Paul Johnson's Postgame Press Conference Following The Loss To N.C. State

9/7/2002 - Football
Paul Johnson's Postgame Press Conference Following The Loss To N.C. State

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Q. Can you tell us your thoughts about the game?

A. I'd say that probably within five minutes of the start of the game we pretty much took ourselves out of any opportunity that we had. We made a lot of mistakes and N.C. State has a good football team and when you do that against a good team they capitalized and we were fighting up hill from jump street. It was a combination of playing a good team and shooting yourself. That's not a very good combination.

Q. Did the Wolfpack do anything that you weren't expecting?

A. No. I mean they were able to, we would get them in third and long and they would just run straight down the field, throw it up, and their guys would catch it. I mean it was that and offensively we moved the ball at times when we didn't self-destruct, but not enough consistently and we put the ball on the ground. We're not the type of football team, we don't have the people right now, we can't make five or six mistakes in a football game and win the game. We've got to take care of the ball and we didn't do that today. And we got just obliterated in the special teams. I mean just killed. It's not bad enough to get one punt blocked, but you get two. You fumble for a touchdown on the kickoff return. When you're not playing well as you like offensively or defensively, that doesn't help you either. We got beat about every way you can get beat.

Q. Last week you said your special teams bordered on horrendous and this week you got hurt by them again, was speed a factor today?

A. I don't think the speed has, certainly it might have something to do with it, I don't know. We work on special teams. If I knew the answer I could fix it. The fumble on the kickoff return that was just pitiful ball security. I mean we talk about that all the time. I think what happened on the punt blocks were we got our shoulders turned and we don't block the guy and we think were back their in Club Med punting the (expletive) thing. You got to catch and punt it, you can't read the laces, flip it, you need to punt the ball.

Q. So did Skaggs not get the ball off on time?

A. I don't know, they said on the sideline that the get off time was OK. The first one I think we turned the guy scot-free. Basically, I don't even know if I want to get into that. We had a call, you have to make out a call for blocking schemes on punts and we told the guy whose calling the blocking schemes not to use the number three, because we have something called free, so the first punt he goes three and they thought he said free and I think they turned a guy loose.

Q. Was there anything that you thought was a positive? Anything make you happy at all?

A. No. When you get beat whatever it was, 65-19, I don't think there is a whole lot you can be happy about. First one for me ever, it wasn't a lot of fun.

Q. Was that the worst defeat of your career?

A. Boy I sure can't think of one that was any worse. I've been on the other end of a few, but not on this end.

Q. Was it just a case that that team was just flat out better at every position?

A. That's no excuse. We got outplayed, we have to do a better job coaching, I mean there are a lot of things. Is that team 65-19 better then us? I would hope not. But you can't turn the ball over, get killed in special teams, and do all those things and play them. I know they're too good for us to do that. They didn't need our help. I don't think we ever got any pressure, I don't think we got close to the quarterback. And when you get a good quarterback and good receivers, it's tough.

Q. How frustrating was it when it seemed like they could just wing it down the field every time you got them third and long?

A. That's frustrating. But it's not just that, there are frustrations on offense too. We made mistakes all over. We got beat at every facet. There are two things you do. Either go back and work hard or you give up. I can tell you there's no give up in me and I don't think there's any give up in them. We will go back and work hard and see if we can't come out here the next time, we have two weeks to clear it up a little bit, and see if we can play a little bit. I thought we had some opportunities, I mean jiminy Christmas right before halftime we have the post wide open. You just have to make plays. When they throw up the ball on 3rd and 25 and they just go straight down the field and throw the ball straight up, I mean we had guys back there, somebody knock it down. That's the key, it's not rocket science.

Q. How did you address the team after the game? Did you chew them out or were you positive?

A. I told them what happened. How does it happen? You turn the ball over five times, you get killed in special teams and you don't play well. You have to make plays. We made a mistake at the start of the second half, that was probably stupid on my part, I was trying to change some momentum, just do something positive to get something jump started. We had a play, the way we lined up we got them dead to rights, we don't execute the thing right, we said hey look we didn't execute it right, and all be (expletive) we don't do the same thing on fourth down. Over and over in all facets of the game we did that. So as coaches, we need to take responsibility for that. We're coaching. We didn't have them ready to play; I didn't have them ready to play.