Postgame Quotes

Nebraska sophomore quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr.

On how he feels after the game...
I'm all right. I'm beat up here and there, but I'll be fine.

On the fourth quarter...
That's just us playing our football. The first three quarters we struggled; up front we struggled, out wide we struggled, myself, I struggled. We just couldn't get the groove, couldn't execute and it came back to haunt us.

On the first half...
Just a lack of execution. We had turnovers here and there. We talk each and every week about protecting the football and being able to just run our offense. Honestly we just scrambled, we didn't know what we were doing. It just made us struggle a lot more with a lack of execution. We had a bunch of third and longs, and had a bunch of flags here and there that got us back into our own territory. We started off right - our defense gave us some great looks and put us in great opportunities to put points on the board. We just couldn't execute. It sucks, but we just have to drive on and learn from the film. Honestly, it's not the last time (MSU) is going to see us, I can promise you that. We plan on going 11-1, making the Big Ten Championship. We plan on seeing MSU again.

Nebraska senior corner back Josh Mitchell

On the difficulty of the loss...
It hurts, but at least we fought until the end. That's all you can ask of your teammates.

On when they thought they could turn the corner in the fourth quarter...
When we got that first touchdown, all we do is we go out there on defense and stop them from scoring then we had a chance.

On wanting another shot at MSU in the Big Ten Championship...
Definitely, if we take care of our business, I don't see why we can't get there. They're a good team, so I see them getting there, too, so it would be a nice little rematch.  

Michigan State associate head coach and defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi

On their attempts to stop the run game tonight...
It all starts off in the first half - I think they had 13 yards as I looked at the quickie stats at halftime. In the first half, that was the game really as far as stopping the run. We shut down the run about as well as we've stopped it against these guys and that was the key to the game. We made it a passing game. They made some plays; we made some plays. We should have had an interception for a touchdown on that last touchdown they scored while they were on offense. Our kids played pretty darn well today.

On pressuring the quarterback...
No doubt about it, we put a lot of heat on the quarterback even with just four men. We had great four-man pressure out of kids today. Shilique (Calhoun) and Marcus Rush - I can't say enough about the heat that they put on them. Ed Davis made an unbelievable effort on them. Overall, when you beat a great Nebraska football team, you have 11 guys playing well.

On what he was telling the guys late in the fourth quarter leading into the last play...
Great teams make big plays at the end of the game and we got an interception. We blitzed them on that down, one of the normal things we do, and I think we had ok pressure - not good enough, but we had guys in the right spot.

On play-calling against a more one-dimensional offense in terms of the pass game...
It should be easier when we do that. Again, like I said, we should have had a pick six series before that when we were on the field and we gave up a 41-yard pass. It should have been a pick six the other way. That's the way it goes.

On the effort of his team, getting the win...
That's a great football team. They rushed for I don't know how many yards-per-game. I don't think they had over one hundred. It was a heck of a job by our defense.

Michigan State offensive coordinator Dave Warner

On what was working when MSU had the big lead early on...
I mean, early on we hit some big plays helped us early with the pass and a couple big plays I guess. I don't know if we ever got in any rhythm. I mean, we scored points the first half, but I never felt that we were in any rhythm. Hats off to Nebraska, they did a very good job defensively and we were just able to hit some big plays. I think that's the difference in the game. I'm sure that if I had go back over it again, I'd do some things differently, but those big plays were the difference in the game.

On using some of the misdirection that had been introduced against Wyoming...
We always have to do a little something different in certain situations and that's a play [Tony Lippett's reverse for a touchdown] that we've had in our repertoire for years and run it once a year. About every time we run it, it works and I'm thankful for that.

On Connor Cook's performance...
He hit some big passes. I think our receivers played really well. Some of those catches out there, I'm not sure who made them all, but I think we did a great job of fighting for the ball and bringing the ball down. Connor fought through what was not his best game. He'll freely admit that but he fought through to the end and he'll learn from it.

On the running game...
Again, that's somewhere we need to gain a little consistency where we're getting four, five yards a clip. It's seems like we were either hitting a big run or two yards. It's tough to keep banging your head against the wall there if you're only getting two yards.

On the difficulty of trying to run the clock while also trying to score nearing the end of the game...
Do you keep the clock running or do you try and take advantage of them packing the box and trying to stop the run? We tried to keep running the clock the best that we could. We made a critical error there at the end of the game when we went out of bounds, but we've just got to run the ball and get first downs. That's what we have to do.

Junior cornerback Trae Waynes
What is going through your mind late in the game...
Just to stay calm and have a short memory. Do everything as a team to put the game away.

On the last play of the game...
Luckily I was able to get a good read on the ball, make the play and put the game away.

Junior quarterback Connor Cook
This being an identity forming game
I would say as a defense we made a statement, on defense we looked tremendous from start to finish. I feel on offense we did not play well, including me, obviously with the completion percentage. We have to execute the run game; we have to execute the pass game. I feel defensively we took 10 steps forward; offense we kind of took a couple of steps back. That's why there is next week. We have a week to improve, we will go to the film room, and we will correct our errors, execute better and develop a better game plan for next weekend. We will be ready to be productive.

This being an identity forming game
A win is a win no matter how you cut it. If it's pretty, if its ugly, we are all pretty thankful to walk away from this game, if it's a blowout, if it's a close game, we were up early, then they came back. A win is a win, they all count as one. So we are happy, we are going to enjoy this for 24 hours, when it is over we are on to the next conference game. A win is a win no matter how you cut it. Pretty sure all of us are happy that we won.

Senior defensive end Marcus Rush
Nebraska definitely came out and challenged us. Ameer Abdullah, Coach Bo Pelini, they challenged us that we couldn't stop the run. We came out and we did that. So I am proud of our defense, there were a lot of sudden changes. We did our job and we answered back.

Senior wide receiver Tony Lippett

Basically we told each other that we just have to finish this game. Just to play hard and negate the unsportsmanlike conducts and continue to keep our focus and know what our goal is.

Knowing that we could have executed better in all three phases of the game. We know we could have executed just a little bit better as far as a block here, or a catch here, or anything like that, a read here. We always know that we shoot high and we know that the sky is the limit. For this offense, for this defense, for this team. We aren't satisfied with how we played throughout four quarters of this game. Like Connor (Cook) keeps saying, we are going to go back and watch film, correct our mistakes and come out there next week and have a good game plan.

Senior Defensive end Marcus Rush
Saw on the film going into the game...
I don't know what numbers they really were. I had to go up against both tackles. On the film both tackles had knee pads, they soft setted sometimes, then they would hard set at times too. I watched a lot of film this week; I think the whole d-line did. It definitely paid out.
Reasons for success today...
That all 11 people on the field did their job. We came out and did that for sure.