Oct. 25, 2008
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Game Action
ASU Head Coach Dennis Erickson
On the game:
"I'm embarrassed for our football team. I'm embarrassed for our fans and for our students. To be at home and play like that is inexcusable. I didn't see it coming obviously. When you play a team like that, you have some opportunities early and you turn the football over like we turned it over, then defensively we get tired because we can't move the ball early at the start of the game. Then they come out in the third quarter and boom, boom, boom. I really don't have an answer, it lies on my shoulders and that's the bottom line."
On what ASU did wrong:
"We didn't make plays. We talk about making plays all the time. We tried to throw the ball up the football field, and we had some guys out there that just didn't make plays, and then we end up turning it over. We made some plays on defense early, but we got worn out. Really that's a little bit of an excuse early, but it sure isn't an excuse in the third quarter because we couldn't stop them."
On playing a team like Oregon:
"It's very challenging. Their quarterback [Jeremiah Masoli] is a tremendous athlete and you have to account for him as far as running is concerned. We thought we had a good plan, which I think at times we did. We didn't tackle very well, we missed a lot of tackles and we had them in the right position to make plays and we just didn't make plays. They clearly were better than us; clearly out-coached us, clearly out-everything-ed us. Hopefully there will be better times ahead. I think there will be. I know there will be. But for right now it's very embarrassing."
On what's ahead for this team:
"There were some young guys who I thought played very well. You just have to gather yourself as a football team, and just get ready to play next week. There's nothing else you can do. We have to come in tomorrow and look and see what happened and get ourselves ready to go up to Corvallis next week. We've got five games left. All we can do is take one game at a time."
On ASU's offense:
"We had guys open and we dropped some balls. We had a pretty good plan throwing the football, and we had some opportunities deep and we didn't make the plays. They started playing two deep when they got ahead. The bottom line is that every game we fall behind and we dig ourselves a hole. I thought that we could change it when we went for it on fourth down at the 50-yard line, and I'd do the same thing again. We had two guys open and we trip and fall, so you're trying to change the momentum of the game and something like that happens."
ASU LB Mike Nixon
On the game:
"I can only speak for the defensive side of the ball, but when you're going into the game you know you're going to have to play assignment-style football. The spread offense tries to get one-on-one situations where if everybody is not sound and there's a break, they take advantage. To beat a team like that you really have to limit the big plays, and we obviously didn't do that tonight."
On going up against Oregon's offense:
"The unique thing about them is they spread the field to run the ball, while other teams run (the spread) to pass it. With the no-huddle offense, they try to wear you down, and without getting ball control from the offense, and without getting three-and-outs on defense, we're not doing our job. By the time you're in the second quarter, it feels like you're in the second half."
On expecting the defense to play better:
"I thought we had a great game plan defensively coming into the game. It's always easier in practice to see how you're supposed to execute them, but they're no harder in game situations. We have to be able to have the composure to take what we're taught onto the field. I felt like tonight the players let the coaches down, because they put us into a situation to succeed."
On Jeremiah Masoli:
"He's perfect for that offense. He's able to run the ball and make the passes he needs to make. We were hoping to come into the game in a situation where we were going to make them throw it a little more and take away what they're so good at, which is running the ball and him having the option of running the ball. We weren't able to do that, and they were able to run the ball like they have all season. I figure he'll be in there the rest of the year."
ASU WR Michael Jones
On the offense tonight:
"We just didn't make plays. We had a good game plan. We came in wanting to take shots down the field, but it is hard when they drop a lot of guys in the secondary. When we had big plays called, we just didn't step up to make them like we were supposed to. We just didn't capitalize on all of the things that they gave us. The defense played their hearts out. They gave us opportunities and we just couldn't capitalize."
On if the offense is losing confidence:
"We look at each other like who's going to step up. We really haven't had that one person just step up and lead the team. We just have to stick together; we can't put our heads down. We can't quit. We can't give up. We just have to keep playing harder. Even though we didn't score many points, our defense gave us opportunities throughout the game. We just have to capitalize on the opportunities that we get."
On Oregon's defense:
"They showed us exactly what we thought they were going to show us. Now and then they'll have more guys in the secondary that we didn't expect. We wanted to come in and run the ball down the field, but we really didn't get the opportunity to do that. They didn't really do anything too special. We just didn't make plays tonight."
Oregon Head Coach Mike Bellotti
On the game:
"I thought we played with a lot of energy and efficiency. Our offense was explosive and somewhat sporadic. The biggest thing for tonight was we wanted to get a message across to the young players about finishing the second half of the season. Tonight was the first step toward getting to that conference championship, and we started tonight by winning on the road."
On their defense:
"Our defensive pressure tonight was huge. Containing and stopping the run was crucial in making them throw on obvious passing plays, which helped us control the game."
On Jeremiah Masoli's running ability:
"He's very explosive and a lot of people underestimate his speed, especially in taking poor angles in pursuit, and he showed that tonight."
Oregon RB Jeremiah Johnson
On their emphasis on the running game tonight:
"That was our plan tonight. We had success with it, so we kept going back to it. We saw the linebackers and they weren't stopping us."