University Park, Pa. – Penn State falls to Wisconsin 24-20 in Matt Campbell’s first conference game in the Big Ten.
Here is everything Campbell said postgame:
Q: The offense struggled to find a rhythm in the second half. What did you see?
Matt Campbell: Yeah, we really struggled to find a rhythm. I think in the first half, we were either backed up or dealing with different situations, and we never really got into a flow.
Then we came into the second half and were kind of in the same spot — just struggling. We had a lot of play opportunities, and there were just some basic things that we had the opportunity to make plays on and didn’t.
Obviously, it’s an area that we have to significantly improve if we want to be the team we want to be. We’ve got the players and the people to do it. We’re going to have to make the right improvements, but I felt like there were a lot of plays out there that we just didn’t make.
Q: On the other side of the ball, I think you gave up around 200 yards in the fourth quarter. Can you take us through what happened there, especially on the broken play that led to the touchdown?
Campbell: Yeah, I think we had a guy slip on the broken play. One slip, and again, a bad play in that situation.
It’s kind of the narrative of the second half, right? We had so many opportunities to put the game away, and we just didn’t take advantage of those opportunities.
Obviously, that play will stick out, but the reality of it is, defensively, I thought we played a tremendous football game. We gave ourselves every opportunity to win the football game. We just didn’t take advantage of those opportunities as a team.
Q: What went into the decision at the end of the first half not to push for points and try to get a drive going?
Campbell: I forget exactly what happened on the first play. I don’t know if it was a penalty or whatever it was.
My concern a little bit — and again, you can put some judgment on the head coach right there — was that in a third-and-one or fourth-and-one situation, should we have gone for it? Fortunately, we didn’t.
It felt like we were playing such good defense that I just didn’t want to put our team at risk. The other thing is they had two timeouts, and I didn’t want to give them the ball back there at the end of the half.
When it started negatively, I just felt like the biggest thing for us was, let’s get this thing into halftime. Let’s make the corrections, knowing that we had a significant lead, come out, play great defense, get the football back and try to take the game over.
Q: What did you think of the performance you got from Rocco Becht tonight, especially with the interception to start the second half?
Campbell: It’ll be interesting. I’ll probably be able to answer that question a little bit better after I watch the videotape.
I thought Rocco made some tremendous plays. I thought he kept us in the football game with some timely scrambles and some scrambles where he was able to make throws.
I felt like some of our issues were probably more with some protection things. Even that ball was tipped. It wasn’t a ball where it was a bad or poor decision. It was a tipped ball.
I really thought Rocco played a really good football game for the most part. Again, I’ll be able to answer that better after I watch the video tonight.
Q: Did not having Koby play any role in the offense’s inability to stay in rhythm?
Campbell: Obviously, the one thing Koby has done a great job of is making great plays. He’s had the ability to make some of those plays that were available to him.
I’d be a fool to sit up here and say we didn’t miss Koby, but I would also say I have great belief in the rest of our guys. The rest of our guys had some opportunities, and they have to continue to pound away at it.
Koby is a guy that we all have great faith in, and certainly he’s a really good football player.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Q: Your staff and players expressed a lot of confidence in the receiver group beyond Koby. Chase was the only receiver with a reception today. What was the breakdown, and were you surprised by that statistic?
Campbell: I would say I’m a little bit surprised that that is the statistic in the game.
Again, I think there was just a weird flow to the game, especially in the first half, where you’re kind of playing situational football.
I think it’ll be really interesting to see what happened in the second half, and I’ll have a better answer for you guys on Tuesday.
Obviously, we’re going to have to have more production from the receivers and more production from the other players on the offensive side of the football. That won’t cut it, what it looked like tonight, for sure.
Q: Not getting into the end zone early and having to settle for a field goal — what impact did that have? And up 17-0, with how well your defense had played, did Wisconsin scoring before halftime change the momentum?
Campbell: I’d say the first three games, we did a great job in the “middle eight.” Today, we lose the middle eight, 6-0, right?
They had the opportunity to put points on the board right before the half, and then they had the opportunity coming out of halftime.
From our end, that was a great opportunity when we were up 17. You really want to give yourself a great moment of order there. We didn’t have an opportunity to score points, and obviously we didn’t score the rest of the game.
That first possession was a little bit goofy down there, too. I think the penalty got things a little bit off in terms of what we saw. It was a different defense than maybe what we had prepared for.
I thought we did a great job after that first possession. We got down there, made the right adjustments, and I thought we had the right play calls in terms of what we wanted to do.
But I think that’s going to happen early in a football game. You’ve got to make adjustments based on what those guys do, and I thought our staff did a really good job of that the next two times we got down there.
Q: What were your thoughts on the running game? It looked like James Peoples was probably your most productive back today. What did you think of the rotation, and did you expect to get more out of the running game?
Campbell: Yeah, I think so.
First of all, I thought James ran the ball really well today. I thought he made some really key plays in some key situations.
The running game — again, offensively, it was choppy. I wish I could tell you it was better. You guys have seen us play, and that’s not the rhythm that we want to play with. We’re going to have to be better.
But it was choppy all around, from running backs to receivers to the O-line. There’s got to be significant improvement for us to be the team that we need to be.
Q: All losses are difficult, but given the way you lost this one in the Big Ten opener, and with a short week before going on the road, what did you tell the players? What did some of the leaders say in the locker room about handling this and moving forward?
Campbell: I know I’ve said this multiple times: adversity is what college football is about. The ability to overcome adversity and the ability to unify and rally forward — this will be a great test for us.
We’ll find out a lot more about ourselves here in the next six days, from our coaching staff to our players.
The reality of it is, these are all correctable things. We have to be humble enough to be able to make those corrections.
It’ll be a great challenge for us. It’s not going to be easy, but we look forward to the challenge and we’re going to push forward.
