Syracuse Student-Athlete Postgame Quotes
Syracuse Football
Syracuse Orange vs. Pittsburgh Panthers
October 16, 2010,
Syracuse Student-Athlete Postgame Quotes
Antwon Bailey, Junior Running Back
On level of disappointment for fans:
“There’s a lot of disappointment, throughout the locker room, the community. I think everywhere. We’re at our house and for this game, I just think we didn’t play at our potential today.”
On whether he was surprised on how the team played:
“I’m definitely surprised. We definitely didn’t play up to our potential today. We’ll go into the film room tomorrow and we’ll figure it out.”
On reason for 3 and outs:
“They were mostly our fault. We made a lot of mental errors, some things that are correctible but unacceptable.”
On the physical nature of game:
“They played football. It’s a contact sport. If you play offense they are going to try and hit you. It’s your job to try and hit ‘em back in the mouth. They were playing football.”
On whether he was surprised about Pitt’s defense:
“They were who they say they are on film. Like I said, we just had a few mental errors and some things we didn’t capitalize on so no, I wasn’t surprised at all.”
On whether this will take away from team’s confidence:
“I don’t think it will take away at all because like I said it’s just mistakes here and there that we see are correctible and things that we should have done. Offensively, it’s not that we didn’t move the ball. We got the ball up and down the field. We just made critical mistakes in the red zone area and when we were driving.”
On whether it is time to panic:
“It’s definitely not time to panic. We’re 4-2, 21-1 in the BIG EAST. We have a lot of noise to make. We have West Virginia coming up. You better believe we’ll be ready. “
Chandler Jones, Junior Defensive Lineman
On what Pitt did to convert first downs:
“Pitt did a good job of 3-step dropping, getting rid of the ball fast and that’s just something that we have to work on.”
On whether Pitt’s passing game was surprising:
“My mindset going into this was that it was going to be a very physical game and I’m going to get a lot of runs my way or a lot of runs the other way; getting a lot of tackles from run plays. But it was shotgun. You saw the very first play of the game, they ran a bubble screen and they started throwing for the rest the game on. So it was pretty shocking, Pitt throwing the ball, because they usually don’t throw the ball.”
On reaction of the team:
“A lot of disappointment and I personally feel that there were a lot of plays that I left out on the field and we made a few mistakes. Pitt did a good job of executing its plays.”
On how this affects the goals from the beginning of the season:
“Exactly, as Antwon (Bailey) just said, we’re 1-1 in the BIG EAST and it’s not over yet. We will come back fired up against West Virginia.”
On how the team changes:
“Well for me personally, I just pin my ears back more and try to play the best.”
Phillip Thomas, Sophomore Corner Back
On Pitt’s passing game:
“They came out pretty good, we could have prevented some things. My tackle, it was a mistake but it was a mistake that could happen fast. They came with a good passing game, you can’t say anything about it and we had to adjust in the second half.”
On whether he expected throwing:
“Yes we did expect that with the power receiver core they have. They’ve been saying that all week that they have a power receiver core. We kind of expected it, so it wasn’t a surprise.”
On whether he thinks this will take away team pride:
“Not at all. We are SU Orange. There’s nothing that can take away our pride, we’ll keep rolling. That’s all I have to say. We’re still a team, a coaching staff and we stick together.”
Ryan Nassib, Junior Quarterback
On his emotions after the game:
“It was tough loss. We definitely went in thinking it was a game that we could win and we had a great plan and I just think the most upsetting thing was that we messed up a lot of stuff that we could control. Little details here and there, simple penalties. We had a tough time getting first downs. We’ll fix it.”
On how he assesses himself:
“I feel like I did alright but I can do a lot better. I definitely had a dumb mistake in my interception, my second one, and I just felt like I could have gotten the ball out faster a couple of times and made a couple better, more accurate throws. I’ll go from there.”
On the frequent 3 and outs in the first half:
“They weren’t doing anything special at all, they were doing their base. Like I said, two of those 3 and outs were fourth and ones and fourth and maybe less than one. They did a good job today of stopping the run game and they had the game planned pretty well and they just out executed us.”
On fumble exchange/miscommunication:
“No, the snap was fine. Bart (Ryan Bartholomew) may have gotten bumped a little bit but who knows.”
On the expectation for a turnaround for the team after the loss:
“We have to keep playing regardless. We had a tough time today but the difference about the team this year is that we are going to come out playing. We didn’t stop today regardless of the score and we are just going to come out next week and keep swinging until we can’t swing anymore.”
On what broke down leading to the interception:
“It was tough, we were in an empty formation and I was just trying to get the ball away and I didn’t think anybody was going to be there. My body didn’t let me get it out of bounds and the corner peeled off and he made a good play.”
On what he tells the team in the huddle when the team is trailing late in the game:
“Let’s just have some fun. Let’s just score some touchdowns and have some fun. Never give up and keep going, that’s what our offensive line does and the rest of the offense and to keep swinging.”
Delone Carter, Senior, Running Back
On if Pittsburgh did anything that surprised the team:
“Not at all. We did everything we had to do, we just didn’t execute. They did everything we planned on them doing and they out-executed us.”
On how physical Pittsburgh was:
“I don’t feel like they beat us physically. I feel like we didn’t not step up to the challenge fast enough, and I felt like that hurt us.”
On the mood in the locker room:
“We are ready to ride and get to work, correct the wrongs that we made and do what we need to do to prove it next week and win.”
Doug Hogue, Senior, Linebacker
On the outcome of the game:
“Pittsburgh, they are a good team. They out-executed us, so we have to go back to the drawing board for West Virginia next week.”
Mike Holmes, Senior, Safety
On what changed after the team stopped Pittsburgh on the two series in the first quarter:
“They are a good team they just executed better than we did on defense. There were certain drives that you can see the defense executed and we played with them, but on certain runs we had meltdowns and we just didn’t execute.”
On what Pittsburgh did well:
“I wouldn’t say it was what they did well, I would say it was us with technique and assignments and things we did. I think we beat ourselves out there as defense.”
On if he felt like the team disappointed the fans by the loss:
“For the crowd that we had of course we wanted to go out there and win and get the support back. We will definitely bounce back and we hope the fans will stick with us.”
Max Suter, Senior, Safety
On what opened up for Pittsburgh on offense:
“They had a great team and I am not going to take anything for them. We did a lot of things that killed us, too. We were right there and just couldn’t make the plays most of the times. We missed the tackle on the first play of scrimmage for them on offense. It is hard to come back after you get yourself in a hole. We try not to do that and it happened today. It is just the little things, and we just have to correct the little things.”
On if there was a difference in how the team approached this game:
“I don’t think that. We did not come out ready like the way we should have been ready to play and that showed. They got up on us quick. We just have to come back and be positive this week and get ourselves ready for West Virginia.”
