One would think Penn State would have come into Saturday’s matchup with Northwestern with a sense of urgency.
Penn State Ran Over in Northwestern’s New Stadium Debut, Drops Big Ten Road Opener
It had just suffered an embarrassing loss to Wisconsin it which it had a 98.5 percent win probability per ESPN in the fourth quarter and couldn’t close it out.
The team knew things had to be better, and called a players-only meeting to try to fix it.
Rocco Becht: Penn State Held Players-Only Meeting After Wisconsin Loss
But for one reason or another, nothing got fixed in Evanston, Illinois. In fact, it got worse.
Penn State had every chance to beat Wisconsin and didn’t.
Against Northwestern, it never had a chance, and the 34-13 final score felt like it could have been worse.
After the game, QB Rocco Becht admitted what was apparent to anybody watching.
“I just felt like they came out with a sense of urgency today more than us,” he said. “That was a bad performance by us. That’s not Penn State football, and we got to be better. And I know that sounds reluctant and cliché and week to week, like we keep saying that. But like I mean, that’s the wisdom that we got to give ourselves. Like we’ve got to be better, and that’s not Penn State football. We’re, you know, the Penn State brand is tough, physical, and continuing to dominate the opponent, and that’s what we have to continue to do.”
Becht’s top receiver (sans Koby Howard) concurred.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“You know, that is a thing that is part of our identity and part of Penn State’s identity,” Chase Sowell said. “Yes. So I would like to be more physical from everybody. And I think that’s just the message to the team: we gotta be better (than) tonight, and that’s not the standard.”
Defensive tackle Siale Taupaki agreed.
“No,” he said. “Not our standard. We can definitely do better.”
It’s hard to see Penn State doing much worse.
Penn State was dominated on both lines of scrimmage.
Offensively, it rushed for 48 yards on 22 carries, good for a 2.2 yards per carry average.
Defensively, it gave up 413 yards.
Coach Matt Campbell blamed the man in the mirror.
“They controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides today,” he said. “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.”
