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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss vs. Auburn Postgame Quotes
10/29/2005 | Football
Oct. 29, 2005
Ole Miss Head Coach Ed Orgeron
"I feel like we hung in there with them defensively, but we couldn't make third-down plays. The penalties hurt us. You have to give credit to them, they are a good team. They had 123-yards rushing to our 23, and that's the story of the day. We didn't play well on the corners, and their receivers made plays we hadn't given up most of the year."
On being stopped on the first drive
"It hurt us. It wasn't good. They took over the game physically and we needed those points at the beginning of the game."
On QB Ethan Flatt
"He did a good job. He is part of our offense and we have to give him a look. He has been coming along in practice. To give our offense a shot we needed to throw the ball and we feel he is better at throwing. We are going to give him a shot (at starting). He moved the ball well."
On the Ole Miss defense
"I think we did a good job against (Kenny) Irons. I was disappointed in our pass coverage. We didn't get to the quarterback enough and let them convert on third-down too many times."
Ole Miss Players
DB Travis Johnson
On Aromashodu's touchdown catch
"He jogged off the ball and I was looking to help on the run and I didn't read my keys right."
On the defensive play
"We played great at times, but we gave them a lot of plays that they shouldn't have had. We gave up too many big plays and we didn't get it done on third-down."
On Auburn's misdirection plays
"They did a lot of play-action stuff. We gave up too much stuff that hurt us and we have to get better."
On keying on the run
"Coach (Orgeron) had a lot of confidence in the secondary. At times we gave up plays that we shouldn't have given up. We have to try to put it behind us and get better because there are times when it gets hard. The outcome didn't go our way, but we have a week off next week and we need to use it to get better."
LB Patrick Willis
On Auburn's offense
"They scored when they had to. (Kenny Irons) was finding little seams and gaining yardage off of it. They had a lot of cutting-edge plays. They executed when they had to and we just fell a little short."
On Ole Miss' defense tiring
"Maybe we tired a little toward the end, but that is no excuse because we practice to play for 60 minutes."
On Auburn's third-downs
"It is just a lack of execution. That has been one of our problems all season. We thought we had gotten better on it but today we didn't capitalize on it. Anyone knows that to be a good defense, you have to get off the field on third-down to stay rested for a whole game. Quite a few times today we didn't get off the field when we needed to on third-down, and that was due to a lack of execution."
DL McKinley Boykin
On Auburn going for it on fourth down
"It's just him (Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville) trying to test us. They did get a couple, but we just tried to play as hard as we could."
QB Micheal Spurlock
On attempted fourth down conversion on first drive
"When you get down inside that five yard line, you need to make plays. You need to make something happen. We didn't do things the way we should have and all day long we didn't help our defense and we didn't do well on third downs."
On the offensive scheme as a whole
"This is very frustrating. Sometimes our offense works, sometimes it doesn't seem to work at all. We have been having too many of those days that don't work. We just have to keep pushing and keep working."
On the possibility of losing his starting position
"I just do what coach tells me. Every practice is just another work day. All you can do is just give it your all and keep going."
RB Brandon Jacobs
On his fumble on fourth down
"This is my first game since Memphis (the team's season opener). I was ready to go. I was comfortable and I was excited. But on that play, I just did everything wrong."
WR Mike Espy
On the interception thrown his way
"It was just a corner route. I ran it well. When I broke on the route I turned and saw the ball was floating too high."
On whether the offense changes with a different quarterback
"Ethan (Flatt) played exceptionally well for his first game. We are frustrated. Our offense is a good scheme, but we are not grasping or executing. No matter who our quarterback is, we have to rally around them."
Auburn Players
NG TJ Jackson
On Auburn's defensive performance
"We had a lot of fun today. We have to fix some things before we move on to Kentucky."
On the SEC Western Division
"All we can do is win out. We have to keep working. If we do that, we will be fine."
On defending the run
"The biggest thing we talked about in practice was for everyone to take their gaps. If we do that, we will be fine."
S Steve Gandy
On his interception
"It was one of those things where I was in the right spot at the right time. I had him covered well. I think it was a badly thrown ball so I think I had a chance either way. I was in the right place a the right time."
On the three remaining games
"It is still up to us. We still have a chance. The defense has played well."
On Ole Miss' first drive
"When a team gets inside the five (yard line), you have to tighten up. I knew once our defense got on the field we could stop them."
LB Travis Williams
On Ole Miss' Mico McSwain
"That guy has a lot of speed. We knew he was trying to go to the sideline. We tried to contain his speed. We didn't want him to get loose on us too much."
On Ole Miss' first drive
"We always have to come out and play good defense. You never know where you are going to start on the field. You have to be prepared."
On Auburn's defensive performance
"To hold them to three points is a pretty good defensive effort. It is always good when you hold them to just a few points."
On the SEC Western Division
"We just need to take care of our business and hope for the best. If we lose, the West doesn't mean anything. We just have to come out and continue to win."
QB Brandon Cox
On the offense today
"We came out sluggish and got off to a slow start. We moved the ball well but couldn't convert. We made some adjustments at halftime and had a pretty good second half."
On some of the misdirection plays
"Courtney's play was something we put in just for this week. He has wanted to throw a touchdown pass since he got here, so it was good he finally got to do that. The reverses were plays we have in every week. They were playing the run hard, so they ended up working well."
On the Ole Miss pass rush defense
"They had some blitzes we hadn't seen before, but we corrected those at halftime. Other than that, they didn't do too much different than we expected."
RB Kenny Irons
On the running game
"Our performance was good, we just have to keep getting four, six and eight yards a play. Running behind this offensive line makes things a lot easier, All I have to do is make one guy miss. They were stacking the box and the coaches told me I had a target on my back and I think I played pretty well."
On the team's performance coming off of a loss
"We just have to stay consistent. If we had played like we did in the second half in the first half, the ball game would have been a lot different."
WR Obomanu
On the team's performance coming off of a loss
"I thought we played pretty well. We just wanted to come out and have a solid performance on offense. We struggled a little in the first half but we were able to get things back on track in the second half."
On playing at home
"It feels like it has been a month since we last played here. Having the crowd support and being able to see family and friends again gave us a lot more to play for."
On the touchdown
"They jumped offsides. The receivers had practiced with Brandon (Cox) what we were going to do on Sunday. I tried to jump over the defensive back and make a big play."
K John Vaughn
On bouncing back
"It felt great. We had great snaps and great holds which made kicking it a lot easier, especially considering last week. I just tried to come out and kick better this week than I did last week."