Penn State went into Saturday knowing Koby Howard’s absence would force the passing game to shift. What it didn’t get was much help anywhere else.
In a 24-20 loss to Wisconsin, Chase Sowell was the only wideout who produced. He caught six passes for 70 yards on nine targets and accounted for every reception and every receiving yard Penn State’s wide receivers managed.
The rest of the room came up empty.
Brett Eskildsen was targeted six times and didn’t catch a pass. Freshman Zay Robinson got one target and also finished without a reception. Amarion Jackson, another young receiver Penn State had talked about as an option without Howard, wasn’t targeted at all.
Head coach Matt Campbell said the output was more than a little surprising.
“Would I say I’m a little bit surprised? I would say I’m a little bit surprised that those are the statistics in the game,” Campbell said.
“I think there was just a weird flow to the game, especially in the first half of the football game, where you’re in more situational football. I think some of it will be really interesting to see what happened in the second half.
“I think I’ll have a better answer for you guys on Tuesday to that question. We’re going to have to have more production from the receiving room and from the other players on the opposite side of the ball. That would cut it up.”
The way Penn State used Eskildsen suggests this wasn’t just a case of the ball going elsewhere. According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), he ran 27 routes and was targeted six times, with four of those throws traveling at least 20 yards downfield.
None were completed. His average depth of target was 25.7 yards, a sign the Nittany Lions were trying to replace some of the vertical stress Howard normally creates.
It never clicked.
Eskildsen finished with a 50.5 receiving grade. Robinson ran 11 routes and got one target. Sowell, meanwhile, was the only receiver who made anything happen, including a 22-yard catch and two completions on three targets between 10 and 19 yards for 35 yards.
Before Howard got hurt, Penn State had a true field-stretcher. Through three games, Howard caught 12 passes for 344 yards and two touchdowns, and his 28.7 yards per reception ranked among the best marks nationally. He and Rocco Becht had connected on seven completions of at least 30 yards.
Without him, the entire passing attack shrank. Penn State finished with just 114 passing yards.
Becht went 12 of 29 for 3.9 yards per attempt and didn’t throw a touchdown. The Nittany Lions produced only five passing first downs.
Tight end Benjamin Brahmer gave the offense an early lift with four catches for 36 yards, but Wisconsin adjusted after three of those receptions came in the first quarter. Quinton Martin added two catches for five yards. After that, there wasn’t much else.
The struggles showed up most clearly when Penn State needed a drive. The Nittany Lions went 0-for-5 on third down in the fourth quarter and held the ball for just 5:36. Their final four possessions before a last-minute desperation push went for five yards, minus-one yard, six yards and then 42 yards after Wisconsin had already taken the lead.
Howard’s absence doesn’t explain everything. Becht missed throws, the protection broke down at times and the running game averaged only 3.3 yards per carry.
Still, Saturday gave Penn State its first real glimpse of what life without Howard looks like.
Campbell had talked before the game about the room’s depth, praising Sowell’s growth, calling Eskildsen dynamic and pointing to Robinson as another player on the rise.
Sowell backed that up.
Nobody else did.
And with Howard expected to remain out for an extended stretch, that’s the issue Penn State has to solve. The Nittany Lions don’t need someone to become Howard. They need Wisconsin to be the last time losing Howard drags down almost everyone else with him.
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Penn States stumble at Beaver Stadium against Wisconsin in Matt Campbells Big Ten debut as head coach put an immediate spotlight on what life looks like after James Franklin. Coaching changes are never clean, especially when a new leader is being asked to steady a program with expectations as high as Penn States. Campbell arrives with a reputation as a builder, the kind of coach who needs time to shape a team in his image rather than simply patching over what came before.
For the Nittany Lions, the uncomfortable part is not just that the transition has begun, but that recent results have already started to look more fragile than the standard Franklin set in earlier years. This is the part of a changeover that programs hope to avoid, when every loss turns into a referendum on the new era and every uneven performance invites comparisons to the old one. Penn State is only at the beginning of that process, but the pressure to show progress is already very real. [Read more 🡒]
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Zayas finished with the top defensive grade on the team after returning an interception for a touchdown, a play that briefly gave Penn State some life. The other side of the ball told a harsher story, with quarterback Rocco Becht turning in a rough outing and several offensive linemen also drawing season-low grades, leaving the offense searching for answers after another frustrating night. [Read more 🡒]