After a dumbfounding 24-20 loss to Wisconsin, almost everyone outside the Lasch Football Building seems to have hit the panic button on Penn State football.

While the offense was inexplicably ineffective, the defense generated three turnovers, held Wisconsin to 147 total yards through three quarters, and showed enough assignment-sound execution to build confidence going forward.

“It’s clearly working on defense,” defensive lineman Ike Ezeogu said during post-practice media availability Wednesday. “We’ve just got to continue getting right and doing our part.”

Folks have blamed the defense for the loss after Jacob Harris’ 72-yard touchdown with just over a minute left. However, Harris only ran free because of a missed offensive pass interference foul on Marcus Neal Jr.

The more-than-questionable no-call, combined with being on the field for more than nine minutes of the fourth quarter, is something no defense could have overcome.

There’s nothing the Nittany Lions can do about it now, though, which is why the unit knows how crucial it is to learn from those mistakes that served as metaphorical tiny cracks in a dam that would eventually burst open in the form of losing to unranked Wisconsin at home in Week 4.

As frustrating as it was to see a strong defensive performance spoiled by offensive incompetence, nobody is pointing fingers in the locker room, with defenders taking just as much accountability for Saturday’s setback.

“You can’t make mistakes in those critical times, but I think we’ve learned from it, and it was nothing to dwell on, honestly,” linebacker Alex Tatsch said Wednesday. “We know what happened, and we know the details we got to fix and correct.”

Tatsch described defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn as “level-headed” and “calm and collected” after experiencing his first loss as the blue and white’s defensive coordinator.

Emotional stability is essential for a play caller, but another source of confidence Lynn’s players draw from is his matchup-oriented attack style, which enables them to capitalize on individual strengths.

Sometimes that comes with straying from the norm, like when Lynn placed 6-foot-5, 317-pound defensive tackle Keanu Williams at defensive end against the Badgers.

“It’s been a minute since I’ve been out there,” Williams said Tuesday while chuckling. “But I’m not going to lie, it fit me well. I’m glad I kind of did what I needed to do in the sense of the run game, which was the main point of emphasis we wanted to stop.”

Another example is Lynn’s NASCAR package, which uses four edge rushers along the line of scrimmage to pressure the quarterback as quickly as possible.

“There’s a lot of guys who can rush inside and out, and with the matchups that we get, it’s been looking pretty good,” Ezeogu said. “I believe in every defensive lineman that we can win our one-on-ones, no matter who it is.”

Penn State’s defense hasn’t racked up many sacks through its first four games. The Nittany Lions have six sacks from five different players, yet only two are actual defensive linemen.

Yvan Kemajou and Caleb Bacon each have one sack from the front four, with the rest coming from linebackers Kooper Ebel, Alex Tatsch, and Tony Rojas, who has two.

Still, there hasn’t been concern about the unit’s ability to rush the passer, because there’s more nuance than a single stat.

Penn State pressured Wisconsin’s ultra-mobile quarterback Colton Joseph seven times in the loss.

“We’re still affecting them. We’re still getting them out of the pocket, but we just got to finish them. That’s the main goal,” Ezeogu said.

Williams said he’ll never be satisfied with the pass-rushing numbers, but understands there is more than one way to affect a quarterback.

“We need to play [better] team defense and keep improving week by week so we can get those numbers up and affect them in our way,” he said.