Opening Statement…
“Obviously, they’re a really talented group. I felt good about our defense. I thought our defense played their tails off in the first half. It should have been 13-3; the last drive of the first half was bad. They were kind of trying to run the clock out, they gauge us on couple big runs and next thing you know they get a field goal. We should’ve went to half 13-3. After they jumped out seven to nothing, our defense found ways to get stops. They were up seven to nothing a minute into the game and our defense found a way to hold them to six points [before the late field goal]. They were really fighting. Offensively, obviously, we didn’t really get anything done. We had like two or three first downs in the first half and couldn’t run the ball at all. And when you can’t run it and you’re one-dimensional and they are pressuring and playing man, we’ve got to win some one-on-one matchups. We tried to push the ball down the field. We came here to win a game, we didn’t make the plays in the first half, pushing it down the field. We didn’t really make the plays the last three minutes of the game pushing it downfield. If they’re going to pressure and play man, you’ve got to soften them up by making some big plays, which we didn’t do. They protected their quarterback really well and as the game went on our defense played too many snaps. That’s not their fault, that’s mostly our offense’s fault, but we left them on the field too long and they kind of stayed with their run game. As we got worn down, they ran the ball better and better in the second half. So, our defense definitely got worn down. Credit to Miami; they stayed on the field offensively and we didn’t stay on the field offensively. So, that’s going to be the result, it’s not by accident, it’s not bad luck. It’s, we’ve got to move the ball offensively and get our guys good rest and give them a chance not to play so many dang plays as they did on defense. So, obviously, the second half, we got worn down and we still didn’t get much done on offense. We couldn’t block them in the run game enough to sustain anything in the run game. We didn’t want to be one-dimensional. We probably ran it too much, probably should have chucked it around a little more, but I was at least trying to fight to stay in there and it did not work out. So, credit to them. They are a big, physical, athletic team. Obviously, they’ve got a bunch of talented players – big, strong athletic dudes. Their defense was very aggressive and got after us and we didn’t handle it. So, we’re going to have to handle that better in the future.”
On the experience gained from this game…
“Yeah, you should learn a lot of lessons. We played a really good football team on the road. And when we watch the tape, if you’re self-aware, you’re going to see, ‘Okay, well this where we were short and this is where we’re going to keep working to improve.’ And again, we’re never going to make excuses. Credit to Miami, they dented our d-line and protected their quarterback. We didn’t dent their d-line in the run game and … sometimes our protection was off, but we didn’t protect our quarterback enough and give him enough time. [It was] very different when our guy dropped back and their guy dropped back. So, we’re going to continue and look at everything. From a coaching standpoint, week one, you’ve got to look at, ‘Okay, what did we do good today? And what was, maybe, out of our control that Miami just had a better guy there than we did? And then what is in our control that we didn’t do as well or this could have worked better?’ So, we’ve got to evaluate. We’re all in this together, but it starts and ends with me. You lose 38-3, the head coach didn’t get it done. So, we’ve got to do a better job on offense and we’re going to do a better job on offense. And I think our defense showed they can be pretty darn good. Special teams was good, after that opening kickoff which was disappointing, but our punter punted the ball well and we made a 48-yard field goal. The one kicker, he kicked everything out of the end zone, but one we had a good return when they gave us a chance. So, there were some good things on ‘ST.’ We think we can be really good on ‘ST’ and we’re going to have to be.”
