Head Coach Bobby Petrino
Opening Statement:
"That was a tough loss for us. I thought the first half our defense did a nice job of keeping us in there. Not letting them get in the end zone, expect for giving up three points. We do need to improve defensively on keeping guys backed up. Offensively, we did not have very good field position the entire first half. The interception for a touchdown is a tough play because the guy didn’t rush and jumped up and made a nice catch and return. That is something that doesn’t happen a lot. The second half I don’t think we were able to come out and establish the run. Once you get behind and you have to throw the ball so much, they get to tee off on the pass rush. We would like to see the game played the other way where they had to throw the ball and we were able to run it in the second half. It just didn’t happen.
Q: Offensively, once the interception for a touchdown happened you guys seemed that you couldn’t get it going again?
A: "No, I didn’t think that. We were moving the ball. We were backed up and had a nice drive coming moving the ball. I think he had the guy open that he was going to. The guy jumped up. I don’t know how the ball stuck on him, but it did and he ran it in for a touchdown. Then, we started again backed up a couple times. Then, we had a real nice drive in the second quarter and just about had the ball the entire quarter. Then, we missed a field goal which really hurt us because we took the ball from the minus-two and drove it all the way down there. We had a couple chances for some big plays and couple chances for touchdowns. They just didn’t happen. One guy would break down here and one guy would break down there. So, it just wasn’t all clicking there."
Q: Talk about the sacks that affected the offense?
A: "Yes, you really have to evaluate them. But, anytime you throw the ball a lot they get to take advantage and tee off. I think there is one sack that hurt us early in the second half where we had a play open and we were not able to throw the ball.
Q: Are you surprised that they came out and blitzed immediately as they did as they really didn’t show much of that last year?
A: "No, not really. We kind of felt that they would show us pressure. Actually, in the first half they were pretty conservative… played a lot of cover-two on first down. But, at halftime they made some adjustments and came out in the second half and on first down and really tried to come after us and play some single-high. They did a pretty good job disguising it. We had a couple of nice runs early but we were not able to establish anything we could lay our hat on running the ball."
Q: Can you talk about your kicker in his first game? He made one and missed one?
A: "We need to be better than that. Obviously, we need to make them both. The good thing is he came back and made the second one which, obviously, there was pressure on him and pressure from everyone else."
Q: On his two kickoffs... He's got a ton of leg?
A: "Yes, he can kick the ball. He is a very talented young man. We just got to make sure that we are putting it through the uprights when he gets the opportunity.
Q: How would you evaluate (Joey) Harrington’s performance?
A: "Well, you really have to watch the video. But, he hung in there. I thought he did some good things, but he was inconsistent. Certainly we are looking for consistency. Obviously, when you watch the video it is all 11 guys. All 11 guys on offense have to do their job every time. That is how you move the ball. That is how you get the ball in the end zone. When you don’t, the quarterback takes the blunt of the criticism."
Cornerback DeAngelo Hall
Thoughts on the Vikings running backs:
A: "We knew those guys were going to run the ball. I think we did an all right job, but we did not do an excellent job. We need to be ready every time we touch the field, and it just did not happen for us today."
Q. What did you think about Adrian Peterson today?
A. Great back, we already knew that. He is a load. With Chester Taylor going out today, it might of hurt us because he is a little bit smaller of a back, not really going to deliver a blow like an Adrian Peterson did. We knew we were going to see both of the running backs and we did not perform the way that I wished we could have performed."
Q. Tell us about that good play with the interception.
A. "I guess I can not remember, but I think we were sitting in a zone. I happened to see the bootleg, ran to the ball, and was able to get my hands on it."
Linebacker Keith Brooking
Q: Was Adrian Peterson everything you thought he was advertised to be?
A: "We gave him a lot. A lot of it was not necessarily what he was doing, it was what we did. You see the talent and the ability -- there is definitely no doubt about that. He has a bright future."
Q. What did you see that was correctable and what are you hoping to work on?
A. "Obviously, we will have to work on the film study, but I think that the only thing that we have to do is match their big plays. Sometimes those big plays just fall into your lap. There are a lot of them that you can create as a defense and we have to work on that. We have to be more gap-controllant and just not allow gaps to happen up the middle. "
Quarterback Joey Harrington
Q: You seemed to not be able to move the ball down the field today...
A: Somebody said it afterwords -- if we didn’t have bad luck we wouldn’t have had no luck at all today. You know, sometimes the ball bounces the other way. Today it happened to be in a game that was one of those claw ‘em out type of games. It’s frustrating because we did a lot of things right and then there was one or two bounces that went their way. We have got to give them credit for that. They came up with the big plays today. There’s nothing you can say about that."
Q: Were you surprised they came out and blitzed as much as they did today?
A: "No, within the times that I have played them it does not surprise me. We were ready for it and there were times that they just out-executed us. We did things right, there just was some times they did things better than us. That was one of the frustrating things today. It was not like there was these glaring plays today that you could say, 'Here is that blatant mistake that we made.'"
On the interception early in the game:
A: "Oh. it is funny; We knew that if we could get ‘em into a bit of hurry up we could stall their rush and that was a play that we went off count and we caught them so off guard so much that he didn’t even rush. Like I said it was one of those bad luck plays. We got up to the line of scrimmage and tried to snap the ball before they were ready to give ourselves an advantage and we did just that but he was so far off the line he ended up just standing right where I was trying to throw the ball. It was one of those you can’t do anything about it besides just keep throwing it."
Q: You guys dealt with a lot of offseason controversy and spent much of training camp overcoming that, how do you feel this game affects your effort to reorganize after all these experiences?
A: "We have reorganized a long time ago. Like we have said for months now, it is something we have dealt with very well I think at the start of camp. We have had to move on and come together with the pieces that we have and I think we have done that very well over the last month. It is not an issue anymore."
Q: Joey, you have said that you feel very comfortable in this system. Did you feel comfortable today?
A: "I did. I did. Yeah, that is the frustrating thing. It is not like I felt out of whack. I have not seen the statistics, but I would guess that we threw the ball for a fairly decent percentage. You know they made the big plays and we didn’t. That was what this game came down to."
Q: You made a lot of connections with Warrick (Dunn). Warrick was blocking, rushing and receiving as well as Alge (Crumpler). You guys made a lot of good connections out there today. Will you talk a little bit about that?
A: "It is like I said all camp; we have talented players at each position and guys that I feel comfortable throwing the ball to at any time that can make big plays. I like the fact that we have got talent. I know that sounds pretty obvious to say. I don’t have to go back and look for one guy. I don’t have to say you know what, this is my chance to make the play. We have four or five guys that I trust with the ball. I can look back and tell you a big play that every one of our receivers and every one of our tight ends and every one of our running backs made."
