Football

Stanford-UCLA Football Post-Game Quotes (October 29, 2005)

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UCLA 30, at Stanford 27 - Overtime (Stanford, CA - Stanford Stadium)

STANFORD
HEAD COACH WALT HARRIS
On today's game
"Our football team played gallantly against an undefeated UCLA team. We did a lot of things you need to do to put yourself in the position to win. We didn't do a good job in overtime. Our guys played hard, and we showed some improvement. It was a hard loss for our team. UCLA is undefeated because they are really good and they came back tonight because they are really good."

On Mark Bradford's injury in the first quarter
"It was huge. That's a compliment to our team, to lose such a threat. Justin McCullum did a great job replacing Bradford, but Bradford has shown he is a fine football player, so it was a big loss."

On losing the lead in the fourth quarter
"We ran some clock, but we had penalties on a key drive that proved to be crucial. We were good in penalties until this game. We beat ourselves. That was an area in which we did not play to the level we needed to play. Our defense played tremendously, but we gave up one big shot."

QUARTERBACK TRENT EDWARDS
On the loss
"This is a game we can learn a lot from as a team and a program. [The loss] is a result of a lot of things. You have to stay on the aggressive side as an offense."

On Mark Bradford's injury
"It's tough losing guys, but you can't control that."

On his own performance
"I need to continue to grow as a quarterback. Anytime you have a chance with field position, you have to put points on the board, especially against UCLA."

UCLA
HEAD COACH KARL DORRELL
On the comeback victory
"Where to begin? I'd like to begin where it ended, I know that. We did not have the best of games. We did not have continuity early, we struggled at times and [Stanford] is a very well coached football team that didn't make a lot of mistakes. But, we got them to make some critical mistakes towards the end of the game."

On the slow start
"We sputtered in the first half ... and even in the second half we had two key turnovers that put our defense in a tough situation. They kept battling back and held them to a field goal. Our offense got some things going in the fourth quarter. Being down twenty-one points again and finding a way to keep ourselves in the ballgame."

On the fourth quarter comeback
"Our defense stepped it up and started to do some great things to slow down their offense. We just kept the rhythm going from that point on. We've been a very good fourth quarter team. We'd like to do that earlier on in the game, but we'll take this one. This was a special win."

QUARTERBACK DREW OLSON
On the comeback victory
"That's just finding a way to win. We played horrible football for three, really three and a half quarters there was no doubt. You go down 24-3 with eight minutes left and you think it's over. These guys I tell you what, they fight. There's more heart in this team than I've ever seen."

On going into overtime
"When we go into overtime like that, it's over. We're so confident in our red zone offense it's awesome. After that momentum, scoring 21 unanswered points [in the fourth quarter]. We had so much momentum and emotion on our sidelines it was unbelievable."

On a slow first half
"All game long our energy wasn't high, we just couldn't get a rhythm offensively. Defensively, they played well. We didn't play good overall in the first half. We took it upon ourselves in the second half to come out and play a whole different ballgame."