Penn State Lost to Wisconsin: How Bad Was it?

How bad was it?

Ahead 17-0 just 18 minutes into the game and lost bad. Ahead 20-10 until Wisconsin scored with just 211 seconds left in the game and lost bad.

Ahead 20-17 until there were only 75 seconds left when Wisconsin scored on a 72-yard touchdown from quarterback Colton Joseph to tight end Jacob Harris to lose 24-20 to the Badgers.

Bad: That’s the same Colton Joseph who threw three interceptions to Penn State and completed just 46% of his passes until that TD. The same Jacob Harris who weighs 265 pounds, but outran all of Penn State’s secondary.

Penn State was 3-0 and ranked No. 13 and Wisconsin was 2-1 and unranked and its coach Luke Fickell was on the hot seat after seasons of 7-6 and 5-7 and 4-8 bad.

Penn State is 3-7 in its last 10 Big Ten Conference under three head coaches bad.

Homecoming game loss bad, first Big Ten game of the year loss bad and Matt Campbell’s first Big Ten game loss bad.

The brand-new speakers in Beaver Stadium were on the fritz bad.

The picture was bad and blurry on Peacock bad. That the game was even on Peacock bad.

Poor game management and poor play-calling bad.

The honeymoon may be over bad.

Penn State offensive drives vs. Wisconsin (by yards)…last 4 were for 19 yards — total:
19
36(FG)
28
11(TD)
20
9
0(INT)
56(FG)
========
9
5
-1
6

— Mike Poorman (@PSUPoorman) September 27, 2026

HOW BAD WAS IT?

The Penn State offense couldn’t move the ball in the second half. At all. Bad. With mostly bad second-half drives of: 

1 play for zero yards (interception)
13 plays for 56 yards (field goal)
3 plays for 9 yards
3 plays for 6 yards
3 plays for minus 1 yard
3 plays for 6 yards
9 plays for 42 yards (to end the game without scoring)

An offense that missed and that couldn’t compensate for the loss of Koby Howard and his 28.7 yards per reception; that had only one wide receiver catch a pass (Chase Sowell, 6 for 70 yards); that gained just 3.6 yards per play; that held the ball for only 11 of the 30 minutes in the crucial second and fourth quarters; and that had Rocco Becht and Quinton Martin and Carson Hansen and Cam Wallace carry the ball 22 times for 52 yards. Bad x 5.

A quarterback who completed only 12 of 29 passes for 114 yards and one pick and to his credit took the blame bad. “At the end of the day, we didn’t do enough on offense,” Becht said. “The defense did an amazing job today with three turnovers. We just couldn’t do enough on offense and my part to move the ball downfield.”

Unable to complete passes down the field bad. Like 2025 bad.

Hey @PSU_Dylan how did this Tweet from 2025 only post now? https://t.co/9Ii0oTQ9d7

— Mike Poorman (@PSUPoorman) September 26, 2026

A defense that was spectacular through three quarters, then gave up 14 points and 208 yards in the final 15 minutes and just seemed gassed bad.

Unable to capitalize on Penn State performances like these bad:

• The running of James People’s (14 for 67).
• The interceptions by Josiah Zayas (for a 51-yard pick-six), Daryus Dixon (for a 24-yard return) and Tony Rojas (who gave the Lions possession on their own 44, after which they lost a yard in three downs).
• The tackling of Jeremiah Cooper (8), Kooper Ebel (8), Marcus Neal (6) and Rojas (6).

The crowd booed Penn State twice. Under a new coach. While they were winning. Bad.

The preseason murderer’s row of Marshall, Temple and Buffalo really didn’t seem to get the Nittany Lions and their dozens of non-B10 transfers ready for what a big-time night game against a physical, unrelenting Big Ten opponent is like bad. (Saturday’s scoreboard: Buffalo nudged Robert Morris, 31-28; Marshall nipped Garder-Webb, 36-35; and Temple lost 21-17 to Army).

This bad? Iowa 6, Penn State 4. Ohio State 27, Penn State fourth-and-5 26. Illinois 20, Penn State 18 (9OT).

Penn State head coach Matt Campbell greets every Penn State player outside the PSU locker room after the Nittany Lions’ 24-30 fourth-quarter collapse to Wisconsin at Beaver Stadium on Saturday night. WATCH: pic.twitter.com/wKxwW8xuEZ

— Mike Poorman (@PSUPoorman) September 27, 2026

HOW BAD WAS IT?

So bad it’s already gone bad — Penn State kicker Ryan Barker said post-game that the Nittany Lions “with the short turnaround, going into Northwestern next week [on Friday], we’ve already switched our focus onto that game and kind of already flushed this.”

Look who ended up handling adversity the best bad.

The coach who talks about facing down adversity was able to say this bad (that coach would be Fickell of Wisconsin): “This game is about winning, and we talked about that all year long, but to see how they handled adversity, to see what they did, to see how they kept fighting, see how they didn’t give in, there’s a conviction that we challenged them. I challenged them to show the conviction to fight, and we learned a lot about ourselves today.”

Penn State learned a lot about itself, too. Too bad.