9. Wisconsin 45, Illinois 7 (2020)

It was a much-anticipated opener for the Wisconsin Badgers. Not only was the season starting late due to COVID, but it was the eagerly anticipated starting debut of highly-regarded freshman quarterback Graham Mertz. The starting quarterback going into the season was Jack Coan, but he broke his foot in practice and Mertz got the call.

Not only did he get the call, but he had one of the best games a Wisconsin quarterback has ever had. The freshman completed 20 of 21 passes for 248 yards and five touchdowns, breaking the school record for completion percentage in a game and tying the record for passing touchdowns. All that as he and the Badgers got revenge on Illinois, which had upset the Badgers in 2019 in Champagne, as they didn’t allow an offensive touchdowns in crushing the Illini 45-7.

The game could not have started much better for Wisconsin, as the Badgers recovered a fumble on the second play of the game at the Illinois 33. He converted his first third down of the game on a receiver screen to running back Garrett Groshek for 12 yards down to the 19. Three plays later, Mertz went did a play action pass and threw it to fullback Mason Stokke for a 10-yard touchdown to put Bucky on the board first.

Two drives later, Mertz led Wisconsin a 14-play, 88-yard drive and it finished with Mertz’s second touchdown pass, this one to Jake Ferguson. The touchdown was Ferguson’s first of his three on the evening.

Illinois actually made it a game midway through the second quarter, as Tariq

ue Barnes returned a Ferguson fumble 39 yards for a touchdown.

But Wisconsin made a strong push to finish the half, scoring two touchdowns in the final 70 seconds. The first touchdown came with 1:06 left in the half on a Mertz 14-yard pass over the middle to Ferguson. Two plays earlier, the touchdown was set up by a long pass from Mertz to Fergy. On second down from midfield, Mertz lofted a perfectly thrown pass down the left sideline to Jake, who made an over-the-shoulder catch down to the 16.

Following an Illinois punt, the Badgers wasted little time making it a three-score game. On 1^st-and-10 front its own 47 with 36 seconds left, Mertz went for the jugular. The freshman quarterback went back to pass and launched a pass to a wide open Danny Davis down the field on a post pattern. Davis caught it at the 15 and ran in for the touchdown to make it 28-7, and it stayed that way until halftime.

Wisconsin punted twice and its defense stiffened twice when Illinois reached Badgers territory and the Illini turned it over on downs.

But when the third quarter ended, the Badgers were on the move. John Chenel finished off a 10-play drive by lowing in for a 2-yard score to make it 35-7.

Mertz tied history on Wisconsin’s next possession, as he threw his fifth touchdown of the game on the 11^th play of the drive. The first 10 were passes, but on 3^rd-and-Goal from the 3, he did a play action pass and found a wide open Ferguson in the end zone for his fifth passing touchdown of the evening and Fergy’s third touchdown reception of the game.

The fifth passing touchdown ties Jim Sorgi for the most in school history for a single game, which he did against Michigan State in 2003. All five of Sorgi’s touchdown tosses were to the same guy, the great Lee Evans in a 56-21 demolition of the Spartans.

Wisconsin recorded an interception on the next possession and kicked a field goal after it to put the finishing touches on a 45-7 win.

The win was interrupted, as they had the next two games cancelled. Even with a dominating win three weeks later in Ann Arbor, they did not have the same mojo that they had against Illinois and did not have it the rest of the season.