generic What Paul Chryst said after the Badgers’ stunning loss to Washington State
Despite being massive favorites and having quarterback Graham Mertz play one of the better games of his collegiate career, Wisconsin fell short on Saturday in an upset loss to Washington State.
The Cougars came away with a 17-14 win on the heels of pushing the Badger offensive line around, making timely defensive stops, and winning the special teams battle.
The Badgers fell to 1-1 on the young season and will have a chance to get back into the win column next Saturday when they host New Mexico State. What did Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst have to say after his team was upset by the Cougars? Here is a look at moments from his postgame press conference:
On reasons for the loss:
“We didn’t score enough to give ourselves a real good chance. And I think that, you know, if you look at it and there’s — you know, a game like this, everyone’s got to — everyone owns it. Starting with myself and each and every person in that locker room.
And there can be — you know, an early season game like this, it can be an opportunity to reinforce and to drive and whatever that may be. Because, you know, we did some things today that make it hard to win. And, you know, I think we had — I think we were in double digits in penalties. Certainly had a couple turnovers.”
On his decision to go for it on fourth down:
“I’m kicking myself for going for it on fourth-and-three. We got a third-and-one and we get stopped right there. And, you know, I’d like to have that one back. Kind of set them up with a shorter field.”
Why did Chryst go for it near midfield instead of punting?
“I do have confidence in our defense. You know, and I thought that, you’re in a position where if you feel good, too, and you want — offensively, you know, you just got to deliver. And I know a lot of it is result driven, right?
You go and — but, you know, I think that was the thought. I still do feel confident with our defense, certainly. And you want to put it on the offense. You know, this is — you got to go do something, too.”
On Wisconsin's defense forcing turnovers but not finishing drives:
“Yeah, I mean, we had one early right. I think it was their first drive. And, you know, they came up and it was a big play. And I thought there was moments in the game where I thought each side fed off each other well. Certainly the end of the first half. I feel like each one was setting the other side up. And that’s how you want to play the game.
And then, you know, I think you go and you take a look at the way the first — the second half starts and, you know, give up a big return. And then, I thought our defense did bow up there. You know, and they got a field goal attempt and it was a short, short field.
And then, you know, offensively we come out and we get the 15-yard penalty. And, it was just — didn’t help ourselves.”
On Vito Calvaruso missing two kicks:
“Yeah, I don’t. You know, certainly those — games like this, those are all big, right? And I don’t know what happened on the second one. Because that didn’t have a chance. You know, the first one, certainly didn’t push the side. So I don’t know specifically on that one.
You know, he’s been good in practice and, you know, what we’ve had. But certainly would like to be better. We need to be. That can be the difference.”
On why the Badgers weren't able to run the ball consistently:
“You’re going to give them credit, right? I mean, they’ve got a piece of it.
And I think that you had moments where you got one third-and-short and we’re — you know, we don’t get our puller around. And that’s — it’s not just on the puller. It’s are we getting movement at the line to allow the puller to go through?
How are we on the backside? We didn’t get some things started earlier. And we’re getting chased down the back. We’ve got to be better at the point of attack. I saw that on a couple runs.
And then you got to create some rhythm. I thought a little inconsistency even on third down, when you can’t start to get in flow and get going. And when you do that, you’re going to start running the ball well. And I just think we were all over the place in that way.”
On playing against an offense that tries to spread out the defense:
“Yeah, I mean, it does — each offense is going to test you a little bit differently. And certainly this is one of those. And the week we had to where the eye discipline and the communication was going to be important.
And, yeah, I still feel after the game, you know, that the guys had a — they understood what they were doing. You know, I mean, they had — they weren’t put in an unfavorable position that way.
And certainly there’s times, you know, when you’re in space, and I think everyone in here knows that when it’s — when you face a team that spreads it out, you’re going to have more single tackles.
And that’s where you got to try to, you know, one, make those tackles. Two, slow down. And you guys got to react back to it.
But you do have to play with really, really good discipline until kind of the play dictates it. The ball is dictated where it’s going. But I thought that — I don’t know right now that you say — we had some — because the young guys — or bust because not doing what we should be doing. That didn’t seem to be the case as much to me.”
Did Mertz give his receivers a chance? How did Chryst assess his QB's play:
“Yeah, I thought he did. And I thought that — a couple times, I thought he pushed it down there when I thought there was something else, maybe a little bit higher percentage.
So I am anxious to watch that and see if I was seeing that correctly. You know, and I thought there’s certain times where we knew they were bringing the pressure. And I thought a couple times we handled it.
I thought line did a good job. Line, backs, and tight ends did a good job of giving him time to — maybe it was the stretch.
We really can’t lose — this was the first one that we had — end of the first half, you know, we had — I think we were zero for four. And I kind of — I see it, but you got to deliver.
But I thought there were some other throws there, too. And I thought that he was seeing things clean. I thought that that part was pretty good on his head.”
On Washington State QB Cam Ward's play:
“Yeah, he did. He did a nice job of kind of — he’d step up and then he’d work back out. You can tell it’s a guy that’s played a lot of football. You know, and he kind of understood the situations, even — you know, he’d get out and tried to extend it as much as he could.
And he wasn’t afraid to throw it out of bounds. And I thought that — like you said, there was times where — kind of where it’s RPO (Run Pass Option) or kind of the quick screen game that they did a good job with that.
And I thought there’s times where, you know, we defended it well. But he’s — I think he is a good quarterback. We thought that going in and still think that today.”
