Casey Thompson Postgame Quotes (GSU) - 9-10-22

Casey Thompson
Nebraska Quarterback
Postgame Quotes vs. Georgia Southern (Sept. 10, 2022)

On balancing a team loss when the offense still played well 
“Just control what you can control. I play offense. I play quarterback. Our job is to move the football and to take care of the ball. We had no turnovers, which was a positive. Scoring the most points we’ve had all season, it's a positive. We stayed together. We ran the ball well, it was positive. We spread the ball around receivers. I think we were in good shape for four quarters. We weren't tired. There's a lot of positives, like you said. At the end of the day, the team that wins scores the most points. We’ve got to score more points. There's a couple of things that we could have cleaned up, of course, but we took the lead in the fourth quarter. Then we had a chance to tie it up as well, when we were down. I’m just trying to focus on doing my job and leading the offense. That's all I can control. A loss is a loss. It's a team loss, and it's always tough.”
 
On the decision to punt on 4th-and-1 in the third quarter
“Honestly, whenever they call the punt team out, I just go off the field. I immediately go talk to the offense. I don't question any of the play calling. Coaches get paid to coach and we're here to play ball. I never question any of the calls. At the end of the day, the coaches are on the sideline and the players are on the field. It's on the players to make plays. Whatever they call, we have to make it right. If they call inside zone or if they call a drop-back pass, it's on us as an offense to do the right thing. On defense, it doesn’t matter, we're going to cover one, cover three, cover four. Every play is designed to execute, including special teams, so we should be able to execute anything that's called.”
 
On when hearing boos or chants in the crowd
“No, I didn't hear any boos or chants. Honestly, when I'm out there I just focus on the play that's called. You guys always see me looking at the clock. I'm trying to manage the clock. I'm looking at the down and distance. I'm looking at the time of possession. I’m looking at what the situation of the game is. During the game I don't hear any chants. I try to tune out literally anything. Even some of the guys on the team, on the sideline, they always ask me, “11, are you good?,” I'm thinking about the next play, I just tune out a lot of things mentally and physically. I didn't hear anything like that. Like I said, I can't control any of that stuff. Right? I can only control the offense, being the best quarterback and how I perform.”

On losing high-scoring games
“Experience helps a lot. Honestly, I looked at Marcus Washington and said, ‘you know what game this feels like’ and he looked at me and I was like, ‘I already know how this is gonna go.’ Texas vs Kansas last year was 56 to 57. We went to double overtime in Texas. And in the Big 12 last year, I was in a lot of shootouts: Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Baylor. I mean, there's a lot of shootouts that I've played in and so if anything, it gave me a little bit of comfort and peace knowing that I've been in situations before. And having the experience helps a lot. It's just like I said, it's focusing more on my throws, and all my reads, and taking care of the football. Being in tight matchups in high school and games has helped a lot. Playing football in the game is a lot different than practice. So I would just say the experience and the reps have definitely helped.” 
 
On when he knew it would be high-scoring
“In the first quarter. In the first half, I think they were like four-for-five, they scored four-of-five of their possessions and we scored like four out of six, something like that. The score was 28-28 at halftime. That's four touchdowns. I just knew as long as we could continue to get the ball back and go score or get a field goal, we would be okay. We were four-for-six on touchdowns in the first half, and I don't know what we were in the second half, but we scored whenever it mattered. But yeah, I knew early on in the game, like the first or second quarter. Not to be negative: I always try to be positive but I mean, anytime you see over 21 or 28 points in the first half, you kind of know it's going to be a high scoring game. We were just hoping we could get some stops. I knew we were going to keep on scoring points. Like I said, I thought we could out score but we just ran out of time, but we can’t worry about any of that.”
 
On the last drive
“At practice, you don't really go 98 yards for the game. It's not a situation that you practice a lot. We actually had it in week zero against Northwestern in Dublin. I think we would have gone down and scored as well. But like I said, we just have to keep improving and get better. If anything, it's all mental. When you're on the sidelines, you look at the clock and you're like, it’s the fourth quarter and you're down. You have to go 98 yards to win the game. If you overthink it and you stress about it, then chances are, you're going to be unsuccessful. So I always try to have a positive mindset and tell the guys on the sideline that we're going to go to score, tell the coaches that we're going to go score. Honestly, once I got out on that field during the 98-yard drive, I forgot that we had started at the minus two-yard line. You have to ignore the mental block of ‘this is a huge task and a huge barrier to climb.’ You just go out and play ball one play at a time and execute. So I think we did that. Alright, thank you guys.”


NU Athletic Communications