Jonathan Taylor Dominant as Wisconsin Routs Miami in 2018 Pinstripe Bowl

The 2018 season did not go as Wisconsin envisioned, but the team closed the campaign with some vintage Badgers football.

Jonathan Taylor rushed for 205 yards and a touchdown and the Badgers defense throttled Miami's offense on their way to a 35-3 victory in the 2018 Pinstripe Bowl.

Wisconsin picked off Hurricanes quarterback Malik Rosier three times and held Miami to 169 total yards, a large chunk of which came on a 62-yard scamper by Rosier. Hurricanes coach Mark Richt started Rosier over freshman quarterback N'Kosi Perry following a report that Perry had posted a sexually explicit Snapchat in September.

Perry was available for the game but did not come in until the Badgers had opened a 21-3 lead. He threw for just two yards and an interception on five pass attempts.

Wisconsin did not get much from its own quarterback, with Jack Coan throwing for just 73 yards and a touchdown against an interception.

Coan luckily didn't have to do much with Taylor scampering all over the field. The nation's leading rusher became the third Wisconsin back in program history to top 2,000 yards, joining Melvin Gordon and Ron Dayne (who did so twice). Taylor, a sophomore, is already fifth on the school's all-time leading rushing list.

"It'll probably be hard for people on the outside to say [I] got better going off the year I had last year," Taylor said of the improvements he's made, per Jason Galloway of the Journal Review. "... Sometimes last year I would kind of scurry off before I truly allowed the hole to develop. I feel like this year I've been truly able to trust and be patient and allow the hole to open up, and as long as my teammates and coaches can see that on the film, then I know I've gotten better."

Thursday's performance was perhaps the best of a lost season for Wisconsin, which opened the year considered a contender for a Big Ten championship. The Badgers instead struggled all season to find competence under center and got surprisingly inconsistent production from a defense that looked strong on paper.

The latter was not at all a problem against the Hurricanes, who looked completely overwhelmed from the game's outset. Miami held possession for just 19 minutes and 31 seconds. 

The Canes, themselves a preseason Top 10, close out with five losses in their last seven games. It is by far the worst result of Richt's first three seasons at Miami, the first two of which ended with Top 25 teams.

Paul Chryst will look to build off this win and put 2018 behind him. Wisconsin had finished with at least 10 wins in each of his first three years with the program.

With Taylor returning, it's hard to see Wisconsin not finding itself back in the Top 25 come August.