Penn State has put up some eye-popping numbers this season, but Saturday was a completely different story. Wisconsin completely shut down the offense, only allowing one touchdown that happened to come on a shortened field.
For this reason, there aren’t many positive stats for the Nittany Lions, but it wasn’t all bad. There are positive and negative takeaways from each game, so there are still some things for Penn State to build on. Here are the key stats, both good and bad, that had the biggest impact on the Week 4 game.
26% third-down conversion rate
Penn State has had an elite defense so far this year, and the unit’s success on third down is a big reason why. Teams were converting third downs at just a 15% rate against the Blue and White heading into Week 4, and Wisconsin
didn’t fare much better.
The Nittany Lions allowed just a 26% third-down conversion rate and made it impossible for the Badgers offense to consistently move the chains — until the end of the game that is. It will be tough for opponents to score on Penn State if they continue getting stops on critical downs. It doesn’t matter how talented an opposing offense is if they can’t stay on the field to utilize it.
3 takeaways
D’Anton Lynn was already commanding one of the best defenses in the league, but now they are starting to take the ball away. They had five takeaways in the first three games, and now they add three more to the season total.
There is still going to be an adjustment period for Penn State against Big Ten teams, but they’ll be incredibly successful if they can keep forcing turnovers. They haven’t even scratched the surface of what their turnover margin could be at the end of the season.
41% completion percentage
Quarterback Rocco Becht was one of the players Penn State needed to be able to lean on in their Big Ten opener. He is one of the most experienced players in college football, but he didn’t look like it against the Badgers.
He was consistently overthrowing receivers and throwing behind them, making it difficult for the passing game to find a rhythm. This is the first time we’ve seen him struggle whatsoever, but it came at the absolute worst time.
Becht didn’t seem like a player that would flinch at pressure before, so hopefully this was just an uncharacteristic bad game. The Nittany Lions will certainly need him to return to his early-season form if they want to reach their potential.
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This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Key stats that lead to Penn State’s collapse against Wisconsin
