Wisconsin football was able to notch its biggest win of the season over a ranked Iowa team on Saturday. What did we learn from the Badgers’ win?
No. 20 Iowa visited No. 8 Wisconsin looking to upset the undefeated Badgers and show its win versus Ohio State wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t in the cards because if it wasn’t for quarterback Alex Hornibrook throwing three interceptions, two of them being returned for touchdowns, Iowa wouldn’t have scored Week 11.
Wisconsin won 38-14 to move to 10-0 overall and 6-0 in the Big Ten West. Here are three takeaways from this Week 11 battle.
3. Wisconsin is good in spite of Alex Hornibrook
Wisconsin is undefeated, but it doesn’t strike much fear into its opponents through the air. It’s easy to look at the Badgers’ running back play and say that is their bread and butter, as it should be, but you can’t expect freshman running back Jonathan Taylor to do it all.
Sophomore quarterback Alex Hornibrook has to play better if the Badgers are going to sneak into the College Football Playoff. In the last seven games, he has committed at least one turnover in each. I know quarterbacks will turn it over sometimes, but you don’t need your quarterback averaging a turnover a game which is what he is one pace to do this season.
During the Iowa game, Hornibrook committed three turnovers and two of them were returned for touchdowns, giving Iowa its only points of the game. Why would Hornibrook even throw Joshua Jackson’s way? And after throwing one pick-six to Jackson why would you think about going his way again and throw another one this way?
If their sophomore doesn’t get it together, top-tier teams have the talent to slow down the running game and Wisconsin could be in trouble.