Postgame Quotes vs. Penn State
10/31/2021 12:45:42 AM | Football
Ohio State 33, Penn State 24
October 30, 2021
Ohio Stadium — 102,951
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day
On the team’s performance…
“I’m proud of our guys for working through a gritty game like this. It’s not atypical of a Penn State game. It’s not what we didn’t except. I thought it would be very much like it happened. Certainly frustrating. We’re going to go back on this film and look at it, learn a lot from it, grow from it and pull our hair out from it. But, we kept swinging away. Like you said, whether it was (TreVeyon Henderson), or the offensive or the defense, just across the board I thought we were great. We didn’t panic. We kept swinging and that’s what these games are going to take. And you know, now with the second half of the season, we are 2-0 and that was the goal. The goal was just to win the game. We weren’t trying to get style points in the game against Penn State. That’s not how it works. You got to just win the game and we did that. Kicked some field goals. Didn’t convert down in the redzone but, you know, we didn’t go away from the run game, like you said. We kept working at it. And it was great to see it’s kind of score some there in the second half.”
On the fourth-and-short call late in the game…
“I felt like certainly we had to kick the field goal at the end to make it a two-score game. And then we were going to go for it on the one and then (TreVeyon Henderson) you know, fell out of his shoes a little bit there and then we decided to kick the field goal. I thought the fourth-and-two, we had the right play on at that time, on that hash, the down and distance was set up, I think it was fourth and two. You’ll have to look at the film and see what happened, but it kind of played out similar to what we thought and just didn’t connect on it.”
On some of the mistakes that were made in the game…
“I thought we kept swinging. We didn’t have our heads down or anything like that. Then in the moments like that, you kind of rely on some of the older guys to kind of help out. To see Chris (Olave) make that big touchdown, that kind of broke things a little bit for us because, like you said, we were a little rigid there for a while. We couldn’t quite get going and that kind of helped us out a little bit. We started playing with more confidence after that. But it’s different than it was early in the season where, you know, guys can start doubting themselves. I don’t think we saw any of that coming on. They are a good defense. They are one of the top defenses in the country and give up 14 points a game. And they’ve always been that way. They’ve been playing for a long time; a veteran group back there. And so we kind of expected some of this. What we didn’t expect was, like you said, some of those penalties and just lack of execution. But when you’re playing against better competition, you got to be on point. Little things show up and so it’s awesome to learn from and still get the win.”
Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud
On the offensive struggles in the game…
“These types of games are definitely needed because a lot of Big Ten teams are great; they are great defenses. To have this type of gritty win shows we can do anything we put our hearts into and if we keep practicing the way we are, we’ll be just fine.”
On Coach Ryan Day’s confidence in the offense…
“That’s one of the biggest things in football, coach and player trust. Coach Day trusts me and I trust him. I remember when I first got here and I was 17 years old, 18 years old, he said ‘If you don’t trust me and I don’t trust you we’re never gonna win’. It took a long time, took lots of trials and tribulations to get through that and build our trust, but to have that confidence he has in me and our team, it helps.”
On getting more comfortable as the starter…
“Yea, of course, that’s the name of the game. The touchdown numbers weren’t there, but I feel like we had a lot of passing yards. Confidence is growing, we’re rolling and I feel like we’ll keep going.”
Ohio State defensive end Zach Harrison
On Jerron Cage’s fumble return for a touchdown…
“I was honestly in shock. I hit the quarterback, and I sat there for a little bit, and saw Jerron [Cage] pick it up. I was like, ‘What – did he really score?’ After that I went to the sideline and gave him some love.”
On how the defense stepped up today…
“It’s a good team win. Some days the offense won’t play well, and other days the defense won’t play well. This was one of those games where the defense needs to make more plays. That is something we’ve been preaching all year.”
On Tyreke Smith playing time…
“Tyreke is really a special talent. I’m happy he got to show up and show off his pass rush abilities. He was making plays; we were talking before and during the game, how he can make plays and get to the quarterback.”
Ohio State safety Ronnie Hickman
On the championship caliber of the defense…
“The guys on the team know our potential, it’s just a matter of us going out on Saturday and showing the rest of the nation what we’re capable of.”
On being able to score touchdowns defensively…
“It’s huge. Whenever we can steal points, we want to do that. Jerron Cage was the one to do it today, so we’re super happy and proud for him.”
Penn State head coach James Franklin
On the difference in the game…
“The turnovers are making it difficult against this type of opponent on the road, especially when one of the turnovers is for a touchdown. The turnovers is what really kind of caught us. Give them a bunch of credit, they’re a good football team. We weren’t able to do it consistently the way needed to on the road to get this win. We just got to eliminate the turnovers, the turnovers, turnovers are costly and it’s hard to win and turn the ball over.
On the defense…
“Defensively I thought we did some really good things…consistently stopping the run especially the first half, challenging throws in coverage. We weren’t able to get pressure on the quarterback or sacks, but overall I thought we played really well.”
Overall thoughts….
“I’m glad we played hard and I think there is going to be a bunch of positive things on that tape to learn from and grow from, but there’s some critical mistakes that we have to eliminate if we want to win consistently. We didn’t play good enough to win tonight. But we’re close.”
