Georgia State’s battle against Wisconsin on Saturday could be interpreted into something positive for Panthers’ program in it’s sixth season, but don’t tell Panthers’ coach Trent Miles that.
After earning a 17-13 lead over the then ninth team in the country in the fourth quarter, the Panthers fell to the Badgers 23-17.
“Everybody’s trying to build this into something, but at the end of the day, it’s a loss,” Miles said. “Obviously, we didn’t figure (how to win) out, because if we figured it out, we would’ve won the game.”
Although the Panthers haven’t won a game yet this season, wide receiver Robert Davis knows the Panthers preformed as well as they did against the Badgers because of the focus they brought to the field in Madison, Wis.
“We came in focused and told ourselves all we wanted was a chance to win in the fourth quarter and we gave ourselves that through executing plays and going out there and playing really hard and competing,” Davis said.
Davis played a integral part in the Panthers’ offensive power on Saturday when he caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Conner Manning to end the third quarter and narrow Wisconsin’s lead 13-10.
With the offense able to earn 17 points off the Badgers, Manning finally saw the offense working together.
“We lost, but it was good for us to get in a little bit of rhythm on offense,” Manning said. “We had a lot of drives and some we didn’t finish the drive on, but it was good to get the ball moving a little bit. We learned from it and it’s in the past and now are focused on Appalachian State.”
On the other side of the ball, defensive lineman Jalen Lawrence agrees with his coach that the Panthers must preform better than they did against Wisconsin.
While the Panthers defense forced two turnovers and limited the Badgers to 400 total yards after they racked up 586 total yards against Akron the week before, Lawrence thinks Saturday’s performance is not to be celebrated.
“I’m not going to say that we didn’t see improvement, but I feel like a lot more is expected out of us,” Lawrence said. “Definitely expect more of ourselves would be I feel like we can put together four quarters of the game and compete a whole 60 minute duration of it.”
After the Panthers open date on Saturday, they will travel to Boone, NC to play Appalachian State on Oct. 1.
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