BATON ROUGE — LSU head coach Nick Saban addressed the media in his weekly press conference on Monday morning from the fifth floor of the LSU Athletic Administration Building.
QUOTES FROM NICK SABANS WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE
“I think that after we watched the film and so-forth, we definitely came up with the idea that we played a team that we are better then. We had opportunities in the game to put them away, but we didnt take advantage of those opportunities in the second half. We had three scoring opportunities early in the third quarter which would have made a big difference in the score of the game and how the rest of the game would have been played.”
“A lot of bad things happened, but really all the bad things that could have happened, happened at one time. We were still able to win the game. We won the game by 15 points, which is the largest margin of victory over the University of Houston in the last few contests that we have had with them. Even though a lot of people think that the score should have been more lopsided than it was, I agree with them, because we didnt take advantage of our opportunities.”
“I was still proud of the way that the kids played, kept playing, played hard for 60 minutes, and made the play at the end of the game to put the game away with 30 seconds to go in the game. It meant that the players were playing, they were competing, and they were trying to overcome adversity. I think that this is a process that we need to continue to build on and go through with our players. I was pleased that we were able to do that. Technically, there were a lot of things that we didnt take advantage of, and there were a lot of things that we made mistakes on. We need to fix and get better.”
“I do think that at a certain time in the game the players were effected by the score on the scoreboard. We had opportunities to put them away and didnt put the nail in the coffin, didnt show the killer instinct that you need to have in situations that we were in. I think that was being effected by the scoreboard. We were not focusing, concentrating, paying attention to detail like we needed to by having the advantage in the game that we had.”
“Then we didnt finish the game because of that. We dropped a touchdown pass, we had a field goal blocked, we fumble a snap on the one-yard line, because of a mental error on the offensive line, and then we throw an interception in the end zone when we have the ball on the 18-yard line and we could have kicked another field goal. We could of easily made the argument that (LaBrandon) Toefield scored on the play before, but thats the way it goes. We needed to finish and we didnt. We didnt finish because we werent focusing and concentrating like we needed to, and maybe that was because we were ahead in the game. Thats a process that our players will learn from, and maybe its a good thing that Houston came back, because we had to compete and we had to overcome adversity.”
“We won. We didnt melt down, we didnt get the old “Here we go again”, and we continued to play and try hard. Technically, we finished the way we needed to, but it affected the score in the game and we had to overcome it to lock down the win. I was pleased with the effort, the intensity and the hits that we had on defense, but we gave up a few too many big plays. From a poise standpoint, I think that we were a little affected by the no-huddle offense. We didnt keep our poise like we needed to, but we played hard and had a lot of good hits on defense. If we would have played the deep ball a little better down the field, then we could have had a couple of more interceptions. The expectations are very high, but we need to support the team. WE NEED TO SUPPORT THE TEAM.”
“We are going to play a really good team. They have a good offensive line, a good quarterback, a great runner, who had over three hundred yards in only two games, and he gets better in the fourth quarter. Hes had more yards in the fourth quarter then in any other quarter this season. They also have a great wideout in Daniels, and they have other good skills players. Their defense is one of the stingiest in the league right now, and they have an outstanding specialist. He is averaging almost 45 yards per punt. He is also the kicker and kicks off for them. So we are going to play a good football team that is in our league.”
“We need to get our players to improve. Were trying to change a culture with our players in terms of what they need to do to be able to compete and win. I dont think that this is a situation where we are going to out-talent a lot of teams, so we need to do all of the intangibles very well.”