Post-Game Quotes
9/26/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 26, 2009
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio
Opening Statement...
"I think that you can't win a football game if you can't get off the field on third down on a consistent basis, and you can't turn it over four times. We came out in the first half and won the toss and elected to receive based on the 11 a.m. central game. Defensively, we did pretty well in the first couple series. We got off the field on sudden change situations after an interception, after a punt, so from that standpoint it was positive. But I felt like in the first half, especially in the second quarter, we just sort of lost our energy. The third quarter we did much better. We came back and cut it [the score] to seven. We can't let them drive the ball down the field. I have to credit Wisconsin, they've got some players too. They made some plays. I thought their quarterback was very good today. We need to play with more sense of execution. I'm not sure what the stats were on third down, but our guys did not give up. I thought we came out and played the second half very hard. We were very emotional. Even at the end of the third quarter, fourth quarter we didn't stop. We've got to make the play on the seam route on third down. We did not execute, so we got down by a little more. But we came back at the end and tried to keep fighting, but it was too late."
"I credit Wisconsin, they have a good football team. They had toughness. They were difficult to run on. In the third quarter we were running down field. We were not as sharp passing the football as we've been. I think the two big plays at the end of the game skew the stats a little bit."
On handling the loss...
"As far as emotionally, it's tough when you don't succeed, so we have to handle the adversity that's thrown at us and get stronger. I think that's key. We have to continue to race each other and not point fingers. We have to continue to coach for the next play and play for the next play. We have to play with good execution on both sides of the ball. We'll be back."
On problems with the defense...
"We tried a lot of players. You've got to credit some of the people we played against. We've played against some good football teams who have some good quarterbacks. But when you say what's wrong, we have to stop teams on a more consistent basis. We've got a couple of linebackers who are in and out of there a little bit. We're playing three different linebackers at one position...I can't answer all of these things because every time it's something a little bit different."