Senior Defensive End Jack Gangwish
On today's defense
"We did some good things on defense, but it wasn't any one thing or any one person's fault, we just didn't do good enough. We had some guys
that played really well, especially in our secondary and our interior guys on the D-line did a great job."
On preparation for Northwestern quarterback Clayton Thornson's scrambles
"We saw that on film. You always prepare for that reality in any heavy pass rush game, so yeah we prepared for that. He's a good athlete and he
made things hard for us."
On scoring the safety
"At that point, defensively, that was a good play for us. That was one positive for the day, that we were able to go out there and make a stop like
that. Things like that can be a big momentum changer in the game."
On game energy
"I think energy was good. This group is incredibly resilient and guys kept their foot on the pedal, they played four quarters of hard football.
Northwestern did an excellent job of capitalizing on snaps."
On Northwestern's final drive
"I think we all felt that we could go out there and perform, get a three-and-out or what have you. We'd been doing some good things all day and
thought we had a good handle on things."
On senior cornerback Daniel Davie
"He did an excellent job hanging in there. I think it's been a long season for him, for all of us. He's done a helluva job keeping his nose to the
grindstone and staying focused."
Junior Wide Receiver Jordan Westerkamp
On what kept the offense out of rhythm
"We came out kind of slow. Obviously our defense had some great stops early, and we weren't able to capitalize on them. We'll have to go back
and look at the film because I don't know exactly what the problem was. From a wideout point, myself included, we had some pretty big drops
today that could've changed the game. Like I said, myself included. I think I had a little slant route I missed. Just little mistakes, we were so
close. It would be a whole different ball game if you clean those things up. But it is what it is, and you've just got to continue to move forward and
go back and watch this film and get better."
On the difference between his success last week compared to today
"Well, Northwestern for the most part played a little bit more zone, so it wasn't really difficult to get open or anything. We had our chances all
over the place. From an offense's point of view, we just weren't able to capitalize. And those little mistakes, like I said, drops, just a little detail
thing can hold the offense back. It was definitely a bad day."
On if some of the early three-and-outs stuck with the offense
"Yeah, obviously we were down and we had to put some points on the board and we weren't able to get anything going early. We put a good
drive together a little bit later to bring us back, but it wasn't enough. At the moment, you don't realize how important those drives are until the
game is over. You look back and go "Oh man, this would've changed the game." But like I said, it is what it is. The game's over, you can't do
anything about it now but get better. We've just got to go back and watch the film, stay together, stay positive and we'll be OK."
On how you keep the team together and move forward
"Football is a crazy game. Lots of ups and downs. It's kind of a roller coaster ride and we're on it right now in full force, but we'll be OK. We have
great coaches here, great team, great players and they know what's important and they're mature guys. We're all mature, and we'll be OK. We'll
stay together, we'll keep this thing going, we'll stay positive, we'll get back and have a great week at practice and get ready for Purdue."
On if they felt like they let an opportunity go after the drive after the safety
"Yeah, definitely. Like I said, you don't realize how important those drives and those opportunities are until after the game is over. So it's a tough
loss. We did a lot of good things and we did a lot of bad things, and we just need to clean those things up and we'll be OK moving forward."
On if he knew Northwestern would be more stingy against the run
"Going into the week we knew they had a pretty good pass defense actually. I mean a defense in general. We were able to get after them today
a little bit and the passing game wasn't enough. They did a good job stopping our run, but we're better than what we showed. We're absolute
better than what we showed. Like I said, we'll try to get better and we will."
On how he saw the two-point conversion play from his perspective
"They kind of played a 4-6 type of coverage where they just kind of lie across the goal line in sort of a zone. And the play from my point of view,
they had a linebacker right in my hook-up spot, so from my point of view I was covered. But they played it well. It was just one of those plays
where if you play the right defense it's kind of hard to convert on it. It was the same one we ran against Miami for the two-point conversion. It
worked out then, but it just wasn't working for us today, but we'll get better."
On if they knew it was coming or if they were prepared for it
"No, just their defense. It's one of those plays where their defense made a good call."
Junior Quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr.
On what kept the offense from getting into rhythm
"I think it was just one play at a time. One series we would have a drop. Another series we'd have a missed block. Another series, myself, in
general, may have overthrown a ball or just not a ball there. I think that's what kind of stopped us from getting into rhythm and finding rhythm.
Having miscues out wide, up front or in the backfield, you can't do that. I think we found a rhythm sometimes, but we couldn't really keep
ourselves into that. One series we may have a big play to a big run to a big down conversion to a first down drop, or an overthrown ball on a
first down and found ourselves in 2nd-and-12 or 3rd-and-long. We can't have those situations, where we put ourselves in hard situations to win
games. I think that's what we did. We couldn't find a rhythm. We put ourselves in tough situations at certain times of the game and that stopped
us from executing."
On what he saw on the two-point conversion
"It's kind of a certain read here and there. They took away our back. They took away our sit route. It was to find our basic route. They took away
my first and second read and that was either to go to the third guy, which was our "X" and I couldn't get to him. They kind of jammed him up a
little bit and I may have led the ball a little high. We couldn't come up with the catch. It kind of sucks when it comes down to it, but we've got to
make plays. I've got to put the ball on his body when it's a tough situation like that, where the guys holding up a bit. That's kind of what we saw
all game. We just couldn't find that rhythm to where we could make plays like that. When it got down to crunch time, we got down there and we
scored, but when it all mattered, and we only needed a two-point conversion to tie the game up, we couldn't execute."
On the touchdown before the two-point conversion attempt
"Honestly, I saw Jamal (Turner) getting held. He was my No. 1 guy on that. Terrell (Newby) did a heck of a job by cutting down that guy that was
just coming... I don't even think his intentions were to guard Terrell. He just cut him. Once I saw him cut him and I saw Jamal getting held down a
little bit and I had leverage on that linebacker I just took off and got as much as I could and it ended up being a touchdown."
On how often he felt under pressure
"They're a great defensive line. Like I said, we made mistakes all over the field. That could be out wide, up front, in the backfield in general.
Myself, just making play calls and things like that, that put ourselves in situations to where we may have a lot of pressure, but in certain situations
I've got to find my hot reads and be able to get the ball away. It's tough at some times, but when we're not running the ball well and all we're
doing is executing by passing, that's what's going to happen. They're going to force us to throw. They're going to stack the box. They're going to
make sure they get pressure up front and I think that's what they did. We weren't running the ball well and when we don't run the ball well that's
what happens. We just got to make sure to run the ball well, just to kind of equal that out 50-50, to where it opens some of the run gaps and it
opens up some of the passing game. I think we didn't do a good enough job running the ball well... just being able to get the ball down the field. I
think that's what kind of got us in certain pressure situations in the passing game."
On why the team struggled running the ball
"Like I said, it's just execution. We were one block away. Coach Langsdorf told us to keep forcing it, keep forcing it, keep running the ball. I
guarantee when we watch it on film we're probably one block away, one cut away. Like I said, we've just got to trust in the process. Sometimes
where certain guys just got to understand that you've got a guy there to block for a reason. We've got to understand that on third and short we've
got to get first downs. We did a great job third and short just tucking the ball away and getting those first downs, but like I said, we've got to have
that consistency each and every drive, each and every play, whether it's a run play or a pass play. We've just got to make sure that we take care
of the ball and that we're able to move the chains. I felt like we weren't able to do it on both sides; running and passing."
On what he saw on the interception
"I should've just thrown the ball away. I was looking for my check-down, which was my back. The corner kind of got a jump start on the ball. I
tried to get it out, and he made a great play. I just can't have that happen. If that wouldn't have happened we would've had three points and they
wouldn't have had seven. So we would've been sitting ourselves in a great situation to win that ball game."
On how his body is holding up physically
"It's fine. You know, you're going to have bumps and bruises here and there. I'm wearing a boot just for precautionary reasons, just to give my
leg a little bit of rest. I'm looking forward to next week. I just got to make sure that I rehab a little bit more and just being able to go out there and
practice a little bit more."
On how long he's been wearing the boot
"Honestly, probably, 10 minutes... (laughs)"
On if it's a foot or ankle injury
"It's just a foot, nothing big. I just got stepped on a little bit. It's just kind of bugging me a little bit now. I've just got to rest it a little bit. Sit and
elevate it while I'm watching a football game this afternoon."
On how to make sure the leadership keeps going and the team doesn't fall off
"You've got to have the right attitude. Sometimes it's not going as well as we want it to go, but we've just got to make sure we keep grinding. We
can either give up or we can keep grinding this season out and keep working together because, at the end of the day, we've got seniors on this
team that this is their last year. We don't want to give up on them just like they're not giving up on us. They want to go out the right way. We want
them to go out the right way. We play for these seniors. No matter the results, we want to fight to the end. No matter if we're on the sidelines
watching or we're on the field trying to make plays for them. I've got to say that I honestly don't think any team was capable of beating us, we
beat ourselves. Losing the last seconds of the game sometimes it was on the offense, sometimes the defense didn't give us the right looks, but
at the same time it's a team effort. We've beat ourselves. We put ourselves in right situations at times, but we've also bitten ourselves in the foot
a ton of times. It's came back to give us a 3-and-5 record. We can't have that happen."
On if guys are losing confidence in themselves
"No. At certain times, like I said before, you've got to have the right attitude. Like I told my team, like I told our offense, we can only improve.
We can't get any worse. We're losing games, but at the same time we're fighting. We've seen times where we've been great. We've seen times
where we've been bad. We've seen times where we've been good and bad at the same time. But, at that time, you've got to understand that
there's only room for improvement when you're doing bad at the same time. It's like I said, we can sit down and just accept what's happened
or we can move forward and just try to improve. Try to improve in practice, have the right mindset going into practice and just making sure that
we're looking out for the guys to our left and our right and that's our teammates. Like I told the defense we've just got to make sure that we look
out for each other. That we put each other in the right situation to win ball games."