Texas A&M Head Coach Mike Sherman
General Comments:
"(It was) Certainly a disappointing second half of football. I thought we came out in the first half and played a solid first half. We made some mistakes on defense that I thought we were able to shore up at halftime. But again, pretty much the same plate as last week. Too little too late, and we came up short."
"I do think that we're contributing to our demise in the second half. We definitely have to play better, coach better and be better in order to win football games. Certainly that is a struggle for us at this point. Each player in that locker room has to look at themselves, as well as the coaches and figure out what we could all have done a lot better."
"You look at the stats and you could justify different things. The bottom line is we didn't do enough in the second half to win the football game."
Why so many receivers were wide open:
"There are a number of reasons in the sense that we were bringing some pressure, and some of our pressure is designed to get there. If you're playing zone coverages and a two-safety coverage and you're zone-dogging and zone-blitzing, there's going to be some opportunities there if you don't get home. And we didn't get home on a couple of occasions."
"Obviously, we didn't play well on defense, not to the standard that we've come to think we should play by. I also think that we could have done a lot more on offense in the second half than we did and control that football game. We had moved the ball. We had 628 yards on offense, but at the same time there were opportunities for us to keep drives alive."
"On the defensive side we definitely have to shore up some things. We have to look at personnel really hard to make sure that we're playing with the right people. We have a bunch of youngsters that are waiting to play that I'm always pushing the envelope with our coaches. They like the experience, I like the talent. So we'll have some heart-to-hearts this week, particularly on Monday, about which direction we're going to go and make sure that what happened today doesn't happen again."
A&M's record against the SEC:
"This is one game. This team is unique to this season and should be evaluated, good or bad, based on what it does. What has happened in the past years has nothing to do with this football game. I have a hard time when people ask me questions to compare or answer questions about the past. This team, until today, has never lost to Arkansas because this team has never been assembled with this contingent of players...I don't put a whole lot of stock into all that stuff. At the same time, we're in the Big 12 right now and we need to win in the Big 12. We're focusing more on this season. We'll worry about next season, next season when we are in that conference and what we have to do."
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Quarterback Ryan Tannehill
On adjustments Arkansas made after half time:
"I can't put my finger on it. They played what they played in the first half. There wasn't a whole lot of changes. We just weren't converting third downs."
On leading in majority of stat categories, but still losing:
"The stats don't matter. The only thing that matters is the 'W' or the 'L,' and we didn't get it covered in the second half."
On Christine Michael's day:
"Christine had a great day. The O-line up front was moving people out of the way, and he was making things happen. He was running physical, creating yards after contact. He had a good day."
On when the game seemed to get away from Texas A&M:
"I never felt it was out of our hands. I was consistently getting our guys together and saying we are not letting this one go. We just weren't converting third downs and getting into fourth and short and having to punt the ball. We just have to get first downs and keep the ball moving."
On being in the same situation the second week in a row:
"It is emotionally tough. We came in at halftime and came back out with energy. We knew what we did last weekend and we didn't want to let that happen again. I don't feel like we came out flat. I thought the guys knew what we had to do. We just got outplayed the second half. We didn't execute on offense and that is what it comes down to. We were still moving the ball, but we weren't making first downs and were getting fourth and shorts."
On his personal performance:
"I feel like I've done my part, I feel like I'm getting better. There was a big penalty on me, and I'll take the blame for that. Overall I feel like I've had a great season. We have to keep improving and start winning ballgames so I could care less how I'm doing. We'll have to stay focused this week and we'll find out who the true leaders are on this team."
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Wide Receiver Jeff Fuller
Overall thoughts on the game:
"We came out in the first half with a lot of fire and came out in the second half talking about how we were going to come out with a lot of fire again and it just didn't happen. Out defense gave their full effort and did everything they could. We need to go back and watch the film to really know what happened. We have to hold our head high and work out the kinks."
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Running Back Cyrus Gray
On SEC distraction:
"I don't focus on that. We try and stay focused on our opponent that week to win. We have played a SEC opponent this week and they gave us a good match up. We just need to continue to work hard, get in the film room and prepare better for practice."
On successful running game:
"C. Mike started it off and that is one thing we can do. We can play good as a combination or one of us can start it off right. I think the offensive line played good, opened up lots of holes and me and C. Mike were just running, doing what we do best."
On collapsing for second week:
"It is something we practice and prepare for every day, second half, fourth quarter situations. We just need to capitalize and do better. It's hard to go out there the second week straight and lose but we just have to play better. We will be up in Lubbock next so we just have to come with it."
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Arkansas Head Coach Bobby Petrino
General comments:
"Wow, what a days' work. It took a full day's work to win that one. Very, very proud of our football team. We came in at halftime and talked a lot about competing, tackling better, running full speed to the ball. Offensively, we needed to believe that we could come back and win the game if we keep executing."
On, Second-half adjustments:
"Well, I think we played harder, played faster and tackled better. They made some really nice runs that made us look like we didn't tackle god. Basically I think we just came out and competed really hard."
What about the combo of Jarius Wright and Tyler Wilson?
"There's not a lot you can say. It's pretty awesome. Jarius was just out there competing; he was extremely fast in the game. I think our speed showed up on the offensive side at wide receiver. Tyler did a very good job of standing in there, competing and playing one play at a time."
What adjustments did the offensive line make?
"We communicated better up front, and we didn't call as many protections. We settled in on a couple of protections. We were going to call just a few protections and keep it simple for the offensive line and see if Tyler and the receivers could make a couple of plays."
Talk about the two fourth-down plays?
"We definitely felt like the fourth-and-2, they were going to run the ball on that. I thought we made a nice call and we did a really nice job with our surge up front at the pad level and hold them to a field goal. We didn't think the quarterback draw was coming. We thought they would throw the ball. But we just reacted well to it and tackled. That was a great tackle on that play to stop him and keep a big man like that from getting a first down."
What does a game like this do for you?
"It gets us a win. Gets us a win, and we get to enjoy it tomorrow and we can go back home and get back to work."
What about the fans?
"It was awesome, it really was. To have the fans stay there, a lot of them could have left at halftime. They all stayed and they gave us tremendous support and uplift, particularly when our defense was on the field. Our entire crowd was behind us."
Did you feel the momentum shift?
"I don't know about the momentum. I thought we just kept playing, played hard. If you play hard and work, good things will happen. We got turnovers, and I thought that helped to give us hope and the spirit to keep fighting. Our players did a nice job."