Nov. 4, 2011
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
George O'Leary's opening statement...
"It was a game of making plays and we obviously didn't make enough, especially in the end. When you get the ball inside the five yard line, you have to punch it in and we didn't. Then defensively, you have to stop them and we didn't do that either. Otherwise, I thought the effort was good but from a responsibility standpoint, we have to make more plays on defense and offense. Penalties got us in some trouble again. I told the players the effort was good but when you have the opportunities, you have to make plays and we didn't do that."
O'Leary on the last play on offense...
"He should've thrown the seven cut. I thought Jeff did a nice job today, throwing the ball. We gave up too many big run plays on defense and too many missed tackles, especially in crunch time. It was a tough loss. We had an opportunity in the end to put points up and we didn't get that done."
O'Leary on almost beating a team that only lost to top-10 teams thus far...
"It's still a loss. A loss is a loss. I don't look at it a different way than you look at it. We had the opportunity and if you don't take care of the opportunities it really doesn't make a difference. I don't look at that stuff. I look at basically if you win or lose and we lost tonight's game."
O'Leary on the exceptional play of J.J. Worton...
"He's getting better and better each week. I thought J.J. went up and made some nice catches. He's getting better and better and has great concentration on the ball. He's making plays and that's what receivers are supposed to do."
O'Leary on the rush defense...
"We didn't play very well, rush defense wise. There were too many runs that should've been stopped at the point of attack and I don't think the tackling was very crisp. As they ran the ball, it opened up the passing game and we didn't do a good job stopping them."
O'Leary on the improving special teams play...
"The return game has gotten better. The special teams have improved from a coverage standpoint and the return game. We limited them to what we needed to."
O'Leary on bouncing back from this loss...
"We have a game next Saturday against Southern Miss. The kids are very resilient, we'll come in tomorrow and show them the film, understand mistakes and everything after that will be Southern Miss."
O'Leary on the costly penalties...
"We had six penalties for 60 yards and they had none. Some of them occurred in crucial times, a holding call and pass interference. Those are things you have to overcome as an offense and those are things that get you beat, along with missed tackles and missed opportunities."