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Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith
Credit to Ohio State, that’s a good football team. Thought they played hard. Very talented as we expected. I do think in the first half we did not help ourselves with some self-inflicted things like turning the ball over a couple times. We turned it over twice in our red zone going in again, that was painful. We had an opportunity to get a stop in the red zone on defense, we dropped an interception, even they scored late to make it 24 to 7 at the half on a punt that we gotta be better on. They went down and separated the thing. Some missed opportunities in the first half and then third quarter we didn’t get anything done. I did tell our team, I didn’t feel that there were a bunch of snaps out there that we were just overwhelmed. I was trying to encourage our guys that we can go toe to toe if we can finish on some things and get back to some details on ball security and getting off the field on third down. I appreciate the crowd and wanted to say it again, recognizing Mark Dantonio was special. The class act he is, running into him before walking over here, what a big-time person and coach. It was awesome to recognize him this weekend.
On the halftime message after missed opportunities…
We didn’t dwell on that. We talked about tightening up on our ball security. Talked about winning the third quarter. If we could win the third quarter by a point total, it would be in reach for the fourth quarter, but we did not get that done.
On going for it rather than kicking on the first possession…
Going into the game it felt like field goals against this team was not going to give us the best chance to win. Honestly, on fourth and one, I’m going to be overly aggressive. These guys know that we need to go get that done.
On lack of scoring in the second half…
We got to look at that. Whether it’s tendencies or adjustments we are making, both those point totals are not where we want to be. We got a short week here and we’ll take a look at this film and see where we can improve. We have got to score more than that.
On sophomore quarterback Aidan Chiles’ performance…
I thought he was throwing the ball really well in the first half. The protection was there even though we were missing a guy or two in the second half. I thought guys were making some plays while running after the catch. I thought [Jack] Velling’s route where he’s running an option route was a perfect throw. Good by Ohio State, defender from behind puts it down. Overall, we were pleased with Aidan’s play.
On if the team is far away from the best teams in the country…
I think 38 to 7, we are far away. It’s in the details and it’s in these turnovers. We are going to continue to work, credit to those guys. At the end of the day 38 to 7 is not close because it’s about the scoreboard. There will be plenty of snaps that we’ll watch from this game that we are right there with them. I thought defensively they had some good athletes out there and we tried to go toe to toe. All in all, was encouraged by that.
On the positives from tonight…
I thought the effort was there, but the execution wasn’t. Biggest thing is if these guys can go back to work because we got a short week and being able to learn from this and continuing to move forward is the biggest positive for me.
On the message to the defensive backs after giving up tough catches…
This is big time college football against a big-time opponent. They are going to make some plays or two. You look at some snaps where we could’ve executed on some other plays to not give them one on one with some of these guys. They’re going to make their fair share of plays.
Differences and similarities between the two programs…
Differences, they made some plays, pretty good job with taking care of the ball; I know we got the one pick. I do think both teams played pretty hard, you know coach Day talked about it after the game, the effort there was similar.
What do you think the potential of this team is…
I think that we’re going to compete with just about anybody we line up with if we clean that up, and we’re going to be in every ball game with a chance to win it if we can clean up some turnover pieces and get off the field on third down.
How important is the morale of this team after two straight losses…
I think every week’s important. This one’s going to be a short week and we’re going to be re-loading, recovering, getting our mind flipped to another really good opponent, a talented program.
How do you go about preparing for things such as Jeremiah Smith’s one-handed catch…
You want to challenge him. Sometimes you want to affect the passer more than just affecting that one-on-one matchup or double-team, if you can get the quarterback off his spot. But again, they had weapons in multiple spots, schematically they’re lined up, and so it’s a tough task.
Thoughts on the offensive line…
Without totally studying it, I didn’t feel like they were getting overwhelmed out there. I thought at times they were some good protection, you know, so that’s my initial thinking. I’m not sitting there with the iPad digesting the film, I’ll do that tomorrow.
Nick Marsh’s status…
Yeah, his status, you know, he was cleared to play, he did not practice much at all this week, so we really didn’t know. We felt a little bit better, it was yesterday, and then through pregame, and so when a guy misses that much time it’s a huge ask for him to run all the reps. You know going off of last week (didn’t play), this week very minimal reps, and so I think that that was the thinking on him.
Talking about the lack of run game…
It’s hard. I did think that they had some good creases tonight. You know, opening play they were creasing the thing- our downhill running game had some stuff. We tried to get outside a few times in the back field and it makes it hard, as a play caller but that’s our role. We’ve got to figure out ways to do it better Brian’s not alone, that offensive staff has been around it, they know what they’re doing and we’ve got to continue to work to get better.
Pressure on the third down…
They’ve got a good front there and you’ve got to pick and choose the guy, and then you’ve got to leave yourself with a lot of one-on-one space on the edges of it. Again, I did feel like we wanted to force them to own it, put long drives together and execute to 8, 10, 12 and then they did it a few times. We didn’t have a bunch of the 60, 70 touchdowns that we’d been watching on tape.
About Aidan Chiles and his interceptions…
Yeah, interceptions, he’s going to his left which isn’t ideal. He’s got a guy up in his face, he’s trying to lob it over to him, again we’re trying to action pass when we’re down three, four scores so it’s tough. I did think he had a few good decisions thrown away throughout the night. But again, on that one pick that wasn’t a great scenario for him and maybe chucking it outside of bounds instead of trying to hit Jack.
Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day
How would you describe that sequence before halftime?
That’s something we spend a lot of time talking about. You guys have seen how many times we tried to get some of those two-minute drills in games. That middle eight is important. We felt like if we could get a stop there on second down, we were going to call that timeout. We were going to stop on third down and call a timeout. It gave us an opportunity to give us a shot and score. They ended up getting the ball at the minus forty. Then some tremendous plays by Jeremiah (Smith), and we at least have a field goal there so we have to be smart. I thought Chip (Kelly) was aggressive, he did a good job of calling them. Devin (Brown) stepped up in a big way, he came in for Will (Howard) and delivered that throw. What an unbelievable catch, I couldn’t believe he caught it, just a tremendous play. Then I thought we came out in the second half too and we continued that. We had 28 at half, we wanted to get that to at least 35. I think when you come out and get a three and out and we can get the ball back and score another touchdown it flips the game. I thought that is where the game turned.
About the defense’s performance…
When you look at the sum total of it all, 50 plays and 246 yards and seven points. You come away and say jeez what a great performance. Certainly, I thought we did a good job at shutting down, especially in the second half. But there are some things that we need to look at in the film and figure out kind of early on like you said there are some explosive plays in there that we got to clean up. I think we were watching the film at halftime, we were close to getting to the quarterback on a couple of things we just needed to hang onto coverage just a tick longer. They are a good team, they are well coached, they have some good players too. I thought we responded and made the changes appropriate and I think the adjustments were solid.
About Will Howard’s health and Tyleik’s (Williams) ability to play…
Will is good to go, he just took a shot there as you guys saw. Tyleik (Williams) was available in an emergency role, we felt like if we needed him, we were going to put him into the game. He was cleared, but he definitely felt like one more week kind of like the Donovan (Jackson) situation. One more week of rest will get him to 100% which we felt like was the right thing to do if we needed to. We felt like we could’ve put him in the game, we decided we didn’t need him.
How do you feel overall about your first road win and the turnovers?
The turnover battle was huge in this game. If we don’t get those turnovers, maybe it is a different game for sure. That’s the game, we got to make sure we are winning those situations. We will take a look at the film and see where it is at, but I thought the atmosphere was excellent early on. They came out and they played really hard, Jonathan is doing a really good job of putting his culture and thumbprint on the program here. I have a lot of respect for him and his staff. I thought our guys responded well and had some good poise, that was something we talked about having in the game having poise in the noise. Those fourth down conversions were pretty clutch.
What was your assessment of Will’s poise and mistakes?
The biggest one was the interception. He knows that was not a great play and it could have cost us. Something to learn from, you just have to move on from it, we have to work through his progression there. When you are learning a new offense, some of these are going to be growing opportunities and learning through those opportunities. But overall I thought he was solid, he was poised. He made some big throws. He had a couple tough runs in there. You can see what a difference it makes when you have a guy that can run.
Redshirt senior linebacker Cal Haladay
On missed opportunities in first half and impact on game…
We just have to capitalize on opportunities. For the defense, I think we did what we wanted to do to make them drive the field and they just made too many plays and on defense, we need to make some of those plays too. We knew that they were a really explosive offense and that they have a lot of talent on their team. But their players made a lot good plays today.
On difference of feel playing Ohio State this year than the previous three years…
I thought we were in this game the whole time. I think we did what we needed to for the most part. I mean, we gave up some explosive plays and were still responding. But we need to execute better, finish drives and on third down, get off the field. But I felt for most of this game we were in it until the end.
On playing the number three ranked team in the country and the preparation for an opponent of that caliber…
We knew it was going to be a challenge for sure and we knew they had a lot of talent. But we just need to focus on executing better and that was the main focus of the week. We have consistently gotten better every week in and week out and this week we are going to do the same process after the game and go back and get better this week.
Senior running back Nate Carter
On how much did it feel like you guys’ left points on the board…
Yeah, you’re right we left a lot of points on the board. Early on, we were moving the ball successfully on them in the run game and the pass game, then we get into the red zone and shoot ourselves in the foot. We make mistakes, and we have a lot of self-inflicted negatives. Especially with great teams like that, even before for us to compete with teams like that we can’t do that (leaving points on the board). So that was tough and that was hard, if you were saying we built a lot of confidence because we were running the ball, but it hurts our drives, and we keep going back because of turnovers or because of missed opportunities.
What’s the mindset for you and the team moving forward…
At the end of the day, we have to play another game in six days. So, it hurts getting blown out in our house and it happened, it is what it is, we got to learn from it, and we have to move on. You know you can’t sit in this, you know, and I think one of the things we said in the locker room that was really important is that it’s easy for good, great teams, which I believe we have, to get to this point of the season where we lose a couple of games and now it can go downhill. And I think the message in the locker room is for us not to allow that to happen. For us able to continue to push forward, because we have a great team and were hurting ourselves, which is why we are unable to be successful, so if we are able to stop those suffering for the negatives and continue to keep our confidence high, because we have a great team. They continue to work, especially this important week with it being short against Oregon, it is going to take a lot of work. So, we have to go in there with a new week, new mindset, and confidence on getting ready to play Friday night.
Who was in the locker room saying ‘not to let it snowball after this game’…
Anthony Jones Jr. transfer, he was the guy that really spoke up, because he has been part of teams like this. He was a part of good teams, that were great, and then they get into a rough stretch, ‘it was a couple games’, now the season goes all the way down. So he was very vulnerable in sharing his experiences with that, and also motivating us as a team, like ‘hey I have been a part of teams like this, let’s not be them, let’s not dwell in past, lets continue to move forward because we have a long season ahead of us, and we have a lot more opportunities and a lot of games to do that’.
On what was discussed in the locker room at half time…
The biggest thing for us is just execution. We proved that we could move the ball on these guys and that we could, but we didn’t execute in the red zone, and we had too. You know we had a lot of turnovers, and we had a lot of missed opportunities on the offensive side of the ball. So that was the message at halftime, and obviously in the second half we didn’t do a very good job of putting that into performance. So that’s where our next step is, being a consistent offense, where we are not just having a big play for 20 yards, then getting a sack for nine or six yards, you know that’s not consistency. So, what can we do as an offense to grow our consistency? What can we do as an offense to be more efficient in the red zone? I think we are going to do a great job of that going into this week.
