Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern vs Michigan -- Football Postgame Quotes
9/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 29, 2007
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Michigan 28, Northwestern 16
Sept. 29, 2007
Evanston, Ill., Ryan Field
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening statement...
"I'm proud of the way our men fought and came out and played. We stressed some things and I saw it today and I'm proud of our young men. Now we need to go out and finish the game to win and I believe we'll do that. There's a locker room of men that are very hungry to do that and I believe we'll get right back to work. Going down the stretch when you turn the ball over, you need to hold them to three and out and we had our opportunities and fell short. I'm proud of our young men and our staff for getting things going in the right direction and we'll get ready for Michigan State."
On John Gill... "When John plays the way he did today, he's one of the best in the Big Ten. All John did was trust himself. He's been getting better each week. He used great technique, protected his legs well when they chopped him in their zone scheme, got off the ball extremely well and I thought he played an outstanding football game."
On the defensive effort... "I thought we had a very good plan going into the game and that our guys executed well and gave us an opportunity to win. As I look at third downs they were 7-of-17 and 1-for-2 on down, so we did a better job of getting off the field. We need to do a better job of getting turnovers. The lack of turnovers is hurting our defense from a big play and momentum standpoint and we'll continue to stress that in practice and continue to work at it. I've been saying it all year, but those come in bunches, but we ended up on the short end today."
On pressuring the Michigan quarterbacks... "We pressured. Maybe some of the passes he completed we didn't, but we pressured maybe as much as we did the whole year. I thought we had good heat especially in the first half. Throws that go for six yards don't beat you, throws over your head do and you can't defend those well. I thought we had a good plan and executed well, but I'd like to see us rally to the football a little bit better and suffocate the run better and make sure we do get the ball down when they do get it and move on. As long as you don't give up the home run and play aggressive out there and tackle well, six-yard out routes don't beat you."
On the fourth quarter... "I would say that from watching us today, we need to do better in the fourth quarter and to improve. We need to put an emphasis on that in practice. Typically we've been pretty solid in the fourth quarter. I give Michigan credit, they went out there and made plays to create those turnovers and my hat's off to them."
Dylan Thiry
On the play of the offensive line...
"I thought we came out well. We wanted to establish the run early. Coach gave us some shots, we made some blocks and Omar Conteh made some cuts, so we got some yards early. I thought we ran the ball pretty well as an offensive line."
On facing Michigan pressure... "We knew they were going to use pressure later in the game. Early they stayed to their base defense that we picked up well. The first fumble, outside pressure hit C.J. Bachèr so I think we need to change our protection toward the end of the games. When it got to crunch time, they brought guys and I don't think we were able to pick it up the way we wanted to do."
On Omar Conteh... "I think he did what he needed to do. We needed a back to step up and be the back we could go to. He made a cut and got to the end zone when we needed a big play and he got to the end zone. He was grinding out yards, so it is a coming out party for him. We knew in practice he was going to get the ball and I think he did what he needed to, to get his name on the map."
Omar Conteh
On his play today...
"I talked to my lineman to see where the holes were and they told me where to go and did an excellent job blocking, so I just hit the holes and ran."
On his touchdown run...
"It was supposed to be a play up the middle, but I made a cut to the outside and it was there, so I just kept running. I didn't see who made the block, I just kept running."
On the turnovers...br> "It was frustrating, but we just need to keep our composure."
On his confidence...
"I'm still very confident right now in myself and in the team."
John Gill
On why he was able to be successful today...
"The coaches put us in a great position and had a great game plan. I just tried to play as hard as I could and play as fast as I could. I thought I had a pretty good game."
On Mike Hart...
"We needed to tackle and wrap up and keep our feet driving. I thought we did that for the most part, but there were some plays where he got out, but we just needed to contain him and force him to cut back then tackle well."
On the difference between Chad Henne and Ryan Mallett...
"They're both good passers. Mallett likes to run more and he's really big. They're pretty similar pocket passers that like to pass before they run."
Michigan Head Coach Lloyd Carr
Opening statement
"I thought it was really a physical, typical Big Ten football game. That was not the Northwestern that I watched last Saturday. I think they can be extremely proud of the way they came off a tough week and bounced back. I think they played really well and really hard. Obviously, at the end, the difference was the turnovers. For us, to go on the road for the first time, we didn't play very well in the first half with the exception of the first drive. Looking back on it, it was a big drive in that game. But we allowed them to convert three points out of a four-yard gain. We didn't get the ball-carrier, the receiver, on our sideline on the ground and they had a big play inside the redzone, got a field goal. Then the touchdown, we had a couple of young guys in there and we didn't get our defensive call. We didn't make it quick enough so we weren't lined up and we didn't have anybody there. So the ball broke and now you're giving 10 points. I think that motivated Northwestern. We struggled offensively in the half. We had a couple of opportunities to put more points on the board. In the end, in the fourth quarter, our defense was just outstanding. Normally in that type of game, particularlyly today because it was warm, your defense doesn't get the pressure late in the game but today we did. They made some awfully big plays. We need to try to get healthy. Northwestern is much like us. There are a lot of kids that are banged up on both teams. Both of us need to try to get them healthy."
On the plan for Chad Henne's return from injury...
"The original plan was just what we did. Start him in the game and then we had the idea that we would start him in the second half and based on how he felt in the first drive, we would be ready to go to the next drive. He's cleared and there's no danger from the standpoint of the injury. We did not feel that it was in his best interest to play the whole game. So our idea was we'd start him in the opening drive, get him back into the flow of the game, and then start him in the second half and see how things went."
On Chad Henne's play during the game...
"I thought he was outstanding. I thought during the course of this week, he looked good. I think we did a good job of keeping people off of him. He stepped in there a few times and made some good plays. I thought he was just outstanding. I thought he was a big part of being able to come back."
On the team's mindset entering the second half...
"I think at halftime, it was very clear that we had to go play our best football. There were 30 minutes left. We were down 16-7. We were down two scores. It was going to require a team that didn't turn the ball over. We talked about needing to force some turnovers and penalties. On one drive there at the start of the second half, we had a penalty that slowed us up a little bit but I think we understood the gravity of the situation. The further that game went without us closing the score margin, then the tougher it would be to win."
Shawn Crable
About the turning point in the game...
"When our offense scored, it kind of changed the game because we got in a situation where we were up, finally. We got in a situation where they couldn't just run the ball and get picky and try to drive themselves down the field and run out the time. They got in a situation where they had to pass and they really couldn't rely on their run a lot. So we got to blitz, we got to rush when the quarterback was back there sitting. We got opportunities to do things that we wanted to do from the beginning but they kind of came into play towards the end of the third."
On Northwestern's offense...
"They have a lot of different personnel. They've got a lot of guys that come in. A tight end will really play fullback and things like that. They motion pass. They move guys around. But they didn't do anything different than what we had practiced. We were just making mistakes and things like that and more towards the end of the game, they got in a situation where we knew it was going to be pass instead of run so we got a chance to come at them."
On the locker room atmosphere during halftime...
"I don't think we were scared. We were right in it, but we really just wanted to start playing the way we wanted to. We started a couple of games slow this year and we started this game slow. I think the atmosphere in the locker room was 'when are we going to start fast and play the way we should play the whole game.'"
Chad Henne
On playing for the first time since his injury...
"During the week, they mentioned that I was going to start the first series of the game and after that, progress into the second half and start that first series. That was pretty much it. They just wanted to get me back in the game experience mode and get my feet wet."
On sitting on the sidelines for most of the first half...
"It was tough. I know a lot of the trainers knew that I couldn't really play the whole game. I felt I could, but you get thrown in there and you never know what's going to happen. It was tough watching it. I knew if I could get it going in the second half, try to get the intensity and emotion back up in our players, that we could come out and win."
On attacking the Northwestern defense in the second half...
"We saw the opportunities out there to throw the ball. Obviously their front seven played really well and stopped our run. We opened up to the pass because they were giving a lot of space to our wide receivers."
