Postgame Quotes: vs. No. 8 Cincinnati
9/18/2021 4:00:00 PM | Football
Sept. 18, 2021
Postgame Quotes
Tom Allen | Indiana Head Coach
Q. On the momentum shift after the ejection...
TA: Yeah, it was massive, without question. Changed everything.
Q. On Michael Penix Jr. ...
TA: I agree. I saw several drops out there by some of our key guys we were counting on. It is a collective group. It is the offensive line, it's everybody. And it's better decision making by him.
You got to protect the football. To me against a good team like this, they're a good football team, you can't make those kind of mistakes. You can't turn the ball over, you can't be in the red zone, tight red zone, three times and get no points. To me that was the game right there. Three trips in there, no points.
Q. On the early fourth down attempt...
TA: Coming into this game, the kind of offense they have, you don't beat them kicking field goals. Fourth-and-one, we muffed the snap, then everything kind of...
Another ball security issue to me. We didn't handle the snap and we didn't get it. Should have converted. I'd to that 10 times out of 10.
You got to score touchdowns. We did not. This one's on us.
Q. On the quarterback situation...
TA: I'm going to look at everything in terms of evaluating your team. Everybody gets evaluated. You evaluate the offensive line, defensive line, safeties, corners, linebackers, quarterbacks, runningbacks. Every position you got to perform, you got to make good decisions in that spot.
I'm never going to act like nobody's job is 100% safe. I don't care what position you play on this team. You better perform, you better play to a high level to do the things we know we got to do to win football games.
You see what we can do when we're all locked in, playing to the standard we have here, how good we can be. When you don't, you also see that result.
But, yes, everybody's being evaluated.
Q. On the late fumble...
TA: Yeah, I thought all three guys were running hard. Davion Ervin-Poindexter had a great run. We got several guys that can run the football. Stephen Carr is a little bit dinged up. We just kind of -- we were just going with the other guys.
I thought Tim Baldwin Jr. was running really hard. He's got to protect the football. You got to protect the football, rule number one for running backs. No fumbles are allowed in that room. They got to execute.
But we're just trying to rotate guys. I thought he was running the ball really hard at the time.
Q. On the 1-2 start...
TA: Yeah, it's a little adversity. Just like I shared with our guys in the locker room a few minutes ago. You got to look yourself in the mirror, look yourself in the eye, you got to stand up and take responsibility. I got to own the 1-2 start. I'm the head football coach of this football team.
It's not where any of us wanted to be, expected us to be at this point. As I said to them, Here we are. What are you going to do? How are you going to respond?
We got a lot of good players in that room. A lot of kids that have given a whole lot to this program. I have a tremendous amount of love and respect for. We're going to keep fighting together. We're going to lock arms and find a way to keep getting better every time we take the field.
Q. On losing linebacker Micah McFadden...
TA: He's really special. I don't know if he even -- have they got the first down yet? I don't know. We were dominating them up to this that point. Dominating them. Had one first down after that point. Almost the end of the half.
He's our leader. He's a huge part of our pressures. He's a huge part of everything we do. Makes a ton of tackles. He's a great football player. When you lose your captain, that's tough. The other guys got to step up, though. Definitely the other guys got to step up, though. That's how you're going to respond when things like that happen.
Sometimes life is not fair. Sometimes things happen that are completely unfair. What are you going to do? How are you going to respond? Life can be that way as well.
Great teaching moment for our team. We got to respond better.
Q. On the targeting call...
TA: What I saw, I was asking who's it on, where did it come from. I had no clue. I was very, very frustrated by the information I was getting. I couldn't see anything on the video.
I'll go back and watch it. We'll handle it appropriately. It's about accountability in everything in this life. To me there's no difference. I want accountability for that because I also want to know.
At the same time I haven't had a real chance to really see every angle of it. Just what they show back on the screen there. It wasn't called on the field. Just trying to figure out who, what, when, where, how. So interesting.
Q. On Ryder Anderson...
TA: He was cramping. We got him some IV. Kid played his absolute tail off. Love that kid. Man, he gave us everything, like a lot of guys did. D.J. Matthews stepping up, getting better every time he takes the field. A special player. Cam Jones played his heart out. A lot of guys played hard. I thought Weston played hard. Got a special group of guys. I believe in 'em.
Q. On the atmosphere...
TA: It's awesome. As a matter of fact one of our players reminded us, Coach, a few years ago you had to go out and try to give away tickets in the student center. Not everybody at that point wanted to take them. Which is true.
Changed a lot. I want to thank our fans. Appreciate 'em. Just it's awesome. Appreciate the support. Can see how hard this team is going to play. We just got to get better.
But thank you to the fans. Our student section was awesome again. Great atmosphere. Just trying to change the culture of Indiana football and also the expectations when you come and play in this stadium.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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DJ Matthews Jr. | WR | Gr.+
On the offense clicking this week …
DM: It is in the preparation and how we came out [to practice] this week. Offensive Coordinator Nick Sheridan put together a great game plan. There were times where we executed and there were times where we did not.
On getting open down field a couple times...
DM: Our coaches put together a great plan. They knew they were going to play man-to-man and they like to pass guys off, play them to the outside. It was about scheming, and the coaches were able to put me in the right places to make plays.
On coming up empty in the red zone…
DM: It was frustrating because at the end of the day you want to score points and end every drive with a kick. For us to get in the red zone those few times and not get in the end zone was frustrating. That is something we need to grow from and overcome. We need to grow as a team and those type of things need to bring us closer together.
Ryder Anderson | DL | Gr.+
On Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder…
RA: He's (Desmond Ridder) a good quarterback. He made some great reads, some great throws and started getting the ball out. We've got to do better; we have to finish the game. We had them in the first half and got lose in the second half. That's on us.
On getting opportunities early…
RA: I feel like we came out and executed really well. We just have to learn to come out and finish the second half. We started giving up some things. We can't do that because [Cincinnati] is a good offense.
On the crowd…
RA: It was great, great to have them out there. They came in and packed The Rock and myself, along with the rest of the team, is so grateful for them to keep on supporting us. It was big.
Cam Jones | LB | Sr.
On dealing with expectations…
CJ: I think that we've got some great leaders on this team, no doubt about it. A lot of leaders on this team and we've got to come together, we've got to stay together. I think that, you know coach Allen preaches LEO every single day, and we've just got to love each other regardless of what happened. We got to find a way to stick together, move on and keep pushing.
On defending Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder…
CJ: We held them in rushing yards, we stopped the run. You know, passing, they found a way to attack us. They found a way to find our soft spots. But we have to find a way too The D-line's just has to get more pressure, cover guys have to cover better, we just have to play better defense.
On defensive change after the call on Micah McFadden…
CJ: Micah is a great player; he's a ball player and I hate he couldn't finish the game with us. He played with tremendous effort; I think that play was an effort play. But at the end of the day, we still have to do our job as a defense. All eleven players out there on the field and as a team.
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Luke Fickell | Cincinnati Head Coach
Opening Statement…
LF: Well, it's never easy winning on the road. That's probably first and foremost. Not the prettiest game in the world for us, especially in the first half. I'm not saying the crowd was a huge effect, but it was. After last year of not having to go on the road and deal with any crowd noise, maybe we came in with the idea that we were going to huddle and do some things a little differently just to negate the atmosphere if we could. It kind of cost us a little in the first half. I don't think we really got into a rhythm offensively. Give them credit for what they were doing defensively, as well. Really until the targeting penalty and after that we actually moved the ball and it gave us a little energy and a little momentum. A team like this, that has grown up together, we just needed an opportunity. Once that opportunity came up, we went into halftime and got a little bit of energy and calmed down inside. We came back in the second half and played well. Complimentary football. To win on the road you have to play offense, defense and special teams. And our special teams came up pretty big tonight. I know we missed the extra point and field goal and that kind of haunts you in the back of your head, but the rest of the special teams did a phenomenal job.
On three defensive stops inside the red zone…
LF: We don't like to say we're a bend but don't break defense, but we don't want to give up big plays. I think when you can force guys to earn everything; meaning all of a sudden if they get down to the 2, 3 or 4-yard line, you've got to keep battling. They did. They kept battling. They didn't give in and we were able to get three huge stops down there. Turnover twice and a fourth-down stop. Those are obviously game changers and differences in the ballgame. It's poise. It's guys not panicking, where in the past, some of our issues defensively were not having the poise to finish out drives like that. I'm impressed about how we're growing up.
Q. On the targeting call on Indiana changing the momentum…
LF: I don't like targeting calls. I don't like throwing guys out of games. I didn't see it. Whatever it was, it is what it is. It gave us a first down and the ball back where we hadn't created any momentum. I think we had one first down before that. We needed a spark and to get out of the funk. I think that was something that gave us the opportunity to do that.
Q. On what Cincinnati did to rattle IU quarterback Michael Penix Jr. …
LF: We want to try and change up coverages on them. I think they did a good job. They got into some single-wide formations. I don't know if that was a plan for just us. I know they've done it in the past. They kind of made it a little difficult to pressure them. We were at least able to get a four-man rush. I'm not sure we had a sack. I really do believe they collapse the pocket well and stayed in lanes. They made it so he had to throw from a well in some ways with people all around him. We felt like we didn't want to let him get out on the edges.
