MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Jonathan Taylor ran for a touchdown and broke the 1,000-yard mark for the season, Alex Hornibrook passed for two scores and No. 5 Wisconsin stayed unbeaten with a 38-13 win over Maryland on Saturday.
Taylor finished with 126 yards on 22 carries, a relatively ho-hum day following two straight 200-yard outings for the running back.
Playing in his seventh contest at Wisconsin (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten), Taylor tied a major college football record shared by five other backs for fewest games by a freshman to get to 1,000 yards.
Hornibrook shook off an interception on his second attempt of the day, finishing 16 of 24 for 225 yards to balance the offense.
Maryland (3-4, 1-3), which has the league's worst defense, could have picked up some early pointers from Wisconsin.
Under heavy pressure, Max Bortenschlager's pass over the middle was intercepted by Wisconsin linebacker T.J. Edwards and returned 54 yards for a touchdown to open the scoring with 12:18 left in the first quarter.
No wonder Maryland rarely took a shot down the field.
But the Terrapins did have some success running the ball out of spread formations, with Ty Johnson leading the way with 83 yards on 16 carries. They dented a defense that was allowing a Big Ten-best 78.8 yards a game for 143 yards overall on 35 carries.
An 11-play, 73-yard drive set up in part by eight runs and a penalty ended with Bortenschlager's 10-yard touchdown pass to Taivon Jacobs to get Maryland to within 28-10 about midway through the third quarter.
Wisconsin, though, sets a high bar in the ground game, and Maryland just couldn't keep up.
Fullback Austin Ramesh's 1-yard touchdown run with 9:10 left in the game ended an 11-play, 76-yard drive, giving Wisconsin a three-score lead that extinguished any faint upset hopes.
TAKEAWAYS:
Maryland: Bortenschlager, a third-stringer forced into the lineup earlier this season because of injuries, still needs work throwing deep. But the sophomore showed more poise as the game went on with a handful of third-and-long conversions. ... WR DJ Moore was held to 44 yards on three catches a week after amassing career-bests of 210 yards on 12 receptions against Northwestern.
Wisconsin: Taylor has had an impressive freshman season overall, though he has fumbled in two straight weeks after coughing up the ball late in the first quarter at his own 3. The defense cleaned up that mistake after Maryland went three-and-out and settled for a field goal. ... Problems that plagued the Badgers in last week's win over Purdue popped up again on Saturday with two turnovers and four penalties in the first half. But execution improved in a mainly clean second half.
UP NEXT:
Maryland: Hosts Indiana on Oct. 28.
Wisconsin: At Illinois on Oct. 28.
___
More college football coverage: http://collegefootball.ap.org and www.Twitter.com/AP_Top25
