Everything Missouri Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz Said After Win Over Boston College
The No. 24 Boston College Eagles football team suffered its first loss of the season to the No. 6 Missouri Tigers 27-21 on Saturday afternoon.
After the game, Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz shared his thoughts on the victory over the Eagles.
Below is a transcript of what Drinkwitz said.
OPENING STATEMENT:
"Really proud of the football team today. Was not pretty, wasn't our best performance top to bottom, but we really responded. We hadn't been challenged all year, and it was concerned with so many new faces about what that response would be. Today I think you saw the team that's committed to each other, a team that responds, a team that's never out of a fight. They took some of the things that we really talked about, we talked about the swing eight, we end up winning the swing eight 10 to nothing. We talked about forcing turnovers, obviously, two to nothing. And then we talked about as an offense, you always want to finish the game with the ball in your hand. Today reminded me of the Middle Tennessee game last year, where if we give the ball back, they've got all the momentum. We're not playing the way we need to, on defense right there in that last instance. Brady and Luther completed a big time third down, and then Brady keeps that on the zone read at the end. So really proud of them for those things. Like I said, there's a lot of a lot of stuff to take off the tape. I mean, first fourth down of the game, we're in zone. It's inexcusable for that ball to even be completed. They fumble the ball, and we have everybody on defense run up instead of staying in coverage, and then that last touchdown, it's cover three. I know Corey is disappointed. I thought he did a really good job stopping the run. But, we found out a lot about our guys today on both sides of the ball. The penalties, those are on me. I mean, at the end of the day, those are on me. They said they captured me getting on Luther pretty good about it, and that's the bottom line. That was selfish football, and it's got to get cleaned up. But, sure glad he's on our team for 100-something yards."
Message at halftime
"We had it right where we needed them to be. We needed to finish. I thought it was going to come down to conditioning, you can tell it's getting hot out there. We went right down and scored. I thought we were really in a peak position, but (the) penalties in the third quarter, I've never seen that many flags on a single offense in my time, so got to go back and watch that and go from there."
Defensive gameplan
"Anytime you rush past an athletic like that, then you're playing with 10. So we felt that we had an advantage if we could keep them in the pocket. We did that for most of the game, you just can't bust coverages when you're doing that. I thought that they had a great plan at the end of the half to be able to stuff them up there, get us the ball back and go down and score. Third quarter they didn't really do anything."
Blake Craig
"Difference in the game. There's a lot of questions about his field goals last week and I said I wasn't really concerned about it because I know he's got the leg for him to hit that 57-yarder at the end of the half. I think it gave our team a lot of confidence going into the half and he had an excellent game today."
Running backs and offensive line
"I think they did a really good job. We got our outside zone working and Nate and Marcus both did a really good countering it. I though about the offensive line, we weren't able to get up to the second level as effectively in the second half and we weren't finishing our blocks right there in the fourth quarter. But, again, did enough to win the game."
Response from the team
"When they went out and scored, our offense went down and kicked the field goal. I felt like we were going to be fine moving the ball, it's just a continued missed execution here. If we want to be the team we want to be, we got to take personal responsibility in that."
Tre'Vez Johnson's interception
"I think it shifted a whole lot. We just kicked the field goal, Tre'Vez gets the interception. Great, great return yardage. I think was a three or four play drive right there. I told everybody on the headsets that we were going to go for two when we scored the next possession, because I just felt like we had fought so hard to get back in there. I wanted the game to be tied. So was really, really proud of Vez for setting us up, the offense for responding, and then the executions on the play."
Getting Luther Burden III involved early
"We got a lot of really good players, and the ball finds the players. It's it's supposed to. If we were talking about the end of the first half, I would be concerned, but I'm not. There's a couple of plays that were designed for him to be option A or B, right there in the quarterback, the other guy was open. So it is what it is. He has to maximize his opportunity, and he's got to stay disciplined in the third quarter."
Defense stopping the run
"That was the key. We really felt like if we could stuff the run and contain the quarterback, that was the key to having success. And we really did that. We stuffed the run, we contained the quarterback after that first drive. I felt like we got into a rhythm of really compressing him in the pocket, and that was really the key for us.
Approach on the last drive
"The approach right there was the ball was at the 37 and there's no real statistical difference between being up 13 or 10. In fact, you could argue it's worse for you to be up 13 than 10, because they know that there's no longer a third down component. They got to go forward on fourth down. So at that point, without really being able to flip the field, it felt like at fourth and four, that was a very makeable fourth down. Same thing on the fourth and two, when we didn't get it on the third and four it was going to be better off to take the points."
Mindset flip from first to second quarter
"It was the first time that we had to face some adversity, I think everybody kind of had to settle into what the fist fight was going to be and that's really what happened. We kind of settled into what the fist fight was going to be and what we were going to have to do respond. I thought we would start faster than that, but we didn't, so that's the response. (I) said in the locker room, 'it's great to be 3-0, but there's got to be a lot of improvement in order for us to take on the SEC,' which is what next week is. Coach plays kind of open up the forward office. Yeah, I thought, thought we did a better job of creating some explosives in the past game. Obviously, Luther had the big one. Mookie had two, you know, and then some of the run lanes. So those are always important."
Chunk plays
"I thought we did a better job of creating explosive plays in the pass game. Obviously Luther had the big one, Mookie had two and then some of the run lanes. So those are always important, got to keep searching for them."
Nate Noel
"He got really hot on the outside zone, and he's got so much experience carrying that play. We felt like it was going to be an outside zone game, so that's kind of where we're going with him. Obviously, Nate or Marcus did a really good job of getting their shoulders down, and I believe that last drive of the game was Marcus getting us the 38 yards and then Brady finishing it off right there. It's going to be whoever fits the strengths the most, so hot hand scheme decision."
Brett Norfleet
"I haven't gotten any updates on the injury report. Had a couple of catches and a couple of more design plays we couldn't get to. Always great to have him back. We were a little bit worried about making sure we didn't do too much with him in the run game just because of that shoulder, but every week, every day he's getting a little bit stronger."
Dreyden Norwood's pick
"I think we turned it into three points right there, that was the one we went for it on fourth down twice. It was really good because we had done the exact same thing when he scrambled, we all just took off running like a dadgum Little League football team chasing the ball. Fortunate for us that Dreyden had enough wherewithal to stay in the zone."
Responding with new faces
"I got a lot of new staff, I got a lot of new players. So for us to have to face some adversity and then figure out who we are, who we can count on, what are you going to do when your back's against the wall and you're tired, I think was really important. Guys who fell short of the standard today, they got to look themselves in the eye, look themselves in the mirror, and say, I'm gonna pick myself up and figure out how to improve and not let this happen again."
Corey Batoon
"I mean, just up there dialing up great calls. He did lose it a little bit on the last coverage bust. But, he's a vet. Can't say enough great things about him and the calming presence and tactical advantages that he gives us. Again, disappointed that we gave up that many points, but he did a really good job keeping our guys focused. The next week's quarterback is going to be real similar."
KIM RANKIN