Polzin: What I did and didn’t like about Wisconsin’s failed upset bid against No. 3 Penn State – Madison.com

Where have you heard it before?

The Badgers couldn’t close the deal in a 28-13 loss to No. 3 Penn State on Saturday night at Camp Randall Stadium.

3 things that stood out about Wisconsin football falling short against Penn State

It was Southern Cal again for Wisconsin, which had a 21-10 halftime lead a month ago but ended up on the wrong side of a 38-21 decision in that game in Los Angeles.

Here are some of my thoughts on this game:

Bradin Lock has thrown an interception in all five of his starts this season.

The one he threw Saturday night was the worst of the bunch because of when, where and how it happened.

The Badgers were in pretty good shape midway through the third quarter. They had a 10-7 lead and Penn State’s starting quarterback, Drew Allar, was sidelined with a leg injury.

Wisconsin was facing a third-and-14 deep in its own territory — clearly a less-than-ideal situation — but Locke just had to find a way out of the possession so the offense would get the ball to a defense that was playing really well at that point.

What happened instead? Locke followed up a bad decision with a bad throw. His pass got behind tight end Tucker Ashcraft and ended up going right to Nittany Lions linebacker Jalen Reed, who returned it 19 yards for a touchdown that gave Penn State the lead for good.

Wisconsin didn’t need a perfect performance from Lock, but it did need something better than what it had: He finished 22 of 42 for 217 yards, a terrible 91.0 grade.

• Locke wasn’t the only one to blame for the poor performance of Wisconsin’s passing game.

Wisconsin’s wide receivers threw five touchdown passes: Will Poling and Trech Kekahuna each had two in the first half and C.J. Williams had one in the fourth quarter.

Poll: How would you rate Wisconsin football’s performance against Penn State

There weren’t going to be many opportunities for big plays against this Penn State defense. Wisconsin had to capitalize on its chances, and too often the Badgers let them slip through their fingers.

Wisconsin’s defense did its part — well, at least for three quarters.

The Badgers forced punts on five consecutive possessions at one point. There was some flex at times, but no break, but Penn State was held to seven points through seven possessions.

3 key plays from Wisconsin football’s loss to No. 3 Penn State

Penn State finally got things going with back-to-back touchdown drives to put the game away, but I’ll cut the Wisconsin defense some slack: It must be hard to play your heart out and realize that perfect performance was necessary because the offense was so bad .

• Punter Atticus Bertrams became a regular in this section, but this time that punt didn’t earn him a spot.

It was a great heads-up play by Bertrams on the Badgers’ opening possession. Instead of a play that could have ended in disaster — a blocked shot by Jalen Kimber — Bertrams didn’t panic and instead ran after Kimber flew past him.

Bertrams ended up gaining 15 yards on fourth-and-9 to keep a drive alive that ended in a field goal.

For half the upset seemed possible, anyway. The crowd was certainly into it.

But in the end, it’s another big-game loss for the Badgers. This program still can’t seem to beat the top teams on its schedule, and it’s hard to imagine that changing until Wisconsin finds — or develops — a non-issue quarterback.

Wisconsin football fans are ready for changes on offense after a rotten performance against Penn State