on blitzes for two weeks, his offensive line having its fair share of growing pains. But he led two pivotal second-half touchdown drives, relying on sophomore Ja’Kobi Lane for a go-get-it lob to cap the first and relying on sophomore Duce Robinson’s sure hands to cap the second. And on a fourth-quarter drive with a three-point lead, he relied on himself, pulling away a handoff to Woody Marks and dashing towards the end zone from the 7-yard-line.

Throwing his back into a defender, Marks caught the end of Moss’ run. He knew Moss had it in him, Marks smiled. But not like this.

As Wisconsin’s All-Big-Ten safety Hunter Wohler approached, Moss planted, extended his right arm, and spun off a diving tackle attempt. As another Wisconsin defender approached, Moss took flight, twisting through enemy arms like the spinning top in “Inception” and landing across the plane of the goal line in a true dream of a play.

“That,” Marks beamed postgame, “was crazy.”

Moss came up slowly, staggering off to the medical tent, emerging a few minutes later. Postgame, he was asked — was he OK?

“Yes,” Moss responded.

“You go flying,” he added, asked to elaborate, “you see things sometimes.”

He’d seen plenty, this day. This program was primed for an exorcism Saturday, a chance to shed a week and a year’s worth of frustration in front of an announced sold-out crowd at the Coliseum. Motivation was there, for the taking, coming off a heartbreaking loss to Michigan. Motivation was there, for the taking, with the return of Alex Grinch, the much-maligned defensive coordinator making his return to the Coliseum as Wisconsin’s safeties coach.

They came away haunted, in the first half, a laundry list of unforced errors setting off jeers in USC’s Big Ten home opener. In the first quarter, after a dot of a first-drive touchdown ball from quarterback Miller Moss to Ja’Kobi Lane, Wisconsin receiver Vinny Anthony responded by dusting USC cornerback Jacobe Covington for a 63-yard score.

It got much worse. Moss was picked off. Branch misplayed a punt. USC tackle Elijah Paige and left guard Emmanuel Pregnon attempted to block the same Wisconsin rusher on one second-quarter play, and Moss got crunched in a forced-fumble sack. He lay spread-eagle, for a moment, USC (now 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten) stunned with a 21-10 deficit in a first half in which everything that could’ve possibly gone wrong did.

“On offense we was driving the ball, and then we’d have a bad play,” Marks described, postgame. “And then that bad play would lead to another bad play. So, we had to get out of that and get out of our heads.”

They did so, in the halftime locker room. Riley deadpanned his team’s second-half adjustments were the result of “a really, really good speech;” in reality, coaches largely tossed metaphorical microphones to players. This wasn’t them, defensive players affirmed, a unit suddenly struck by coverage busts not-quite-before-seen under defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn. They would go out to start the second half, defensive end Jamil Muhammad described, and needed to set the tone.

Tone set, emphatically. After Wisconsin (2-2, 0-1) muffed a punt early in the frame and Moss hit Lane for his second touchdown of the day, USC didn’t allow a point in the second half, and gave up a total of 82 yards across two periods. Safety Kamari Ramsey, a consistent playmaker in Lynn’s scheme, came up with massive consecutive fourth-down and third-down stops in the third quarter to shut down Badger drives.

Lane had a coming-out party, punctuated by a third-quarter drive where he and Moss mind-melded, finishing with 10 catches for 105 yards.