Pat Fitzgerald reacts to 'one hell of a B1G football game' in rain-soaked loss to Penn State

Northwestern didn’t get the win in Week 5 at No. 11 Penn State, but head coach Pat Fitzgerald is happy with his team’s effort playing B1G football in a rain-soaked game.

Fitz said he's proud of the way his guys battled, and it was "one hell of a Big Ten football game."

Says his team is going to keep grinding and they have a lot of fight, but ultimately they need to find a way to win and that's his responsibility ultimately.

— Inside NU (@insidenu) October 1, 2022

Fitz said it was "a valiant performance by our defense tonight," and it's tough in the rainy weather. Says for the most part he thought the defense held the line of scrimmage well and the team was ultimately just a couple plays away from a win.

— Inside NU (@insidenu) October 1, 2022

Fitz: "Our offensive guys ran into a really good defense tonight. We made some adjustments at halftime and teh guys took to those, we moved the ball relatively well in the second half. We just came up a play or two short."

— Inside NU (@insidenu) October 1, 2022

Northwestern battled through a tough, disciplined and ranked Penn State squad while dealing with weather conditions that made it difficult to create consistent offensive drives.

On the offensive side of the ball, Northwestern accumulated 241 total yards as the Wildcats ran into a tough Penn State defense. The Wildcats could only rush for 31 yards on 28 carries for an average of 1.1 yards per rush.

The defense of Northwestern used the weather to create a bad passing performance from Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford. Penn State turned the ball over 5 times despite winning the game.

Northwestern is now 1-4 after suffering its fourth consecutive loss. It was the program’s first B1G game since Week 0 in a 31-28 win over Nebraska in Ireland.