The transcript is courtesy of Ben Bolch and the LA Times:
Dante Moore
WHAT WAS UTAH’S DEFENSE DOING THAT STOPPED YOU?
“I mean, just playing, for Utah, playing at home, they have another bonus of the crowd, them playing on home field, I mean, the Utah defense is a serious defense, they bring pressures, have great DBs and the head coach and defensive coordinator know what they’re doing to help stop many concepts. I know, from last year when they played at the Rose Bowl, especially Kain was there, of course he played during the game, all I had to do was watch the film about it, but the way that Utah got beat on by us in the Rose Bowl, I knew they were going to come in here with a straight face and it was going to be straight ball, really just do what they’ve got to do to get the win, so good for them, great for their head coach, great for their team, it was a great defense, it was a great atmosphere, I mean, everything was going in their favor–that’s a team that won the Pac-12, so it’s a lot to go through, so it was for sure a great defense that had many ways to stop the offense.”
GETTING RHYTHM DEEPER INTO GAME, FEEL THAT AND WHAT WORKING ON TD DRIVE?
“I mean, the defense gave us many opportunities to get on the field and do what we had to do. I mean, we started off real slow and that’s what you can’t do, especially playing the way–I mean, the atmosphere is going to be on their side for sure and we had the chance to score multiple times and we didn’t do it, but on that drive, we had a lot of things clicking on that drive, we had the momentum going and stuff, so we scored on that drive and we always love to score, it’s just the offense, we have to score. They gave us way too many opportunities. Our defense is one of the best in the country to ever do it, i just mean having ballers out there do what they’ve got to do, especially with two minutes left when they get that stop on third and one, I mean, not many defense can do that. So I love the defensive side of the ball for our team, but we’ve got to just respond when they get a good stop for us.”
MISCOMMUNICATION ON PICK-SIX?
“I mean, truthfully, when I looked that way, there was a backer over there, he wasn’t even the guy who made the play, it was somebody who came from the opposite side and that’s from just them watching a lot of film, knowing what’s coming, and from there, when I threw it and he caught it, s—, it’s really, it was a big mistake and as a quarterback you can’t make mistakes, as a quarterback you’ve got to protect the football, that’s what the quarterback does, so a lot of the stuff that happens in the game relates on the quarterback after a win and after a loss and one thing I will say, I can put this loss on me for sure. I know me being so young, not many people would say that, but I’ll put this loss on me for sure and we’ve just got to bounce back from it. I’d say I’ve got more I want to do and got much more to bounce back from.”
READ ON THE FUMBLE ON READ-OPTION IN RED ZONE?
“I mean, we liked the look they gave us, we had an opportunity to go two-on-one against the D-end on the edge, [inaudible] happens, the backers blitzed through A gaps, the backers got through, I mean, when I’m looking just at the D-end, I’m thinking the run is protected, so I’m just two-on-one, me and Carson, and trying to make him miss and when I got the chance to fake option because I’ve seen how the leverage was on the outside, that’s when I turned up field and that’s when the guy blitzed from the A gap and didn’t get picked up and just came and hit me from the back and there was just some errors throughout the game that we had as an offense, a couple of fumbles, my pick and things like that, so I know we’re going to bounce back for sure, like I said we’ve got a lot of film to watch and we’ve got this bye week coming up, so we’re going to be doing a lot of film and really focusing on the mistakes we made. A lot of people, a game of wins, some people say it’s losses, but I know me and Kain for sure are going to say it’s losses, these are learning points, we take the ‘L’ as a learning point, so we’ve just got to get back to mistakes that we keep doing and just fixing them.”
GOOD TIMING TO GET THIS LOSS NOW SO YOU CAN FIX THINGS?
“Like I said, everything starts going good, we’re 3-0 and we’re thinking everything is going good and sometimes you always need something to get you back on your feet, I mean, a lot of teams go a long way and lose at the end, but I’m glad that we got to at least see how–me personally–just knowing how a loss feels; it doesn’t feel good at all, so I just know when it comes to playing a game, I just know I have to come out here and of course win every game but like I said, this loss is just a learning point, man, just got to bounce back from it, nobody likes losing but it’s football, the greatest, I think about Tom Brady, just many times hearing him after a loss, inside of him is like, ‘Damn, I don’t want to lose again’ and I just know we have to learn from it. It’s a lot to do for sure, I just want to say a big shout-out to the defense–they did what they have to do and the offense has to capitalize off of what they’ve done and we’re for sure going to bounce back.”
Kain Medrano
YOU HAD TWO SACKS AND KNOW WHAT THE DEFENSE IS CAPABLE OF. WILL FACE A LOT OF GOOD OFFENSES, HOW MUCH WILL NATE JOHNSON AND UTAH PREPARE YOU FOR REST OF WAY?
“Um, you know, I give them props to Utah’s offense and their quarterback, Johnson. Had a great game but as long as we just focus on us, I really think that we can go out there and beat anybody, truthfully, and we’re going to get in film tomorrow and watch film and move on, but they’re a great offense, I give all their props to them and we’re just going to watch film and keep moving and we’re going to probably see a lot of the same stuff that they ran on us that got yardage, we’re going to see it from other teams too, so we’ve just got to self-scout and go that way.”
BEEN AROUND DEFENSE FOR A LONG TIME. Yes, sir. HOW FAR HAS IT COME AND HOW HAPPY ARE YOU WITH IT?
“We’ve come a long way, you know? Especially a couple of years, coach D-Lynn’s first year here, you can just look at it and see what he’s came in and done to this defense, how he’s changed it and how close we are as a defensive unit, and we’ve got to keep worrying about us and keep making our plays and doing us and I believe in this football team, I really do, so.”
GOOD THAT THIS LOSS CAME NOW SO YOU CAN REBOUND FROM IT REST OF THE WAY?
“Uh, I mean, yeah, you know, a tough first loss, we go into a bye week on it, kind of–I don’t want to say good timing, but we’ve got a lot of time to go in there and fix what we did wrong offensively and defensively. We made some mistakes on defense, gave up a couple of chunks of yards, we could be tighter, I know the offense is going to go into meetings tomorrow and get corrected what they need to get corrected. Like I said earlier, I have full faith in this football team to come back out and we’re going to show you what we’re made of, so.”
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