University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Head Coach Jeff Bower' Weekly Press Conference
10/10/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Head Coach Jeff Bower?s Weekly Press Conference
Opening Statement:
?Simply put, we didn?t play very well in the game. It wasn?t because of a lack of effort. The effort was pretty good in the game. We got off to a good start offensively, and then we missed a third down conversion on the first drive. We had a guy open, but we didn?t get the ball to him. Dustin Almond did not have a good game. He wasn?t sharp. We?ve got to make catches when we have the opportunity. We had a few drops in the game. We had two guys open deep for scores, but we didn?t get the ball to them. I don?t think Dustin made good decisions mentally at times. He didn?t go where he should have with the football.
?It was totally a lack of execution. We had chances, but we didn?t make plans. We didn?t do things that would keep us on the field. We actually graded pretty high on the offensive line, but it was a game where we only called 16 runs. We got behind and had to throw it, and typically the offensive line will grade high when you throw it a lot. They actually protected well. Chris Clark got beat once on a sack, and our running backs got beat two or three times on some pressure schemes. We?ve got to get better play from Dustin, and making better decisions. Defensively, we were very poor on third down. We played some man and we played some zone. We were poor in our zone drops. We didn?t play them tight enough in our man coverage. We had some guys miss some responsibility on some running plays. We?ve got to be a smarter defensive football team. We need to get some guys executing better than what they are doing in the game. The kicking game was ok, their kicker did a good job of hanging the kickoffs. I thought we covered kickoffs well. That guy was dangerous and I thought we did a good job there. Luke Johnson did a good job punting the ball, and Brandon Sumrall made a very nice play downing the ball at the one-yard line. We didn?t have any opportunities to return punts. They had one punt and he shanked it.
?The turning point in the game was the 99-yard drive. We had them on third and long and then let them come out on a cut back zone. We?ve been a poor third down football team on defense. We need to work hard on that.?
Players Of The Game:
?On offense, it was Robby D?Angelo. He played 47 snaps and graded 87 percent. He did a good job. On defense, it was Jasper Faulk. He played 62 snaps, graded 73 percent, three tackles, two interceptions, one for a touchdown and one that set up a score. Luke Johnson was the player of the game on special teams. He had two punts for a 41.5 yards per average. That was our net average. We downed one of them at the one-yard line. He had two kickoffs in the end zone and did a better job kicking off for us.?
On Injuries:
?We?re ok injury wise. Anthony Perine may not do anything today. He has a strained MCL. Antwon Courington will miss today and tomorrow and will have his wisdom teeth out. They were really bothering him last week. Other than that, we?ll be ok. We?ve just got a few guys that are nicked up.?
On
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On If The Early Big Lead Took Some Of The Intensity Away:
?No, I thought we played hard in the game. We did. I watched the tape again this morning. I saw when we made plays, guys were getting excited. We had guys running to the ball. We just didn?t play well. They had a good game. They did a nice job on us. I thought they were a good team coming in, and I?m assured of that now.?
On Personnel Changes:
?Akeem Lockett will start at bandit end. We?ve got to get Robert Henderson playing better.?
On What Will Be Done To Get The Team To Play Better:
?We?ve got to get James Denley and Wayne Hardy playing smarter. They made some mistakes that were crucial in the game. I think John Eubanks has to step up for us to. We?re going out in full pads today. We will scrimmage today. We?ll have an inside drill and a goal-line drill. We weren?t good enough against the run. We?ll work a lot this week on third downs against each other.?
On The Possibility Of Injury Being Out In Full Pads:
?We can?t afford to have an injury, but we?ve got to get better.?
On The Defense:
?We?ve done what we?ve done in the past. We continue to not tackle as well as we need to at times. We lost containment. I just think defensively, we just need to play smarter.?
On Matthew Chatelain At Linebacker:
?That was a game plan situation for
On Jasper Faulk:
?He made some plays. He?s got to tighten up at times on man coverage. That hurt us a few times. But he certainly made some plays in the game.?
On If He Will Challenge The Team To Play With More Intensity:
?We can always play more intense and everyone can play harder. I thought we were pretty good in the game. It can get better. Some guys need to play better, but for us to be any good, we?ve got to get them all doing it. You?ve got to have a good week of preparation. The mental part of the preparation is something that we?ve got to stress. We weren?t very smart on defense.?
On If He Thought About Playing Jeremy Young:
?No, not really. Dustin has to play well for us and he didn?t have a good game.?
On Playing With Poise:
?I think Dustin got a little frustrated. We had four interceptions in the game, but two of them weren?t his fault. On one of them, Perine has to come back to the ball. On another, Courington busted the route. The other two picks, he?s got to make better throws. On one of them, he took a shot deep when he scrambled out of the pocket and ran. I don?t think that was a bad shot to take at the time. He?s got to play better.?
On The Preparation Last Week:
?I thought it was pretty good. We had our best Thursday of the year. I?d really be disappointed if we didn?t play with effort. We did, but we didn?t play very well. It happens sometimes, but your opponent has something to do with that. It was a hard game to get into a rhythm offensively. We never got into a rhythm. We didn?t make plays. If you make a play, that might get you going, but we didn?t do it.?
On If The Lack Of Offensive Rhythm Was Because Of Not Being On The Field:
?No, I don?t think so. We had opportunities to stay on the field and put point on the board, but we didn?t do it.?
On The Home Crowd:
?The game was disappointing for the fans. I feel for our fans. I appreciate them coming to the game. I hope they will come again this week. This football team needs to play better. We?re not going to hit the panic button. We?re going to go back to work and we?re going to get better on doing some things we didn?t do well.?
