Maryland HC Mike Locksley Recaps Oregon Loss

Saturday night both Dan Lanning and Mike Locksley met with media following the game. Maryland head coach Mike Locksley was asked about the tough loss to Oregon, the travel and much more.

Here are his comments from Saturday night’s press conference in Eugene.

Opening Statement…

“Obviously you have to give Oregon credit. Really good team, deserving of their ranking. Disappointed
watching us play. These guys play hard. They’re practicing the right way but just not playing to our
potential, not playing smart. It’s frustrating when you watch it because you see the plays that were
there, that you have to make and we’re really close. This is the frustration that I have. It’s not about the
effort. It’s not about the way these guys play. It’s not about the way we practice. You have to get it
executed. We need consistency to play complimentary football. Today when the offense played well,
the defense didn’t. The defense played well, the offense didn’t. (We) continued to have penalties on
special teams. These are all things we’ve got to get corrected. We get back tomorrow morning, give
these guys a day off. Then we have to put this thing behind us and get a start on Rutgers.”

On turnovers…

“The quarterback has to protect the ball. That is paramount for us to have any chance. The turnovers
down in the red area was a tough situation. There were tipped balls where the execution of that, putting
the ball over the receiver…making sure they do a great job of running through the outside half. When I
watch it, you see the detail of things, that’s the missing piece. To me, that is where I’ve got to get us
doing the little things because everything matters. We had interceptions, and I hate commenting on
them right after the game because it’s so emotional for me because I thought our guys played hard and
gave themselves a chance. We still aren’t playing smart enough and taking care of the football.”

On explanation of Ferguson’s touchdown review…

“They said the call stands. They made the call on the field, it was a touchdown. Typically when they say
it stands, they can’t determine and so whatever they call on the field is what it is. I thought he was
definitely out of bounds. It’s an important play, but we still had opportunities.”

On the Maryland defense…

“It started in the first half when they started to cut it down and let them drive down the field. That’s the
complimentary. That’s where we finally get the offense going to meet the defense to get off the field on
the third down. They struggled in the first half to get off the field on third down. Our defense got going
in the second half, but didn’t execute at the level we need to. When we’re playing good teams like
Oregon, they do not need help. That’s why I’m so frustrated because the guys are putting in the work.
They’re preparing in the right way and practicing in the right way. It’s just the growing pains of having to
go through this piece. Patience is staying with it. As long as these guys keep showing up and fighting,
we’ll keep coaching the crap out of it. We’ll get healthier, we’ll get fixed and we’ll start preparing for
Rutgers.”

On Oregon’s defensive performance…

“They were dropping eight and playing on top of everything, not rushing our quarterback. Today, you
saw Billy [Edwards] had to make some plays with his feet the second half. When they dropped eight,
there’s not a lot of open places to throw and the quarterback has to get checked down for running. I saw
him make a couple plays. We challenged him and said ‘Billy, you’re going to have to make some plays
with your feet if they’re going to continue to drop out the coverage to contain our stuff.’ That’s where
we have to run the ball, when they’re dropping eight. We had a third-down run where we were able to
get a first down, but just covering people up. We started a true freshman at left tackle. We’re going to
keep battling. We’re hoping to get more healthy, which hopefully allows us to add another piece up
front. We have to do everything right, and that’s my job.”

On previous experience as a new member of the Big Ten…

“(The Big Ten) looked a lot different than it does now. We had divisions and right now everything is wide
open. The new kids that came in, came in to a pretty good situation. We have established ourselves in
this league. Our guys have competed since we joined this league and continue to grow the program.”

On difficulties of an extra travel day…

“We did what most people do. There’s a lot of philosophies. We did the research to come out early. I
don’t think the long trip had anything to do with our night and executing things or playing
complimentary football. I thought we handled everything about this trip the right way. An expanded
conference…expanded on great things happening and adding Oregon to it, makes it attractive for our
league.”

On frustration level of not being able to stop Oregon trick plays…

“It’s not frustrating because a lot of those things were plays we expected. It’s a matter of being lined up.
It’s a matter of these are the plays that we talk about. When you watch them on tape, they’re always
lined up in formation. They fake punts, they attack on special teams, and we’ve got to do our part. That
is where the frustration is, the execution piece. Very few things they executed against us today were
things we hadn’t seen. We had missed tackles, you get them all tackled but they were able to fake punt.
It’s maybe not that good of a trick play, but their guys executed and made the play. Our guys didn’t, we
have to figure out how to get that.”

On impacting Oregon’s slow start…

“I can’t coach Oregon and Maryland. I would say that right now, we did things on defense early in the
game that I thought gave us a chance. For us to win, we have to get all three phases, have to play
complimentary. We have to get the offense going at the same time defense is going, while at the same time our special teams are either creating momentum or finding a way to get us into a position to score
more. All three phases didn’t necessarily execute when we needed each phase to execute.”