Coach O......."We got whipped"

[Greenhead22]

http://mississippi.scout.com/2/566417.html

Postgame press conference
Premium Story
The Tigers were elusive in this one

By Chuck Rounsaville

Posted Sep 9, 2006

After Ole Miss fell - hard - against Missouri 34-7, Rebel Football Coach Ed Orgeron made no bones about the setback. 'We got whipped,' said Orgeron, whose team is now 1-1 on the 2006 campaign with a game at Kentucky up next.

The following is Coach Ed Orgeron's postgame press conference after his Rebels fell to 1-1 on the campaign due to a 34-7 "whipping" at the hands of the Missouri Tigers.

Coach O's opening statment: "This was obviously a poor performance by my team today. We came on the road wanting to play well, but we didn't do the job. Again, we struggled on defense. We fought back at times, but we stayed in a hole all day in terms of being behind on the scoreboard and having poor field position most of the day. And we did nothing to flip the field position.

"I was disappointed we couldn't run the ball on offense. We made a lot of mistakes and had turnovers. It was nothing like we looked in the first game. We just have a lot of work to do."

Q: Did you feel your young team got a little taste of road shock maybe?

Coach O: I think it was a little bit of road shock and I think it was a little bit of last week. I think we had a bunch of people telling the kids they were real good after last week and we kind of listened to it more than we should have. We are a young team that needs to remain hungry, pay attention to the little things and stay together. On defense, we got outmanuevered by the option and sometimes when we were in position to make plays, we didn't. On offense, we couldn't run the ball and we turned it over several times.

Q: Was Missouri better than you anticipated?

Coach O: Not really. I thought they were good when I saw them last week. I thought they were really good on offense and knew we had our work cut out for us. Their defense really played well today. They outhit us and outphysicaled us. They were very well-prepared.

Q: How much of their defensive package were you able to scout?

Coach O: All of it. They only played cover two against Murray State, but we watched film from last year and knew they had other coverages.

Q: What did you think about Missouri QB Chase Daniel?

Coach O: He's good. He was on target and he operated their offense well. He made a lot of adjustments at the line of scrimmage and he ran the ball well. He did a good job. One time we rushed Patrick Willis and Patrick had him in the backfield, but he broke free and rushed for a first down. It was a key play in the game. I expected him to run a lot - he's a good runner.

Q: What about how Brent Schaeffer played?

Coach O: He never could get anything going because one, we couldn't run the ball and two, he was under a lot of pressure all day. We tried to drop back and throw the ball, but they picked up our protections and were able to get pressure on him. The offensive line did not play like they should have or like they are capable of playing. We didn't run the ball the way we should have. Overall, we got whipped. They just whipped us.

Q: Dexter McCluster was not much of a factor today. Why?

Coach O: Missouri took him away a little. They keyed on him and we couldn't get much of anything else going. They were playing six in the box and dropping five and that meant an extra body in coverage. That is why we were disappointed in the running game. We should have been able to run on a six-man front. I give credit to Missouri. They beat us with six in the box.

Q: How good was Missouri's defensive front?

Coach O: Very good. They were quick and they swarmed. They also had some good blitzes that we didn't pick up as quickly as we should have. When we weren't able to run the football, they just pinned back their ears and came after us.

Q: When Missouri was able to score on their first drive, did that mentally set your defense back?

Coach O: It shouldn't have. The spread offense will expose you though at times. If you make a mistake, their guys are in space and that will result in a big play a lot of times. We made enough mistakes and they made big plays off those mistakes.

Q: Were you surprised with the poor offense?

Coach O: I did not anticipate it at all. I didn't envision it in any way. We took a step back. We will really have to look hard at what we did and why we did it. We have a lot to correct.

Q: Comment on the secondary.

Coach O: We struggled there for the second week in a row. We got beat deep, we got beat short. Sometimes we were in position and did not make the play that was there to be made. Sometimes we were out of position. We just have to keep doing the things we are doing, but do them better. It's really a disappointment, especially on the corner play. We should be better than we are showing right now.

Q: Talk about Marhsay Green's performance, one of the few bright spots.

Coach O: We are still picking our way through things on both sides of the ball looking for guys who can play. Today, we found out some guys who couldn't. Marshay helped himself. We have to rebound from this. We have to get ready for SEC play and simplify things to make sure we can do the things we are asking our kids to do.

Q: What did you think of the changes you made on the DL with Peria Jerry moving inside?

Coach O: I felt we played a little better at times inside, even though Peria is playing hurt. They exposed us with our young defensive ends some assignment-wise. It was a tough game for a freshman. There were a lot of assignments against that offense. We tried to keep it simple, but you have to do some different things to have a chance. I thought our two freshmen DEs got confused at times and just got beat sometimes.

Q: You tried to get the ball to TE Robert Lane more, but that didn't pan out either.

Coach O: He was open two or three times and we couldn't get him the ball.

Q: Why were you not able to get the run game going?

Coach O: Missouri's defensive line whipped us. We got whipped up front.

Q: How about the difficulty in picking the team up after a game like this?

Coach O: We'll be OK. I believe in this team. I believe in their spirit. They will bounce back. We are a new team growing together. We will stick together and get this worked out. It's really important to stick together. We knew we would go through this sooner or later. We were hoping for later, but we'll respond to this adversity.

Q: Overall, your defensive evaluation.

Coach O: We have too many holes right now - positions that aren't performing. We would plug something up and something else would spring a leak. We would get something fixed up front and our OLBs would break down. We would plug that up and the secondary would break down. We just have a ways to go and work to do.

[Chipper]

That is definetly the correct word. We looked like a deer in the headlights

[SoftCall]

But our punter is bad to the bone....saw a LOT of action