Postgame Quotes
Nebraska 35, Iowa State 7
Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, Iowa
Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008
Opening Statement
"I thought we got better as a football team today. I thought our execution was more consistent. We came out soft in the second half. We have to work on turnovers. You cannot work on ball security more than our offense does. We have to take care of the football. We left a lot of points on the field today. We came out of this football game better than we came in and that is progress, and as I told the team, we have a long way to go. The players feel themselves getting better. It is an everyday thing. Every day that we walk out onto the field it provides us an opportunity to get better. We cannot waste an opportunity. Our players are coming to work. They see the necessity of getting better. If we just stay with it, we can finish this season well."
On offensive balance
"That is what we are after. Iowa State put a lot of guys in the box and we stayed with the run. We had a good run-pass mix today. I thought Joe (Ganz) ran the offense well. We are hard to defend right now because we are keeping the defense off balance. We executed pretty well. I was disappointed though because I thought we left 14 points on the field in the first half."
Defense after Robinson touchdown
"It was a basic play to defend. We didn't execute. We should have been able to make the tackle, but they made a play. I had no question that my guys would bounce back and they did. We did not play as well in the second half, as we did in the first half and some of that credit goes to Iowa State. Our guys are playing hard, and I am seeing progress."
On turnovers
"We got a couple of takeaways on defense, but we had one or two slip through our hands. We lost the turnover battle today, and that is an area we have to get fixed, and that is for both sides of the ball. We have to turn the ball over less on offense, but we also have to force more on defense. When we have an opportunity, we have to get it on defense. That is an area our staff is stressing and our players are mindful of it. They just have to keep working on it to get it fixed."