Pitt-Michigan State Post-Game Notes
9/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 16, 2006
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Pitt vs.
September 16, 2006
Quoting Pitt Head Coach Dave Wannstedt:
"I thought we came out ready to play this afternoon. I thought that our guys came into the game believing that we could win, but expecting somebody else to do it for them."
"We didn't make a play today, plain and simple. You've got to give them credit. We didn't make a play, we didn't make a catch, we didn't make a block, we didn't make a sack. We just didn't do anything to give ourselves a chance to win."
"That quarterback Drew Stanton is a heck of a good player. But, we're better than that. We didn't show it today. We just didn't get it done today."
"We were going to clock the ball (before halftime). We weren't going to call a timeout there. There were 13 seconds left. We were going to save the time out for the field goal. We were trying to get in field goal range there."
"We didn't make a tackle today. Making tackles is a sense of urgency in my mind. They have good players, but we made mistakes. We were not sharp today mentally as well as physically."
"The referees said, I guess, our left tackle had moved. That was the motion. Two guys were moving. We only had one guy in motion. Steve Buches, I didn't see it. They said the tackle leaned back. If he did that, that was a good call."
"We just missed so many tackles, I couldn't believe it. I know we can tackle better than that."
"We had them in third down a bunch of times. Third and three. Third and four. Third and five. Their quarterback--I'd like to see how many third downs he converted running the ball. I'll bet it was half of them."
"I'm not worried about our leadership. We've got a great group of guys. They'll bounce back. This was an opportunity for us to take another step forward and it didn't happen."
Quoting Pitt Quarterback Tyler Palko:
"We squandered some opportunities. We missed some opportunities and it seemed like it deflated our momentum and we never regained it."
"Anybody can play when you're on top. It's easy to come in and be 2-0 and win the first two games, but it's hard to be 3-0."
"No one came into this game thinking we were anything special. What it all boils down to is, football's a hard game when you don't get things to go your way and today they didn't go our way."
"By no means is our season over or we're not good anymore. We're a football team and we have to learn from our mistakes. Tomorrow's a new day and we'll go from there."
Quoting Pitt Linebacker Clint Session:
"We came out today and we didn't play our best football and it showed."
"They ran the option a lot more than I expected."
"We missed tackles out there today. I know I missed some tackles and we can't do that."
Quoting Pitt Defensive Back Darrelle Revis:
"We made mistakes. We need to eliminate those. I think some people got distracted out there today on the field and we can't do that."
Quoting Pitt Linebacker H.B. Blades:
"We had too many missed tackles. Out on the open field when you're one on one with the running back or the quarterback or whoever, you have to make those tackles."
MSU Head Coach John L. Smith Quotes
"I'm proud of our kids and proud of our coaches."
"We didn't start off the way we liked."
"I thought, for it being the first road trip, it was pretty good. We practiced all week long with the thought of being physical. I thought towards the end of the game we were able to wear them down. Anytime you go on the road and beat a quality opponent it's a good win."
"Our front (offensive line) was able to control the game, particularly in the second half."
Quoting MSU Wide receiver Matt Trannon:
"Any catch, no matter the amount is good to me."
"They played tough but they couldn't stop the running game."
"We had to do whatever it takes for us to score points."
Quoting MSU Quarterback Drew Stanton:
"I thought our defense stepped up and played pretty well."
"Our offense got going once we established the run. We were able to get into a rhythm and once we did that, we got to a point where we really had a lot of confidence."
"We didn't come out the way we wanted."
"Once the run option started to work we kept running it. Since it was working, we thought why not keep using it."
