Opening statement …
I’m very proud of our team as far as how we were able to persevere, find ways to overcome some things that weren’t going as well, while some things were going very well. As a team you have to do that, it doesn’t matter how one side plays or the other, it’s how it all intertwines and stays together to get the ultimate goal you are trying to get to. There were some really, really good things in the game. First of all, the competitive nation of the team, learning to play no matter what the circumstances were, just keep overcoming what is in front of you and never give up until the final whistle goes off. I thought we did do that, I thought the game was a very physical football game, I thought they were very physical. At times I thought we needed to be more physical in certain areas and we’ll learn that, it’s part of growing. At the same time, I thought we were physical. We kept raising our standard of play. I thought the defense was outstanding in the game. We struggled on offense in the first half. On offense you usually average about 11 possessions a game, but in this one we got more our defense was getting three-and-outs. And all of a sudden, if every guys takes a turn, I’ve had guys grade 70- or 80-percent in a game but if you have one critical mistake on a drive and all of a sudden six drives are going. You have to make sure on offense you don’t have that, or you have to make sure you have the big plays to overcome that and we weren’t getting either one of those. Our defense was outstanding, in the second half they gave up 54 yards and two first downs. And they just kept raising the bar. And they kept being encouraging to the offense, saying just keep doing it, we’ll keep playing. The offense struggled, but then came out and had a ten-play drive, a 13-play drive and an 11-play drive. There are a lot of things we have to get fixed. We need to be more physical, technical in all areas and we have to coach better. At the end of the day, we talk about execution of our players, that’s coaching too. But to go have those three drives after you’ve struggled all day, there was an urgency there that you have to understand. I’ll take that urgency at the beginning of the game, get started a little faster. We put together a 13-play drive and go down and lose the ball on the 1-yard line. Instead of putting our head down, we came back and put together an 11-play, 77-yard drive and won the game. There is still a lot of perseverance in there. For the quarterback to be able to do that after having a tough day, struggling. We weren’t making contested throws, all of a sudden we did. We weren’t making contested catches, all of a sudden we did. We weren’t breaking tackles or making blocks, all of a sudden we did. We were finding ways to get it done. There is something to be said about that. Learning and keeping an understanding of how to win, and having an urgency to do that. On special teams, Nik [Constantinou] was outstanding. He averaged 49 yards per punt. The field position was outstanding. Unfortunately we missed one field goal, which I thought was in Seth [Small]’s range. We were very comfortable with him there, wish he had made it. But he hit the other field goal. I thought our kickoff coverage was great.
We have to get better as a football team. On offense we need to be more technical, more physical. We need to get back to running the football. And not have the one guy here, one guys there stuff. It is so close, but at the same time that can be so far away. That’s not coach talk. You look at the film and you can see it. But that is the difference of being able to do it each and every play, and not doing it every play. You put yourself behind the eight-ball, putting yourself behind the chains, which we didn’t do a good job of. We need to throw it better, protect it a little better sometimes, and just play better football. On defense I thought we were outstanding. We need to start that way and finish that way. We knew going into the year defense was the strength of our team. Getting guys back, getting guys healthy.
Haynes King had a crack in his lower leg that they fixed and operated on. It was clean as a whistle, it went really well. It was as good as it could humanly be. Timeline, I’m not a doctor and I’m not going to say one way or the other. When you heal, you heal. We would never play him in any way, shape or form before that. Also, I feel like we still have a great quarterback in Zach Calzada and we feel very comfortable with him doing things, especially watching the character he grew up with in that football game. To come back and make the play he had to make to keep us in the game and give us a chance to win it. I’m very proud of him and the guys around him. I also thought [Isaiah] Spiller was outstanding. I thought he blocked well, I thought he played well, he ran well. He made six catches in the game. Even before the third-down touchdown, the third-down that he caught was big. His leadership in the game, on the sideline. His leadership and his demeanor, how he’s affecting guys, was outstanding in the game. I was extremely proud of Isaiah Spiller and the way he played. Then he made the big play to win the game.
On the play of the defense …
I think in the second half they were dominant. We really cleaned something up from the first game. Our pass rush, we allowed some undisciplined yards. When we play with discipline and intensity and purpose, when we understand the urgency, I think we are a really, really good defensive football team. I think they realized the game has to turn up. I think this was a good wakeup call, even for them, why can’t pick and choose when they take a break, or don’t need to be that intense. I think they need to be I think it sets a tone for our team and our offense needs to be. Just like in the Bowl game, when our offense cranked it up and was dominant. We need to learn to start that way and be that way, and it starts by practicing that way. The defense can be a very, very good unit in my opinion, especially as we continue to get guys back.
On the team being able to find ways to win …
It’s all about the culture we are trying to build. My dad always told me that as a kid, “winners win”. Certain people have a knack to understand how to win and make plays. I would rather us not do that, but I give our kids credit in these situations for understanding how to go make plays when they have to make plays in the worst situations. Hopefully that is something we are establishing here. We haven’t won championships, we haven’t done anything yet, as far as what I’m concerned with and what we can do, what we are capable of and what I want to do. At the same time, learning how to persevere all the different kinds of situations we have here lately, it’s a great thing that they believe that no matter what they are going to come out on top. Hopefully the culture of what we are trying to do here is establishing that.
