Nebraska Postgame Player Quotes vs. Purdue

Nebraska vs. Purdue
Nebraska Player Quotes
Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)

Junior I-Back Imani Cross
On Ameer Abdullah's injury
"My approach doesn't change. Obviously the situation was unfortunate for our offense. Obviously Ameer is very explosive and a great player and he went down. That's why we practice all week and prepare, so the next guy can produce. I just reminded myself that this is not new. This is football. I've gotten carries before. Just because one person is not around while I'm getting those carries doesn't make it any different. I just had to focus on the task at hand. I was happy we got the win today."

On the momentum after big plays
"Our determination level doesn't go any lower and it doesn't go any higher. Sometimes you are successful and sometimes you fail. You have to move on to the next play."

On moving onto the next game
"I think we are fine. We didn't lose against Purdue today. We beat those guys. I think we should be happy about that. Did we make mistakes at times? Yes. But we won the game. We are going to watch film and we are going to prepare for Wisconsin."

On learning from the mistakes
"The expectation level is high at the University of Nebraska. In the locker room, the meeting rooms, in the weight room, and on the football field. The expectation level is very high. So when we make mistakes we tend to get down on ourselves. But it's OK. That adversity that we faced out there is going to make us a better football team. I think we did some good things and we will continue to improve on that."

On quarterback Tommy Armstrong
"Today I saw Tommy (Armstrong) be himself. The life of a quarterback isn't easy. Miscommunications are going to happen. Missed snaps are going to happen. But I think one thing he did well today, was stay poised. We won the game because Tommy Armstrong was poised. He continued to lead us."

Sophomore Quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr.
On the offense struggling
"It was just a lack of communication. We practiced the right way, it just didn't show. Going into this game, we had a great plan. Like I've said each and every week, the teams don't stop us, we stop ourselves. It all starts off with me. Most people will think of this as a win, but I don't see it that way. I know Purdue is good, but if we keep playing like this, we are going to lose our games. The way that we played, we should have lost. I know we won, but I feel like I failed"

On Ameer Abdullah leaving the game
"The game plan never changed. We have athletes all over the field. Unfortunately he went down, but we had guys that stepped up. That's their job. They play every game like they're a starter and they did a great job."

On the two interceptions he threw
"That was a little miscommunication. But like I said before, I'm the one with the ball in my hands. I have to make the final decision of where I go with the ball and unfortunately I made the decision that came back to haunt us."

On snap errors
"The wind was blowing here and there. But the ball hit me in the hands. If the ball hits me in the hands I have to get it. It's on me."

On playing Wisconsin
"Wisconsin is a hard-working team, and we have to take care of the ball. If we turn the ball over like we did, and make mistakes like we did, we are going to lose."

Sophomore Defensive Back Nate Gerry
On his interception
"It was more of a deeper type route where as the play developed, me and Coop (Corey Cooper) were in and out on one of the guys and I broke my way in. The quarterback threw it up and just layed out and tried to make a play for the ball."

On being on the brink of breaking a school record for consecutive games with an interception
"I did not know that at all. I was just happy I got one at the beginning of the year honestly. It's kind of cool but no, I don't really think about little things like that or worry about stuff like that."

On the defensive mindset on fourth down stops
"It was nothing that we really changed from play one. The two touchdowns they had on us, we had a pressure call and one of our guys didn't stay in their gap and we blew coverage on the other one. I thought we played pretty good football across the board. Besides those two plays. The guys have the mentality that when the offense is struggling moving the ball, turnovers, we just put that mentality of 'if they can't do it, we got to do it' type of mentality. That's how we saw it everytime we saw the field and that was one of our goals. Three and out or four and out. Just get off the field as fast as possible."

On the team's approach
"We didn't change our approach at all. We just kept doing what we were doing. I feel like we're a really good defense when we just do what we're coached to do and just let our fundamentals take over. The only thing that (hurt) us in the game was we didn't stay in our gap and we blew coverage. That could be a communication error. I felt like the defense as a whole played pretty good football besides the two mishaps and communication error. I thought we played pretty well."

On feelings going into a bye week
"I feel pretty good. We just have to hit this bye week hard. We have to take this bye week hard and we have to get better than what we did today. We have to hit the film room tomorrow really hard, clean up all the fundamental errors and all kinds of mistakes we made today. We can't take a week off because we have a tough game ahead. We have to go up to Wisconsin which is, from what I've heard, a pretty big atmosphere. We just have to hit this bye week hard."

Senior Cornerback Josh Mitchell
On the defense's performance
"I feel good. We gave up two plays that led to touchdowns that we shouldn't have given up. If we eliminate those, I think we'd play a pretty excellent game. If we just keep building what we're doing, getting better every week, The sky is the limit for us."

On defense going into bye week
"Well right now we're healthy, which is important. All we can keep on doing is getting healthier. We're getting better every week so if we can just keep on improving and take this bye week to improve more, it's going to give us more time to break down film, give us some more time to work on some technique things we need to work on, we can be as good as we want to be."

On memories of the atmosphere in Madison
"It was loud. It was intense. It was like playing here. I like going places where it's a fun environment and you can just enjoy it."

On Ameer Abdullah's mood
"He'll be alright. He's a warrior. He wanted to be out there and play, but since he couldn't come back he couldn't. The kid is tough. He'll be back."

On his sacks of Purdue quarterback Austin Appleby
"I just threw my body at him as hard as I could. All 160 pounds of me."

Sophomore Defensive Tackle Maliek Collins
On what he thought of the team's execution on defense
"I thought we did well. We made a couple of mistakes here and there."

On Purdue quarterback Austin Appleby
“He was a good spinner. He tried to keep a lot of plays alive. They did a lot of play action passes to keep him alive. They kept trying to buy him time and the receivers to get him down the field."

On the bye week coming up
“We have to approach it with a serious attitude going in knowing that we need to get better and knowing what he have ahead of us."