The Gophers defense had a plan against Wisconsin on Saturday: Stop Badgers freshman running back Jonathan Taylor, the Heisman Trophy candidate, and dare quarterback Alex Hornibrook to beat them.
The first part of the plan worked for a while. The second part didn't work as well as the fifth-ranked Badgers rolled 31-0.
Minnesota had eight, sometimes nine players near the line of scrimmage and kept Taylor in check in the first half, holding him to 41 yards on 12 carries. Hornibrook, however, completed 13 of 17 first-half passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns as the Badgers build a 17-0 lead.
Hornibrook was especially efficient on the Badgers' first touchdown drive, when he went 6-for-7 for 62 yards, hitting four different receivers during the 12-play, 73-yard march that ended with tight end Troy Fumagalli's 1-yard TD catch.
"We were stacking the box, trying to stop the run," Gophers linebacker Thomas Barber said. "We just weren't being very disciplined on defense. We've gotta keep our eyes on our man."
Hornibrook led a 65-yard drive for a field goal for a 10-0 lead, then basically put the game away with his 5-yard touchdown pass to tight end Kyle Penniston with 50 seconds left in the first half for a 17-0 lead. He finished 15-for-19 for 151 yards and three TDs.
Taylor got it going in the third quarter, carrying seven times for 56 yards. Then, on the first play of the fourth quarter, he popped loose for a 53-yard touchdown.
"That's the hard part about defense is that you need everybody doing their job to be able to stop their offense,'' Barber said. "We'd have little missteps from different people, myself included, where we just missed alignments. We need all 11 guys to do their job."
