Postgame Quotes From Ohio State vs. Purdue – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/13/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 13, 2004
Recap | Box Score | Notes
Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel
“You can’t come and play a good team and turn the ball over like we did.
Purdue did what they had to at the end of the game. We tip our hat to Purdue, but at the same time I feel like our kids played hard. Early on we moved the ball well, but we fell into a lull. Against a team like Purdue you have to be consistent if you expect to win.”
– on the Purdue defense…
“Purdue’s defensive front was very good. They put a lot of pressure on us and forced errors. When you play tough folks on the road, you can’t afford errors. Purdue is a very good football team. You can’t expect to be an upper-echelon team like they are without good defense.”
Ohio State Quarterback Troy Smith
“It was a typical Big Ten battle and it was a tough loss. Purdue was on a skid and they wanted this game. They did a great job of applying pressure. Hats off to Purdue. They came out and played a great game defensively.”
Ohio State Linebacker AJ Hawk
“We were real disappointed. We let them drive down the field at the end.
They got it done when they needed to. We figured out how they were attacking us and put some pressure on them.”
-on the quarterbacks…
“They are similar type quarterbacks. They both have great arms. It didn’t matter that Orton was in. Orton has been running the offense for a while and knew what he was doing. You have to give him credit. He played well. We have known for a while that he was a great quarterback.”
-on the wide receivers…
“They have a couple great wide receivers that are quick that they tried to get the ball to.” Purdue head coach Joe Tiller
“This was a great team win for us. We did some good things offensively and were able to put together some nice drives, and we did some impressive things defensively with the turnovers. Our kicking game was also superb. Our punter might not have got the big distance on some kicks, but the hangtime was enough to allow our coverage guys to stop their returns. This was just a complete team win.”
– on the play of Kyle Orton off the bench….
“He played like a veteran quarterback. During pregame, he said he was ready to go. We planned to use him today around the third series, to maybe try some hurry-up, no-huddle offense with him. However, that’s when the offense broke out with Kirsch, so we stayed with Brandon. Late in the game, we went to Kyle because we thought he was more experienced and more capable of running our two-minute offense.”
– on becoming bowl eligible for the eighth straight season….
“Anytime you can get to the postseason on a consistent basis, it’s a boost .”
Purdue wide receiver Kyle Ingraham
– on his two touchdowns….
“I thought it was big for us to get up early and have momentum. They were doubling up on Taylor (Stubblefield) all game and giving me single coverage, so I needed to step up and make some plays.”
– on his second TD catch….
“I knew the hit was coming, so I just tried to secure the ball. I tried to lean as far as I could and was able to get into the endzone.”
Purdue safety Bernard Pollard
– on what the win means to the team….
“This gets a big monkey off our back. We’ve been searching for this win for a long time. Today, both the offense and defense played hard, but we now need to put this win behind us and get ready for Indiana.”
– on Purdue’s defensive stands in the red zone ….
“We know we have peaople on this defense that can force turnovers. The coaches told us all week that we needed to focus on getting turnovers, and we were able to force four during this game.”
Purdue linebacker Stanford Keglar
– on preparing for an option-style offense….
“They run a lot of formations we’ve never seen before, so we focused on doing our checks at the line. We knew they would try to run on us, so shutting that down was a priority. We knew success would come from stopping the ground game.”
– on chasing down Santonio Holmes from behind….
“We always make good pursuit a priority in practice. Basically I ran as fast as I could and when I had an angle, I dove for his ankles.”
Purdue tight end Dustin Keller
– on the emotion surrounding his winning touchdown catch….
“The play was designed to go to me. I swear that ball seemed to take forever to get to me. All I can say is it doesn’t get any better than this. That’s really the only thing I can say.”
Purdue quarterback Brandon Kirsch
– on feeling more comfortable on the field after two starts….
“I definitely feel more comfortable. Anytime you get to start a game, there’s an increased comfort level. Most importantly, I feel my teammates are becoming more comfortable with me in the huddle and on the field.”
– on throwing to a receiver to a 6’9? receiver like Kyle Ingraham…
“It’s almost too easy to throw to a guy that tall coming across the middle of the field. He’s becoming a great player and I am glad he is on our team.”
– on becoming bowl eligible …
“The pressure is off as far as getting to a bowl game. However, we have a lot on the line next week against Indiana. We have a chance to keep the bucket and a shot a top-tier bowl. It seems like the last four weeks, the ball had been bouncing the other way. Today it bounced our way.”
Purdue quarterback Kyle Orton
– on the game-winning drive…
“I was really excited. I had been anxous to get healthy and be able to play again. I felt good during warm-ups, so I told coach that if they needed me, I was ready to go. I just threw the ball on that drive. The other guys made the plays.”
– on replacing Brandon Kirsch late in the game…
“I think it’s just that I have more experience, especially in the late portions of a game. Coach Chaney made a lot of great calls and thankfully it all worked out.”
