26. Wisconsin 40, BYU 6 (2017)

The Wisconsin Badgers had rolled through the first two games of the season, defeating Utah State and Florida Atlantic by an average of 33 points. The third game of the season was supposed to be the first test of the season. It was the first road contest of the season and BYU was coming off a 9-4 season in 2016. The Cougars had won six consecutive home games before losing to Utah the previous week, including a win over Mississippi State in 2016. BYU came in at 1-2, but hung in with LSU into the second half in New Orleans two weeks before and missed it on fourth down late in the loss to Utah the week before. The Cougars had trouble scoring points, tallying 33 points in the first three games and 20 of those were against Portland State.

Unfortunately for BYU, Wisconsin’s stingy defense was not the medicine needed for the Cougars offense to wake up. The home team was held to just 192 yards of total offense as Wisconsin rolled over BYU 40-6.

Even with the great defense, the story of the game was the great performance of the much-maligned Wisconsin quarterback Alex Hornibrook. The sophomore quarterback went 18-of-19 for 256 yards and four touchdowns. The completion percentage of 94.7 percent broke the school record and held that mark until Graham Mertz broke it in the 2021 opener, which will be written about at a later date.

The game did not start well for the home team. On the third play of the game, new starting quarterback Beau Hodge tried to throw it up the seam, but it was picked off by Wisconsin linebacker T.J. Edwards. That led to a short field goal by Rafael Gaglianone to begin the scoring. The Badgers had four drives in the first half and scored on all four.

BYU actually answered Wisconsin’s kick with one of its own following a 61-yard drive to knot the score. Ula Tolutau ran for 38 of his team-high 58 yards on the possession. But then the Badgers took over.

You may have gotten a feeling that this would be Hornibrook’s lucky day on the first play of Wisconsin’s second drive. He went back to pass and launched a deep ball that was underthrown, but freshman wide receiver Danny Davis went up between two defenders and came down with the ball for a 50-yard gain down to the Cougars 25. Four plays later, Jonathan Taylor crashed in from a yard out to give Bucky the lead back.

He connected with sophomore wide receiver Quintez Cephus for two touchdowns to end the half from nine and 15 yards, respectively. Both were drilled over the middle from Horni to Quintez. Cephus ran great routes to free himself on both occasions.

BYU had a long reception from Hoge to Micah Simon for 50 yards to set up another touchdown to cut it to 24-6 at the break.

As good as Wisconsin’s defense was in the first half aside from a few plays, it was that much better in the second.

In the four drives the Cougars had in the second half, the Badgers held them to just 20 yards of offense.

Hornibrook was getting everyone involved, throwing touchdowns to A.J. Taylor and Troy Fumagalli to finish off his day. Three of his touchdown tosses came on third down, including these two. His pass to A.J. Taylor was pinpoint where only A.J. could come up with it, sliding to make the grab.

His day could only end on a high note. After a short completion on third down, a penalty wiped it out, despite BYU holding Bucky on third down. On 3^rd-and-18, Wisconsin made them pay. Hornibrook went back to throw and fired a strike over the middle to Fumagalli for the 19-yard touchdown.

To finish off the scoring, Hoge scrambled around for several seconds and went backward into the end zone. He sat and looked for a receiver, but instead of throwing it away, he was hit and lost the ball and it went out of the back of the end zone for a safety.

It was the beginning of a special season for Bucky, winning a program-record 13 games, including 12- in a row to begin the season.