Post-Game Quotes: Maryland
11/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Michigan State Head Coach Mark Dantonio:
Thoughts on first half performance...
"I was pleased we were winning, I was not pleased with the performance in terms of production. The message to the team was just, `hey, let's go.' We were our own worst enemy, too many penalties, different things were going on out there. We couldn't get the ball in the end zone so we had to kick three field goals."
Thoughts on fan support...
"I think our fans are excited because we had a great showing out here tonight. I told our football team that we were going east and when we go east, every Spartan on the east coast is going to be there, and they were. We have a great following, we have great fans that are passionate."
On Michael Geiger's confidence...
"I think his kicks tonight were great for his confidence. Obviously, we would have liked to see him make the 47-yarder but it's great to see him kick three in a row. He's a very sure minded guy, he's got a lot of confidence in himself. He's just got to keep kicking. He was 15-for-16 last year, so it'll come."
On Connor Cook's touchdown pass streak...
"Great streak. I think we look at records and say that it's the best ever, but the bottom line is, what did you do today. We probably didn't throw the ball as successfully as we have in the past. The bottom line for today was that we were able to run the football effectively, bust some big runs in the fourth quarter, and secure the football game. You never know who is going to play well."
On Damon Knox's return...
"What you have to remember about Damon Knox is that he didn't play football for seven months. He thinks he's ready, but the strength that he had as a football player and athletic ability as a football player, he didn't use for seven months. You aren't going to get that back like that just because you start playing at one week. It takes months to get that back but he's a good football player that is all in. I think he played quite a bit tonight."
Thoughts about playing in Maryland's stadium...
"I think it was unique and a great environment. It gave an opportunity for Spartans across the east coast to come to a football game. I think it was a great crowd. This is Maryland's first year in the Big Ten and it's only going to get even more exciting as these rivalries begin to take shape."
On wide receiving production...>
"We are deep at the wide receiver position. You saw Keith Mumphery and Tony Lippett making plays, Macgarrett Kings Jr. had a good game as well as. All those guys came up with some big plays and big catches."
Maryland Head Coach Randy Edsall
Opening Statement...
"I thought we had some opportunities tonight to put ourselves in a position to get a win, but we didn't take advantage of the opportunities we had. Going into the game the one thing we talked about was that we knew we couldn't turn the ball over. We turned the ball over four times, [one] time in the kicking game and [three] times on the offense. You can't do that against a top-15 team and expect to win. We also knew that we couldn't give up the big play defensively and we did that a couple times tonight. We knew we had to take advantage of the opportunities we were going to have offensively and we just didn't get that done tonight. We'll take a look at the film tomorrow with the guys and show them the things they did right and show them the things that they did wrong and work to get better. That's all basically what we can do."
On assessing the team's performance...
"We had a 9-7 ball game with less than two minutes to go in the first half. We are playing really solid defensively and then we give up the big play. We missed the tackle on 1-on-1 and they go down and make it 16-7. I thought we could have gone into halftime at 9-7 or get a field goal and go up 10-9, but we weren't able. Now we go in 16-7 and come back out in the second half and can't get anything going. It's still a 16-7 game and we have the chance to go make some plays and we didn't offensively. Again, there were opportunities there. On some of the other games that we've had, we didn't have those opportunities. It's 16-7 until late in the third quarter, and then we throw a pick-six, when we have a guy in the flat that we should have thrown the ball to. That's the thing that's frustrating about it. It's disappointing. To know that we had opportunities if we executed and did the things that were there for us to take, then we could have put ourselves into a better position to win. That's what's different and that's what's frustrating. Those are the things that I talked to the team about and those are the things we have to do, take advantage those opportunities. If you do that, then you can beat a team like Michigan State."
On Michigan State's defense...
"They beat us up front. We knew it was going to be tough to run. That's the thing they predicate their defense on, put a lot of guys in the box and do that. We didn't do a good enough job getting guys off the ball. We talked about going into the game that we wanted to run the ball efficiently. We knew it was going to be tough to run it and we knew that we were going to have to get some plays in the passing game. They got us physically up front."
On what he saw on C.J. Brown's pick-six...
"He just made a poor decision. The defender stayed inside and the throw should have gone outside to Amba [Etta-Tawo] on the swing route. He had him and he made a poor decision; he made a poor throw and that's what I tried to tell him. You can't predetermine things, you have to read when you get the ball, read it and throw accordingly. He did and again that hurt us in that situation."
On the defense's performance...
"It's always hard to single out anything when you lose. I thought we competed, I wasn't happy with how the game ended there, but again, I thought defensively we played aggressively, we did a good job, guys executed, and basically did their job. There were a couple times we didn't, but overall, they were running around and they executed except for one third down play that went for 50 yards there early where we held them to a field goal and then the 62-yard pass play. Again, it's just a matter of guys executing and then the plays that we didn't, when they got the big plays, we didn't execute as well as we needed to."
