Colorado Washington Quotes
vs
Wyoming
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre
General“Washington finished the game off strong tonight and we didn’t. They made some really good plays; they’re a really good football team. They were better than we were tonight.”
On Washington Capitalizing on CU’s Mistakes
“They made good plays and we made bad plays.”
On Defending The Run
“It was pitiful by us in the second half stopping the run. We should be better than that and we weren’t. We need to find a way to get better at it.”
On What Quarterback Steven Montez Will Take Away From The Game
“I don’t know, I’ll meet with him Monday. I hope he takes away not throwing the ball to the wrong colored jerseys.”
On How The Game Was Similar To Last Year’s Pac-12 Championship
“We were in it and we were moving the ball and doing well against them on the run. The guy made an unbelievable catch on that post route, I still don’t know how he caught it. He had two guys all over him. It was a heck of a catch. They just made some more plays than we did, and we screwed some things up.”
On If The Game Will Help Quarterback Steven Montez Mature
“I definitely hope so. I hope it can be. It needs to be as he watches the film and talks about what we’re doing. We need to find out more ways to help him.”
On If The Team Played Hard Throughout The Game
“I thought we played hard on all sides of the ball. I didn’t think there was a lack of intensity or physicality. They had that long run at the end when the game was basically over. That was a tough one to swallow. I think they played hard. We should have stopped the run better than we did, but we didn’t.”
On The Blocked Punt
“It looked to me like they had two big guys that ran into our guys and knocked our guys back. There’s another thing we should have did on that that we didn’t do up front that would have helped that. That was a mistake. They still shouldn’t have run through our shield and blocked it.”
On How The Team Will Bounce Back
“You do it like you always do and come in Monday and go to work and find out who’s healthy. One of our starters was out tonight, so hopefully he’ll get back. Hopefully we didn’t get anybody hurt today, so we’ll find out about that tomorrow.”
On How The Team Will Prepare For The Road
“We’ll prepare just like we always do. We’ll practice, then head out of here Friday and play a night game there. It’ll be fun playing in the Rose Bowl and playing against UCLA. They’re a really good football team. They’ve got a great quarterback. Last time I went down there, it was a crazy game. We gained all kind of yards, but lost. Last year’s game was unique game. There were a lot of penalties and a lot of different things. It’ll be a heck of a football game.”
On If Expectations Have Changed
“I sure hope not. Teams have won it before with three losses I think. You keep playing; you never know what happens. Everybody will beat up everybody. This is the best team in the North (division) that we’ll play and they’re a really good football team that’s really well coached. They beat us tonight. We’ve got some things to work on and improve on just like every game. When something happens, they make you pay for it. That’s what good teams do. We do that too. We’ll do that a couple times this year too.”
On The Mood In The Locker Room
“They were definitely down no doubt about it. They were excited about playing the game and they wanted to play well. We just didn’t finish it like we wanted it to. They’ll bounce back and get ready to go. We have another one quickly. We have a ton (of games) in a row here, so we’ll just keep playing.”
On Jay MacIntyre’s Injury
“Jay has a sprained foot. One of the ligaments was stretched. He hurt in the (Northern Colorado) game, but after the game he hasn’t really been able to walk. Hopefully he’ll be able to heal up, but he won’t need surgery.”
On Play Of Wide Receiver Juwann Winfree
“He made some good catches. Going into the game, we had already knew where to attack them and that was a position that was going to catch more balls in the way the game was going to be played. It was good to see Juwann do that and step in there and make a few plays for us.”
On If The Weather Played A Factor
“Thank goodness it wasn’t raining during the game as hard as it was about 45 minutes before the game. It kind of pulled off and just drizzled. I don’t think it had any impact on the game. It might have on one or two bad snaps by both centers. It kind of slipped. That probably had something to do with the rain. I think everybody was able to throw well with it and I think everybody was able to run their routes and cover. I don’t think the footing made a big difference in the game.
On Play Of The Offensive Line
“We’ll have to look at it on film and see if we need to make any changes. It seemed like we’d move the ball to the 38- or 40-yard line, then we’d screw it up. We couldn’t get past that mark. We had two plays during the first half where we had guys running wide open. We had an overthrow on one; Devin [Ross] would have ran 70 yards for a touchdown. On another one we got sacked and Phillip Lindsay was running wide open. They were on the same drive, so it would have only been one touchdown. On one of them, they did a great job and sacked us and on the other one we just missed the throw, which happens sometimes.”
On Bad Snaps By Center Tim Lynott, Jr.
“I think the ball being wet might have caused some of those problems. That was probably part of it. We need to fix it. If we play in another rain game, we need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
On How TO Make Better Throws And The Facemask Penalty
“With the throwing, you don’t make every throw all the time. You’re not perfect every time. It just hurts when they’re wide open. We just need to keep working with our quarterbacks. With the facemask, he was ducking out of the way and we were trying to grab him. He just grazed the facemask, he didn’t pull him down by it. That’s why I didn’t understand why it could have been a five-yard penalty and not a fifteen. That’s what they ruled it. Sometimes that happens. He wasn’t intentionally trying to do that. It was an unfortunate break to say the least.”
On The Pick-Six Thrown By Quarterback Steven Montez
“The one he threw out in the flat, the guy stepped in front of it and took it to the house. I’ll have to look at what happened there. I think they dropped eight people and I don’t think he saw that guy dropping out there. I think he didn’t see him.”
Washington Head Coach Chris Petersen
On Second Half Performance
“They played hard in the second half. Good rain game. They got it going, and I’m proud of our guys.”
On Blocked Punt
“I’m really proud of those guys for that one. That’s like a PAT field goal and we try to take pride in never taking a down off. That was a safe punt. We challenge our D-line. We’re all looking back there at Dante [Pettis] to see where he’s lined up and going to field the ball. It was game changing. It was awesome.”
On Play of RB Myles Gaskin
“O-line and the run game, take a minute to keep feeding the guy the ball, but Myles always gets better the more you give him the ball. He’ll get into a rhythm if you can give him a little bit of space. I think we took a step forward in the run game. We still have some things to clean up, there’s no question about it, but we did get some things done that we hadn’t got done in the past.”
On Whether Not Having RB Lavon Coleman Changed the Game Plan
“We really didn’t change (our game plan). Lavon is an important to piece to what we do. Lavon can not only carry the ball, but Lavon is a heck of a blocker. Some of the other guys stepped up, Kamari Pleasant got in there and got his feet wet for the first time. Salvon [Ahmed] got going again. That’s a good group. We’ll get Lavon back quickly and we need him.”
On Confidence Boost After Block Punt
“I think it sets the tone. That safe punt team, we’re going to have those guys out there and we can still make big plays. That’s what we want to be all about, to be able to make a big play on something that’s usually very inconsequential in special teams. Usually you just get a fair catch out of that so that was big.”
On Play of DB Myles Bryant
“He’s a heck of a player. I think he’s grown every week. He has an expanded role here and it’s game four in terms of him being a really key piece of our defense. We’ll play him at corner, we’ll play him at nickel, and he’s going to make plays.”
On Whether He Could Sense His Offensive Line Wearing Down CU’s Defensive Front
“It usually takes most of the game to be able to do that. We haven’t been able to get into that situation yet this season. But I’m really proud of how this game went. We thought it would kind of go like this, that we’d come into an energized environment, that [Colorado] would come out fast. We didn’t want them to go down and score on us, but nobody flinched for one second. It was almost just business as usual, even coming in at halftime. We just went back out and played hard and did what we needed to do. I really like our mentality and our mindset, you could just feel it in the locker room.”
On Jordan Miller’s Two Interceptions
“He’s an athletic guy. He’s another guy that’s kind of been lurking in the shadows, so to speak. I think we saw that he could do some really good things out there at a really tough position on the island. I’m really proud of him as well.”
On Thinking Behind Shirtless Warmup
“That’s a good question, you should ask them all. We thought it was going to be a downpour the whole night, and (our players) kind of try to pride themselves on playing in that type of (weather), even though being from Seattle we really don’t play in it all that much. Every time we get a chance to practice in it, we’re excited. We had some wet balls going this week, but that was really about it. The balls weren’t really a problem, the footing was a little bit soft but it was good to play in that environment. It was way better than we thought it was going to be.”
On His Players Starting Fall Classes This Week
“We’ll get there. I think most of them are itching (to go to class.) They’ve been doing just football for a long, long time, so now it’s time to go get the most important piece of why they’re here. They’ll start that on Wednesday.”
On Play of WR Quinten Pounds
“Quinten showed he could do some good things. We’ll continue to get him the ball.”
On What Makes Preparing for Colorado’s Offense Difficult
“They’re different than we’ve seen with true tempo. You could see them getting on the ball, and that is different than what we’ve faced. They have some explosive wide outs, the back is good, it’s a little different scheme. It’s all that stuff. I thought our guys did a great job. We wanted to keep things in front of us. They’re an explosive type (offense); they aren’t necessarily grind you out for 10 plays. They’re going to run a few and launch and that’s how they make their money. Our guys kind of bent but didn’t break, swelled up in the red zone a bunch of times, got some sacks when we needed to, got a couple turnovers, so I thought those guys executed the defensive game plan to a T.”
On Any Adjustments After Colorado’s Opening Drive Touchdown
“No. I think it was just settling down. It was an energized environment, I think that had as much to do with it as anything. They came out hot, executed and threw some good passes.”
Colorado Players
DB Ryan Moeller
ON TEAM MISTAKES - “Washington is a very high caliber team and you expect that out of the Pac-12. When you play a game like that you can’t have mistakes, you can’t have blocked punts, you can’t have interceptions. You have to be on the other end of that. You have to be the one taking the ball from the other team, you have to be the one stealing possessions away otherwise it’s not going to happen. A great team like Washington, you can’t give them the ball that many times. They’re a great team, they kicked our butts tonight. We’re going to do everything we can to see them again in December. It’s really hard. Thankfully we still have a whole lot of season left and we have a good chance of meeting them again in the Pac-12 Championship and that’s our goal.”ON HOW TO FIX DEFENSIVE MISTAKES - “We have to go back to the drawing board. You can’t scrap everything. Sometimes you get out of scheme. [Washington Head Coach] Coach Peterson is a hell of a coach, a hell of a schemer. You saw it when he was up in Boise but everything we have to do to come back from this loss is fundamentals, it’s everything that you already know you need to work on, It’s things that we have to beat every week otherwise we’re going to have a turnout like this or even worse.”
ON WASHINGTON’S OFFENSIVE PLAY - “Their offensive unit is a very strong team. They carry a strong load as well as their defense does. I think everyone across the board did a great job. There isn’t any one person that stood out more than the other. They all banded together and did their one-eleventh and got the victory today.”
ON STARTING PAC-12 PLAY - “We have a lot more season left. It was the fourth game that really sucks. It was the Pac-12 opener, that really sucks. But it’s the fourth game that’s out of here now and we have to go and get ready for the Pac-12. It’s not going to be an easy road but it’s one that we’re happy to be on.”
ON WASHINGTON’S TEMPO - “Their whole offense and their whole defense did a really good job of keeping things moving and keeping things going the way that they needed to do it. For us to come out with a victory we have to do the same things. We can’t throw interceptions, we can’t fumble the ball. We can’t drop picks and we can’t allow blocked punts. They kicked our butts in some of those areas so we have to be on the opposite end of that stick until we get the victory.”
ILB Drew Lewis
ON IF THE TEAM WILL LOSSE MOMENTUM FOLLOWING THE LOSS- “I mean I feel like the turnovers definitely affected us. They were a good team obviously, so they capitalize on those. We had to pick up our effort I guess. Late in the game it obviously showed.”ON TURNOVERS- “I can’t put my finger on it exactly. I don’t really know what the problem was. Obviously late in the game we fell apart, that’s what happened. We play physical, we play smart and it kind off just got away from us.”
ON IF THE OFFENSIVE LINE TIRED HIM OUT- “Yeah, true, they’re really good overall. They’re talented, their receivers, lineman, running backs. They have some good players and I guess they got the best of us.”
ON HIS BIG HIT IN THE FIRST QUARTER- “That felt good you know? I tried to start of hot and I did pretty well. I felt pretty good the whole game mentally and physically so that was a lot of fun. I got the chance to talk to some guys after the game so that was cool.”
ON THE GAME GETTING OUT OF CONTROL- “We have to finish you know? We started great, we had a great first half but we have to finish.”
WR Juwann Winfree
ON HOW HE FELT GETTING BACK INTO THE MIX- “It was exciting for me. I wasn’t able to see the field as much last year and that’s just something I had to be patient with. Be patient and trust the process. It just felt great to get back out there.”ON IF HE WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO HIS RETURN- “Yeah definitely, last year it killed me watching us play against Michigan, USC, and Washington you know these top teams and me not being able to be involved in it and just being able to help my teammates, it hurt. This game was for sure something I was looking forward to since the beginning of the season. Just being able to go up against a top ranked team and show out. I tried my hardest and I thought we did a great job, we just fell a little short.”
ON THE TEAM GETTING AWAY WITH MISTAKES- “Definitely something we have to learn from because we had them. You know we played tough, we played really physical. It was just the mistakes that got us and they capitalized on all of our mistakes and it’s something that we can’t let happen because we had the game and they’re a really good team and we’re a really good team and they just outplayed us at that point. It’s just something we have to learn from. Take it more serious week by week.”
ON HIS CONFIDENCE GOING INTO THE GAME- “I felt great you know? We have been working all week. They were telling me everything that was going to happen and I was ready, ready to make a play, and ready to make the mot of the opportunity, that’s all.”
ON HOW THE OFFENSE CAN BECOME MORE CONSISTENT- “All we need to do is limit the turnovers, that’s it. We have the lineman, running back, the quarterback. All we have to do is limit the mistakes because we’re right there.”
LB Rick Gamboa
On the firepower of the Huskies’ offense – “They had a lot of guys returning – especially offensively. They are all older guys so they’ve had that year of experience playing. They know who they are as an offense. They know what they want to do. They know how to do it and they are real efficient about what they do.”ON WHY IT WAS DIFFUCLT TO STOP THE HUSKIES RUN GAME – “They are very physical. They had a lot of guys returning. They have good running backs. They know what they do. They know how to fit the run. I think eventually as the game went on, they were wearing us down a bit. We kept fighting, kept fighting. Slowly, a good team like that, they are going to crease you if you give them the chance.”
QB Steven Montez
ON HIS THOUGHT PROCESS BEFORE THROWING AN EARLY INTERCEPTION – “At that point, I thought we had some pretty good momentum going with us so I felt like taking a shot. I felt like Shay [Fields] could go out there, beat him, and hopefully get a nice touchdown. But, I overthrew him. The rest is history. It is on film.”ON WHY HE WAS NOT ABLE TO GET RID OF THE BALL MORE QUICKLY – “They were kind of just playing some soft zone stuff. Some of the routes were covered. Some of them, they just zoned it up. They fit it well. They are a good football team. They are a good defense. We just have to be better. We have to go in, watch the film, and come out ready for UCLA.”
S Afolabi Laguda
ON BEING ABLE TO QUIKCLY MOVE ON TO UCLA NEXT WEEK AFTER TONIGHT’S LOSS – “I think it is a good thing. It is definitely humbling when you take a loss. You have to keep pushing and I think we will keep pushing. I think we are going to bounce back. We are going to practice hard this week and we are going to see how the chips fall next Saturday.ON THE ABILITY FOR THE HUSKIES’ OFFENSE TO WEAR DOWN COLORADO’S DEFENSE – “They were just efficient. They played together last year. We are jelling as a new defense. So I guess that experience of being in those situations in crunch time and big moments – I guess they shine. They made the plays that they were coached to do.”
Washington Players
QB Jake Browning
ON THE SECOND HALF- “We just kept swinging. We kept doing our best every play and I think we finished in the red zone a little better. We were moving the ball well and then obviously we had some big time plays from the defense. We ran the ball really well and overall I just thought it was a great team win.”ON MYLES GASKIN’S 200 YARDS- “Myles is a special player. I think he’ll give credit to the O-Line too before he takes any. I thought they played really well, especially after everything we’re hearing about not being able to run the ball.”
ON THROWING INTO DOUBLE COVERAGE ON HIS 43-YARD TOUCHDOWN- “The guys that were over there were the corner and the safety. The field safety played low and I just gave [Pounds] a chance and he made a really good play.”
ON COLORADO’S DEFENSE- “They play pretty similar to our defense. I thought that #26 [Oliver] was a good DB coming in, in the secondary. I think they just play really sound, they always have a lot of energy at home and they’ve played a lot of close games at home. Obviously they had a chip on their shoulder about the Pac-12 championship so we knew they were going to give us their best shot.”
RB Myles Gaskin
ON THE RUN GAME TONIGHT- “The guys up front we doing their job, they were making it easy for me. The rain and everything kind of factored in so we were sticking to the run today and it worked out how it did.”ON THE WEATHER- “We’re always ready for whatever happens. Sean stepped up on the kick returns and stuff like that.”
ON KAMARI PLEASANT- “He stepped up today. It was his first time playing in a college game and he hopped right in there like he’d been playing the whole time. I’m really proud of that dude, that’s my guy. Can’t wait to talk about the game on the plane ride home.”
ON CU WEARING DOWN AGAINST THE RUN GAME- “We don’t really worry much about them. We just try and play. As the game goes on we try and play harder and harder. We try not to factor in being tired at all. It’s all mental when we’re out there. We’re just trying to learn from our mistakes and finish strong.”
ON THEIR O-LINE- “Those guys are martyrs. Those guys love to block and play football and do that job. They did it, they put in on full display today and I couldn’t be more proud of those guys. All the love goes out to those guys. They played very well.”
DL Vita Vea
ON THE BLOCKED PUNT- “All season Coach Pete (Petersen) preaches to us to go all out on special teams because you never know what’s going to win or lose a game. Normally we’re pretty good at that. Jaylen [Johnson] did a great job and I think he was the reason why I got the block because seeing him get that first hit on the punt return inspired me to get after them.”ON THE SECOND HALF- “It was the first conference game so we came out too hyped up and I guess the anxiety level we were on didn’t help us. I think we toned it down in the second half, got back into our groove and got after it.”
DB Myles Bryant
ON HIS INTERCEPTION RETURN- “I’ve made that play a few times before in practice so I just had to execute just like I did in practice. Just had to make sure I scored.”ON THE SECOND HALF- “We just started to understand what they were doing. At first we thought we had a good idea of what they were doing and then they kind of changed it up. So then we just adjusted and took it.”
ON CU’S RUN GAME- “Just being able to tackle and cover, that’s what Coach Lake expects of me.”
ON THEIR FIRST PAC-12 WIN- “Every win is a big deal.”
DB Jordan Miller
ON INTERCEPTION - “I saw him thinking about throwing it but I was on top but then the receiver just slowed up. The quarterback launched it and I went and got it, I was just glad I was in bounds.”ON BIG WIN TODAY-“They had a lot of energy at the beginning. We knew it was going to be a fight, we had to make plays on both sides of the ball and we both showed up.”
ON CU SLOWING DOWN LATE IN THE GAME-“They came out with plays that were good against our game plan and the defense that we run so we adjusted. We were making plays on defense and it was working out.”
ON WARING OUT CU- “We have good guys on defense so we go in and hit. We know it’s going to take a toll and that’s what we were saying. You have to keep hitting them and it was working out.”
ON PAC-12 PLAY- “It is really good competition to play in the best conference in the nation. We knew it was going to be a notch above and we came out prepared. We had the best week of practice we ever had as a secondary, we had a game with ten picks. So we knew we were going to go out and make plays today.”
WR Quinten Pounds
ON TOUCHDOWN RECEPTION – “It was a great throw by Jake first of all. We were practicing all week and saw the coverage so we knew it was going to happen.”ON DOUBLE COVERAGE DURING TOUCHDOWN CATCH- “I really didn’t realize who was covering me, I just saw the ball. That was the only thing that I was really focused on.”
ON IMPORTANCE OF THAT PLAY- “I feel like that was a really big play. It really got the sideline going and I think that it provided a spark, along with Myles Bryant’s pick six. “
ON BEING OPEN DUE TO FOCUS ON OTHER RECIEVERS-“I knew that they were going to be covering Dante more because Dante has been making plays and he is a really great player. It was just an opportunity to make a play.”
ON GASKIN- “Yeah he was running unreal today. That one play that made it 37 (points), I was running right behind him and was he moving.”