BYU stuns Badgers as non-conference play comes to an end

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All good streaks must come to an end.

Wisconsin had a 41-game home win streak in non-conference play coming in to Saturday’s contest with the BYU Cougars. It no longer has that streak as the Cougars bested the Badgers 24-21 at Camp Randall Stadium.

The Cougars used a large part of Wisconsin’s game plan to beat the hosts — beating them in the trenches and racking up 191 yards on the ground in the win.

Squally Canada needed just 11 carries to get 118 yards and two big touchdowns. His first score tied things up at 7-7 and his second took away another Badgers lead, scoring from two yards out early in the third quarter to make it 21-14.

UW’s Heisman hopeful, Jonathan Taylor, was largely bottled up on the day. He ran the ball 26 times for just 117 yards and never got in to the end zone. Instead, it was senior Taiwan Deal pushing the ball over the goal line twice for the Badgers.

With the run game struggling, much of the hope turned to the pass game. Junior Alex Hornibrook didn’t respond well, completing 18 of 28 passes, but only gaining 190 yards.

He also had a bad turnover, missing the underneath coverage on a huge third down play on the Badgers opening second half drive.

Any momentum that the defense was able to gain was squandered over and over by the offense on the day.

But, this one started off looking like the Badgers had found a way to spark itself early on — a problem that plagued them in the first two weeks of the season.

Wisconsin got on the scoreboard first against BYU as running back Taiwan Deal capped off an 8-play, 63-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run.

But, the lead was short-lived, as BYU answered right back on their next drive. Cougars running back Squally Canada capped off a 75-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown and it was 7-7 just 3:10 after the Badgers took the lead.

BYU forced a 3-and-out by the Badgers on the next possession and then drove the ball right down the UW defense again. However, it was a trick play that put the Cougars up 14-7, as Aleva Hifo hit Moroni Laulu-Pututau on a wide receiver pass for 31 yards.

Despite the struggles, the Badgers responded back with a late touchdown by fullback Alec Ingold to knot the score at 14-14 with 1:17 to go in the second quarter.

After a three-and-out forced by the Wisconsin defense to open the second half, it appeared the typical quick start to the half was in order in Madison.

That feeling didn’t last long though, as Alex Hornibrook threw an interception on the ensuing possession. It was returned to the Badgers 27-yard line and the defense needed to come up big.

However, BYU took advantage of the miscue and punched in a short-yardage TD by Canada to make it 21-14 Cougars with 9:54 to play in third quarter.

Wisconsin tied things up two possessions later, as it went 10 plays and 82 yards for a touchdown. Deal got his second score of the game and it was 21-21 with 12:43 to play in the final stanza.

The defense gave up a huge run to Canada on the ensuing drive, but held up after that and forced a 45-yard field goal to make the game 24-21 Cougars with 9:58 to play in the game.

UW couldn’t get anything going on the next drive, eating over three minutes of clock in just five plays and were forced to punt.

That gave the defense one last opportunity to make a stand, and they did exactly that. However, BYU’s punt bounced in front of Jack Dunn, who let it go and rolled inside the Badgers own 10-yard line.

The ensuing drive saw Wisconsin attempt to take the clock down and get within scoring range at the same time. Instead of going for the touchdown and the outright victory, it appeared head coach Paul Chryst was content turning things over to his senior kicker Rafael Gaglianone.

However, that strategy backfired as Gaglianone missed a 42-yard field goal attempt way wide left with just 35 seconds to play in the game.

The senior was seen apologizing to his teammates for the uncharacteristic miss, but this loss was far from his fault.


Rafael Gaglianone says I’m sorry to nearly the entire @BadgerFootball team as they come off the field. But it shouldn’t have come down to that and mistakes on many levels doomed Wisconsin today #Badgers #Cougars pic.twitter.com/VxDzY5DGun

— Lance Allan (@lanceallan) September 15, 2018

Even if he would’ve made the field goal, overtime would’ve loomed large and anything could’ve happened at that point.

Wisconsin will look to rebound next week as it opens Big Ten play against the rival Iowa Hawkeyes. Kick is scheduled for 7pm CT on ABC from Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa.

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Just an ugly game. UW didn't look like they were ready to play at all. Came out flat and never could get much going consistently.
 
Just disgusting. OL was terrible, Horni was terrible, Chryst's play calling was terrible, defense was terrible. Team Loss because they all sucked.
 
The strangest game I've seen since Chryst took over. There was no spark, no life, no heart to the team. It's like they went out there and went through the motions. I can't point at any one thing that they lacked, it was across the board, as if they hadn't even prepared for this game.

On the sidelines, no emotions, and even a total lack of clock management by Chryst. Even that last drive, not running the ball to get a little shorter kick for the FG didn't make sense. Then there's the question as to why they were even looking to get the kick in the first place? It's like they figured they were incapable of scoring, so would settle for the tie, and OT.

I do know one thing. This has to be a wake up call for everyone inside the Badger football operations. This team may not be half as good as people thought. Then again, this may have something to do with the Cephus/Davis thing, but who knows?

Next week it gets real, but for all intent and purposes, the Badgers are probably out of the running for a shot at a national title. But, that was a goal far beyond what anyone should have even considered this year. It's just not that good of a team.
 
I do know one thing. This has to be a wake up call for everyone inside the Badger football operations. This team may not be half as good as people thought.

Only the media thought and touted this team as such. It's a very young defense plus we lost a ton to graduation and transfer. It caught up to them Saturday.

They'll play their stud LT next week and reshuffle the line. Davis will get reps with Hornibrook and make the catches he dropped. Defensively, I expect to see more Lowdermilk and less Lyles on the DL. I said this on shout last night and still think that PC is going to have to swallow hard and burn 2-3 redshirts and just to add the depth.

A 3 loss team with a nice bowl game is the realistic outlook right now.

Note: I really liked what BYU did schamatically on offense.
 
at least they'vegot that "national championship" monkey off their backs. maybe now they'll loosen up a little.
 
Only the media thought and touted this team as such. It's a very young defense plus we lost a ton to graduation and transfer. It caught up to them Saturday.

They'll play their stud LT next week and reshuffle the line. Davis will get reps with Hornibrook and make the catches he dropped. Defensively, I expect to see more Lowdermilk and less Lyles on the DL. I said this on shout last night and still think that PC is going to have to swallow hard and burn 2-3 redshirts and just to add the depth.

A 3 loss team with a nice bowl game is the realistic outlook right now.

Note: I really liked what BYU did schamatically on offense.

I like what BYU did too. They actually played the Badgers' game better than the Badgers played it. Look at their offensive line. They went from a line @ of 260# to around #300. They became people movers, and ran essentially the same offense as the Badgers. Because they did that, their defense even understood our offense better, and was able to react to what the Badgers do successfully. They were winning the battle at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

With the injuries, you're probably right on the red-shirts. According to the new rules, a guy can play in 4 games and still be given a red-shirt designation. I wonder if they see enough talent out there that this is possible? Maybe rotate the guys to make sure they don't play in more than 4 games?

We also saw our CBs showing they were freshmen, not experienced defenders. They bit on fakes, and had a problem getting leverage on plays where they should have been able to be in a better defensive position.

I'm anxious to see how they come out against Iowa next Saturday. I want to see a team that's on a mission, and plays like the game means something. They need to play well enough to get a decent bowl game.
 
FYI, and not that this gives them an excuse, but it was(/seemed) hotter in Madison yesterday than it had been in a month.

BYU looked way better conditioned for it.
 
FYI, and not that this gives them an excuse, but it was(/seemed) hotter in Madison yesterday than it had been in a month.

BYU looked way better conditioned for it.

I think it showed when the Badgers ended up using second team offensive linemen in numbers during the 3rd quarter. They were gassed from the heat.
 
The Badgers just plain did not look ready to play. They knocked the crap out of BYU last year and they thought they could do it again. It was just plain hot on Saturday. The youngsters got a lesson about what a real D1 opponent looks like. The lack of depth at certain spots really stuck out. UW was handled in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

It was what I worried about before the season. The defense was outplayed for most of the day. The d-line was especially a problem on Saturday. The rest were not far behind. The secondary was having a tough time and the OLBs were generating very little pressure and having a tough time holding the edge. The worst part though was that the ILBs, an experienced group, were out of position pretty frequently all day. Jimmy is a good coach, but when you have to start a bunch of youngsters who are not 5-star and 4-star talents like OSU and Bama throw out there every year you need time to develop them. The foundation of the program has not been throwing first and second year players out there, but rather playing mostly with 4th and 5th year guys against teams that are less experienced and less physically mature.
 
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