Nebraska players met with the media Saturday evening following the Huskers' 34-31 overtime loss to Colorado. This one will take awhile to get over as Nebraska let a 17-point halftime lead slip away.
Here's the transcript from their question-and-answer session postgame.
Sophomore QB Adrian Martinez
On what happened in the 3rd quarter that held offense up
“I can’t say right now. I can’t sit here and point at one thing. I’d have to go back and watch the film. You are right though in the third quarter the offense needed to put the game away and make a drive. Put the game away. We can’t afford those type of possessions. We didn’t help out our defense. We weren’t being good teammates.”
On emotional swings of the game
“You said it. Emotional swings. Obviously, we were up 17-0 at halftime. A quality of a good football team is not letting that get to you. The flea flicker thing and we come back and got a long touchdown. There are a lot of significant events but you have to keep your head level and keep playing your game. I think we could probably do a better job of that as a team.”
On how tough is it to lose this game
“We let our fans down. We let Coach Frost down. I wanted this game. We wanted this game. We had that mindset coming in and we lost. Plain and simple. We are going to have to bounce back. It’s tough but like I told the guys in the locker room “remember this feeling and let’s not feel it again.” It’s tough but good teams would bounce back. Great teams would be even better. That’s where my head is at right now. Obviously, I feel terrible. We wanted to win this game but we are going to bounce back.”
On having Kanawai Noa up the sideline at the end of regulation
“I can’t say I specifically remember the play so I can’t give you a good answer.”
On significance of the turnovers
“Whether you are home or away turnovers is a stat that means a lot. It could be the tale of the game. That’s something I have to do a better job of and the offense has to do a better job of. The three turnovers came from me and that’s something we will continue to work on and get better at. We know that good teams can’t turnover the ball that much and expect to win a game.”
On overtime sack
“I was probably looking to throw across the seam to Wan’Dale but kind of got stopped. Again, I’ll have to look back on film but he caught me in the middle of two things in a bad spot.”
On the low snap affecting him
“I wouldn’t say so. You gotta make things happen. I’m not going to sit here and make excuses for anything. That’s on me. Whether the snap was freaking 5,000 feet over my head, I don’t care. There are no excuses. That’s an important thing for this team to know and a lesson for me to myself. Regardless of where the snap is, who gives a shit? I have to be able to make a play. Excuse my language.”
Senior LB Mo Barry
On balancing emotions of first and second half
“We came out and played good football. We just didn’t execute as well as we needed to to finish out the game.”
On what Colorado did to get things going in the second half in run game
“Nothing different at all. Everything they did, it was in the scouting report. Again, I just think we didn’t execute well. Myself included. I feel like I played a poor game. One of my worst games, that’s on me. I’m not going to make excuses. Like Adrian said. The second half we should have stopped them from running the ball period.”
On feeling like they have the game in OT
“We felt like we were going to win the game. What happened, happened.”
On when the momentum shifted
“Honestly it was back and forth. I felt like the first half it was over with. I thought we were giving it to them and it was about to be a blowout. That’s what it should have been. We had them. We are better than that team. In the second half we didn’t finish. That’s the biggest thing we have to finish. Our best players have to play their best football in the second half. That’s what it takes to be a great team. For us to be the team we want to be, the star players have to play their best football in the second half.”
On the energy in the second half
“I mean energy, yeah. It don’t matter. You have to execute. All that fake stuff, I don’t care about all that. It’s execution and fire. It’s playing with that edge. That’s what we needed to do in that second half.”
On not having that edge in the second half
“I don’t know. That’s on me. The captains. Me and Darrion [Daniels]. The defense has to play that way. I don’t care how much time we are on the field or how many plays we play. We signed up for this. We signed up to play defense. Backing an offense like Coach Frost’s offense we know how many plays we are going to play. We know there will be tempo. We know if they don’t score it’s going to be harder on us. We know this. This is year 2 and we have to execute. We have to stop them when it’s our time to do so.”
On keeping guys emotions in check
“It don’t matter no more, the game is done. What are we going to do? Cry about it? We are men and you have to learn from it. You have to go whup the other team. That’s what you have to do. It should be natural. You are a man, you have to move on. You have to wake up in the morning and work out harder. That’s what you do. That’s how life is. That’s what football is. We are going to wake up on Sunday, go get treatment. Monday we are going to do film, we are going to learn from it. We will have a great Monday practice and the next team is going to get it.”
On altitude having any effect
“It shouldn’t. My guys are tough and it shouldn’t.”
On confidence boost from winning on the road
“I mean it could have done a lot. It could have done so much and we let it slip. I’m telling you right now, we could have shut all the naysayers up. All the critics. We could have said ‘Nebraska football is here.’ ‘Blackshirt football is here.’ ‘The defense how we played in the first half, we here.’ We didn’t. We didn’t do it so now we have to prove it again and again. When the prime opportunity presents itself again, we have to rise to the occasion. It has to happen.”
Redshirt Freshman C Cam Jurgens
On having the lead at half
“I think we were happy that we were up 17 but we still made mistakes. The defense was balling out. We just wanted go out there and step on them but stalled out.”
On making strides as a line
“Yeah, I think so, we still need to keep working. We need a better run game than that. A lot better run game. So that’s going to be a huge emphasis going forward.”
On run game struggles
“We just need to practicing and keep working at it.”
Senior S Eric Lee Jr.
On being fatigued
“No. It’s just responding to adversity. It’s something we’ll learn going forward.”
On fatigue in the third quarter
“No. I felt fine. We all felt fine.”
On momentum swings
“You’ve just got to know the tendencies.”
On close losses piling up
“It sucks, but it makes us better.”
On making adjustments
“Tackling killed us toward the end of the game.”
On playing the first half style all game
“I personally think we can be better than we were in the first half. The biggest thing is just being consistent.”
On being prepared for flea flicker
“We were. They just needed a play, so as a DB you’re always thinking, ‘Deep ball, deep ball, deep ball.’ That just goes back to having good eye discipline and making sure we’re better and consistent throughout the whole game.”
On Cam Taylor-Britt getting beat
“We told him it’s a team sport. We know the offense’s got our back and we’ve got his back regardless. We just put an emphasis on eye discipline and go make that next play that comes at you.”
On Taylor-Britt forcing that fumble later
“[It’s] good to have a young player like him, who’s almost like a vet, just respond and make plays however he can.”
