44. Wisconsin 38, Maryland 13 (2017)

Bucky was in the midst of a historic season and were 6-0 heading into the game against Maryland for Homecoming. Wisconsin was rolling along beating teams by an average of 26 points per game in the first five games before needing a fourth quarter stop to beat an average Purdue team at Camp Randall Stadium.

The Badgers jumped out to a 21-3 lead at half and didn’t look back, knocking off the Terps by 25 to send the fans home happy.

Maryland actually had a nice start to the game, moving 28 yards on its first three plays to move into Wisconsin territory. But everything changed after a sack by Olive Sagapolu pushed the Terrapins back into their own territory. On third down, the defense recorded its fourth pick six of the season when Garret Dooley annihilated Maryland quarterback Max Bortenschlager as he threw and the pass went into the arms of T.J. Edwards, who returned the pick 54 yards for the game’s first score.

However, things weren’t going so well offensively for the Badgers, as they turned the ball over on their first two possessions, including a fumble by Jonathan Taylor at their own 5. Future Packers safety Darnell Savage recovered the fumble, but the Badgers defense stood tall, not allowing any yards in the three plays and forcing Maryland to settle for a short field goal to cut it to 7-3.

The Badgers came right back down the field, though, and punched it in to take control of the game. The Badgers embarked on a 70-yard drive, in which quarterback Alex Hornibrook completed 5-of-6 passes for 74 yards, including a 30-yard pass to Quintez Cephus, which set up the 3-yard touchdown run from Taylor.

Wisconsin out the game away late in the first half when it traveled 85 yards in 12 plays to put the home team in front 21-3. Hornibrook found Zander Neuville in the end zone for an 8-yard score with a half minute left in the first half. The Badgers had a chance to add more points at the end of the half, Joe Ferguson recovered a Jake Funk fumble on the ensuing kick return, but Rafael Gaglianone missed a 39-yard field goal at the end of the half.

Hornibrook led the Badgers to another touchdown to begin the half, going 4-for-5 for 65 yards, including completing his final two passes of the drive for a total of 41 yards and a touchdown to A.J. Taylor.

The Terps made a bit of a comeback to cut it to 28-13 with 10 consecutive points, but the visitors couldn’t create another stop to try to make the game even closer. A 76-yard drive was capped off by the Badgers with an Austin Ramesh 1-yard plunge to make it 35-13 and Gaglianone capped the scoring with a field goal in the final minute to make it 38-13 Bucky.

Wisconsin proceeded to go through the entire regular season undefeated, something that hadn’t happened in more than a century. Only one of the 12 games was even a one-score game and even that one was only close due to Badgers turnovers. They capped off a historic 13-1 season with a win at Miami in the Orange Bowl.