Meet the Press: Syracuse Week

Oct. 11, 2010

Dave Wannstedt Press Conference

October 11, 2010

Syracuse Week

Opening Statement:

"After reviewing the film, the miscues and mistakes that we made I think were pretty obvious. I look at the positives that we can pull out of that game and move forward. I really believe that our offensive line has really taken a step forward; we're starting to come together. I think that the guard position is still new for Lucas Nix, but he's improved from what he did the week before.

"I thought that Tino Sunseri, for the most part, made good decisions. The one interception that he did have in the first half, it was a good throw, a good decision, but the receiver fell down. It was just one of those freak things that happened. Devin Street made a few plays. We have to continue working him in the lineup some.

"Defensively, with some of the adjustments we've made — Max Gruder moving into the middle and Dom DeCicco moving into outside linebacker and nickel back — it was a little different. I thought that once we got settled in, with the whole pace of their offense, we had practiced that. We knew what was coming from the Cincinnati game, and we just didn't handle it well in the beginning of the game. We missed some tackles and we were out of sync a little bit. We didn't bust any calls, it's just that we were not lined up and playing as fast as you need to play.

"Once we settled in there, we had some opportunities in the second half. It was unfortunate the way we moved the ball. When you think about it, we moved the ball in the opening drive and got the field goal. Yes, we need to get touchdowns. The next drive we get down and miss a field goal. Then we drive down again and we mishandle the snap. Those plays obviously come back to haunt you. I think anytime you get down inside the red zone, and you don't score a touchdown, more times than not it comes back to get you. When you get zero points playing on the road, that can't happen

"Overall this is a big week for us, this is a huge week for us. We start the Big East Conference this weekend. Syracuse right now is playing with a lot of confidence. Pitt-Syracuse games have always been very physical games. They have always been very tough and tight games. We expect that between the noise, the dome and everything that goes into this rivalry, it's going to be a battle — a 60-minute football game. We have to go up and play clean, keep our penalties to a minimum, protect the football and do the things necessary to win."

On Dion Lewis and Ray Graham:

"I thought that Dion Lewis did some good things in the game. He's playing well. He was banged up against Miami in the fourth quarter, and didn't play the next week against FIU. He had a good week of practice, and obviously he's a heck of a running back for us. Ray Graham is playing really well, he always has. He's probably made a few more plays than Dion. We're going to need them both. The plan is to use them both.

"Do you sit back, second-guess and say 'do you want to give Ray more carries?' I think that we want to get them both more carries ideally.

"That's a tough one, and my only response would be that we do recognize what Ray is doing. Ray is playing outstanding football right now. Dion played better against Notre Dame than what he did in his first couple of games. We also recognize that. We know that we're going to need them both.

"The way everything has evolved, I see us using them both. To sit here and say that we're going to play one guy most of the game, I don't see that happening."

On the punt return game:

"Cameron Saddler and I talked about it yesterday. There were probably two of them that he brought to my attention that were catchable balls. I think that no one works harder at it, and is more conscientious than Cam.

"The way you coach those returners, you tell them that they have to make the decision. Most coaches say that they can never be wrong. Whatever decision you make, we have to live with. If it's not a good enough decision then you put somebody else in there. Cam has been great in practice. He had the one miscue against Miami. Could we have fielded a couple of them? Yes. And if we could do it over again he would be the first one to say, and he has, 'we should go up there and fair catch the ball.' That's a decision that's made, and you live with it."

On conference play being a new beginning:

"I thought of wiping the slate clean. I've been in these meetings, and I've done it before where you put a drape up over the first half of the season. I've done all of that stuff.

"I'm not sure that where we're at right now, how we're trying to figure out who is doing what and how we're trying to piece everything together, that we just can't forget what cost us from winning the Notre Dame game and pretend like it didn't happen. I think if you have a real mature team, you can just paint it over and say 'OK guys, that's not us. Let's move on.' We're not there right now. We have some challenges, players are working hard, and I think the minute that we pretend something was OK, or that something really didn't happen, it may show up again.

"I think it's more a build-off and improve from the point that this is where we were, and this is what we need to keep improving on. We are making some strides, but not as fast as what anybody would like. We are what we are right now. We need to go out there and find a way to get better and improve over what we did last week."

On putting four full quarters of football together against Syracuse:

"We need to practice hard and clean up some of the things that we addressed. I think that some of the things, whether it be run-game issues, you just have to go out and practice it. We have the best guys out there doing it. They're working hard and their attitude is good.

"It's repetition, repetition, repetition. We went back yesterday, looked at some of the plays we called during the game and we said as coaches, 'the things that we're dialing up, are we getting the kids enough repetitions in practice?' We should be confident with it. We're double-checking all those things. You have to add things every week from the game-plan standpoint, but you have to make sure that you're getting enough reps to make sure that the guys can play fast.

"I think we'll correct some of the kicking game issues. We're not going to mishandle the snap, and we'll kick the field goals. That's just how it goes. Dan Hutchins was the Special Teams Player of the Week the week before in the Big East Conference, so I'm not concerned about that. He punted the ball well. You look at the fake punt, and it was there. We had the look that we wanted, but we didn't execute. We go back and we work on those things again and just keep working on them. We're not going to shy away from doing things. We just have to do it better."

On play calling at pivotal points of the game:

"We said that if we had fourth-and-two, maybe fourth-and-three we were going to go for it. Then we come up, we threw an incomplete pass and it was fourth-and five. We were talking about the play. We thought we were going to make a few yards, which we didn't. That's when we called the timeout just to be sure. We just talked about the situation in the game. What would give our kids the best chance to win the game?

"The way we were playing defense at that point, we really felt good about stopping them. Obviously, you hope to back them up more, to maybe come up with a defensive stop, a turnover or a sack and create a little better position. The worst thing about that whole series of plays was when we had to start at the seven-yard line. That's a long way to go, even though we had timeouts."

On the fake punt:

"We were running it like a sweep. We had guys assigned to block guys. It's a kick-or-run option on (Dan) Hutchins part. Half the time that we run that play people don't even know we're running it. He just goes, kicks the ball and we're rolling. Everybody thinks that it was a roll kick. He has the option to go anytime.

"We had the right look initially. We just didn't execute."

On Tino Sunseri gaining rhythm as the game goes on:

"The pass plays that we threw, particularly earlier on — three-step slants, bubble screens, flare screens to the back. Those are plays that you can run. We ran some boots and waggles, the one he ran in on, on the goal line. Those are high percentage, confidence (building), make the quarterback feel good plays as compared to dropping back where he's trying to read the whole field. I thought we had a good plan from the standpoint of giving him some high-percentage plays where he could get some confidence and get going."

On Syracuse:

"Those guys play a very aggressive run defense. Their safeties are up in there and they're tackling well, playing hard. They haven't given up as many big plays. That jumps out to you compared to the last couple of years.

"Offensively, they are very similar to what we try to do. They're running the ball. They don't really get in the shotgun. Last year they were more of a read team. They kind of abandoned that. They're up on their center. They're handing the ball off, they're pounding the ball, they're using two tight ends and utilizing the play-action pass.

"Their whole mindset from an offensive attack and defensive attack has somewhat changed and become more of a physical attack. They're getting a great year out of both backs. Delone Carter is having a heck of a year, but Antwon Bailey is very dangerous as well. They have two really good running backs."

On a change in the Syracuse offense:

"They changed offensive coordinators. I think it's a combination of Doug Marrone and Nathaniel Hackett, Paul Hackett's son. I don't know how they're doing the play calling, but you can see that professional influence."

On contributions from defensive reserves:

"K'Waun Williams did a heck of a job for us. He made two big third-down tackles. Greg Williams got banged up a little bit. Tristan Roberts came in and made some plays. We'll see where he fits. We were using K'Waun in some of the nickel packages and some of the special team looks.

"Buddy Jackson did OK. He's doing a really good job. I have to give him credit. In the last couple of weeks he's doing a heck of a job on kickoff coverage, punt coverage and now that we have him on the kickoff return. Besides mixing him in on some of our defensive packages, he's really picked it up from a performance standpoint."

On Andrew Taglianetti:

"That was probably the first time, since last year before he got hurt, that you could say that's the Andrew Taglianetti that we all remember. We played him in the last couple of games, but he would be the first to admit that the combination of not being 100 percent physically or mentally, he hasn't been like he was on Saturday. He made some nice plays."

On the receivers slipping at Notre Dame Stadium in the first half:

"We had them go up and warm-up with their cleats on. We had two fall downs. One fall down was an interception with Mike Shanahan. We thought that was going to be a 16-yard completion. Then there was the (would-be) touchdown in the end zone. We had the guys go out and warm-up with the cleats on. Obviously, they didn't think it was a problem until they fell."