Penn State had been building toward this for weeks. The pressure was there.
The disruption was there. The one thing missing was the finish.
Against Wisconsin, that missing piece turned into a problem the Nittany Lions couldn’t hide. What had looked like a pass-rush issue on paper became a major reason Penn State left Beaver Stadium with a 24-20 loss.
Through its first three games, Penn State had generated 50 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus, but only five sacks. Even in the win over Buffalo, 18 pressures produced just one sack.
The defense was getting close. It just wasn’t closing.
Saturday followed that same script, only with a far more painful ending.
PFF credited Penn State with 14 pressures against Wisconsin, along with one sack, four quarterback hits and nine hurries. Tony Rojas recorded the lone sack.
Kooper Ebel led the way with three pressures, and Ike Ezeogu added four. On the surface, those are the numbers of a defense that was in the backfield all night.
But the game came down to what happened after the pressure arrived.
Wisconsin quarterback Colton Joseph hung around long enough to beat it. After throwing three interceptions, he steadied himself in the second half and finished 18-of-38 for 235 yards and two touchdowns while also running for 39 yards and another score. His two touchdown passes came in the final 3:31, capped by the 72-yard strike to Jacob Harris with 1:13 left that decided the game.
Penn State had done a lot right defensively before that finish. It intercepted Joseph three times.
Josiah Zayas took one back 51 yards for a touchdown, while Rojas and Daryus Dixson each added picks of their own. The Badgers were behind the chains for long stretches and kept running into Penn State’s pressure.
Still, Wisconsin kept finding openings.
The Badgers went just 1-of-7 on third down in the first half, then improved to 3-of-8 after halftime and 2-of-4 in the fourth quarter. They also converted both of their fourth-down tries. That’s where the game started slipping away from Penn State: not in the effort, but in the moments where the defense had to complete the stop.
Afterward, Ebel pointed to execution when talking about Penn State’s struggles to finish plays.
“I think a lot of it goes back to pre-snap, getting aligned. Obviously, it’s awesome to play in Beaver Stadium.
Sometimes it’s almost harder to play in Beaver Stadium on defense, though, just because it’s so loud. It’s hard to hear yourself and hard to hear your teammates.
“Get lined up, know your assignment and play fast. Obviously, it’s really hard to practice tackling and do those things live at practice while staying healthy throughout the season. But that’s something we definitely need to improve on and something we’re going to continue to hammer away at this week.”
Ebel also said Wisconsin’s explosive plays came from Penn State’s mental mistakes and noted the defense was sometimes only “a hair off.” Against an opponent like Wisconsin, he said, that was enough to give up a big play.
The pass-rush grades reflected the same frustrating story. Ebel posted a team-best 71.1 PFF pass-rush grade, followed by Ezeogu at 68.6, Zion Tracy at 64.5 and Rojas at 62.3.
Penn State got after Joseph. It just didn’t land the knockout.
That had been the concern entering Big Ten play. Penn State’s pressure rate had climbed in each of its first three games, moving from roughly one pressure every 3.3 pass-rush opportunities against Marshall to one every 2.5 against Temple and one every 1.9 against Buffalo. The next step was supposed to be turning that disruption into sacks once conference play began.
Wisconsin offered the first real test of that theory.
The answer was the same one Penn State had been trying to avoid: pressure matters, hits matter, hurries can force mistakes. The defense proved that with three interceptions.
But at some point, a pass rush has to finish the play.
On Saturday, Penn State had chances. Joseph kept getting away.
In Other News...
Penn State Already Faces An Uncomfortable Question About Life After Franklin
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 🡒]
Penn State Has A Scheduling Problem Fans Cant Ignore
Penn State had plenty to feel good about when it took a 17-0 lead into halftime, but the second half against Wisconsin turned into a reminder that early control does not always mean a game is secure. The offense managed only a field goal after the break, while Wisconsin kept chipping away and eventually put up 24 points to flip the result. Matt Campbell acknowledged the missed opportunities afterward, and the loss fit a familiar pattern for a team that can look polished before the pressure really ramps up.
That is why the conversation around the Nittany Lions non-conference slate has become hard to ignore. An easier early schedule can help a team build confidence and stack wins, but it can also hide flaws that only show up once the calendar turns and the opponents get stronger. For Penn State, the concern is not just the loss itself, but whether the schedule has given a truer picture of what this team is before the tougher conference tests arrive. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State's Offense Hit A Troubling Low In Loss To Wisconsin
Penn States offense has had uneven stretches this season, but the loss to Wisconsin brought a new low in the grading as well as the scoreboard. Pro Football Focus gave the unit its worst mark of the year, while the defense, which held up far better, posted its second-highest grade of the season and had one of the days biggest bright spots in freshman Josiah Zayas.
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 🡒]