Mizzou/Nebraska Post-Game Quotes
10/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 9, 2009
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MU Players | NU Coach Bo Pelini | NU Players
Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel
Opening Statement:
“First of all Nebraska did a great job doing the things necessary to win. I think you start with that. They're a good football team. They deserved to win the way they played down in the end. I think when you look at a game like this, a really tough game, a defensive football game, really even into the fourth quarter, you're going to look at some plays. Obviously, there were a couple of turnovers in the fourth quarter. Those plays are critical. But I would suggest also that there were a lot of opportunities the first three quarters. If we had done a better job of executing there on both sides of the football, it might not have gotten like that in the fourth. This is a tough loss. We'll regroup. Part of this business is handling adversity and that's what we'll have to do.”
On Sophomore QB Blaine Gabbert:
“He struggled a little bit but he felt he could play. You have to evaluate interceptions too. He threw one ball late and I think another ball he had was a quick passing game. What happens in a quick passing game, we cut the defense or you have to make sure that the offensive lineman are physical enough that it causes the lineman to not be able to reach up like that… that's not his fault. That's the linemen's fault. In any football game you look at big plays, you've got turnovers, kicking game. All those things I always talk about are ultimately what happens. We had a chance to recover from it. We got that holding penalty, and were in the redzone there. It was critical, and we couldn't make a play to get ourselves in position to win the game.”
On Penalties:
“There were a zillion penalties. We were the least penalized team in the league coming in here. Like anything, you're going to have to overcome some good calls and bad calls, it's part of the deal. It wasn't the penalties that dictated the outcome of the game. They had a lot of tough penalties for them too, on both sides of the ball. That's discipline, and I'm responsible for discipline. Going into this game, I thought we were pretty disciplined. We were the least penalized team in the league. Obviously we didn't do a good job today.”
On turning the loss into a lesson for the team:
“I think you always do that. Obviously you deal with anxiety, frustration and disappointment. But you've got to learn from it and look at the leadership of your team and my leadership and the things that I'm supposed to do with our football team. You evaluate, you learn, and try to make corrections so that you don't do it again. It's all just a part of football.”
On Missouri's defensive performance:
“Going through three quarters against a really good offensive football team, they were playing absolutely outstanding. We had to play a little better redzone defense. You have to be able to handle that sudden change and that adversity a little bit better, and I think we are capable of handling it better. That puts a lot on the defense to do that. Overall we did a lot of things defensively and offensively I don't think we really ever got on track.”
On the weather's effect on the running game:
“Well, the passing game wasn't very good either. It's a little bit of both, and you've got to analyze all of that. In our offense though, you're going to throw the football. If you don't want to throw the football, you shouldn't be in the spread. You have to throw the ball well. They ran like this against Kansas State a couple of years ago. I'm not going to blame the weather for any of this. You can execute. If you're a defensive coach, you say it's a defensive day. The weather certainly isn't in your favor, but if you want to win a championship or compete for a championship you have to play in any condition. That is no excuse at all.”
Coach Pinkel | NU Coach Bo Pelini | NU Players
MU Player Quotes
Sophomore QB Blaine Gabbert
On the turn-around of the game:
“It was a momentum change, but on offense, it's our responsibility to get the ball back and score.”
On penalties:
“We need to focus on being more mentally stable. You can't have those penalties but in the end, we have to overcome those and score points.”
On how to bounce back:
“A loss is a loss we have to learn from it and take all the positives out of it and learn from the negatives.”
On the Nebraska front four:
“They're a good football team, we saw that tonight. Their front four are extremely talented players and they executed.”
Junior TB Derrick Washington
On the loss:
“It's real tough, we were winning the whole game and we really beat ourselves.”
On the running game:
“We've got to get the running game started to open things up for Blaine and the passing game. We've kind of got it going a little bit, but we didn't really establish it much, that's something we need to take care of.”
On the weather:
“I think it took a little away from our pass game cause we didn't really throw the ball like we wanted to, other than that it wasn't a big problem for us at all.”
Senior LB Sean Weatherspooon
On the game:
“We knew it was going to be a tough game. We weren't really thinking we were letting them hang around, so we were just thinking we've got to finish, but we didn't do the things we needed to do at the end of the game, to secure the win.”
On Nebraska's momentum:
“It wasn't one play, they got that big play on us on defense, I'm not sure what happened, the guy got behind us and scored a touchdown. Then they got a little momentum, then their defense went out and made another play, they came back and scored again and it went on from there.”
Junior CB Carl Gettis
On still winning the North:
“We still can accomplish that, we just have to win the rest of our games, we can't worry about what anybody else does and let the chips fall where they may.”
On Nebraska's momentum:
“It happened really fast, it happened in a matter of minutes. We were up 12-0 and it seemed like we had all the momentum. Then it seemed liked it just kept coming play after play, the next thing we know, we're down 13-12.”
Coach Pinkel | MU Players | NU Players
Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini
Opening Statement:
“Missouri is a great team. It gives it a little more importance, but it's just one of 12 wins for us, so I'm happy we won the football game. It was tough conditions on both teams and I'm just happy we came out with the win. Give Missouri a lot of credit, they played good football.”
On whether Thursday night's win over Missouri is the turning point for Nebraska's season:
“I don't get into all of that. This game, it's just like I said, it's just part of the process, part of where we are. We're not going to address or handle this win any different than we do any other week. It's on to the next game. We'll enjoy it tonight and then we'll get back to work, fix a lot of things that need to be fixed from that football game, get better as a football team because of what happened out there and then we got a tough test coming up in about a week-and-a-half.”
On the drastic turn-around in the fourth quarter:
“Well you know, we made some plays in the fourth quarter. We had the opportunities before that. We didn't make all those plays and you know, they made some plays early. Conditions like that, sometimes, you have to take advantage of your opportunities. We didn't take advantage of them in the first half, but we were able to get that done in the fourth quarter. I just think our football team showed a lot of character tonight.”
On considering the option to pull quarterback Zac Lee during the game:
“No, Zac Lee, you always consider putting people in. But it was a lot more than Zac in the first three quarters, a lot of them weren't performing well. We had some issues. We fought through it. That's what you've got to do. Like I said, we showed a lot of character in every aspect of our football team today.”
On Nebraska's defense:
“(Ndamukong) Suh played his you know what off. You can add the others guys up too… Barry Turner, Cameron Meredith, Pierre Allan, Jared Crick, Baker Steinkuhler. They played hard, they played well. And you can say that about everybody that lined up on defense today. We played some pretty good football against a pretty good football team.”
On what was said to turn the game around for Nebraska:
“We talked about it at halftime. We said before we walked out there on the field in the second half, we said, 'We will not walk out of here without a win.' And you know we just kept fighting. You can get down in situations like that, when things aren't going your way and it's pretty easy to feel sorry for yourself and let the game get away from you. We never let the game get away from us and we gave ourselves an opportunity to make a couple plays and we came out with a win.”
Coach Pinkel | MU Players | NU Coach Bo Pelini
Nebraska Player Quotes
Junior Punter Alex Henery
On getting the win:
“It just shows our character, how we could pull through at the end with the win and show what this team was really made of. Even though we weren't playing very well early on, it showed in the end. We came out with the win.”
On fourth quarter play:
“The team really came together on the sideline. Everyone was up and things went the right way. No one gave up on the sideline.”
Senior Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh
On the win:
“It feels great, it's a great start to Big 12 play. It's one of those that means a little more to us. We want to dominate the Big 12 North and start it off the right way. It was not exactly the way we wanted to win but I'll take it. Missouri played hard but I'm really happy with the way it ended.”
On his interception:
“Basically Coach gave us free rush. I stepped up to the line of scrimmage and read his eyes and he threw the ball to me. I just needed to make sure I got it to the ground and had ball security.”
Junior Cornerback Dejon Gomes
On amount of playing time:
“No I didn't really have any idea, I thought we'd rotate it a little bit. When I got in I just had to step up for the whole team.”
On his interception:
“I was watching my receiver. He broke out and I broke out with him, I was in perfect position to look back at the quarterback and the ball was right there. I thought I was going to run but they caught me somehow.”
On Nebraska's defense:
“We just stuck in there, offense and defense together. We knew we just had to keep playing our responsibilities and hopefully the tables would turn and that's what happened. Everybody played good.”
