Oct. 8, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery
Coach David Shaw, Stanford University
On special teams..
We're trying to get there. We're trying to get blocks and for some reason guys have just missed some kicks against us but today was great seeing, you know Max (Bergen) did a great job getting all three - the block, recovery and the touchdown. It was awesome.
On physical performance, players saying not best physical game...
They better have said that. It's the truth. We can't let the scoreboard dictate our feeling about how we played. If we can play better than we should know it and we should play better.
On Andrew Luck...
I've got to see the film, but I thought he was outstanding. He was outstanding. He was phenomenal. We had two catchable balls that were incompletions, one was an interception and besides that he was pretty close to flawless...Every game he does something that not many humans can do.
On Griff Whalen..
He's steady Eddie for us. He does everything right. He's blocking this year better than he ever has. We're giving him opportunities to make plays and he's coming through.
On Al Davis...
It was an emotional morning for me this morning because the one thing about Al Davis, love him or hate him, he loved the Oakland Raiders and he did whatever he could to make them successful and all he cared about was winning. To have somebody that single minded and that pure, you could count on it every single day. Every choice he was going to make, whether you disagree with it or agree with it, every choice he made was to try to make the Raiders better and to try to make the Raiders a winner. I'm proud of Hue Jackson, the job that he's doing right now, and I'm proud of the way the Raiders are playing right now because the two things Al Davis wanted the Raiders to be were fast and physical and they're playing a physical style game right now that I know he's proud of...He would always just remind us don't be too conservative. Mr. Davis liked to see that ball go down the field. He made comments to mutual friends that we have that he loved the way we're (Stanford) playing because we've got big guys that can run.
On Whalen's third down catch...
It was a great catch with Griff staying alive. I think anytime you convert third and long you know you're doing something right. The oline stayed on it's job and Griff stayed on his route.
On the offensive performance...
I think we need to improve. We left some plays out there, some turnovers and some threeandouts which are not good enough.
On personal foul problems...
It's all our faults. There's no one else to point the finger except at ourselves. Luckily we were able to bounce out of that hole today in certain situations, but you can't win consistently playing like that.
On Luck and Whalen's connection...
It felt pretty good. I think we got started off pretty early right off that at and kept it going throughout the game.
On Luck's passing ability...
He makes some pretty unbelievable plays, but at this point we all know he can do that. That's his job to keep plays alive and find the open receiver and that's what he did.
On the momentum change...
Something our coaches talk to us about especially when you get a turnover, don't see it as a momentum swing, but see it as an opportunity.
On special teams performance...
I think it might have just gotten it start. Just a little play like that got the offense rolling and the defense playing good to.
On the physical nature of game...
We have a lot of room for improvement still. We're still getting better every week and we're going to look at the film and see what we need to improve on.
Colorado Head Coach Jon Embree
On expectations...
I expected more. I understand the circumstances. I don't accept them, but I understand them. We've just got to keep trying to find a way. Kickoff was scheduled for 4:30, and whatever you've got, you've got to go out there and find a way to compete. I'm disappointed. We had an opportunity early and then we had a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown.
On the challenges of facing Luck...
He's going to check if there's one safety or two safeties, so if you're stemming or trying to hide guys and it's a single safety, or it's a defense loaded against the run he's going to get in the pass. If you're in a pass defense, he's going to run the ball. That's what he does. We didn't want to disguise much because of our situation, we needed to get guys lined up. So at least we were in the right spots and see if we could make a play. They hurt us on seams early. We were struggling on rerouting. Our deal was that we knew we had to stop the run and while it was still a football game, we were doing a decent job... Luck's the best quarterback, no doubt. He's got a good enough arm that he can throw the ball down the field without putting a lot of air on it. Not a lot of kids at college can do that like that. Like I said, he runs their offense to a tee.
On missing Paul Richardson...
He's one of our playmakers. We needed him.
On the successful opening kickoff...
We knew that 81 [Chris Owusu] was going to be returning. He's deadly. So we were doing some stuff, what we call "Sky kicks." That's what that was. It ended up working out to our advantage on that play.
On what he's told his players on how to proceed with the rest of the season...
It's tough. We have what we have. We've just got to find a way. We've got to continue to figure a way. To the seniors, a lot of the guys have seven opportunities before they never play football again. We've got to continue to find a way to fight and take what we've got and find a way to win games.
QB Tyler Hansen
On the blocked field goal...
That's the story of the game, missed opportunities. That changes the momentum of the game right there to get no points and for them to block the kick and get seven out of it, that's huge. We were right there and we couldn't pull through.
On the team's morale...
We're as good as any team we've played so far and we all know that. We've been unlucky and we just need to keep moving on and keep fighting. We need to try to get guys to stay positive, keep fighting and keep thinking about this year.
DB/OLB Josh Hartigan
On playing against Andrew Luck...
That just means that everyone has to step up. It shouldn't matter what players we've lost or gained, it's about who we are going to play with on Saturday and we just need to make plays...He puts on pads the same way that everybody else does, he warms up just like everybody, he runs, walks, does everything the same way everyone on our team does. It doesn't really matter who he is, it's what he does on the football field...He's obviously a good football player and my hat goes off to him. Nothing stood out, nothing was different than what we saw on tape.
On playing with a depleted secondary...
It all comes down to everybody stepping up and making plays. We have to run the defenses that we ran to perfection and we didn't do that today. We just need to take every play one at a time.