Pat Fitzgerald | Northwestern Head Coach
Q: You guys forced five turnovers tonight, and obviously won the turnover battle which you had mentioned is a hallmark of the team and winning, but how do you guys do that and build off that to get back in the win column?
A:Well, we got to score points, I haven't seen the postgame stats, but I don't think we scored on any of those turnovers. I could be wrong; I don't recall it. Maybe it was one touchdown, obviously, but one out of four isn't good enough, so you got to credit Penn State's defense. But it was a valiant performance by our defensive guys tonight. We knew they had young backs that were incredibly, incredibly talented. And you know it's tough in this type of weather, and those guys are ridiculously good, good players. I thought for the most part our defense was able to hold the line of scrimmage and sustain. Just a couple plays away from finding a good win.
Q: What did it mean for you to see your offense get a little bit of momentum going in the second half and battle back after a tough first half?
A:I think they're really good on defense, number one, so I want to credit Penn State. I thought our offensive staff put together good plan to go out and execute. Big play by Jacob (Gill) and Ryan (Hilinski), and then we had some other opportunities. It's just kind of where we're at right now. We were just that far away from making the big one, and we felt like we got it to the fourth quarter in a one score game. We felt pretty good that we could find a way to get out of here with a win. Big stop by them down on the goal line, that I look forward to watching on tape. It was a turning point in the game to be honest with you.
Q: You mentioned the offensive woes. What did you see from Ryan under center, the unit as a whole and cohesion of that group?
A:I didn't mention offensive woes, somebody else said that just to be clear. I think our offensive guys ran into a really good defense tonight. They made some pressures that we didn't maybe adjust to, but those guys fought their tails off. We made some adjustments at halftime. The guys, I thought, took to those, and we moved the ball relatively well in the second half. Even though the elements were what they were, we just ended up a play too short, which is disappointing because I thought those guys fought their tails off.