As always, I will start with some positives. First off, I will mention one of the guys filling in for a departed starter, redshirt freshman Scott Nelson. The freshman was all over the place on Friday, He led the team with seven tackles, had two pass break-ups and added one tackle for loss. Nelson is a big-time playmaker in the back end of the secondary for Bucky. If that is a sign of things to come, the Badgers will be in great shape moving forward. No. 9 did have a few mistakes, where the secondary allowed back-to-back big plays, an 18-yard pass from Drew Eckels to Quin Jernighan, followed by a 48-yard pass from Eckels to Jacquez Sloan. Wise beyond his years, Nelson took responsibility for it, even if it wasn’t his fault. Freshman Faion Hicks was the corner on both plays, so he might have been guilty as well. Nelson wasn’t the only young starting defensive back to play solid. I know it was not the best opponent or quarterback, but the starting corners were solid in their starting debuts. I mentioned Hicks had a few breakdowns in the secondary, but overall, he was solid. He even made his first career interception. Caesar Williams also played well, breaking a pass up in the end zone. Other than the two pass plays on the first drive of the second half, the secondary only allowed 115 yards through the air. Good job by them. BYU could be a solid test for the secondary with Tanner Mangum, so we won’t know a ton about them until then.
Another positive from the game is Alex Hornibrook. The much-maligned quarterback threw for 257 yards with two touchdowns and perhaps more importantly, no interceptions. This was the third straight 200+-yard passing performance. It was only the fifth time since the start of 2017 (15 games) that he did not throw an interception. He was the highest-rated quarterback in the Big Ten according to Pro Football Focus. Hornibrook looked much-improved over the last few seasons, specifically when it comes to maneuvering around the pocket. On multiple occasions, he stepped up and rolled out and fired a strike for a first down. His first two years, he would not have done that. Hornibrook still made a few poor throws and it would be nice to cut that out. On back-to-back throws, he threw two extremely poor passes late in the first half. On the first, he had Jonathan Taylor open, but Hornibrook threw behind him and it was incomplete. On his very next pass, he had a wide open A.J. Taylor for a first down, but overthrew him and the Badgers were forced to punt. He later threw a pass that could have, and perhaps should have, been picked off. But overall, he played well, especially when considering he was playing without his top two wide receivers (Quintez Cephus, Danny Davis) and starting tight end (Zander Neuville).
A couple of players stepped up without the top wide receivers and starting tight end. First off, A.J. Taylor had five catches for 85 yards and Pryor had four receptions for 51 yards and a touchdown. Jake Ferguson had four catches in his first career game for 43 yards. Two of his four catches went for first downs. This will be huge going forward to their maturation and will get major playing time, even when Neuville and Davis come back and if Cephus comes back.
There are a few things that were a bit disappointing. First off, the offensive line looked disinterested. On blitz pick up, they were not the best. For a team that only sacked opposing quarterbacks 12 times last season, the Hilltoppers were able to sack Hornibrook three times. I know it is a new season, but that is unacceptable, especially for an offensive line that many think is the best in the nation. Also, despite having 145 yards from Taylor and 234 rush yards total, Taylor had 16 for 68 other than two carries (4.25 ypc) and 157 yards on 37 carries (4.24 ypc). I will give it a pass since it is the first game of the season, but I hope they come out with an edge and destroy New Mexico this Saturday.
Also, they still had a few mistakes that would be costly against better teams. Hornibrook threw a pass that should have been picked off. Even though Jonathan Taylor is a monster, he had a fumbling problem last year, and it bit him again last Friday. After fumbling eight times last year and losing six of them, he lost his first fumble of the season against Western Kentucky. He needs to clean that up before Iowa to start conference play. They did not look dominant, despite gaining nearly 500 yards of total offense. It was not a well-oiled machine, but that is to be expected in the first game with a number of new starters and more who were out against Western Kentucky.
Even though they did not look dominant, the Badgers won convincingly by 31 without a number of starters. They will get a few of them back this week, as the Badgers take on New Mexico. The game will be at 11 CST and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
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