Nebraska Football
Minnesota
Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020
Press Conference Video
On the team’s performance against Minnesota
“I don't think we were flat. I thought the guys were ready to play. We just didn't execute very well. I thought we played well enough defensively to win the game. We didn't execute very well on offense. Certainly didn't catch any breaks, but we got to play better than that. I give them credit. That's a team you have to get ahead of and you're in control of the game. We came out right away and made a mistake on the first play of the game again and just too many mistakes and bad things happening to overcome.”
On the offensive game plan
“Every week we look at whatever plays we think give us the best chance to move the ball. I think the guys were in good situations. At times we operated well. At other times we just didn't execute very well. We got to make sure we play better than that and coach better than.”
On the struggles on third down conversions at the end of the game
“You know, I hate to even say this, we had our best week of practice offensively maybe since I've been in Nebraska, so I expected us to come out and play. We completed everything in practice. We blocked well. But we whiffed on a few blocks early on. We put a ball on the ground. We threw an interception. We shanked a punt. We missed some wide open guys. We gave up some sacks. I think maybe a little bit is is once you get behind in the game and things start rolling the wrong way with a young team, I think they started pressing just a little bit to try to get back in the game. But that being said, they responded after we spotted them 10 points beginning the game and got the lead. We just didn't execute very well.”
On the plays called at the end of the third quarter
“We talked about that on the headsets. In that situation in the game, first of all it wasn't that windy on the field. We talked about at the beginning of third quarter and we didn't think the wind was really a factor in the passing game. In fact, we overthrew a couple with the wind, so we felt good about just calling our best stuff and you know we got down there in the third quarter and busted on one of our plays up front and then on a second and five and got a ball tipped on third. In hindsight, you maybe just run it a couple of times. Then we missed a field goal. Again, just a lot of things didn't go well for us today and we got to play better.”
On the passing game
“Not all those were pass calls. Some of them were RPOs. The nickel sticks his nose in too far and we throw it outside. I thought we handled those well. We hit all those passes in practice all week. We didn't hit them today for whatever reason. I thought we ran it well at times, but it's just not consistent enough yet. Our young players especially got to get a little more consistent. We got to be able to rely on that a little more. One time on a first down we called a play and it'll crease for nine and the next time we called it it’s second and 11. Consistency's got to get a lot better.”
On the momentum shift after Connor Culp’s missed field goal
“Maybe it took the wind out of our sails. I don't know. It would have been nice to be tied right there. The way the game unfolded, we probably should have been ahead at that point if a lot of those things hadn't gone the way they went. But we got to be able to respond. We had them in some good stuff at times. They did a good job coaching at times. The X’s and O’s battle is going to kind of come and go. Sometimes they're going to be in the right call. One of the drives, I think if we had a chance to call it over we would have called a different play. Think we threw it on first and second down and put ourselves in a third and 10. But we just got to be more consistent with everything we do so we can hang our hat on stuff a little more.”
On if Adrian Martinez is limited at all
“He’s been dealing with what happened to him last week all week. But he threw well. Threw great in practice all week so I don't know if that was a factor or not.”
On Cam Taylor-Britt’s targeting call
“I don't get much feedback on those things. I haven't even seen it. All I saw was on the big screen. It just seems like those things work against us quite a bit for some reason. Just that play alone, we're probably going to go in at halftime ahead and it's probably a different second half. But those are the breaks in football and just hope some of them go our way.”
On the energy from the team headed into the half
“The energy’s been great all week. The leadership's been good all week. Practice was really good all week. That was my message for the team is the way they've approached the last three weeks is the way they need to approach every practice, every game from here on. The more often they do that, the better chance we have of being more consistent and making all the plays. But we need to practice like that all the time. It's disappointing. I'm hurting for the kids. I love the team. They stuck it out through a lot of rough stuff this year with everything going on. It's just been a crazy year and I love these kids for the fight they have in them. I thought the energy and the preparation were good, we just didn't play very well.”
On how the team started the game
“You just can't start games that way. We try to execute something simple that we think is going to get positive yards for us on first down and you completed it 40 times in practice all week and it's a little off. It's a horrible way to start the game.”
On if Dedrick Mills is still limited in the amount of carries he can give the team
“I think he’s close to full strength. Not sure we would want to leave him in there the whole game, but I think he's close.”
On the team’s attitude following the game and headed into next week’s game
“The kids will stay in it. This team’s together. They care about each other. I'm not worried about that. I'm just worried about getting wins at this point. I love how our mentality has changed and how the kids are caring about each other. I love the feel around the building. It's the best it's been. But you got to stack those things on top of each other and practices on top of each other. And even when things are going well, sometimes the breaks don’t go your way and you don't play well. The more work we can get, the more practice we can get, the more confidence they can get, the more consistent we’ll get. I really don't know what else to say about it other than that. I thought the preparation was great. We just didn't play well on offense, especially.”
On the game plan ahead of today’s contest
“I loved our game plan going in. I thought we had some guys open. Wan’Dale (Robinson) was open on one and we missed him and we had a corner route open and missed it. We had some other guys open on a couple others and got beat in protection. That's where it's just got to be consistency. You got to hit the majority of them. You got to protect the majority of the time. It's not meant to be an excuse, but we're still playing a lot of young guys and as they grow, they're going to win more often than they lose. You can't call however many pass plays we called and miss five and get sacked and get beaten in protection two or three times. Those mistakes get you beat in this league.”
On if he expected the offense to be further along this far into the season
“I thought we played well last week offensively. This week, at times we looked really good. It's hard to get a rhythm in that game when you get behind and they're taking as much time off the clock as they possibly can. It seemed like we had a media timeout before every offensive drive. It just never felt like we got clicking. But it's hard to talk about. I see it coming in practice. I see how well we're executing in practice. It didn't show up on the field today often enough. Too many mistakes for us to overcome, but I got confidence in these guys.”
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