In 1988, it was a 3-pointer, and there was no doubt.

On Saturday, it was a 2-pointer full of uncertainty.

After further review and a heartbreaking signal, one man’s opinion became the springboard of unbearable emotion.

Football is the wrong sport to deal with inches. To decipher ball placement in between blood and conscious-dazing blows is far from the creed in which pigskin play is written.

Wisconsin’s QB Darrell Bevell unjustly agreed with the side judge once it was signalled a score. How those Badgers love that revenge.

After the fraud had ended, the Huskies must accept the loss … or do they?

Coach Sadler admitted that he felt sorry for his team and that he would take responsibility for the mistakes.

Not possible.

Last time I checked, head coaches don’t hire the bats in the stripes.

Yes, the Huskies had a 14-point lead. They also had earned that lead. To acknowledge that the game was handed to Wisconsin is nothing short of discrediting Barry Alvarez, his staff, and the stronger, more powerful group of Big 10 athletes that define why scholarships are distributed … to win.

In hours of rewinding, I discovered that Charlie Sadler was right, his defense lost containment.

But wait, what about the Badgers? They produced the play. No matter the play call, they succeeded.

And why?

Not an NIU error.

A U of W block.

Jeff Taylor, the man who ‘saved’ the game was rudely assisted out of the situation … temporarily. Once free, he sped to rendezvous with Bevell at the chalkline where the crime was committed, but to no avail, and no argument.

It becomes a tragedy when thieves escape without discipline.

What must be accepted isn’t the fact that a mistake was made but under what circumstances the unreasonable turn of fate had occurred.

It could make you cry.