Wisconsin lost to No. 1 Oregon 16-13 on Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium.

Luke Fickell recapped the loss for the Badgers (5-5, 3-4 Big Ten), who visit Nebraska next week.

Below is a transcript of Fickell’s postgame press conference

No. 1 Oregon (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten) vs. Washington (6-5, 4-4)

• When: Saturday, Nov. 30
• Time: TBA
• Where: Autzen Stadium, Eugene
• TV channel: TBA
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LUKE FICKELL

“Well that’s crushing. To not be able to find a way again to come out on top is difficult. Those guys in that locker room, obviously, they fought their butts off. They did everything we asked them to do. They played the way we wanted them to play and we expected them to play. We just right now haven’t found a way to be able to finish. the games that have come down tot he fourth quarter, the games that have come down to the most critical times, teh deep, deep waters, we still have yet to get over the hump and find a way to pull it out and to continue to do what we need to do. It’s tough. It’s emotional shot that we’ve got to be able to get over and we’ve got to be able to get over fast because we’ve got two weeks of the season left and there’s two really big weeks to the season. We knew this was going to be like an NFL schedule that we’re going to be shot after shot after shot. What that means is you got to have the maturity, you got to have the discipline, you got to have the depth as well to be able to take some of these shots and keep moving forward. we’re going to be challenged big time now for where we are emotionally and physically. But that’s how we find out what this program is all made of and where we’re headed. That doesn’t always sound well to the seniors but we got to finish this thing for them and we got to find a way to be able to do that. That’s what we got to hang out hat on.”

On limiting Oregon’s offense:

“We did a really good job. They did a great job of tackling. They did a great job at eliminating the big plays. Give the guys credit, I think we mixed it up enough on Dillon Gabriel that he wasn’t ever really comfortable. I thought that was one of the better games where we created some edge pressure. Not a whole lot of sacks but Dillon Gabriel’s not going to be sacked a whole bunch. But I thought the guys on the edge did a really good job at creating pressure and keeping Dillon Gabriel off balance a bit.”

On if the team doesn’t believe it can finish:

“No. It comes down to making some plays. There was not a doubt in the eyes in that locker room. I do mean that. Sometimes you say those things, but there wasn’t a doubt. You get the last stop again on a fake field goal and I still — there was not a doubt that I could see in the eyes of anybody. That makes me feel good. It doesn’t make me feel good that we weren’t able to put ourself in a position to try and finish it or to finish it. But I do believe that where it’s not always seen, and it’s not always felt, there’s something that’s building and there’s something that’s coming it’s just unfortunately hasn’t been able to rear its head in games like this. I’d put that on me.”

On how to get better quarterback play:

“You just said, it’s more consistent. It’s easy to look at the quarterback play and obviously that’s the more scrutinized position on any team but it still comes down to when we’re best when we’re able to establish some ground game, when we’re able to control the line of scrimmage, when we’re able to get first downs and stay out of the third and long situations. We did that on the drives that ended up in points, to be honest with you. I know that’s easy to say — well yeah, you got to get first downs in order to score points. Even the rhythm of things is so much different when we have the ability to move the football. That gives us the chance when we do that to be able to take some of those shots that maybe can loosen people up. There’s a lot of things that you can point a finger at. Obviously it’s easiest to talk about the quarterback position but I think as a whole there’s so many of those things that we got to get better at in order ot put ourself in a position where it’s not all on the shoulders of the quarterback.

On sticking with the run game:

“We did. We knew we had to try to do that. We knew we had to try to control the football a bit. We had challenged ourselves to be able to pound it a little bit more and obviously the first three drives were not that good but sometimes those are the things you have to do maybe to be able to take a toll and make some adjustments. I thought we did a pretty decent job of that. It’s just the consistency is not quite there. I think that’s where we’ve got to really find a way to be able to be more consistent in those things — from the get go. We didn’t start off as well as we’d like to, even we got the ball first. But our defense gave us the opportunity, we were playing well in the first half to be able to not put a bunch of points on the board and then let us get into a groove and a rhythm. That’s what that complementary football looks like. It’s just not enough.”

On when if feels like the defense did enough to win:

“Nobody feels like they did enough. Your job as a defense is top outplay the other team’s defense. It’s pretty simple. You can feel good about OK, our plan is what we wanted it to be and out plan was working. But when it comes down to it, we got to outplay the other team’s defense, whatever that means. That’s the way we got to look at it. That’s the way we got to be able to act and that’s the way we got to be able to continue to hold this thing and push each other forward. That’s probably the greatest message in that locker room, is hey whatever we do we to together. We got to believe that. Everybody talks about believing, do they not believe when it comes down to the end? No, I don’t think that was the case. The ability to keep believing in one another is what can be most difficult as you go through these rocky times and you go through these roller coaster rides. But that’s where we got to rely upon the older guys, the senior guys, that they can all do that.”

On settling for field goals:

“They’re tough. Initially, yeah, I think we took the field goal early just because I thought that was what we needed to be able to do. But as we got in the rhythm of the game we knew that we had to score touchdowns. You look at some of those analytics and things, there was a lot of those situations if they hadn’t been fourth and sevens or eights, we were going to go for them. Whether they would have been fourth and five, just because I didn’t feel like field goals were going to win this football game, especially on our end. Unfortunately we got a penalty or took a sack or whatever the situation we end up in a position where we can’t even be in the fourth and four, five or six range where we can go for it. So we had to take those field goals. But we darn well that you’re not going to knock off the No. 1 team in the country kicking field goals.”

— James Crepea covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten. Listen to the Ducks Confidential podcast or subscribe to the Ducks Roundup newsletter.