What Mario Cristobal Said After Oregon Lost to Utah

Oregon's postseason looks a lot different after Saturday's game.

Below is a transcription of Mario Cristobal's postgame press conference after Saturday's 38-7 loss to Utah.

Opening statement:

"Disappointing for us in many ways. Best way to put it. Responsibility is completely mine. Every head coach should always do that, and then the other side there's a lot to play for, a lot. A lot of our goals, most of our goals are still ahead of us and we've gotta get ready for them quickly by going back to work and they ain't gonna fix themselves. Certainly not to the standard tonight. Credit to them, really good football team, they played really well."

On being down at halftime:

"We've been really good at responding and tonight as an organization we didn't respond. Again, we've always been resilient, we've always had a good response. We've done it this year, we've done it throughout the years and we did not do it tonight."

On the punt before halftime:

"He's trying to pin him in the corner right there where our coverage, corral him up or cover him up or get it out of bounds one or the other. As close to out of bounds or out of bounds, just pin him. But it didn't work out that way we lost contain."

On not establishing or stopping the run:

"We started running the ball a little bit and they made some plays too. We got behind in the sticks on some third downs with penalties. We weren't as efficient on first down as we had been and then we got a field goal blocked earl. And then we missed a field goal after that. And then when it became a three-score game we started throwing the ball a little bit more, trying to get back in it. Which again, they were running the ball well, we weren't. We didn't fit things particularly well tonight in the run game. We didn't tackle particularly well and they blocked well and they ran the ball well. It's as simple as that. It's blocking and tackling and they did it better than us tonight."

On Johnny Johnson III, Jaylon Redd, younger wide receivers:

"Johnny is not gonna be able to continue the season. Neither is Jaylon Redd. DJ Johnson we hope to have back as a tight end in another week or so. But Johnny and Jaylon we're not. Thought Kris Hutson stepped up and made some plays. So did Devon. Dont'e played as well, so did Troy. They had played throughout the course of the year so we had confidence in them going in there. Again, obviously disappointed there's no other way to put it. Every question's gonna lead back to that and we are. We're upset, we're disappointed in ourselves and we also acknowledge the fact that we have a lot to play for. And we have a lot to play for in seven days. And we gotta get going. We gotta assess it, dissect it, find all of the things that we didn't do well, and then attack it. Do it like grown men. Face it."

On defense looking exhausted:

"Think they sustained drives. They were I believe 80% on third down if I'm not mistaken. Extended a couple of drive with a couple of third-down scrambles or whatnot. And then offensively we didn't do a good enough job sustaining drives and not giving the defense a chance to recover. So that combination not a real good one, and certainly they ran the ball well."

On Verone McKinley's status:

"We'll see. We'll evaluate. We're waiting for the doctors so I can't speak on it, but I suspect that he's okay."

On why Utah was effective on third down:

"I'm always gonna say that we gotta coach it better. We didn't get the type of pressure we usually get on the quarterback. Third and five was a little bit more manageable than some of the sevens, eights and nines that we've put our opponents in the past few weeks.  They did--they found some windows. I know the big play the tight end before halftime, the slant got behind one window, behind the flat window and then we miss a tackle and it breaks for about 40, 50 yards, whatever it was. We didn't do a good enough job is the bottom line. Just didn't do a good job, did a bad job."

On not converting red zone trips: 

"That allowed them to do what they do well and they did it well. When you have a chance to make it 7-3, get a field goal blocked--routine blocking too, routine blocking. And then you go down and you miss another one. But we should be scoring, we should be putting ourselves in a better situation. We thought we schemed it well, we thought we practiced it well. At the end of the day we didn't practice it well enough, we didn't scheme it well enough. We didn't execute it well enough. Against a team like this that's rolling on offense like they are, and the way they were rolling tonight, we had to give the defense momentum by scoring a touchdown, touchdowns. And we didn't do that."

On the players reactions and how they're feeling in the locker room:

"Everybody's upset. Everybody's upset and disappointed. Like we should be. It should burn. It should hurt a ton. Guys are competitors. It's hard because we've taken a lot of pride in being resilient and being able to bounce back from adversity and tonight we didn't do a good enough job. The reality of the matter is that we have a great opportunity in seven days. That's the reality. And it's gonna be here in a hurry and we've gotta get right to work on it fast."

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