Oregon Ducks Postgame Interviews: Utah

Oregon Ducks football postgame interviews for Saturday, November 19 game against the Utah Utes. If you missed anything from the players or coaches following the Ducks 30-28 win, fear not, that’s why we are here.

GAME OVERVIEW:

“Let’s call them situations that were very questionable. Guys just drove on an excellent defense at the end, in the fourth quarter, in their stadium, down and stared it right in the face.”

SECOND HALF CHANGES:

“In the first half, I thought we let one slip. Of how we talked all week. Utah has been a great starting team. They weren’t really tonight and we took advantage of that. We were a little worried about that. It was 7-3 and they hit the reverse. Nothing really sustained. Something that we couldn’t adjust to. The big play got us. Wanted to stick with the game, with how this season has gone. With some of the injuries, that’s a big time effort there to close out. A lot was really sparked by the defense. Three-and-outs and some big time stops there late in the third, early in the fourth quarter.”

THE MEANING OF THIS WIN TO THE TEAM:

“We just talked about that for us. We want to be in that locker room with more on the line in the coming years. Just talked about that from both angles. Can’t say enough for how those guys have stuck together. Through the season, and again today, there could have been time to think, ‘here we go again’ in a heartbeat. I’m proud of that.”

Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images

DILLON MITCHELL’S MUFFED PUNT:

“They told me that replay overturned it. They called it a touchback, blew the whistle. The rule is a clear and immediate recovery that was neither clear, nor immediate. Replay called it.”

MOMENTUM SWINGS:

“Big time (Herbert). I don’t know if you guys remember Joe Montana in the playoffs had this bursitis (pointing to right arm) thing that was growing out of his elbow. That is basically how his hand looked today. That guy took some shots from a very good defense. He responded great. The o-line competed today. They had a better next play mentality than the last few weeks against some very good fronts. Good to see that response.”

LAST PLAY OF THE GAME:

“It was a situation where we had no options basically on that play. Sometimes we have verticals where guys can stop, that was one where they can’t. You don’t want a situation in that field position where there is hesitation on anybody's part. If the quarterback has any doubt, throw it to the back pylon. That’s what happened.”

COMPLETE GAME:

“It’s closer (to being the most complete game of the season), it’s closer. At halftime, it was pretty much a wash. With the exception of the reverse, I thought we played a lot more solid on defense. You never know exactly what’s going through their mind in a game like this, but we’re not apologizing to anybody.”

LAST PLAY OF GAME:

“They said they saw that one clean. A lot of the other ones they didn’t have replay. I don’t know if they did or didn’t. We weren’t going to run the next play without calling a timeout to make it certain.”

PLAYING WITHOUT CHARLES NELSON:

“I know we got good depth. We definitely missed him, but we have good guys behind him.”

THE FINAL DRIVE:

“We do that drill every single day in practice. We’re just tuned into doing it. I told the guys we just needed to stay calm and just let us play.”

Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images

DREAM SCENARIO:

“A million times. It’s just an unreal feeling. Even throwing it to a good guy (Darren Carrington) and just better teammates to come celebrate with us.”

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS WEEK AND OTHERS:

“I don’t know if anything was different. I think we just executed well throughout the game. I know we had some slip-ups the last few weeks, but we executed really well this week. Good things happen.”

THE GAME ITSELF:

“Definitely No. 1 win of my career.”

TARGETING EJECTION:

“I don’t think it was targeting."

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