Postgame Quotes: Louisville

Louisville Head Coach Bobby Petrino
Opening Statement …
"This is an opportunity before going into a bye week which is extremely important. We've got a lot of healing to do. The first eight games without the bye have been rough. It's been physical. Last two opponents were extremely physical."

"Hats off to Coach Addazio, Boston College. That was a physical football game, and they played a heck of a game, a game all the way into the fourth quarter, and hopefully -- I think it was an exciting game."

"Again, before I stop, just for our football team to be able to play in weather like that where three weeks ago we weren't that good in it, and now to come back and play half a game in weather like that and the way they played the game, I'm really excited about it, really excited about how they played."

"We had mistakes. We weren't perfect. But we're human, and we're excited to be at .500 again."

Q. With Eric's interception in the first quarter on the first drive, that hit on the sideline, what did you see went down on the sideline? Did you say anything to Eric afterward?
"Yeah, I told him that his job is to get the guy down, not to hit him like a middle linebacker because he needs to preserve himself. He did a great job in stopping the touchdown. That's what he's supposed to do, and then after that he needs to protect himself. When you get in scuffles like that, somebody steps on your hand or something like -- it's like a baseball pitcher; you don't go in there and start throwing punches and break your hand. He didn't throw a punch, I'm just giving you an analogy."

"But he needs to just get the guy out of bounds and then play the next play, so that's all I told him."

Q. You had 16 penalties, but I think nine or ten of them were false starts. What went into that?
"We're going to have to go back and check the tape. I think that some of it we have to see because that's very uncharacteristic for you to have that many false starts without there being a reason. So we will go back and check the tape."

"But they called them on us, so I'm sure we must have did it. I'm assuming."

Q. Was there a thought of you calling time out, getting the guys together, just asking them to focus on the game? It seems things got out of hand in the second and third quarter.
"Absolutely thought about it, almost did it, and then I paused and stopped and said, if this becomes a fourth-quarter game and I have to call a time-out and I have to come into this meeting, you guys talk about me killing a time-out when I could have used that time out to win the game, and I said, you know what, I'd better not call it. But I'll tell you what, in between series, I sure did get myself around to where they could feel me and made sure that they settled down."

Q. 1:50 left in the game and you guys got that first down. Talk about the character that shows to put the game away when you had to.
"It's big, it really is. Those are difficult times. The box is loaded. They know we're not going to throw the ball, we're not going to throw the ball, and that is a top-five, top-six ranked defense against the run, and for us to be able to get that 1st down with the box being that heavy with as young as we are on the offensive line and the injuries that we've had, I think that was really big."

Q. Which was the better catch, Amba or Steve?
"They were both good, but Amba's was like, wow. That was a wow. They were both really good, though."

Q. Steve has gotten a lot of those the last two weeks and he had his biggest game this week. What's opened up the last couple weeks for him to get more looks?
"Again, it all comes down to the coverages. Any time you can see that Amba is drawing more coverages, which is singling up more guys on the other side, that's just how football goes. I think that a little bit of it has to do with Amba, and a little bit has to do with Ish making more plays."

Q. I'm not sure if you saw it or not, but on the Dungey interception, it looked like BC jumped offside, which is why he threw that pass deep into double coverage. Did that look offside to you or did you talk to him about that at all?
"It looked like it was offsides to me, and I did talk to him about it. I said, hey, I thought the guy was offsides. You can't worry about it. I know that goes down as an interception on your record, but last time I checked, you got five or six touchdowns off that same thing this year. You've got to take the good with the bad."

Q. Going back to that early skirmish on the sideline, did you talk to Eric about what triggered his reaction there? Was there anything that got him that upset?
"I saw the play, so my conversation with him is private, but I saw the play, okay. I can't talk about it. I'm going to get fined. I saw the play. I talked to him about it."

Q. Amba now ranked second for single-game receiving yards for SU, so where does he rank for you in terms of guys you've coached?
"He's up there. I've coached over 30 wide receivers in the National Football League, so there is a lot of them, but he's definitely in the top 10."

Q. What were some of the biggest challenges in the second quarter with the elements, and what did you learn about your team?
"Now, when you say second quarter, you mean second quarter, not second half?"

Q. Second quarter when it was pouring.
"Yeah, the second quarter was tricky. The water was really coming down. Fabulous question. We made a mistake. I'm not going to tell you what the mistake was, you've got to figure it out. I thought we made a mistake that that quarter as coaches, and I told the players that. I said, we're not going to make that mistake again. You can't push the elements when it starts to rain that hard. There's certain things you can do and there's certain things it's just not smart to do, and we had to pick and choose when we wanted to do some of those things that were a little bit more dangerous, but it was definitely more challenging. That's a great question."

Q. Eric has taken a bunch of hits the last few weeks. I think today it was 32 or 37. What have you seen from him, his ability to play through that, and how impressive did you think he was today compared to other games this year?
"The thing I'm proud about, I'm proud about a lot of things with him today, but I think he handled the weather a lot better than he did versus -- that other game, and I don't want to mention it in this press conference. He's a big-handed guy. He's throwing the ball around. You could see some of those other passes coming from the other side maybe weren't as crisp, weren't as accurate, and then think about some of the deep throws. Yeah, some of them were kind of flat, but we left a lot of meat on the bone. There was some -- we'd have come up with some more catches down the field, a lot more people -- it could have been a different type of game. I thought he threw the ball extremely well, and you look at his incompletions, what his incompletions were and what plays they were on, I mean, he could have had -- with a little bit of help, he could have had a heck of a game."

Q. Is there anything mechanically different or anything -- played differently in regard to the weather?
"There's certain things he needs to do. He's got to keep his feet underneath him. It's quarterback stuff, but he's getting better with that stuff all the time. He's come a long way from when we first saw him."

Q. I think down in the red zone, there were three drops, zero points, and then two drives where you gave up a field goal. What schematically is kind of working down there?
"You're talking about our defense playing so well?"

Q. Yeah.
"Again, Boston College is a certain style of offense. They want to do certain things, and then based off of what quarterback is in the game, there's some tendencies that you have to take advantage of, and I thought that Coach Ward and the defensive coaches did a nice job of taking advantage of those tendencies and just playing the numbers. If they want to do something else, they may have a better chance of, successful, but they may be using people that they normally don't use, and that's their option."

"But I thought we played -- we tried to take away their strengths, and for the most part we did. I had no idea that quarterback was that fast, though. When he got out there, he didn't look like we could run him down. He was really moving."

Q. You're 4-4 and in position for a bowl game. How much improvement do you want to see from the offensive line with Clemson and Florida State on the schedule? How much do you want to form a balanced attack so they can't flood the middle with six defensive backs, seven defensive backs and just try to go after Dungey?
"I would like to be balanced today, I would like to be balanced yesterday. We're always shooting for balance."

"Now, when it's difficult to run the football, you just can't keep slamming your head against the wall and expecting that thing to loosen up a little bit. Sometimes we've got to use the pass to help us run the football. But in this situation, they were so heavy in the box that it was -- it would be a little foolish not to throw the ball as much as we did, and as what happens, a lot of times with two-part question, the guy up here normally forgets the second part of the question, so ask me again the second part that I didn't answer."

Q. The second part is the offensive line, how do you improve that going forward when you have Clemson, Florida State, and need at least two wins to be bowl eligible?
"We've got to find a way. We need a slingshot and a rock. I'm not even sure who we play against."

Q. It's Clemson.
"I'm sorry, I've been so locked in on these guys, and now we've got a bye coming up. But obviously that team is extremely talented. Their athletes are outstanding. The coaching staff is unbelievable. I wish somebody would add up how many coaches they have and how many coaches we have and do a flow chart or something like that on that. But we're going to try to find a way to run the football and try to find a way to move the football."

"When you're playing teams like that, the most important thing is to try to get a 1st down before you punt the doggone thing. You just don't want a whole bunch of three-and-outs, and usually you have to try to do what they're not giving you, so we have to get in that game and just see what from a structure standpoint they're going to allow us to do and then we've got to try to take advantage of that. I hope I answered your question."

LOUISVILLE PLAYER QUOTES
Q. How did it feel to be the victor today?
LAMAR JACKSON: "You know, it felt really good, coming off of being close last week and being able to perform the way we did, it was a great team win."

Q. Who would you say was one of the leaders when it comes to morale in the locker room?
LAMAR JACKSON: "Well, all of us. You know, all of us played a part in the game. We came out there, we performed great. Our defense did an excellent job stopping them, good offense, and just outplayed them this year."

Q. You had two runs, it looked like you weren't touched and nobody was close. Were you surprised how much room you had?
LAMAR JACKSON: "Yeah, well, you could say that. I was surprised when I looked back, I was like, I can't really tell you."

Q. Such a fast start; the focus seemed like it was totally different from last week.
LAMAR JACKSON: "Yeah, well, we came out there prepared. They said this was a great defense we were coming up to. We watched film on them. It was a great defense, and it was easy."

Q. What kept you off the field the last two plays of the half?
LAMAR JACKSON: "I had a cramp in my forearm. We've got a great training staff, and they helped me."

Q. You wrote in the Players Tribune that you believe there's always something the defense is giving you. Last year you only had 15 rushing yards against this team, this defense. Different story today. I know there's been roster turnover, but what's different?
LAMAR JACKSON: "Our team, it's a different team this year. People left last year, but we were very young last year. We're mature now. We've been bonded all season. We trained a lot, and we're showing in the performance on the field."

Q. Was there something extra to your performance today because of the ranking?
LAMAR JACKSON: "Yeah, a lot of -- I feel our team, we fought all year, and people still don't give us credit for it, for performing the way we do."

Q. What's your reaction on the A&M loss today? How do you feel about that, and where do you go from here?
LAMAR JACKSON: "You know, it just helped us, bring our record down a little bit more."

Q. Are you looking forward to the release of Kodak Black from jail, and have you had any contact with the rapper since you joined the movement?
LAMAR JACKSON: "You know, we're from the same place, and I'm looking forward to it, yeah, but I haven't talked to him yet."

Q. Do you know him?
LAMAR JACKSON: "Yeah, we went to school together, elementary school."

Q. What's it mean for you guys to have such an offensive explosion against one of the most respected defenses in the ACC?
LAMAR JACKSON: "It means a lot. We need our respect just like everyone else, and hopefully we got it today."

Q. Did you know you're closing in on Deshaun's record for total touchdowns?
LAMAR JACKSON: "No, I don't really focus on that. I just try to win the game. That's all."

Q. Did you go get an IV at half?
LAMAR JACKSON: "Yeah, I went and got an IV. I was cramping in the forearm."

Q. So like you had numbness in your fingers or something like that?
LAMAR JACKSON: "Yeah, it was kind of like getting tight. I was like, man, I can't do this. I can't throw."

Q. Have you had that before?
LAMAR JACKSON: "No."

Q. Anything lingering at all, no problems?
LAMAR JACKSON: "No, I'm good. I'm good. 100 percent."

Q. Pretty good start back after a pretty tough game for you.
JAMES QUICK: Absolutely. I just felt like I had to just step up and make plays. My team, they count on me to make plays, so I've just got to come out here and make plays every game.

Q. Coach said you worked really hard in practice.
JAMES QUICK: Absolutely. I tried to emphasize looking the ball in and watching it to my tuck every time. It really helped me today.

Q. How much was the focus different all week for everybody?
JAMES QUICK: We really stepped up a level because our focus wasn't where it needed to be last week, so this week we just wanted to come out and really just show everybody what we could do.

Q. What were your thoughts after the reunion game, first quarter of the reunion for you personally?
JAMES QUICK: Just trying to stay focused and just to keep my team into the game. Really that's the only thing that was going through my mind, just trying to help the team.

Q. The way Lamar delivered it today, he kind of made it look easy. Was this one of his better games?
JAMES QUICK: Oh, yeah. He's a great player. Having him as a quarterback, it's always fun. You always look to expect new things from him, and with him throwing it the way he's been throwing it lately, it's fun to be a receiver in this offense.

Q. And to make the diving catch, a very difficult catch, was that a satisfying feeling for you?
JAMES QUICK: It was fun. Like I said, I was just trying to make a play. I seen the ball, and it was a little far, but I just went to go get it.

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