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Head Coach Scott Shafer
Syracuse vs. Maryland
September 20, 2014
Carrier Dome
Head Coach Scott Shafer
Opening Statement:
“First off, congrats to coach Edsall and the Maryland team on a good victory. Difficult loss for us, I had a chance to reflect coming off the field for a couple minutes. It’s a game of turnovers and we know that, that’s the formula. You have to win the turnover ration. You have to take care of your protection in kicking game.
“Usually you rush 280-yards more then you have a shot to win, but I look at those fleeting opportunities and you’ve got to come down with the ball. I never felt like we gave ourselves a push in the momentum to get ourselves on track.
“The defense came out there in the second half and kept fighting. Almost pitched a shutout in the second half, minus the fumble and the points off the field goal, so I was pleased with that.
“Disappointed in the loss, again it comes down to an opportunity for an interception and they come down with it for a big play. Another opportunity for an interception and it hits us in the gut and we drop it. There’s two chances for momentum pushes and we didn’t work it.
“We understand how the formula works and that is: win the turnover ratio by at least one by the end of the game, rush the ball for more than 50 yards more than our opponent and protect in the kicking game or don’t give up a big play. In two of those areas we came up short and that’s why we lost the game.”
On failed opportunities in the red zone:
“I think each of those has an opportunity to be a game-changer, but again coming up short and having some holding penalties that really knocked us back and put us in a tough situation.
“Even still, before halftime we could have cut that thing down with a field goal and had a little bit of a feeling heading into the locker room that, ‘Hey, we have some momentum.’ It’s such a game of momentum, and then we missed the field goal there and that was disappointing.
“But we kept fighting, I thought the kids continued to play hard, but we did not play smart and take care of the almighty football and when you don’t do that you lose games.”
On why it was a struggle to finish drives:
“Because we didn’t get the ball over the goal line.”
Any update on (wide receiver) Ashton Broyld’s injury?
“Not yet. We’ll hopefully know in a few hours when we get him checked out, but he’s got a lower leg injury. We got a little banged up today.”
On third downs:
“We moved the chains on a couple of those third downs and then we penalized ourselves. It was great play, great play, holding. Great play, great play, facemask. So when it came down to that one around the 50-yard line and there was a decision to be made, I decided to kick it because I knew our defense would stop them and they did, but we didn’t come back and make the move you have to. So it was a difficult situation there.
“You don’t want to break your back when the defense was playing well. I felt confident in the situation we had there. There were times where we crossed them up and everyone’s cheering, including coach Shafer, and then that flag comes out.
“So if you ask me the most disappointing thing, I think it would be that we had holding, holding, chop, holding, one was a defensive holding down the field, holding and then coach Shafer being mad because we didn’t get that one call. But I’m sure he made the right call, but we’ll have to look at it.
“We’re just going to have to bounce back. We’re playing one of the best teams in the country in Notre Dame at MetLife Stadium. They’ve had a week off to prepare for us and it’ll be a great opportunity for our kids to really bounce back and go in there with some fire power and see who we are and continue to try and grow each week.
“We have to do a better job of controlling the things that we can control. That would be penalties, pre-snap penalties and discipline with our hand placement, and trying to continue to work to get those turnovers. We’ve been good not giving them up until today and obviously those were costly.”
On the effect of today’s loss after coming in with confidence after Central Michigan:
“We didn’t get it done. We lost the game obviously, but we moved the ball well on offense, I liked what we did on offense. Defensively, we gave up those two big plays early, and played on our heels a bit, but you can’t give up those big plays.
“We rebounded a bit but it was too late. We couldn’t come up with that momentum push that you need, simple as that.”
Is this game more disappointing given next week:
“If you overthink it maybe. But that’s not how we operate – if you did you’d drive yourself nuts. I don’t need to drive myself nuts.”
On dropped passes:
“A lot of passes we made last week, we didn’t make this week and I thought the placement of the football wasn’t as good as it was last week. I thought Terrel was 12-to-18 inches off on a lot of those throws and last week he was dead on, so he’ll go back to work on it and we’ll go back to work on it and try to be more consistent with those plays.”
How long do you focus on this game before you move onto Notre Dame?
“What we do is Sunday, tomorrow, the kids will get a flush out. Stretch and yoga to try and get their bodies right and then we’ll go hard to work on the Maryland game first and foremost. We’ll do that for an hour or an hour and a half to try and correct the mistakes, make sure everyone has extreme clarity on where we made the mistakes and where our technique wasn’t good. Then we have dinner, and after we have dinner we throw away the last game, for better or worse, we throw it away and then we focus on our next target, which would be Notre Dame.
“Then we put them to bed and, as coaches, go hard on Monday and then Tuesday put the pads on and go back to work.”
On next three opponents:
“The challenge is not the next three weeks, you’re dead wrong. I love you, but you’re missing the boat on this one. The challenge is do we win on Sunday and then do we win on Monday and do we in on Tuesday on just focusing on the task at hand, which is Notre Dame.”
On placekickers Cole Murphy and Ryan Norton:
“Well I think we’ll take a good look at it and try and play the guy who gives us the best opportunity to win. It was nice to see Cole hit that long one and come back in. So we’ll cross that bridge when we get closer to game time. It’s no different than any other position, we’ll look around the room and talk amongst coaches and try to make the best decision to help the team.”
On giving up two big plays early and what he’d do differently looking back:
“If we had covered the deep ball better and had been in better position to break it up, that’d be the first thing. Then on the bubble we got cut. Our safety came up and he got cut. He has to play with his hands better come over the top and at bare minimum force it back to his teammates. sDefense is all about leverage, keeping the ball in front and getting off blocks. In those two instances we didn’t stay on top and on the second one we lost leverage. In those situations it’s more technique than a call to be honest with you.”
September 20, 2014
Carrier Dome
Head Coach Scott Shafer
Opening Statement:
“First off, congrats to coach Edsall and the Maryland team on a good victory. Difficult loss for us, I had a chance to reflect coming off the field for a couple minutes. It’s a game of turnovers and we know that, that’s the formula. You have to win the turnover ration. You have to take care of your protection in kicking game.
“Usually you rush 280-yards more then you have a shot to win, but I look at those fleeting opportunities and you’ve got to come down with the ball. I never felt like we gave ourselves a push in the momentum to get ourselves on track.
“The defense came out there in the second half and kept fighting. Almost pitched a shutout in the second half, minus the fumble and the points off the field goal, so I was pleased with that.
“Disappointed in the loss, again it comes down to an opportunity for an interception and they come down with it for a big play. Another opportunity for an interception and it hits us in the gut and we drop it. There’s two chances for momentum pushes and we didn’t work it.
“We understand how the formula works and that is: win the turnover ratio by at least one by the end of the game, rush the ball for more than 50 yards more than our opponent and protect in the kicking game or don’t give up a big play. In two of those areas we came up short and that’s why we lost the game.”
On failed opportunities in the red zone:
“I think each of those has an opportunity to be a game-changer, but again coming up short and having some holding penalties that really knocked us back and put us in a tough situation.
“Even still, before halftime we could have cut that thing down with a field goal and had a little bit of a feeling heading into the locker room that, ‘Hey, we have some momentum.’ It’s such a game of momentum, and then we missed the field goal there and that was disappointing.
“But we kept fighting, I thought the kids continued to play hard, but we did not play smart and take care of the almighty football and when you don’t do that you lose games.”
On why it was a struggle to finish drives:
“Because we didn’t get the ball over the goal line.”
Any update on (wide receiver) Ashton Broyld’s injury?
“Not yet. We’ll hopefully know in a few hours when we get him checked out, but he’s got a lower leg injury. We got a little banged up today.”
On third downs:
“We moved the chains on a couple of those third downs and then we penalized ourselves. It was great play, great play, holding. Great play, great play, facemask. So when it came down to that one around the 50-yard line and there was a decision to be made, I decided to kick it because I knew our defense would stop them and they did, but we didn’t come back and make the move you have to. So it was a difficult situation there.
“You don’t want to break your back when the defense was playing well. I felt confident in the situation we had there. There were times where we crossed them up and everyone’s cheering, including coach Shafer, and then that flag comes out.
“So if you ask me the most disappointing thing, I think it would be that we had holding, holding, chop, holding, one was a defensive holding down the field, holding and then coach Shafer being mad because we didn’t get that one call. But I’m sure he made the right call, but we’ll have to look at it.
“We’re just going to have to bounce back. We’re playing one of the best teams in the country in Notre Dame at MetLife Stadium. They’ve had a week off to prepare for us and it’ll be a great opportunity for our kids to really bounce back and go in there with some fire power and see who we are and continue to try and grow each week.
“We have to do a better job of controlling the things that we can control. That would be penalties, pre-snap penalties and discipline with our hand placement, and trying to continue to work to get those turnovers. We’ve been good not giving them up until today and obviously those were costly.”
On the effect of today’s loss after coming in with confidence after Central Michigan:
“We didn’t get it done. We lost the game obviously, but we moved the ball well on offense, I liked what we did on offense. Defensively, we gave up those two big plays early, and played on our heels a bit, but you can’t give up those big plays.
“We rebounded a bit but it was too late. We couldn’t come up with that momentum push that you need, simple as that.”
Is this game more disappointing given next week:
“If you overthink it maybe. But that’s not how we operate – if you did you’d drive yourself nuts. I don’t need to drive myself nuts.”
On dropped passes:
“A lot of passes we made last week, we didn’t make this week and I thought the placement of the football wasn’t as good as it was last week. I thought Terrel was 12-to-18 inches off on a lot of those throws and last week he was dead on, so he’ll go back to work on it and we’ll go back to work on it and try to be more consistent with those plays.”
How long do you focus on this game before you move onto Notre Dame?
“What we do is Sunday, tomorrow, the kids will get a flush out. Stretch and yoga to try and get their bodies right and then we’ll go hard to work on the Maryland game first and foremost. We’ll do that for an hour or an hour and a half to try and correct the mistakes, make sure everyone has extreme clarity on where we made the mistakes and where our technique wasn’t good. Then we have dinner, and after we have dinner we throw away the last game, for better or worse, we throw it away and then we focus on our next target, which would be Notre Dame.
“Then we put them to bed and, as coaches, go hard on Monday and then Tuesday put the pads on and go back to work.”
On next three opponents:
“The challenge is not the next three weeks, you’re dead wrong. I love you, but you’re missing the boat on this one. The challenge is do we win on Sunday and then do we win on Monday and do we in on Tuesday on just focusing on the task at hand, which is Notre Dame.”
On placekickers Cole Murphy and Ryan Norton:
“Well I think we’ll take a good look at it and try and play the guy who gives us the best opportunity to win. It was nice to see Cole hit that long one and come back in. So we’ll cross that bridge when we get closer to game time. It’s no different than any other position, we’ll look around the room and talk amongst coaches and try to make the best decision to help the team.”
On giving up two big plays early and what he’d do differently looking back:
“If we had covered the deep ball better and had been in better position to break it up, that’d be the first thing. Then on the bubble we got cut. Our safety came up and he got cut. He has to play with his hands better come over the top and at bare minimum force it back to his teammates. sDefense is all about leverage, keeping the ball in front and getting off blocks. In those two instances we didn’t stay on top and on the second one we lost leverage. In those situations it’s more technique than a call to be honest with you.”
