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Indiana coach Bill Lynch skipped right over the ugly numbers.
What else would you expect?
Two days after college football fans watched the embarrassing carnage from Indiana's 83-20 loss to No. 6 Wisconsin on national highlight shows, Hoosiers players had to sift through it all over again. They were trying to figure out what went wrong and what, if anything, could be fixed.
''The reality of it is that it was a loss,'' Lynch said during his weekly news conference.
But this was no ordinary loss.
While few expected the Hoosiers to end their Big Ten losing streak in Madison against the nation's sixth-ranked team, most thought Indiana (4-6, 0-6 Big Ten) would at least compete.
Instead, the Hoosiers watched Wisconsin pile up points by the dozens. The Badgers finished with their highest point total in nearly a century and the highest point total in any Big Ten game since 1950.
The Badgers ran for 338 yards, finished with 596 total yards, scored on all 13 offensive possessions and did all that without their best running back.
Lynch could not care less about the actual stats because the Hoosiers need to win their final two games to become bowl eligible.
''The points jump out at everybody, but we can't let that affect where we are and what's ahead of us,'' he said. ''We're going to Penn State to play a good football team and it's a great opportunity for us. I've talked to a lot of the guys over the last few days, and they understand that and they will be ready to go.''
Right now, Lynch is the only one talking about Saturday's debacle.
No players were available for interviews Monday, the first time that's been the case in weeks. Even quarterback Ben Chappell, a regular participant, was missing. He's trying to recover from a hip injury that knocked him out of the Wisconsin game in the first half.
Lynch thinks Chappell's departure had a lot to do with Indiana's collapse at Wisconsin, and while there is no certainty Chappell will play this weekend, Lynch remains optimistic.
''I really think he'll be able to play,'' the coach said. ''When the game was over, he was really sore and not moving very well. But he was much better yesterday. He's been beaten up a lot this year, and he keeps bouncing back and when I saw him in the training room yesterday, he said, 'I'll be ready.'''
That's all Indiana can ask at the moment.
The Hoosiers are still trying to end a Big Ten skid that's reached 11 games and a conference road losing streak that stands at 14. They head to Landover, Md., for a ''home'' game against Penn State, a school the Hoosiers have never beaten. Indiana agreed to move the game to FedEx Field for $3 million.
The Hoosiers are still trying to improve a defense that has allowed 34 or more points in five of the last seven games.
And now, they may be playing to save Lynch's job, too.
Saturday's embarrassment has restarted the debate about Lynch's future in Bloomington, with many asking whether he should return for a fifth season as head coach. The only winning season in Lynch's tenure came in 2007, the year he took over after Terry Hoeppner's death.
But Lynch is ignoring all of it as he focuses on the next two games.
''You get that bunker mentality,'' he said. ''It's interesting as a staff when we returned Saturday night, go home and get up early Sunday and you're here until late last night, and then you are back here this morning. Everything is focused on reviewing what happened, what mistakes are correctable, correcting them and then getting on to Penn State.''
