Taylor, like I mentioned, was one of the biggest positives from this game. The freshman finished with a career-high 30 carries for 219 yards and a score. His touchdown came on the third play of the game when he raced 67 yards to give the Badgers the early 7-0 lead. As good as Bradrick Shaw is, you could see quite a difference between the two when Taylor went out. I think it was Mark Tauscher brought it up on the Wisconsin radio broadcast that if a play was blocked for three yards, Shaw would gain three yards. He was making a reference that even if a play is blocked poorly, Taylor would find a way to make something positive happen. This is his third day of at least 200 yards in his first six games and his second in as many weeks. He now has 986 yards on the ground so far, falling just 14 yards shy of becoming the first true freshman ever to reach 1,000 yards in his first six games. Barring injury, he will tie a number of players, including former Wisconsin running back P.J. Hill, in reaching 1,000 in his first seven games as a true freshman. He could legitimately reach 2,000 yards. Taylor and his offensive line are just that good.
Without Jazz Peavy, Cephus has shown his potential going forward. The sophomore had five catches for 100 yards and a touchdown. All five of Cephus’ catches went for either a first down or a touchdown, and all five needed at least seven for that first down. His big play ability came through again, as he caught a 41-yard pass from Alex Hornibrook down to the Purdue five. It should have set up a potential knockout punch, but Taylor would fumble two plays later and the Boilermakers kept the deficit at eight points. After catching just four passes for 94 yards last season as a freshman, he has become Hornibrook’s most reliable target in 2017. In the six games, he has caught 23 passes for 401 yards and has scored five of Hornibrook’s 11 touchdown passes. Cephus has a catch of at least 30 yards in four of the six games. Since conference play started, he has turned it up a notch. In the three non-conference games, Cephus caught an average of 3.3 passes per game for an average of nearly 45 yards per. However, in conference play, he has an average of more than four catches per game for an average of 89 yards per. He has also caught a touchdown in his past two games and has become one of the better receivers in the conference, and he is just another weapon at Hornibrook’s disposal.
The defense was tremendous once again. This is the fourth opponent in the last five to be held under 250 yards of total offense. The unit was constantly put into tough situations due to turnovers and the blocked punt. In the game, the Purdue offense started drives at the Wisconsin 44, 15 and 28 and came away with a total of three points off those drives. In addition to the 221 yards of offense given up, the Badgers also had three big sacks in the game and one monster interception. With Bucky holding on for dear life with a 17-9 lead and Purdue having the ball inside the 10, senior linebacker Leon Jacobs picked off Elijah Sindelar. After the pick, the Badgers held the ball the final 8:14 in moving 77 yards in 16 plays to seal the deal. That is a Wisconsin drive. Jacobs had a big game outside of just the big pick. He had nine tackles (0.5 TFL) and a quarterback hurry. This season, this stingy unit has allowed just 17 points defensively in the second half, and 14 of those were in one game against Northwestern. the halftime adjustments made by defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard have been tremendous. Next week, the pass defense will face a big test with D.J. Moore and Maryland coming to town.
And lastly, some of the lesser known players made huge plays down the stretch. With Wisconsin trying to chew up the clock, redshirt freshman wide receiver Kendric Pryor made one of the biggest plays of the game. Pryor had played well during the spring, but a moped accident caused him to miss the first few weeks of the season. After true freshman wide receiver Danny Davis had to leave the game, Pryor made his mark. With the Badgers facing a 3rd-and-12 at their own 11, Hornibrook found Pryor for 20 yards and a huge first down. Not only did Wisconsin pick up a monster first down and was able to chew up more clock, but the catch moved Bucky out from the shadow of his own goal post. Another late game star was freshman running back Garrett Groshek. The freshman picked up a pair of first downs, including one on an 18-yard gain on 2nd-and-11 to move the sticks and move his team into enemy territory. In the game, he had just two carries, but for 32 of the 77 yards on the drive and two giant first downs which helped the Badgers bleed the rest of the clock.
In an ugly game, there are always plenty of negatives. For the first part of the game, I thought this was going to be a great performance from Hornibrook. He made some great throws and threw a nice ball to Cephus in the end zone for a touchdown. But then it went all downhill. Up until his first interception, the sophomore signal caller was 5-of-6 for 80 yards and a touchdown. After that, he went just 8-of-12 for 119 yards and two picks. His 72 percent completion percentage for the game was very solid, but he has to eliminate the mistakes. His first interception may have been on Davis, his freshman receiver. It looked like he ran the wrong route and Hornibrook threw where he thought Davis was going to be, but it was easily picked off by Purdue’s Da’Wan Hunte, who returned it to the Wisconsin 44. His second interception should not have been thrown. With the Badgers facing a 3rd-and-12 at the Boilermakers 31, Hornibrook tried to run a screen. However, the Purdue defense diagnosed it beautifully and was all over it. Instead of just throwing it into the ground, Hornibrook tried to fit it in to running back Rachid Ibrahim, but the running back bobbled it and the ball was picked off by Purdue’s Danny Ezechukwu, who returned it deep in Wisconsin territory. Credit to the Badgers quarterback, though, who ran him out of bounds at the Wisconsin 28. Instead of Purdue cutting it to four or three points, the Boilermakers were held to a field goal to cut it to 17-9. Alas, that pass should never have been attempted. Even if Ibrahim caught it, he would have been stopped at the line of scrimmage. Hornibrook should have just thrown it at the feet of Ibrahim and trotted out Gaglianone for a long field goal. With Purdue’s offense struggling all game long, there is no way he should have tried throwing that pass into traffic. Other than that, he was solid, but he needed to find a way to get Troy Fumagalli the football. Fumagalli is one of, if not the best tight end in the country and there is no way he should go an entire game without a catch or even a target. These are things that could, and will, get corrected moving forward. He needs to have a better day against Maryland next Saturday.
Wisconsin had some uncharacteristic miscues against Purdue. I mentioned the two interceptions that may have cost the Badgers some points, but Taylor also had a fumble at the Purdue five that cost Bucky a two score lead. Fortunately, the defense was up to the challenge and turned away the Boilermakers every time the Badgers offense made a costly mistake. It has become a theme that Wisconsin keeps winning comfortably in the yardage department, but the score is closer than it should have been. It may not cost Wisconsin a win against Maryland or Illinois, but the Badgers will need to do a better job at finishing drives in the final six games, but especially the final four. Also, Wisconsin had a punt blocked in which Purdue’s Garrett Hudson came in uncontested on Anthony Lotti to easily block the punt. It was the first blocked punt against Wisconsin since Ryan Shazier did it for Ohio State against the Badgers in 2011. Luckily for Bucky, Race Johnson, who picked up the block and returned it to the 15, but probably would have scored if not for getting injured and falling to the ground. I will chalk that up to just a fluke play, but hopefully it does not happen again this year.
The Badgers had eight penalties in the game. That will need to be corrected moving forward. Wisconsin was able to overcome some of the penalties, but it can’t make it a habit being consistently behind the chains. On three of the false starts, the Badgers followed them up with a nice first down completion. However, you knew some would bite them. On Purdue’s first field goal drive, Wisconsin had Purdue stopped, but Jacobs held Purdue tight end Cole Herdman, who ran a route that wasn’t even long enough for a first down. That led to a Boilermakers field goal to cut it to 14-3. Wisconsin also had a first down wiped away due to an illegal block in the back on Ibrahim after Cephus already had the first down inside the Purdue 20. Then, a few plays after the block in the back penalty, the Badgers had a false start penalty that did come back to haunt. Instead of a 3rd-and-7 in scoring range at the 26, Hornibrook threw the screen that was picked off and returned deep into Wisconsin territory. The Badgers will need to clean this up, as this is not an offense that can afford to fall too far behind the chains.
Like I said in the open, it was not pretty, but the Badgers got the job done. Wisconsin dominated the stats, but had enough mistakes to keep Purdue in the game. With four top 10 teams losing this weekend to teams that most would consider average at best, I will take a win in a game Bucky did not play his best. Wisconsin stays home this next week as the Badgers welcome the Maryland Terrapins to Camp Randall Stadium for an 11 am CST kick. The Homecoming game will be televised on FOX.
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