Opening Statement
First of all, you’ve got to give Ohio State credit. They did a really good job today. We did some things that were good enough to win and other things we did not. We cannot have the ball inside the 5-yard line twice and come out with no points. One turnover, which is very uncharacteristic of us, and then another turnover basically on downs. The pick-six was a huge play in the game, but we only scored six points on offense and scored seven points on defense against a really really good team. Are they good on defense? Yes. But do we have to find ways to manufacture points and yards? There’s no doubt about it. We didn’t get it done. Give them a ton of credit.
Q: On that series in the fourth quarter at the three, did you consider giving the ball to Tyler Warren on any of those plays?
A: Yeah, we gave the ball to the running back, I think three times, threw the ball on the last one. Yeah, should we? Should we probably have given the ball to Tyler Warren after the plays he made Yeah, I get the question. I get it.
Q: James, I'm sure part of the decision to go there on fourth down is that you still have three timeouts and you could pin them really deep if you don't get it. What happened with your defense that had been playing relatively well throughout the game that it wasn't able to stop them there?
A: Yeah, not only that, you could get a safety and get the ball back, which puts you in position to win the game. Get a two-point safety and the ball back with three timeouts. They had a championship drive right there at the end. We did not play well in an obvious running situation.
Q: I know, after a win, we hear you talk about, you know, hey, let's enjoy this one for 12 hours. After a loss like today is the focus hey, let's look at Washington, or is it let's rest?
A: No, we’ve got to do a great job making sure we come in tomorrow, make their corrections, but then Sunday night, we’ve got to flush it and move on to Washington. We can't allow one loss to turn into two. The reality of college football is everything is still ahead of us, and we’ve got to do a great job of making the corrections, eliminating the things that were unforced errors that happened today, and then we’ve got to find a way to get a win next week at home, and everything is still in front of us.
Q: James, can you address some of the pre-snap, post-snap penalties, and particularly the one that gave them a first down on their second touchdown drive? What did you see there?
A: Yeah, jumping offsides in an obvious third down situation extended a drive for them, and tackle and standing over a guy unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a third-down stop that extends a drive. We can't do that. Can't, can't, can't do those things. It happened last week and happened again this week. That on me. We’ve got to be a disciplined football team. We were not disciplined at times today.
Q: You saw fans throwing things on the field, booing, very frustrated. What’s your message to them about today’s game?
A: I understand their frustration. Guys in the locker room are just as frustrated, if not more. But college football has changed, and we have an opportunity moving forward to right some wrongs from today, and that's what we're going to focus on. I get it. We get an unbelievable crowd here. We get unbelievable support. You don't do that without passion. And there's great things that come from that, and there's hard things that come from that. That's part of the job, and I own it all.
Q: You mentioned last week that Beau Pribula out there can open things up for the running backs. Today, Kaytron and Nick seemed to have trouble finding that daylight. Beau had one carry for no yards. Hindsight being what it is, do you think maybe there was an opportunity to get Beau more involved, to find that jolt?
A: Well, I think the plan was to get Beau more involved, based on how practice had gone this week with Drew, but we didn't have a whole lot of success when he was in there. So I think that probably played in a part of it. When we didn't have a whole lot of success when he was in there, we got away from him.
Q: You can’t control the outside, but as far as yourself and evaluating yourself in these big game performances, how do you do that? What significance do you put on a game like today?
A: There's nobody that's looking in the mirror harder than I am. I will say this, and I've said it before, 99 percent of the programs across college football would die to do what we've been able to do in our time here. But I also understand when you're in a place like Penn State, there's really, really high expectations. When you're in a place like Ohio State, there's really, really high expectations. I get it. So we've looked at all these things really hard. We'll continue to look at these things really hard.
Q: With Abdul Carter’s play today, obviously two sacks and the offsides play, what was it like watching him, knowing that he could do great things, but also kind of hurt you in some ways with penalties and other poor plays?
A: Well, right now in this setting, I'm going to focus on the positive things he does, and he's an impactful player. We'll make the corrections in the lockerroom, and we'll make the corrections in the meeting room, but he's a big-time player. He makes big-time plays consistently. There's things that we’ve got to get cleaned up, with all of them, Abdul included.
Q: At the end of the first half of getting that third-and-goal, and then that play in the quarter ended up being the interception. What did you see from that play?
A: Yes, Drew, made a nice throw. We had a chance to come down with the ball. They called it as an incomplete at first, then they reviewed it, called it as an INT. The guys that are watching on TV have got a better idea of how that whole thing played out. There was a ton of 50/50 calls in this game that you could call in either direction. There's a ton of them in this game. The fumble on the sideline, in the near arm that goes out at the 2-yard line, obviously, and it's called a touchdown (on the field). There's a ton of 50/50 calls that could go either way, and in that type of game they're critical. Besides that, I don't have a whole lot more for you. But, you know, obviously, turning the ball over in the red zone and getting stopped on downs, two turnovers inside the five. That's really the story of the game.