EVANSTON, Ill. – Penn State fell to Northwestern 34-13 in their 2026 Big Ten road opener. The Wildcats dominated in the trenches and rushed for 420 yards tonight – the most given up by a Penn State defense since the 2022 Michigan game.
Here is everything head coach Matt Campbell said post game:
Q: Matt, did you consider putting in some other people?
Matt Campbell: We really didn’t. First of all, let me say this: I’m going to give Northwestern credit because they played the game in a solid way. They really beat us. It was really hard to find a rhythm on both sides of the football.
They controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides today. I think the frustrating thing for me is the standard of what this program plays football with the attitude, the effort, the toughness. We lacked it in every way, shape and form tonight, and I put a lot of that on me.
When you do that, we put a lot of pressure, especially on the offensive side of the football and the quarterback, where you were in a dropback passing game just to try to get back into it.
Rocco, we have great belief in, just like I have belief in all of our players. Really, I have great belief in our coaches because we’ve got to find answers and get it fixed fast.
Q: I wanted to ask you about the rush defense specifically. Was the effort not where it needed to be in that aspect of the game especially?
Campbell: I think we’re going to have to evaluate the video. Again, that’s a lot on me because somehow, some way, I didn’t get this team prepared to play the physical brand of football that we need to play. That’s something that, again, showed up on both sides, especially on the line of scrimmage.
I do think there were a lot of missed tackles on defense tonight. I think we had a lot of opportunities to make some plays in space. Again, we’ve got to find solutions, and it starts with me.
Q: You mentioned the standard you expect. Why weren’t you there tonight?
Campbell: Those are all things that I wish I had the magic answer to right now, to be honest with you.
Like I said, the reality of tonight is they controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. When you do that, it doesn’t matter what league or what game it is, you really put yourself at a great advantage to dictate the pace of the game. They did it from the start of the game to the close of the game.
Again, we’ve got to find great answers to get it fixed. It starts with the head football coach, and we’ll work really hard to have better answers than what I’m giving right now.
Q: It looked like your defensive coordinator was on the sideline there for the second half. When did that change? And with your defense overall, did you feel before the game that you would get this type of performance?
Campbell: Obviously, to the standard that that group has played in the first four football games, we didn’t.
But why did it happen? How do we continue to find the right solutions, whether that’s personnel or whether that’s scheme? We’ve got to continue to do a great job of it.
Coach Lynn came down in the second half just to try to figure out, man, where can we continue to add value and try to maybe get the right fixes as we continue to navigate what’s going on in the football game.
Q: Why has it been so hard to create explosive plays the last two weeks? You had a 22-yard gain last week and a 26-yard gain tonight, and that was on the first play of the game. I know Koby is out. Why has it been so hard?
Campbell: Again, I think you got yourself really, in both games, into a situation where you’re playing dropback football, right? You don’t want to drop back pass, to be honest with you.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.The lack of complementary football on offense, with not having a running game that’s consistent, you’re really putting the value and the opportunity for great explosive plays play-action passing and the running game, all those things they’re just not available.
So then what you’re going to do is dropback passing, and it’s a really hard way to live. We’ve got to find the right answers, but that’s why I would believe that’s going on right now.
Q: There were repeated times where Rocco, on third down, was throwing short of the sticks. It looked like he was missing guys high a little bit. Why do you feel like he’s still the best quarterback for you right now? Did you consider making a change?
Campbell: I think Rocco’s experience, number one. I think Rocco’s proven that you can work through a football game where it’s not perfect and have the ability to adjust within the football game.
To be honest with you, Rocco’s worked through hard before, and he’s proven he’s got the great ability to do it.
The fact of the matter is Rocco’s a winner. He’s won a lot of football games, and he’s had to work through really hard situations. We’re kind of in one of those right now.
His leadership and his ability to navigate the rough waters right now will be, I think, a testament to him as we get ourselves right.
Q: How challenging can it be when you’re talking about responding to adversity? In the past, you could look back and say, “Two years ago, we did this.” This is a group from all over. Do you feel like this team responded to the adversity from last week into this week? Are there challenges there?
Campbell: What I will say is I thought the character of our kids, in terms of how we handled last week, was really interesting from my end of it.
Again, that’s where I think it falls a little bit on my shoulders that balance. The mental approach of getting our guys back and the physical approach that it takes to be the team we need to be, to be consistent and play this brand of football that we want to play.
I think that starts with the head football coach.
Like I said a little bit before, we have the right human beings in that locker room, and we certainly have the right coaches in that room. The challenge for me is getting ourselves aligned back to who we want to be, where we need to be and, fundamentally, the team we need to be to be able to win football games.
Q: When it came to defending the run, was it more of a physical issue up front or was it a schematic issue that led to the way they were able to really hurt you?
Campbell: I think we’re going to have to look at that a little bit on the videotape.
I would say the physical piece of it is there were a lot of missed tackles tonight. How that happened and why that happened, we’ll have to evaluate, and I’ll have a better answer for you next week.
I think the thing from my end of it is that’s part of the trouble, which is we tackled really well in the first four games of the season. Our ability to get that fixed, first and foremost, and then we’ve got to figure out schematically where we were affected.
I thought they did some really good things in the first half to scheme us up and take advantage of us on the three-down front. I thought we made some good adjustments in the second half.
But the reality of it is I think it’s probably a little bit of a mixture of both when you have a night like this. We’re going to have to give the right answers and get the right fixes as we get ourselves moving forward.
