Following a 20-10 loss to Iowa Saturday, the analysis of what went wrong for the Wisconsin football team is simple.

If your defense can’t get off the field on third down, your offense can’t get the ball back and score.

When your offense does have the ball, turnovers will kill momentum, confidence and energy, not to mention the loss of an opportunity to put points on the board.

The Badgers failed in both these facets at critical times against the Hawkeyes, handicapping themselves for the second consecutive week against a ranked and undefeated Big Ten opponent.

You won’t find UW head coach Bret Bielema arguing with this assessment.

“I told our players in the locker room against a good, quality opponent we can’t do two things. We can’t turn the ball over offensively and we have to get off the field on third down,” Bielema said.

Although the Badgers held the Hawkeyes to a respectable 6-of-15 on third down conversions for the game, Iowa was able to move the chains five times out of nine in the second half, churning time off the clock while UW was trailing. In the final two quarters, Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi and running back Adam Robinson combined to hold the ball for over 20 minutes in the 30-minute half.

UW, on the other hand, managed only three first downs on 12 third down attempts, including five three-and-out drives.

“The third down conversions really killed us,” UW defensive end J.J. Watt said. “In the first half we did a great job … we can’t have that though because third down conversions kill a defense.”

There was no overriding reason for the Badgers’ struggles on third down in the second half, but rather a host of little mistakes that added up.

Whether it was penalties, missed tackles or lack of communication, Wisconsin kept hemorrhaging yards on key downs.

“You got to make plays,” UW safety Jay Valai said. “When we are blitzing you have to contain, and when you see the ball you have to break on it. Just small stuff like that. Common sense stuff that I guess we took for granted.”

The best example comes from near the start of the third quarter on Iowa tight end Tony Moeaki’s touchdown catch.

On a third and seven, UW got pressure on Stanzi with a blitz but was unable to bring him down. After shaking off the pass rush, the Iowa signal caller was able to find Moeaki behind the defense for the Hawkeye’s first touchdown.

Bielema pointed to the play after the game as an example of wasted opportunities.

“You can’t beat good teams if you have mistakes,” safety Chris Maragos added. “You have to have minimum mistakes, especially against a team like that because they run the same stuff and they try to out execute you.”

After controlling the line of scrimmage for much of the first half, UW struggled at the point of attack in the final 30 minutes. Iowa ran a no-frills offense and was able to move the ball methodically with little deviation in their play calling.

“The biggest thing I can say is energy level,” defensive end O’Brien Schofield said. “It wasn’t there like it was in the first half. Guys were getting off blocks, and in the second half they weren’t getting off the blocks.”

“I feel like we beat ourselves more than teams beat us,” Schofield continued. “If you look at the stats, nobody is beating us, we are beating ourselves.”

Turnover battle

After his roughest game of the season at Ohio State, UW quarterback Scott Tolzien continued to struggle against Iowa’s D — the Big Ten leader in takeaways.

Tolzien finished the game with three interceptions (though one was in garbage time), with all three coming in the second half.

The picks effectively killed any chance of a comeback Wisconsin had.

“Turnovers shot us in the foot,” Tolzien said. “That was the case last week and that was the case again this week.”

In the case of the first two interceptions, both came on second down right at midfield after UW had picked up first downs and was moving the ball.

Tolzien took the blame for the picks, saying he forced them unnecessarily.

“That was the first guy on the progression and I just have to work through that,” Tolzien said. “The corner squatted there, and he made a nice play, but that is No. 1 on the progression you can’t force it in there.”

With UW forcing only one turnover on freshman linebacker Chris Borland’s strip sack, the Hawkeyes were able to come ahead in the all-important “turnover ratio” statistic.

“The difference in my opinion was [Iowa] really converted on their opportunities,” Bielema said. “I think a big part of our demise was in the second half when we did create the turnover, good field position and we weren’t able to convert it into points.”