we went through another season this miserable so recently.) Here are my thoughts on the regular season:
We should've expected some struggles this season.

• The Badgers lost their starting quarterback after he had the best season in NCAA history.  As much promise as Danny O'Brien had, we should have expected some drop off. And if you don't think that Russell Wilson's success had anything to do with Montee Ball's record tying season, you're crazy.
• We lost six players to the NFL draft, including two offensive linemen. We should've expected some drop off when it came to this year's offensive line.
• We lost six coaches in the offseason. We all should've expected them to take some time to work together well. And, I think, we did...just not an entire season.

You should all still be incredibly angry.

• Bret Bielema botched the off-season hires.
• The talking heads on ESPN praised Bielema for his decisive move on the firing of Markuson. "He made a decisive move" they said. Well, why didn't he decisively decide to hire someone whose offensive philosophy matched up with the Wisconsin way?!
• And everyone should Blame Canada. I understand about our struggles at quarterback, but Canada is to blame for the losses against Nebraska, MSU, OSU, PSU, and (probably) Oregon St. (I say probably because I didn't watch the game, but when a dude blows it in 4 losses, he's probably responsible for the fifth too.) I got upset with Paul Chryst for trying too hard to confuse defenses, but at least he didn't run an offense that has 10 guys in the box for most offensive plays. It's really easy to stop an offense when you know exactly what they're going to do on every play. I'll admit, he's had flashes of brilliance throughout the year, but it's a huge drop off from Paul Chryst. I'll give him another year, but not much more. Bielema is in the same boat.
• Bielema has won four close games in the past three years. One of my non-Badgers friends commented last year, before this atrocity started, "Wisconsin either blows out their opponents or loses." Sure, you could hang your hat on our win against Utah St. this year, where it was as much lost by a kicker on the opposing team as it was won by the Badgers. Or you could hang you hat on the Badgers' win in last year's conference championship game, which was won by luck and the officials every bit as much as the first MSU game was lost by those same factors. Oh, did I forget about Jay Valai's blocked PAT against Arizona St? It's only that athletic play of one player that put this team into the Granddaddy of them all, as opposed to another forgettable Capitol One Bowl. Now, let's all say a prayer of thanks that we're still in a position to go to a third straight Rose Bowl. However, if we lose on Saturday, I'm giving Bielema one more year before I'm calling for a new head coach. Let's hope we find a way to actually "overcome adversity" on Saturday and win a game against a good team.