Northwestern University Athletics
Post-Game Quotes
10/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 7, 2006
Wisconsin Head Coach Bret Bielema Post-Game Quotes
Opening Comments: "The first half started off with a bang when P.J. (Hill) got an opportunity to make a big score and start our momentum swing. Then we were able to move the ball down the field again. Unfortunately we had a holding call that stalled us but were able to capitalize and get some points. And off of that, (Northwestern) had a huge kickoff return which kind of changed the momentum of the first half. It put our defense in more of a battle than they were on that opening drive.
"I made a couple of comments to our team at halftime. The 1-0 mentality not only gets us through week-to-week, but it can get us through this game. The way we performed in the first half was not an indication of what this football team can do. They came out in the second half with a little fire and spunk and were able to create some things."
On P.J. Hill: "P.J. has consistently, throughout the entire year, run the football very hard. I know it is important to him. I know he enjoys the football in his hands. He will be the first to tell you that he needs to keep drilling too. He had 200-whatever yards but when he looks at the film on Sunday he will see there were another 50 or 60 out there. But he is a freshman and he is going to get better every day."
On the Hill's first touchdown: "Because of his size, I think everyone thinks of him as a bruiser. He really is gifted athletically and does a good job of reading things, but also being able to react to what the defense gives him. He makes good decisions in the open field. You have a split second to make a decision that may result in a big hit or just another routine tackle."
On Paul Hubbard's fumbles: "On the first one, I was almost going to challenge. It looked like he definitely took two steps but I don't know if he really had the ball secured. I was hoping it would go upstairs and be reviewed but I didn't want to burn our (challenge) at that time. The one on the end, I think he was just trying to create some yards but it looked like he got knocked out and dropped the ball."
On Travis Beckum: "Travis has done a good job. He is a very entertaining player to be around. Last week he began to come into his own. There are certain things in our offense that he is able to do very, very well. My hat goes off to Paul (Chryst) and the offensive coaches. They really do a good job of creating things for him and putting him in position. Obviously the bootleg play was nice for him today, in addition to a couple check-down routes over the middle. Travis is a gamer. He is a guy that really enjoys playing the game."
On the defense: "Our defense controls the results and they played very well today. In the first half, they had a couple plays that got away from them. We were on our heels on the one series in particular. But I liked the way they responded in the second half."
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald Post-Game Quotes
Opening Comments: "From my vantage point on the sideline, we didn't win the six-inch war today. It is an 11-man battle and we weren't able to control the line of scrimmage. It's not just our offensive and defensive lines, it's also our linebackers, wide receivers and defensive backs. If you don't win that battle like we didn't today its going to be tough to get a win."
On how much it hurt not having Tyrell Sutton playing much: "Tyrell got hurt early so we were trying to be smart with him and the rest of the backs. We came out in the second half and we thought we had some run plays set up but they did a good job of overloading and slowing us down. We then did some running with the quarterback, and it seemed to work for a little while. After a couple nice plays and some good ball movement, we ended up allowing a long drive in which they scored, and then we couldn't really catch up."
On the amount of turnovers in the game: "The turnover battle is always key. Today we had more than Wisconsin, but we couldn't produce points off of them. Most of those turnovers were deep in our end of the field so we had long drives to put together. Credit Wisconsin's defense for stepping up and continually halting our chances. On the other hand, there were balls that we turned over that we shouldn't have, and Wisconsin capitalized on them. I was really proud of the way our guys kept fighting. Obviously it wasn't the outcome we wanted, but we were pretty banged up going in and I thought our guys battled pretty hard."
On the way your guys played overall today and what you saw as the biggest setback: "I think most importantly our guys are working really hard. They are out there trying to sustain what momentum we have. For example, in the first half we got some momentum after the score and we are feeling good, then we have an execution problem and shoot ourselves in the foot. On the other side of the ball, we didn't tackle well at all. If you don't tackle well, it's going to lead to a lot of long runs and big plays."
