Nebraska vs. Minnesota
Nebraska Player Quotes
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Sophomore Defensive Back Nate Gerry
On 85-yard return off blocked kick
"I thought it was just all-around great defense. A lineman got up front. They got a good push. I didn't really see the block but the ball was laying on the ground and I just scooped and scored. I saw C-Coop (Corey Cooper), J-Mitch (Josh Mitchell), everybody out front running and just trying to set up blocks and I think I saw about three pancakes on the blocks. I thought it was a great overall defensive play. It was just a fun time."
On facing run-heavy offenses
"I think it's just lack of discipline sometimes. I felt like our defense, we played alright, it's just the fact that sometimes just one guy per play which, when you play football at this high level, offenses are going to find that open gap or open receiver. If that one person's not self-disciplined during the play, they're going to find it and that's what we did a little too much. That's one thing we have to get better at and that's just communicating what we have to do to eliminate all those mistakes across the board where we can have eleven guys always on point, running the same defense, know their keys and that's just something we have to get better at."
On tackling
"I didn't think we tackled very well. When we did tackle, we gave up a couple extra yards, leaky yards, and that's one thing that kind of hurt us. We missed a couple tackles. Sometimes we couldn't get off blocks to make tackles and like I said, that's just something you have to get better at by the week. Every week, we have to tackle well. The type of offense they are, they run a lot tighter than normal teams do. They kind of hide behind the back and you don't really know where he's going to pop out and know what he does. You just have to be able to bring him to the ground and sometimes we couldn't get over blocks to bring him down which ended up to leaky yardages."
On zone read preparation
"I don't think we realized we were going to run that much with the quarterback. We were prepared for it and saw it all in practice. Sometimes one person wasn't self-disciplined enough to do their keys and do their job and sometimes people try to make up for other people's mistakes which kind of bites you in the butt."
On what makes run offenses harder to defend
"I'd say just the fact that they want you to make more of the mistakes. If they open up a little bit, the quarterback can make a mistake, missing their route. When you get the ball like that, they're hoping we just miss a tackle. We missed our key where someone didn't get over, cut back play or what not. That's probably the toughest part is they just bank on you making an error and that's one of the things we did today was made a couple errors. I felt like weren't self-disciplined as a team, all 11 players at all times."
On mood in the locker room
"It was tough. Win or loss, I feel like they (the seniors) were going to be standing a little down. I'm going miss playing with some of the seniors, J-Mitch and Coop. I learned a lot from guys like them and it's just kind of tough for guys like that to go out this way."
Sophomore Defensive Tackle Vincent Valentine
On Minnesota players getting yards after contact
"It is for sure frustrating. If one guy is there to wrap him up, or even two guys, and you can't get him down and he gets more yardage, it's always frustrating. But that's why we have to gang tackle and everybody has to make sure they don't get those leaky yards."
On rotating the defensive tackle more in today's game
“Kevin (Williams) was rotating with me. It keeps us fresh for sure. It kept me fresh. I think I played alright. Obviously there are still some technique things I have to work on. But I think our defensive line played pretty good. But, it's a unit thing. We all have to get our problems fixed."
On where to make the biggest strides leading up to Iowa
“Just going out in practice and competing everyday and finishing everything we do. Obviously we have the problem with guys getting leaky yardage. It starts in practice. We have to finish everything. We have to wrap up the guy. We have to get him down. That's one thing that the coaches are probably going to be keying in on and we need to focus on it too."
Sophomore Quarterback Tommy Armstrong
On going into that last drive
"Make sure we were doing what we had been doing the whole game. Just had to execute. Make sure we finished off. That's what killed us, we didn't finish off. We didn't have the ball when we wanted to. We were making plays but when we got it into their territory we just couldn't finish our draws and finish executing."
On his emotions on the last play
"It's frustrating. You got to learn from it. Mistakes they happen. We just have to make sure we take care of the football. We let out a leak and it just sucks being able to go out there and execute like we did and not finish when it came to getting that touchdown."
On the 2nd-and-1 deep pass call in the fourth quarter
"I was really trying to get the ball over the top of their stacked box. They knew that we're running plays into the situations and wanted to see if they could get their noses into the box. We have to execute up front and we have set up better. Took us to 3rd-and-long and we can't let that happen."
On the offense when Kenny Bell went down
"It sucks that he went down. At the same time we just have to rally. Make sure that he played for him. I played for Mark (Pelini) and he went down as well. I know they wanted to be out there but at the same time we just have to make sure we play for them. Play the offense. We had guys that stepped up a lot. In that position where Kenny (Bell) was and like I said we just had to execute and I feel like we didn't do it.
On bouncing back to play for Iowa
"Just make sure we learn from it. Taking into consideration when it comes to preparing for it. We only have four days and we just have to make sure that, like I said before just keep our eyes on what we have and learn from this mistake this week and make sure we drive on to next week."
On the mood coming off the field
"It was down. We just have to make sure that, like I said before, we have to move on. It sucks seeing those guys at their last home game here with a loss but that's on us. We get what we deserve. We just have to make sure that we take care of the football. We didn't do that offensively. We had good things happen but we also had bad things happen. Those bad things happened at the wrong time. We just have to learn from it.
On Head Coach Bo Pelini saying to just go out and play
"Yeah I feel like I got into my own ways when I was a young kid. I put a lot of pressure on myself. It was hard on me when it comes to sports and stuff like that. I kind of got into my old ways of just thinking about myself and going out there and having fun with those guys. I think that talking to Coach Beck (Tim) and Coach Bo (Pelini) and my mom, they said to go out there and have fun, be carefree and not worry about what's going on. Just going out there and having fun and I think that's what I did. Just went out there and just was doing me, and not really worry about what the score was and what happened if I do this and what happened if I don't do this. I just went out there and was being myself. They just told me just go back to your high school days to where you had fun with your guys and just enjoy the time that you had on the field and I think that's what I mainly just wanted to do."
On how they are feeling into the second half
"We're feeling great. We were moving the ball. As I said before we just couldn't execute. The message was make sure that you take care of the football and execute and make sure we keep donig what we're doing. We just had to take care of the football. We killed ourselves when it came to taking care of the football."