Oct. 2, 2005
After dropping a heart-breaking 16-13 overtime decision at Texas A&M yesterday, the 3-1 Baylor football team now turns its attention to Saturday's game at 3-1 Iowa State. The Cyclones dropped a double-overtime thriller at Nebraska, 27-20, yesterday. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. from Jack Trice Stadium on the Iowa State campus.
Here are quotes from Baylor coach Guy Morriss on his team's performance yesterday:
On the play of the Baylor defense:
"It was pretty positive. I thought we kept them bottled up pretty good through most of the game. We had a couple of opportunities for interceptions that we didn't make. In the 17 play drive we had some breakdowns where we lost our lane integrity on the pass rush and let him scramble out of there and then on the 4th and 10 play and he starts the option and we've got all the options closed except he ducks up inside and we've got a defensive tackle in the wrong gap and he finds our hole. There was another 4th and 7 where he throws the slant and we're playing way too deep on that. We've got to tighten up the corner on that and we were just too deep and still almost broke it up. Then there was the play that beat us on the option, we've got a corner lined up on the wrong side of the formation and they slide it outside and there's nobody there. You're talking about a half-dozen plays that could have changed the outcome of the game and we just didn't make them. Other than that, I thought we played pretty good."
What did you learn about your guys in the close-game situation?
"You can find individual plays and individual players making plays throughout the course of the game but I think when we had to come up with a play we didn't get it done this time, defensively or offensively. We had a 3rd and 10 at the 6 and let them scramble out of there and we let them convert on two 4th downs to get the field goal to tie. We had all kinds of opportunities to end the game right there. Offensively, we had opportunities to win the football game and we didn't do it. We didn't get it done."
"Right now, my message to this football team as soon as I get downstairs is it's not our opponents beating us, we're beating ourselves. We're fighting ourselves right now. The one good thing that they ought to take out of this is the fact that they should feel like they can line up and play with anybody. We've got to just, again, execute a little bit better through the course of 60 minutes. We had a few lapses and when you're playing this kind of competition, it's going to cost you. You're going to pay for it every time."
On improvement in Baylor's defensive scheme:
"I think that from a scheme standpoint we've been pretty good this year. I think Coach Bradley has done a good job of putting our kids in a position to be successful. Defensively we've done a pretty good job. There have been a few plays that I've already talked about that hurt us yesterday but for the most part, they've played well enough to keep us in all the ball games and give us a chance to win."
On Texas A&M quarterback Reggie McNeal:
"You've got to have somebody take the dives and our kids executed really well. The option didn't really bother us but we gave him a couple of different blitz moves that might have confused him but for the most part we just played our basic coverages and the kids were playing well."
"We've improved, the next seven weeks will tell the tale, but I hope we've improved as a team."
On missed opportunities against Texas A&M:
"Absolutely, you have to keep preaching, like if we call a certain defense and you're position is to be in the A gap, you better be in the A gap and certainly this is a good example of that to show our kids that we made some, one or two guys, making some small things but those small things magnify when you're playing a guy like McNeal, and we just got out of our lanes and when the ball comes to you as a defensive back and hits you right in the hands, you've got to catch it. So, we'll just keep preaching to them. I think we are pretty sound scheme wise and such so if we can just get a little better execution out of them, we're going to be fine."
Where is your team now compared to this time a year ago?
"I think we need to do some fine-tuning defensively. Offensively, maybe it's a little more than just "fine" but it's the little things as well. I think we fine- tune and go play."
On performance of Baylor's offense in the red zone:
"Our kids just have to buckle down a little bit harder. We've got a 1st and goal at the 3 and our guard gets beaten by the 3 technique because our footwork's not good, we're too high and we never overcome that. We come back and it's 2nd and goal from the 9. We fumble a snap and that costs us. 4th and 1 at the 3, we just don't get any push. We probably should have had Paul (Mosely) in there but we feel that Whitaker (Brandon) is a pretty good inside runner as well, we just didn't get enough push and we came away with nothing. We've just got to knuckle down and execute better in there. We gave up a sack, and had some negative plays that hurt us down there. We should be focused at the same level from end of the football field to the other but for some reason this is all happening to us at that end of the football field. We've got to get it done through the whole football game."
On Baylor's starting center Will Blaylock:
"He's got a strained knee and how bad it is, we don't know. They did an MRI this afternoon but I haven't been downstairs so I don't know."
What was the mood of your team on the way back to Waco?
"They were a little bit down, upset. It was disappointing. I think the thing we've got to do is, Iowa State is sitting in kind of the same boat we're sitting in, they got beat in overtime on the road. Right now I know that, with the open date we put a lot of energy into preparing for this one and it didn't happen for them. We've got to get the energy back up. We've got to play with a lot of emotion and we'll see how they are but we can do a pretty good job with moving on to the next one."
On Baylor's red zone personnel:
"We've got the right personnel but we've got to make the right read and throw it. If something doesn't work, people try to say, oh something's wrong. It was the play caller but the play was there, it just didn't hit the right guy. Just like, I'm sitting here right now wishing I had taken the field goal (in the first quarter)."
On the Texas A&M loss:
"I can't let it linger. You've got to get over it. The first thing everybody was thinking as we were walking off the field is, the season's over, we lost one, our first conference game but we've got seven more to play. As goofy a year as it is and as goofy as the conference is, hopefully we'll improve our team. We've got shots, we've got chances. They made plays when they needed to and we didn't."
Sunday Notes: Baylor junior receivers Trent Shelton and Dominique Zeigler are tied for 15th place on Baylor's all-time reception list with 78 career catches ... Junior quarterback Shawn Bell passed for 200 yards in consecutive games for the first time in his career and will try to become the first Bear signal caller since Aaron Karas (final game of 2001 season and first two of 2002) to throw for 200 or more yards in three consecutive games ... Bell needs 89 yards to become the 17th player in school history to throw for 2,000 career yards ... Baylor dropped to 2-3 all-time in overtime games, 1-1 under Baylor coach Guy Morriss, with Saturday's 16-13 loss at Texas A&M ... Junior running back Paul Mosley rushed for a career-high 133 yards against Texas A&M, the most for a Bear back since Rashad Armstrong tallied 166 yards against Colorado in 2003 ... Junior defensive end Marcus Foreman recorded a career-high tying seven tackles (2 solos) at Texas A&M, while senior outside safety Tyler Lindstrom was credited with a career-best six tackles (4 solos), including a career-high tying 2 for loss ... Baylor has scored on its first offensive possession in each of the past three games ... The Bears' defense allowed Texas A&M 262 total yards, the second-lowest yardage total ever allowed by Baylor in a Big 12 game. Last year, Baylor held Iowa State to 257 total offense yards ... Senior wide receiver Shaun Rochon recorded career-bests in receptions (7), receiving yards (58) and all-purpose yards (109) at Texas A&M ... Senior free safety Maurice Lane had a team-high 13 tackles (4 solos) and now has 315 career stops, good for 10th on Baylor's all-time list ... Lane's 220 career solo tackles rank No. 3 on the Baylor career list ... Baylor junior center Will Blaylock is listed as doubtful for Saturday's 1 p.m. game at Iowa State after sustaining a left knee strain during the Texas A&M game ... Baylor ran 90 plays at Texas A&M, its most since a 93-play game against Oklahoma State in 2001.
