University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt at Rutgers Postgame Quotes
10/9/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 9, 2011
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PITTSBURGH -
Head Coach Todd Graham
Opening Statements:
“This was an extremely disappointing game for us. Coming off our best game of the season last week, we played our worst game tonight. You have to give Rutgers a lot of credit. I thought the pressure that they put on us offensively, they did a great job. Their guys did a great job and I don’t want to say one word to take away from the job that Rutgers did tonight. They did a tremendous job. The battles that we knew we were going to face coming in here – we knew the turnover ratio was going to be No. 1 – we did a poor job of taking care of the football. We turned the football over four times, (including) an interception for a touchdown. First and foremost, I can tell you that it’s my job to get our team ready and the responsibility for every single thing tonight goes right here on me. We didn’t have our guys ready to play. (Rutgers) came out and they whooped our tail. I thought at halftime, it was 6-3 and we had record-setting penalties, which is disappointing because we’ve been very good and a very disciplined football team. Double-digit penalties – they recorded nine, but they declined three – we had 12 penalties, which is double what we’ve had in any game up to this point. Coming into halftime, I felt pretty good about the way we were playing defensively. We gave up one play, a big screen play for a touchdown, which was a bad call on our part and they executed well on that play. Special teams was another area that we knew we had to win tonight. We get back into the game, 20-10, and then we kick the ball off and they run it back to our 14-yard line. It’s very, very disappointing and it’s unacceptable how we played. We have to go to work and get better because we were very inconsistent from playing our best game last week and then our worst (this week). But, you have to give Rutgers a lot of credit. I think the toughest thing tonight was all the pressure that they brought. I thought they did a great job of that. We had a hard time protecting our quarterback. There were no excuses, we just didn’t come to play today and we got beat.”
On making the switch to Trey Anderson at quarterback:
“We were trying to get some rhythm. We were trying to get a spark, make something happen. It actually didn’t work very well because he came in and turned the football over. Our deal was we were struggling to do anything, to get anything going and we thought with all the pressure that Trey could move a little bit and get out of trouble. We were doing something to try to spark our offense. That was basically what our thought process was at the time.”
On if Tino Sunseri will start next week:
“Yes, that is not our issue. Our issue tonight was not that. I can tell you that whoever we had at quarterback, the way we protected him, he was not going to be successful. Again, I want to make sure I give a lot of credit to the Rutgers coaching staff and the job that they did. They put a lot of pressure on us and did a good job executing. We did not play well. That is my job to get them ready to play and we absolutely played our worst game today. That is embarrassing to me and we have to go work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
On this week’s practice:
“I thought we had good practices this week. I thought the first half, we moved the ball. We only had two three-and-outs. I can’t remember how many plays, but it was something like 30 plays. They definitely played ball control and tried to run the clock and were very patient. I thought we were playing good defense. I didn’t think they were going to be able to score on us. The mistake we made was (that) we turned the ball over and gave them a short field. They capitalized on their short fields and that was the difference in the game. The difference in the game was simply that. That was exactly what we emphasized and talked about. I knew the turnovers were going to be big. They came into this game with 18 turnovers through four games and they’re leaving this game with five games and 22 turnovers. Obviously, they are doing a great job of getting takeaways. We played poorly in that we did not protect our quarterback. We had penalties all over the place - illegal procedure penalties that put us behind, pass interference (penalties). We pride ourselves on playing disciplined football and we absolutely didn’t. We had double-digit penalties; we turned the football over four times. I just simply think that that was the difference in this game. Obviously, it was close all the way up until we threw that interception for a touchdown. I just didn’t have them ready to play tonight. Look no further than me. To play our best game and then to come back and play like this, it is just unacceptable and it’s not going to happen. We are going to go to work to make sure it doesn’t. It’s disappointing to me.”
Pitt WR Devin Street
On RU defense:
"We didn’t expect them to blitz as much and we just didn’t adjust to it. They came out and played better than us."
On Pitt preparation:
"We expected them to blitz, we prepared for it, we just didn’t go out and execute it. That’s the biggest thing they were coming every play."
On questionable catch:
"No, he got his hand in there. He made a great play and ripped it away."
On Pitt problems:
"Yeah, that was part of it but there were a lot of things that went in to contribute to our loss. They came out and just played better than us today."
Pitt QB Tino Sunseri
Opening statement:
"One thing that Rutgers does a great job of doing is bringing pressure from all different angles and from all different people, so it’s real hard to get a key on who’s coming and who’s not. You have to make sure you’re sound with everything that you’re doing and they make you that way and whenever they do that you have to try and make them hurt. They were getting to us and we weren’t able to make them hurt on the blitz and you live and die by the sword of the blitz and they were living and getting a lot of pressure on us. We couldn’t get the ball out and couldn’t get it to our playmakers."
On big shots early setting a tone:
"No, I don’t think it set the tone for the entire game. As a quarterback, you’ve got to be able to take the hits and be able to wipe them off and keep pushing and keep trying to lead your team down the field. I just tried to keep staying tough for those guys because I knew they were battling up front, and I can’t let some of those hits get to me. I’ve just got to keep on playing."
On not starting second half:
"It’s always based on the coaches and they felt like Trey could come out and give us a little bit of a spark and I just wanted to make sure that I was ready for my number to be called and if it was called. I wanted to make sure I could go out and produce and try to put points on the board for our team."
On offense taking a step back:
"Well you have to give credit to Rutgers. They came out with a great game plan. They understood what they needed to do and they were able to execute it. We have to able to make the adjustments on offense on the field. The coaches can coach from the sidelines, but the players have to be able to make the adjustments on the field and we just have to keep getting into the film room and learning from this. A team hasn’t played us like this yet so we’re able to go in and look at the tape and make the adjustments."
Pitt DB Jarred Holley
On less intensity in the second half:
"It’s tough. Rutgers is a great team. They came out ready to play and our team didn’t. You have to give a lot of credit to those guys over there."
On Rutgers' QB Nova:
"Coach Cignetti and their side did a good job of protecting him and I think he had a heck of a day. He did a great job."
On learning the new system:
"Yeah, it’s tough. It’s frustrating, but the thing is we’re playing next week again so we’ve got to learn from it, get back out on the practice field and correct these mistakes and get back at it again."
