Nebraska 10, #20 Oklahoma 3
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009
Memorial Stadium - Lincoln, Neb.
Opening Statement
“My congratulations to Nebraska and Coach Pelini and their staff. (Their) team played a hard-fought game and really played well, and had an excellent game defensively. Overall, just made the plays that they needed to to win the game. I thought it would have been hard for our defense to play a whole lot better. Offensively, we moved the ball quite frequently, but then didn't produce points. We didn't execute well enough or they executed better than we did in the red zone. We have a couple missed field goals and a blocked field goal. We had the ball, I think, the first three possessions inside the 50 to start the game and end up with nothing, zero points. You have to be able to make a field goal, protect the field goal, that changes things at the end of the game, where you feel you're climbing uphill and you have to have a touchdown. The one turnover really that killed us was the one that gave them the ball at the 1 or 2 yard line, and they end up scoring the one touchdown that was the difference in the game. Again, they did the job they needed to and we didn't.”
On if he'd ever been apart of a loss when the defense plays so well
“No, not much. You force 11 punts away from home, and I think they were 1-of-14 on third down, you feel like you've got a good chance to win the game. I would say the difference is (they got) the one turnover to set up their touchdown, and we didn't get a turnover. That's how close this game was, and defensively, we really did play well.”
On the 4th-and-1 play at the end of the first half
“We just felt that they would be really aggressive inside, and squeezing everything off. You felt you could get the corner, and we couldn't.”
On if he still felt like the team could tie the game with 3 minutes remaining
“Several of those drives in the second half we felt very positive. We were fairly consistently moving it. We'd just get behind the chains. You've got to credit them, on third or fourth down, we had our opportunity, and they made plays, they covered us or pressured us or whatever it was to get out of it. That's where we needed to be better.”
On how much of the struggles was the inexperience of the players
“Some of it may be, some of the field goal issues, you've got to be able to do it in games like you do it in practice, and we didn't. That you'd like to think is just some inexperience, haven't been out there enough, some of it you've just got to work and make improvements. Dumb penalties, we still have a lot of foolish penalties. Like I said, they're 1-for-14 on third downs, we had them 3rd-and-8 at about the 45 on one of the drives, and we have a late unnecessary roughness, it gives them a first down, and that's where they get the field goal. Instead of 7-3 there at the end of the game, you think you might be able to hit a field goal and have a chance, they have 10 now because of unnecessary roughness. We still make some foolish plays that way.”