Wisconsin football lost to BYU in Madison in week three.
The Wisconsin football program had one of the longest non-conference home winning streaks in the country going into the weekend. That streak would not be extended. Wisconsin had a chance to tie the game late with a field goal from Rafael Gaglianone, but the kick missed wide left.
BYU’s 24-21 win over Wisconsin shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody that watched this game from start to finish. Wisconsin was trailing most of the game and was unable to gather any momentum. Whenever the Badgers drew even with the Cougars, the Cougars answered.
Wisconsin held BYU to only a field goal on its last drive giving itself a chance to go down and win the game with a touchdown. The Badgers marched down the field after being pinned at their own eight-yard line with some nice passing and a big run by Alex Hornibrook. A failed third down attempt brought up the kick that would eventually miss.
Wisconsin struggled to match the physicality of BYU in the trenches throughout the afternoon. BYU was able to apply constant pressure on Hornibrook and contain the run extremely well. Wisconsin couldn’t break any big runs or string together any amount of successful plays.
When the Badgers were on defense, it was the exact opposite. BYU could run almost at will, albeit it a lot of the time was on jet sweep type of running plays. BYU running back Squally Canada hit the Badgers between the tackles and was a huge momentum shifter. Canada finished with 118 yards on just 11 carries.
Wisconsin’s slow starts finally caught up to it. This isn’t the way you want to finish your non-conference slate, especially when the first game of Big Ten play will be a night game at Iowa. The Badgers have a lot of work to do to get ready for next week. A performance like the one today that features no big plays will not get the job done in Kinnick Stadium.
Stay tuned to Badger of Honor through the rest of the weekend for more of the fallout and how this game will affect the Badgers moving forward.