EUGENE — No. 9 Oregon beat Cal, 24-17, Friday at Autzen Stadium.
Mario Cristobal recapped the Ducks’ second conference win.
Below is a transcript of Cristobal’s postgame press conference.
MARIO CRISTOBAL
Q. Talk about the performance in the fourth quarter and finding a way to win…
CRISTOBAL: Well it was just a really gutsy performance. Again it was a battle. I think all conference games are battles and with Cal its been some really tight football games. This was another one. I think we started off doing some of the self-inflicted stuff and then we found our rhythm offensively. The defense found their rhythm in the first half and our offense got it going more in the second half when they started moving the ball a bit more on us as well when it came down to those last couple of drives. There were some difficult situations for some guys, but all in all we just found a way to close out a game, which was an improvement from the week before when we were trying to close out a game and came up short. So all in all I’m proud of the effort and the toughness to play a game like that and see it through because when you’re backed up that far and they had multiple opportunities to punch it in our defense found a way to get it done. There’s a lot to be commended on that and a lot we have to work on as well.
Q. On Anthony Brown’s performance…
CRISTOBAL: He did a lot of really good things and was very resilient. They’ve got a couple really good edge rushers and those guys are very hard to block. I think the little things like stepping up in the pocket, his pocket presence and avoiding some issues. On paper there are a few sacks on there, but there were also a few high-difficulty protections against some pressures and movement stuff our guys accomplished when they needed it most. Overall, hats off to all of those guys. They all played really hard and Anthony did some good things tonight.
Q. On Travis Dye playing as the lone feature back…
CRISTOBAL: He did [play with heart] and he always does. And he probably got a few more touches tonight than he usually does but his style of play, his energy, his leadership – which really stood out all week long and made a tremendous impact – he was the guy who spoke to the team before the game as well and his message was strong and from the heart. I think it really carried through and showed up in the fourth quarter.
Q. Noah Sewell had 11 tackles and 1 TFL. Talk about his ability…
CRISTOBAL: I think he’s the best. He’s the best I’ve been around at that position. I mean it’s almost deja vu with when Penei was here and I felt that way. I feel the same way about Noah. That’s a guy that last year didn’t get a lot of time to train and only played in 6 or 7 games. Now we’re in this season and every single game he is taking over. He’s doing so many great things and he does it in a physical manner. He is a knock back tackler who changes the game at the line of scrimmage, he can rush the passer, he covers a lot of ground from sideline to sideline and makes up for sometimes when there is a missed tackle. He’s an elite player and elite human being.
Q. On the young guys growing up on defense…
CRISTOBAL: We’re trying. We have to grow up faster. That’s the bottom line. We have some moments where we have some great 3-and-outs and some great defensive stops and some other ones with eye discipline here, mental alignment there and all the sudden we have an extended drive. Those are some things we’re working on. And we need to work on it better. We need to coach it better. We’ve got to teach it better. Hopefully, we will have Mace Funa back next week. He certainly is different when it comes to setting edges. And if we can get some of our front-line guys back – hopefully Alex Forsyth is back as well. It was good to see Bradyn Swinson back as well. It was his first action since he started practicing fully this week. All in all, we had some progress but there is some work to be done.
Q. Talk about coming out of a game with no major injuries…
CRISTOBAL: You always want to see guys come out with as little injury as possible. You really don’t know sometimes until the next day. That’s the honest truth. It seems that way on the surface and I hope that it’s that way tomorrow when we wake up.
Q. How do you think Anthony Brown handled the criticism?
CRISTOBAL: I think Anthony played a really good game and did a lot of good stuff. I know you have a job from a media standpoint with narratives or whatnot, but I think over here it’s always going to be about turning up the volume and intensity on what we do as opposed to anything on the outside. Things like that sometimes happen in sports and it has to be irrelevant in terms of our process and how we go forward. It never has played a part in what we do or how we do it and it can’t be. But in terms of Anthony handling himself in the game, he made a lot of good plays tonight, a lot of big plays. He showed a lot of poise. He made some plays with his feet, with his arm. I thought we stretched the field better in the first half and then a couple in the second half. I thought our passing game improved a bunch. Obviously, a lot of those throws were good and he used his feet. Overall a really good performance.
Q. How significant did the stop at the end feel after the Stanford game?
CRISTOBAL: Without a doubt [it felt good]. In our conference there are so many strong passing teams that you have to be able to affect the quarterback. That certainly was the case tonight. To close out a game like that where there were multiple possessions inside the 10-yard-line not to mention in our territory, I’m just really proud of the effort, resiliency and toughness because you see that it’s hard to get it done down there and they did. They just kept playing and found a way to get it done. It’s a great opportunity to build momentum of off. Because along the way there are some really good moments and others that you have to improve upon but all in all you have the opportunity to build on a really gutsy finish to a game that was a real battle, a real dogfight. It seems that every time we play this opponent it is [a battle] and that’s what conference play should be.
Q. Did you know Travis Dye’s performance would be this important tonight?
CRISTOBAL: We all did. We knew the whole time anyways. If you look over the years, Travis has always been a tremendous offensive weapon for us in everything. Certainly, we are going to miss CJ [Verdell]. CJ is a tremendous player as well, but these two guys together did so much and maybe some of it gets lost because of some of the attention that goes to different players. But Travis has always been the complete, ultimate teammate and competitor. Tonight, he got some more opportunities and just played really, really tough and physical. His hard work in the offseason really showed up and paid off in different ways. He was all over the place tonight, so he will keep getting those opportunities as long as it works out for him.
Q. What was behind the decision to play with more tempo in the first half?
CRISTOBAL: I don’t know if there was much difference in the play clock when the ball was actually snapped, but you could say there we definitely moved faster. We wanted to move faster last week, we were in third downs and just in more difficult situations. Our first down success was higher this week so it allows you to move a bit faster. That probably dictated a lot of it.
Q. What’s your message to your players to clean up penalties?
CRISTOBAL: We have worked it really hard, and it has not paid off like we expected it to. I have to look at myself because I preach a really aggressive brand of football. We work it that way, we also work to avoid penalties – we have officials at every practice – but it is just not getting through. On certain counts we had nine and they had ten. While our penalty count has gone up, we have also forced opponents to have more penalties against us. There is a clear line that we can not cross, and some of these penalties are unavoidable but some are just selfish. I have to find a way to get through in some way, shape or form, and I am going to do that.
Q. What areas did you improve in after the bye week? Where do you want to see more growth?
CRISTOBAL: We saw some growth in the passing game, getting the ball down the field. We threw the ball better. We thought that our big plays, our big runs, were more explosive this week than we had the previous week. We got to the passer better, obviously Kayvon [Thibodeaux] was a big factor in that as well. We did not see the type of improvement in the penalty department. We saw improvement in finishing the game and attempting a 50-yard field goal is something that we had been working on for a long time. Again, [Lewis] just continues to make a difference for us. We worked on the return game a bunch, that kickoff return by Kris Hutson certainly gave us a spark, and we were able to score on that. I thought with our red-zone defense there were a couple opportunities that we had a pretty good feel after settling down after the second drive. There is some more stuff to evaluate on tape.
Q. How did Travis prove his durability over the last two weeks?
CRISTOBAL: I don’t know if it’s a matter of asking him, but I think that there is one football, and a lot of different people touch it. He has been close to that number of counts, in games where it has been 12 and 15 or whatnot. His durability has never been a question to us. Football is football. People get nicked up, people get banged up. He is a tough guy. You saw him in. He went an extended series, and made big plays and just kept going. If he came out to catch his breath he went right back in. I don’t have any concerns there. I am proud of Byron going in there. I thought he hit that one split-zone really well, it was a really good run by him. Trey is really, really close and a really good player, and so is Seven [McGee]. Just the touches today went with Travis, and a few with Byron, and Anthony [Brown] ran the ball a few times as well and had success. There is no concern about his durability. We only had 62 offensive plays tonight. They really ran some of that time off the clock down, they ran the shot clock to 4-5 seconds, so we did not get to get as many snaps as we wanted to. But if we did, Travis would have carried.
Q. What’s changed for Devon Williams since the Arizona game where he didn’t see the ball at all?
CRISTOBAL: Him. Taking more accountability in his approach to practice. Allowing [Bryan McClendon} to push him, and push him hard. It is really important that he fully entrench and invest himself into being the very best that he could be. Because he could be a real special player. He has come a long way, and has done really good things, and he showed up tonight. We expect him to take another step and make a tremendous difference for us in the pass game.
Q. How much does Anthony’s experience factor into his ability to come through in the fourth quarter?
CRISTOBAL: He’s really resilient. I wish you could see on tape some of the things that he did that I saw with my own eyes. Dealing with some of the things that were coming at him, some of the coverages that were being thrown at him. With the injuries he’s had, the number of games he’s played in and the stadiums he’s played in, it means a lot. It means he’s not going to be shaken. He’s not gonna flinch. I think the best thing a guy like that has is the ability to – like all of us should – if you don’t have your best day to look your teammates, your coaches right in the eye and say ‘I’ve got to do better because that commands respect and the trust of people. Because they know how much it means to you. He wants to play well all the time but he wanted to make sure he did everything he could to make his teammates successful. He did that tonight. I’m proud of him.