Some losses hurt more than others in sports, and Penn State’s loss to Wisconsin on Saturday was quite painful. It squandered a 17-point lead thanks to some questionable coaching decisions and the offense going cold.
Head coach Matt Campbell was part of the decision to punt on a fourth-and-one in the fourth quarter and to run the ball on some third-and-long situations late in the game. Reporters asked him about both of these issues, but he doesn’t seem to regret his decisions very much.
When asked about the fourth-down call, Campbell told reporters, “I think coming out of the TV timeout, I was going to go for it honestly… I kind of saw what their alignment was, and I’m just like, ‘I don’t think we have the advantage here.’”
It makes sense that the
first-year Nittany Lions coach didn’t want to run a play if he thought the Badgers had the advantage, but calling a timeout to punt isn’t as justifiable. “I didn’t want to try to draw them offsides because I didn’t want a situation where we could go offsides,” said Campbell.
The team lined up to go for it at the end of the third quarter with a winding clock, but the time expired, giving them a few extra minutes to draw up the perfect play. Whether the defense gave the Penn State offense a bad look or not, they could have checked into a different play or just taken a five-yard penalty.
In the fourth quarter of a relatively close game, an extra timeout is almost always more valuable than a measly five yards. Campbell spoke about how well the defense was playing and how he didn’t want to mess around, but if that was the case, why not trust your offense to pick up the first down and trust the defense to make a stop if the fourth down wasn’t converted?
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only debatable offensive decision. The unit kept the ball on the ground for multiple third-and-long situations in the second half, and offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser was asked for his reasoning.
“I obviously want to throw and get the first down, and don’t love [running there}… Didn’t have a ton of rhythm going in the pass game up to that point either. So, it was take the less of two evils and play the field position game, as dumb as that sounds and as much as I hate to say it,” said Mouser.
Those don’t sound like the words of a man who is confident in his decision. Mouser clearly wanted to play those situations more aggressively, but for some reason he decided not to.
There are too many reasons to count for why Penn State lost that game to the Badgers, but those conservative calls are two major factors. Playing safe, while it typically prevents you from making backbreaking mistakes, also tends to give the other team much more time with the ball.
This is exactly what happened to the Nittany Lions in the second half and it cost them. Although it was a different coaching staff, the team has lost too many games in the past because it was coaching like it was scared to lose. Most of the top teams in the nation don’t operate that way, and Penn State can’t either if it ever wants to become one of those programs.
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This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Penn State coaches double down on questionable calls in Wisconsin loss
