Transcript From Coach Tressel Weekly Press Conference – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
COACH TRESSEL: Oh well. Our guys had, I think, an excellent experience traveling out to Seattle. Only three of the travel squad had ever been there, so it was great experience for those 67 guys who had never been to the city, and again because school was not in session, we had the luxury of going out early and allowing them to spend some time walking around the sites and seeing fish thrown at them and it’s part of what they do. I thought they handled it well. I thought they traveled well and represented us well, and played hard.
Washington was a physical team. That was a physical game. You could tell the next day, guys kind of limping around, and part of it, you get on a plane after a physical game like that and travel back across the country, we didn’t have any flight problems, which was a good thing. We were back at the Woody Hayes at 2:00 a.m. That was pretty darn good. And I thought our guys did a good job, and some of which, that was the first time traveling with a collegiate football team.
I thought they played hard. I thought we progressed. We know there’s a lot more to go and we’ve got to get a lot better in many, many areas but, again, it was a good challenge against a good team. I think all of you who watched know that that quarterback of theirs is going to be special and I’m glad we played him as a red-shirt freshman and not a red-shirt senior because he’s going to be darn good.
We’re proud of the way our kids played across the board, offense, defense, special teams. It wasn’t perfect, but we did some things with each unit that gave us a chance to win.
A. J. Trapasso was the special teams player of the week. We struggled a little bit with our long snapping, and fortunately A. J. did a good job of handling those, and I thought one of the key plays in the game, you’re at a stadium like that, and those of you who were there know that that place can get loud and really get behind their team. We were up by 13 and we needed to punt them down in, and we punted up to the 4 and that was a huge play in my mind, to take a little bit of the wind out of their sails, and A. J. did an excellent job and was the special units player of the game.
Donald Washington was the defensive player of the game. He continues to get better and better, did a good job playing his assignment, still mad at himself, felt like he could have broke on one, made a pick, but really played a good football team, graded out extremely well, and if he’ll continue to improve, he’s going to be a very, very good player.
The offensive player of the game was Chris “Beanie” Wells and Beanie graded out from a technique standpoint better than he has. As we mentioned after those first couple games, he had missed so much practice time that maybe he wasn’t where he’d like to be, but his technique grade was much improved and obviously he carried it for 135 yards or something and caught a ball and did a nice job on his pass protection and so forth, and he was the offensive player of the game.
The Jim Parker offensive lineman was Jake Ballard. Jake continues to give us an ability to be in there with two tights and really has done a nice job in what we call our silver personnel with two tights and two wides and just one back and gives us a little different look with the run and the pass, and Jake continues to get better and better all the time.
The attack force player on defense was James Laurinaitis and you probably know his stats better than I do. He had a couple interceptions, a couple quarterback sacks or TFLs, and 10 or 11 tackles and just continues to be an excellent leader, an excellent producer, great awareness, and he was our attack force player, plus I think he was the co-defensive player in the Big Ten for the week.
The Jack Tatum hit of the week was a tightly contested match that Trever Robinson had a big hit on the kickoff return and Cameron Heyward had a big hit on their quarterback and we needed to call for like three or four extra votes and it ended up being an executive decision by dare relate Hazell, and finally we had to go to executive decision and he picked Trev Robinson. And Cameron won’t speak to him at this point, but Trev did a good job and made the big hit there.
And then as is typically the case, our scout teams did a great job of getting us ready. We had a couple guys from up in Trumbull County who were recognized, Zach Willis from Hubbard was the scout special units player, Danny Herron from Warren Harding and Brent Daly, senior defensive end was the scout defensive player and that shows you the type of unselfishness a guy like Brent has, he’s a senior, graduates here in December, willing to do whatever the team needs. He’s found himself a role to fight for on the field goal protection team, but continues to work hard on the scout team and was recognized as the scout defensive player of the week.
Our sights and thoughts turned to Northwestern immediately after the game, because we felt as if we needed to take some steps in that nonconference part of our schedule to prepare ourselves for the Big Ten and we talked a little bit after the ball game about the importance of beginning the Big Ten, playing better than we’d played in the nonconference portion, and I like the way that Northwestern stresses you on offense. It was a good workout for us to play against Number 10 from Washington because Number 18 from Northwestern throws it all over, runs all over the place and does an excellent job. They have four or five receivers. You can’t just say, let’s shut down Number so and so, because they spread out their throws very well. They were missing their running back last weekend and I think that hurt them a little bit. Tyrell Sutton has been an excellent leader, excellent receiver for them, and when you lose one of your top folks, that has a little effect on you. I’m sure he’ll be back this weekend.
Northwestern has always done a great job preparing for us and so it will be a great challenge for our defense. They always are very creative in the special teams. One of the most creative teams in the league and so our awareness and execution there is going to have to be very, very good. And defensively, they bring back seven or eight starters, and a number of back-ups. They probably play more guys on defense than any of the first three teams that we’ve faced. You see their rotation is constant, a lot of guys getting in the game and doing what needs to be done, and so our people know they better prepare for an excellent Northwestern team, and especially one coming off a tough loss that they could have won. And usually with good people, that makes them even better the next week when they face some adversity, so we’ve got to be ready.
Our guys begin school tomorrow, which I think they’re anxious for, and they’ll feel the energy on campus and the students in the stadium and hopefully it’s a loud bunch of students that have been waiting and waiting and waiting to get their chance to let loose in Ohio Stadium, so we’re looking forward to this weekend.
REPORTER: Coach, you’ve had a couple of days to reflect on your 200th win, I wonder where that ranks among your career accomplishments.
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t know. I haven’t thought much about it. I’ve thought a little bit more about Northwestern than that. But I guess the only reflection, you step back and you think how fortunate you’ve been to have all those players. We’ve had great players who were a part of those 200 wins and great coaching staffs and the opportunity. You think back to Earle Bruce giving you a chance, Youngstown State wasn’t interested in hiring me, and he kept getting after them a little bit, as Coach Bruce can, and all of a sudden I had a chance. So you reflect back to all those things, but you better not reflect too long, you get caught reflecting, you’re in trouble.
REPORTER: Actually, Coach, didn’t you say Darrell Hazell was the head coach last week?
COACH TRESSEL: He was, in name only.
REPORTER: Saturday was probably Chris’ (Wells) best game for you guys and you touched on it briefly. Was it just a matter of him getting the reps and getting healthier or was there anything else that led to him playing so much better last week?
COACH TRESSEL: It starts with the guys up front. I thought the guys up front, loud situation, very multiple defense, Washington moved a lot. I thought their front was very good, so it starts there. I think the fact that he could get 24 reps carrying the ball certainly was a good thing for him in a lot of ways. It allowed him to learn on the run, but it also allowed him to — everyone as a running back says, I can carry it 30 times, I can carry it 40 times. Well, you carry it 24 times and you learn a little bit about what it takes to carry it 24 times. But as we’ve said from the last two or three weeks, you need to play this game to get good at it. And unfortunately, he missed a little bit of time, nothing we can do about that, just keep working on it, and he got a lot of reps on Saturday.
REPORTER: He hasn’t fumbled this year, obviously that was a problem late last year. Have you noticed anything different in the way he’s carrying the ball or why has that gone away?
COACH TRESSEL: Not really. I don’t know that he didn’t carry it appropriately when he fumbled it. That’s just one of those things that every time you carry the ball, you better focus on that carry and holding on to that ball and hopefully he’ll do that.
REPORTER: He said his lower back got a little tight there in the fourth quarter and he came out, is he okay?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, yeah, he’s fine. I think it was some of those gold helmets hitting him. He ran the ball a lot and they’re a physical team.
REPORTER: How did Ray Small come out of that, Jim?
COACH TRESSEL: He came out really good. He made a mistake on the alignment one time where we hit Brian Hartline and he had an alignment problem, which again, you have to practice to be at your best, and he missed probably from, I don’t know, practice three or four all the way through practiced a decent amount at the Akron game, but I think Ray will come along.
REPORTER: You talked about the 2004 Northwestern game and some of the parallels might be 3-0 in the Big Ten game. Do you see a difference in this team and that team? Can you compare how you feel this year compared to last year in this point in the season?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t usually stop and make general comparisons. I can tell you how I thought about this player or that player or this action or that action, but in total, it’s so hard. And I don’t know when you — you try to do that in February and March and you look back, take a snapshot of the whole thing, but still, the whole body of work then was 11, 12, 13 games. But this group, I can’t remember clear back to ’04, but this group seems very interested in being good, not that that one didn’t, and they know that we need to get better in a lot of areas, but outside of that, I really don’t have any comparisons.
REPORTER: Jim, you talked after the game about the way Todd Boeckman has hung in there and taken some shots when he’s getting some passes off. Is there any point where — are you concerned about that, about some of those shots he’s been taking? Is there anything he can do to not take so many shots as he’s getting those passes off?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, he’s got to hold on to the ball until he can give it to somebody or throw it away, but the one time where he really stood in there and hit the one to Hartline, which was, I thought, a key first down conversion, they came with a little blitz that was kind of a delayed thing and he was waiting for the route to break open and he stood tall. To me, that’s a mark. Not every guy will do that. And to me, that was a good sign, when they’re really coming steaming and no one’s blocking them, because they came with a little blitz from a linebacker, switched sides, et cetera, et cetera, and we didn’t make an adjustment and he got banged pretty good. But I don’t think — there weren’t any sacks, I don’t think. So he didn’t get hit a huge number of times. I don’t like him getting hit at all, but that’s not the nature of this game, he’s going to get hit.
REPORTER: The long touchdown pass to Robiskie, it looked like a presnap adjustment that Todd made. Is that a sign of his progression in terms of just being able to read a defense and finding out, this might be the best play to get into?
COACH TRESSEL: I think cognitively, Todd has known all along, but he hasn’t been able to be out there to do it practically. And the nice thing is, he’s had a chance to be out there and test himself of what he knows, what he’s seen on the chalkboard and what he’s seen in practice and what he’s seen on game films and now, hey, I get to do it. So that was obviously a big play for us that he — it was a run/pass option-type thing and he took the right option, but he executed it. To me, that’s the key. It’s one thing to know what you’re supposed to do and second thing is to execute it. One over here, I’m getting a little crick.
REPORTER: What kind of progress is Adam Kadela making for Northwestern?
COACH TRESSEL: He’s a physical kid. Watch our game film from last year. He’s a football player. And he’s their leader. I don’t know that — I thought that last year they had that one outside linebacker and they had that one corner, I thought those were the two leaders of that team, but you watch the film now, he’s the leader of the team. He’s the guy that they look to and he’s a physical guy.
REPORTER: Without all that senior leadership this year, it seems like there’s not as much of a hierarchy within the team. Do you think that makes this unit a little closer bunch as a whole, kind of in how they deal with each other?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, I’m not sure that you know the answer to that until you’re deeper into the tests. We haven’t been tested from a standpoint — you know, three games, it’s not like we’ve had to scrap through seven games and had these ups and these downs. But I feel good about — and I did in the past few years too, they do enjoy playing together, and that’s a good thing.
REPORTER: You guys have more power I, it seems like this year, spread was more predominant last year, does it seem that’s the route you’ll go this season?
COACH TRESSEL: Last year we were 25 (percent) three wides last season. Last game we were two backs, two wides. The next types used was two tights, two wides. That’s probably a little different than any year we’ve had. We were probably 25% last year four wides and I don’t know that we’ve been in it this year at all. So you do what your personnel dictates. I like having Ballard in the game some, so I like that two tighting, although I love being in three wides. The one guy that did get banged a little bit, someone asked about injuries, was Dane Sanzenbacher, I think he’ll be fine, but he got wide.
REPORTER: Back to the previous question, the Akron game you were up 3-2 at the half, Saturday you were down at the half, this is kind of a youngish team, what did they prove to you in the last two weeks about —
COACH TRESSEL: I guess that they could overcome our game plans.
REPORTER: But that’s adversity out there Saturday, obviously.
COACH TRESSEL: It was. I’ll tell you what made it even more of an adverse situation was all of a sudden they score with 21 seconds to go and the crowd is jumping and going and — although, man, we can’t do a pass today without talking about our crowd. 3,000 miles from home and it had to be 10,000 people dressed in red and that was extraordinary. If our 100,000 scream and yell as loud as those 10,000, you could hear our — believe me, that alumni band was strong. But the fact — I hate to divert, you know, not that I’ve ever done that before, but it made it a more adverse situation when right there they’ve got that big momentum thing at the end, and then we didn’t have a very good kickoff cover, if you remember, to start third quarter, and then they got a couple first downs, so I mean, it was riled up, and for our guys to block the field goal and hit a big route and come back and knock a ball loose, that was a good thing.
REPORTER: Tyrell Sutton seems to be the perfect fit for what they try to do defensively, can you go into a little more detail about how important he is in their attack?
COACH TRESSEL: What they do with their running back, they want him to be a great zone runner, and they want him to be a great receiver, and Tyrell does those well. Roberson came in and rushed for 80 some and he’s not bad either. They’re blessed to have a couple of guys that really do what they do. You’ve got to be a receiver in that attack. You’ve got to be a guy that can run those lateral plays and then put your foot in the ground and head north. That’s a different style and he’s perfect for it, as you say.
REPORTER: Bacher, their quarterback, who would you compare him to? He’s not quite as physical as Locker when he runs and stuff.
COACH TRESSEL: He’s not a physical kind of guy like Locker, I don’t know what he weighs as much as Locker or anything, but he’s a guy that quietly gets big yards at big times when he needs to. You look at a couple of their game-winning drive type things, Nevada game and the end of this game, he makes plays, makes good decisions, he’s becoming more veteran every day. He’s a little bit in the mold of (Brett) Basanez. Basanez would hurt you a little bit running the ball, running that system, he knows that system inside and out. He’s a good one. They do a good job of recruiting to their system, and he’s good.
REPORTER: Starting the Big Ten season, how does the dynamic change within the locker room? I know you guys are focused, every game is important, but is there a difference? Do you sense a difference with the guys as you start Big Ten?
COACH TRESSEL: I think there’s a difference in familiarity. You’ve played against these guys. You remember Adam Kadela filling the hole and being as physical as can be and you remember that from Northwestern and this from Northwestern and whoever in the league because you’ve played them year in and year out. So our guys are more familiar with what the reality of this is. Whereas Washington, we had maybe two guys on the sideline, three guys on the sideline in ’03, and Akron we’d never played and Youngstown, we’d never played, but that awareness of just what it’s going to take, I think that does change the dynamics, and the understanding of the preparation that’s going to be needed.
REPORTER: Jim, talking about conference play, Iowa, Northwestern, Minnesota, all with kind of surprising losses last week, you’ve got the Michigan situation, can you kind of assess where the conference is right now? They haven’t really blown anybody away or made impressive headlines as a conference with big wins or quality wins.
COACH TRESSEL: I think the reality is, in this country of college football, there’s lots of folks that can be lots of folks, and if you don’t execute, if you’re not at your best, if you don’t take advantage of opportunities, if you’re not mentally in right frame of mind, you’re going to get beat. I mean, it’s not just our conference, you can go across the land, some conferences have lost some games that maybe they shouldn’t, but I don’t know that those people that beat them would feel that way, they’d feel like, they should beat them. How do I assess the conference? I felt going into the year it was going to be better than it was in ’06 and I still feel the same way, because there are some teams just on the flip side. No one was talking about Purdue being undefeated or Michigan State being undefeated or Indiana being undefeated, on and on and on. So I think our conference is, at the end of the day, we’re going to say our conference is pretty darn good.
REPORTER: You talk about Trever Robinson, walk-on, now a scholarship, do you have a philosophy of holding back three or four scholarships a year during a recruiting cycle to take care of guys and is that abnormal around the nation?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t think it’s abnormal around the nation. That’s the beauty of this game is people can come and earn their spurs and you never go into signing day because you’re always wondering on a couple guys, you can’t go in and all of a sudden end up oversigned. So I think the average division one team has maybe 81 guys on scholarship. For a variety of reasons. A guy wants to transfer, he’s not getting to play, whatever it happens to be. Someone gets injured and they become a medical noncounter, all those things. But historically, we’ve been able to recognize some good contribution. Danny Dye, David Lisko, Dimitrios Makridis are three guys that will be in the same boat, they’re on their way to scholarship opportunity and it’s a great opportunity for them. It’s a way for our team to know that we’ve appreciated what they’ve brought to the team, but I don’t know if we purposely hold things open, they’re naturally open.
REPORTER: You mentioned after the game that the effort your team showed in the second half proved that they want to be good, that they didn’t get intimidated by the environment or being down at half, but you said you hope they don’t think they’re good yet. Is that the trick, to not let them feel too good about themselves now or to keep their focus or can you let them get a confidence boost from this?
COACH TRESSEL: I think you naturally get a confidence boost when you succeed in a game. Now you have to be willing to go back and watch the film and say, now, what could we have done better. And you’re never as good as you’d like to be. Every day you need to get better. And the moment you feel you’ve arrived, that’s a problem. Again, I don’t sense from our guys, as I listen to the coaches talk about their film sessions and so forth, studying the game and the things we need to do, we do need to get better at a lot of things, don’t have to invent that, we do. And our guys are aware.
REPORTER: How much of a difference does Block “O ” and the student section make?
COACH TRESSEL: I think that’s huge. In fact, tonight we have our big Block “O ” practice, so they’re practicing hard like the team is. I don’t want them to yell too much, I want them to have it available for Saturday. But there’s a certain energy about all those students being there, I don’t know the exact number, but over 25,000 student season tickets sold or 29,000, half it happens to be, and there’s an energy that that brings, there’s an excitement that that brings. Not only are they there yelling and so forth, but they’re walking across campus, saying to a guy, hey, James, I’ll be at the game Saturday, or whatever it happens to be. Kids grew up with that in high school, walking down the hallway, Friday they wore their jerseys and people telling them good luck, that’s part of the fun of it.
REPORTER: If you used the nonconference season to get ready for the conference, how damaging is it for a team like Northwestern to experience what they went through last week with a loss to Duke, Duke had lost 22 in a row, and they must be down after losing to them thinking this is a team that’s lost to everybody else, they ought to get them too?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t sense that Northwestern guys think that way. Just watching them play over the course of the years, they are a competitive group. We never faced Coach Gary Barnett’s teams, but we faced Coach (Randy) Walker’s teams and they were as competitive as could be. And I know Coach Pat Fitzgerald was one of those competitive guys playing on those teams. So I don’t sense that they will consider the fact the world has ended. They will, in fact, consider, we’ve got to make this world better.
REPORTER: What kind of a job does he have to do to get them prepared for now another huge test after they’ve had an embarrassing loss?
COACH TRESSEL: I think the totality of the program and the kids will help take care of that. They have good people. Good people step up after they have disappointments and so I don’t know that he’ll have trouble getting them ready. They’ll be ready.
REPORTER: You were talking about James Laurinaitis and his leadership. Is some of that from his attitude? I mean, he really does seem truly unselfish and really kind of sheepish about his success, is that part of it?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, he is a humble person, he’s a hard-working guy and he’s his own worst critic. And guys know that, they see the way he practices. Yes, he’s not comfortable with the spotlight. That’s just — you know, because he’s constantly analyzing how he could be better. And I think that’s genuine, you know, it’s not something where he says, well, maybe I should act this way. That’s the way he is. And those are good traits for a leader.
REPORTER: Rusty asked you about Northwestern, what kind of sales job do you have a little bit this week do you have to your team playing a team that just got beat by the team that had the longest losing streak in the country, they’re aware of that stuff, I would think.
COACH TRESSEL: It’d be interested if we polled our team, how many of them would know that stat. Maybe they would, I don’t know. But I don’t know that sales job, when you’re incrementally trying to get better, I haven’t worried too much about sales jobs, because we’re constantly selling, if you will, getting better. And it’s going to be about can we improve. So I don’t know that that will be a problem.
REPORTER: Can you talk about giving lacrosse a platform that maybe they’ve never had to a group that large?
COACH TRESSEL: Is this from lacrosse father? Did you get an email from a lacrosse father?
REPORTER: Just trying to help out the Coach.
COACH TRESSEL: Coach Breschi came up with a great idea for our spring game next year, is that what you’re referring to?
REPORTER: Sure.
COACH TRESSEL: To have a double header. To have a lacrosse game leading up to the spring game, and I told him that when I was at Syracuse that I had experienced that very thing. In fact, we always had the Syracuse-Hobart lacrosse game, which is a big deal, if you don’t know much about lacrosse, so that we could get some people to come to our spring football game, that’s how big a deal it was. I told Joe, I said, I’m on board. It would be exciting. And that’s one of those reasons why I like having the field that we have and those types of things.
Last night we had the all-student-athlete meeting, 900 and some student-athletes and they introduced all the head coaches and talked about things getting ready for the upcoming year and so forth, and such a great environment, one of the things we sell in recruiting is this nearly thousand kids, and you’re a part of that group, so anytime we can interact is great.
REPORTER: Jim, your reaction to the blocked field goal seemed to get a lot of people’s attention the other day. Do you have a way that you think a coach should act on the sideline? Do you behave a certain manner because you think that’s how you should behave or is it all natural that every coach just lets their emotion out or doesn’t let it out, just however it naturally comes?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, you know, I think we all have opinions on how people should behave and I don’t know that — I don’t remember that moment as vividly as some people do. I don’t remember it being that unusual a behavior. Now, maybe it was. But, yeah, I think you’re supposed to stay back off the field and keep your mind on the game. There are certain things I think you’re supposed to do, but I’ve never gone out and said, okay, this week I think I’m going to do cartwheels down the sideline so that someone notices me. You know, we’ve got a job to do.
REPORTER: But do you purposely temper it maybe where you naturally would feel something and you try to keep it —
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t think that’s my makeup where I want to go out and slug the referee, no. I just do, you’ve got to be who you are, you’re busy, you’re working. You’re on your best behavior right here and you might want to hit somebody, but you don’t because that’s the way you behave.
REPORTER: Was this a reaction at all to what Coach (Tyrone) Willingham was doing? Twice he was down at the 10 yard line talking about Coaches being advocates for his kids? Did you see yourself in that role? You were trailing in the game 7-3 when that happened.
COACH TRESSEL: I didn’t know he was on the 10 yard line.
REPORTER: It happened twice.
COACH TRESSEL: I missed it. I knew what was going on in the players though.
REPORTER: From week one to week three in your opinion, in what area has the offense made the biggest improvement, is it quarterback, is it offensive line?
COACH TRESSEL: I think it’s the general, true understanding. Our guys knew the plays, but I think they’ve grown to understand, okay, here’s how they try to stop you, here’s what you’ve got to do when you do this, and I think they understand more across the board, not quarterback more than the line or the backs more than the quarterback or the receivers. I think that the general understanding of what it is we have to do with our role, and now the key is going out, do you understand what your role needs to be, going out and executing that over time, not one series and not the other, not one game and not the other, to me consistency is you get your notice, I think, based upon your consistency and I think we’re trying to get better there.
REPORTER: Through the first three games, you’ve played a lot of players, now into the conference, will you continue that, including at quarterback, I guess?
COACH TRESSEL: I think we need to, I looked at the long-range weather forecast and they’re talking about the hot weather to continue, I think we need to. And I think we need to for our development, but we’re going to do what we think the team needs at that moment. I don’t know that we’ll go into the game saying, okay, Robby (Schoenhoft) is coming in at this time or Antonio’s (Henton) coming in at that time, but I think philosophically, where we typically roll people, we need to keep rolling them and areas where we think we need to get some people in to experience some things, we need to do that. Let me go with Lori and get these guys going back here.
REPORTER: What is it about Kurt Coleman that makes him impactful when he’s trying to kick, because he’s a guy who’s only like maybe five-eleven?
COACH TRESSEL: There are some guys that can block kicks and there are some guys that there would be no protection, they could run in and never block a kick. Kurt didn’t block that kick, Larry Grant blocked it. But Kurt put the first pressure on it. There are some guys that have that knack. It’s amazing. You go through the drills and you say, well, this guy’s faster than that guy, yet this guy gets there faster when it comes to a blocked kick. And that ability to keep your eyes open and your hands where they should be, in that particular case, Kurt got in so easy, that I think he ran by the ball, and that’s why everyone thought he blocked the kick, they said, it had to be, he was standing next to the kicker. They were a little slow, I think, on their get-off time. But Larry Grant has got that knack. He blocked a punt last year remember, against Northwestern, and from the day he got here, he was a threat to block a kick. You need to find those guys. I think Anderson Russell has been one of those guys. I think we’ve got some guys, Malcolm Jenkins is one of those guys. You need some of those guys, because there could be a debate, which play was it, was it the fumble on the kickoff, was it the long pass, was it the blocked field goal? I always error on the side of which one happened first, and that’s the one that happened first.
