GAME NOTES: No. 19 Wisconsin falls to Washington State, 17-14

Notable Quotes

• Paul Chryst’s opening statement, in his postgame press conference

“Certainly, you give credit to Washington State. They beat us today and — you know, we didn’t — you got to play the game. And the objective is to score one or more points (than the other team). And we didn’t do that.

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.

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.

And I think you can just look at the — you know, not often you see in a game, two turnovers that are then turned back over.

They were opportunistic and I think they ended up scoring off of theirs. And we ended up getting one and we ended up turning the ball over.

And, again, I think that a lot of guys put —I’m not questioning effort and I’m not questioning anything. I felt like guys were playing hard, but we — you’ve got to make it to where you’re playing the opponent and not doing some things to hurt yourself. So, obviously, we’ve got to be better. And it can be better.”

• John Torchio on the defense’s overall play

“I think we need to tackle better as a defense, we have to be detailed in every aspect, yeah we gave up 17 points, we lost, so we have to go in tomorrow and watch it and off my head right now, defense we can be better, urgency we can be better — we had our chances.”

• Torchio on Max Lofy

“He’s just really consistent, really athletic, just in the right spots at the right time, he definitely earned his way onto the field and to see that happen tonight (his interception) was awesome, the football gods kind of gave it back to him after he blocked for me last week — he got one this week, I was happy to see that.”

• Torchio on the loss

“I come off as calm kind of all the time, trust me though, this stings, this sucks — this is a terrible feeling, so we obviously have to push forward and focus on our next opponent, but feel this for the rest of the season, you feel this hurt.”

• Nick Herbig on the loss

“Anytime you lose a football game, it sucks man, that’s all I care about is winning, I could care less about the stats or who does what, all I care about is that at the end of the day, the Badgers win — just walking out of that stadium, it’s heartbreaking for sure.”

• Graham Mertz on the loss

“Just a bunch of controllable stuff, that we will go back and see, that will definitely sting more tomorrow, but a lot of stuff to learn from, for a lot of groups today.”

• Mertz on what he says to the offense when things aren’t going well

“It’s never the same and I don’t think it should be, a lot of guys need a lot of different things, some guys need to be calmed down, some need to be fired up, but I really just try to remind them of their ‘why.’”

Game Notes

Team Stats

First Downs: Wisconsin 22, Washington States 10

Rushing Yards: Wisconsin 174, Washington State 53

Passing Yards: Wisconsin 227, Washington State 200

Total Yards: Wisconsin 401, Washington State 253

Time of Posession: Wisconsin 38:02, Washington State 21:58

Third Down Conversions: Wisconsin 8-for-15, Washington State 2-for-11

Fourth Down Conversions: Wisconsin 0-for-1, Washington State 1-for-2

Red-Zone Efficiency: Wisconsin 2-for-3, Washington State 2-for-2

Individual Stats

Passing Leaders: Mertz (UW) 18-31, 227 yards, 2 TD, 1 Int, Ward (WSU) 17-28, 200 yards, 1 TD. 2 Int

Rushing Leaders: Allen (UW) 21 carries, 98 yards, Mellusi (UW) 15 carries, 44 yards, Watson (WSU) 10 carries, 33 yards

Receiving Leaders: Lewis (UW) 2 receptions, 62 yards, Cundiff (UW) 4 receptions, 59 yards, Bell (WSU) 2 receptions 49 yards, Riviere (WSU) 2 receptions, 40 yards

Defensive Leaders: Torchio (UW) 8 tackles, Njongmeta (UW) 8 tackles, 1TFL, Latu (UW) 6 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack, Herbig (UW) 4 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1 sack, Henley (WSU) 9 tackles, 1.5 TFL, Maurigoa (WSU) 7 tackles, Jackson (WSU) 6 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 0.5 sack, Mejia (WSU) 5 tackles, 0.5 TFL, 0.5 sack

Interceptions: Lofa (UW), Shaw (UW), Mejia (WSU)