By Richard Podhajsky

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Wisconsin had just 290 yards of offense and had only scored 14 points – including seven on a gift following an Iowa special teams gaffe – against statistically one of the best defenses in the country.

So what went wrong in the final 5 minutes and 40 seconds when the Badgers drove 88 yards for the game-winning touchdown against Iowa on Saturday?

"A combination of a lot of things," junior defensive end Anthony Nelson said after Iowa's 28-17 loss to No. 16 Wisconsin before a sellout crowd of 69,250 at Kinnick Stadium. "Just everybody on the defense has to do their job. Obviously, we had some lapses and stuff like that. But credit to them, they made some plays. But we'll have to watch the film and figure out what we could have done."

The Iowa defensive players didn't make excuses or point fingers after the game, but they also didn't have a lot of answers for how a golden opportunity to take early control of the Big Ten West Division had slipped away.

The Badgers scored twice in the final minute, taking the lead when quarterback Alex Hornibrook hit A.J. Taylor from 17 yards out for a touchdown. Taylor, a wide receiver, got matched up with Nick Niemann, a linebacker.

Niemann slipped while trying to defend the speedy Badger receiver.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz was asked after the game about having a linebacker matched against a receiver.

"We do that frequently as part of our defense," Ferentz said. "And the guy made a good throw, the receiver did a good job in getting open. And it's just part of what we do."

"Everybody was manned up over there and they just made a good ball, a good play, a good catch," senior safety Jake Gervase said. "It's not one play, it's five or six plays we gotta clean up. And that's not on Nick Niemann, it's on all of us. We win as a team, lose as a team."

Badger running back Jonathan Taylor ran for 113 yards, but the Iowa defense kept he and the Wisconsin offense pretty well in check up to those final two drives, allowing a 95-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter and a third quarter score after the Badgers got the ball at the Iowa 10. But Hornibrook did what he needed to do down the stretch, and Alec Ingold put the game away with a 33-yard touchdown run with 22 seconds left.

"We wanted to take away the run and we did a pretty good job on that; they had a couple big runs here and there," junior defensive back Amani Hooker said. "But we wanted to make (Hornibrook) make plays and he made some plays."

Wisconsin also received a questionable spot during the go-ahead drive which gave it a first down. Ferentz said there was some thought to a challenge.

"Pretty much the way we have been told, you can take a timeout to make yourself feel better and I did that once, " Ferentz said. "I don't know, last year or maybe earlier this year, but basically you're wasting a timeout. They're reviewing all those things. And spots are always a little tough."

And the defense still had its chance to get a stop after that. But Wisconsin made the plays, while Iowa was left with its third straight loss in the series and its fifth consecutive loss to the Badgers at Kinnick Stadium

"It hurts," Iowa defensive back Jake Gervase said of playing so well for most of the game only to lose at the end. "The game wasn't necessarily over there (after Taylor's touchdown). Our offense got a shot with three timeouts and about a minute to go. But when you play as hard as you can for 60 minutes and pour a lot into it, it hurts."

Injury report: Iowa sophomore cornerback Matt Hankins left Saturday's game with an undisclosed injury. He was replaced by true freshman Julius Brents.

When asked if Hankins got dinged up, Ferentz said:

"He did. Yeah. He's fine."

Sophomore running back Ivory Kelly-Martin led Iowa in rushing on Saturday with 72 yards on 14 carries. He had missed the previous two games because of an ankle injury.

Sophomore receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette also returned to action on Saturday after missing the Northern Iowa game from the previous week due to a shoulder injury.  Smith-Marsette caught three passes for 58 yards against Wisconsin, but he also left the game after taking a hard hit.

"You probably noticed he came out of the game tonight," Ferentz said. "He got nailed a little bit. He's not one-hundred percent probably. But who is at this time of year after the first game?  .