Arkansas-Ole Miss post-game quotes

ARKANSAS HEAD COACH BOBBY PETRINOOpening Comments:“That’s about as disappointing as it gets. They beat us in all phases. They beat us in defense.They beat our offense up. They won the special teams. We didn’t match their intensity early.We didn’t come out and execute on offense. We had a hard time protecting the quarterbackand running the ball. That’s about as disappointing as it can get after having a great battle lastweek, then taking a huge step backwards. “Can you put a finger on the reason why your team lost?“I have to do a better job of getting us ready to play. We have to do a better job of beingphysically ready to play and emotionally being ready to play. That falls on me.”Do you think it was hangover from the Florida game?“It’s hard to know what the cause is, but we worked hard and have been trying to get ready inpractice. Our guys came out and practiced hard. You have to take your hat off to them. Theyexecuted and made all the plays out on the field [Ole Miss], we left some out there.”On the pass rush of Ole Miss“We knew going in it was going to be a difficult task blocking those defensive ends. It seemedlike anytime it was a critical play, they won the battle. We committed a few times, committed tomax-protection, but they won the battle. I think there was a few plays there where we couldhave gotten the protection, we had guys open, we could have made the plays, but every time inthe game where we had a chance to get back into it, their defensive line and linebackers got toour quarterback. They rushed him or hit him.”On Ole Miss’ high completion percentage on third-down“That was the biggest thing we talked about at half-time. That was the difference in the game.Their converting all their third-downs, and stopping us from completing our drives. We haven’tbeen good on third down all year long. We have to do a better job on protection. We have todo a better job of standing in there and delivering the ball. The quarterback has to stand inthere and take a hit, and deliver the ball. Obviously, we took some great hits out there, so asanything it’s always a combination of everybody. On defense we didn’t get to the quarterbacklike we have been. He [Snead] did a nice job of delivering the ball. He did a nice job of runningwith the ball.”On the play of Dexter McCluster“They did a good job getting him the ball. We knew that going into the game. They talked allweek long about him not being involved in their offense. They lined him up at tailback. He madegreat runs. He played with tremendous effort. We didn’t tackle well, and we didn’t match hiseffort. He had a great game.”Arkansas PlayersQuarterback Ryan MalletOn the pass rush…“We just didn’t execute and we just had a lot of things go wrong. We just have to come back next week and fixthose problems.”On the frame the mind…“We weren’t flat, we just didn’t come out and execute. I’m going to tell you that 20 times today. We got beat, butwe have a good football team. They controlled the ball because they didn’t want our offense to have the ball.”On the offense…“We had a couple of miscues here and there. We killed ourselves. They are a good football team, but if weexecute, the game isn’t like it turned out to be.”On the team’s performance this season…“I speak for the team when I say we took a step back today. We have to regroup and come back together and getit done next week.”Wide Receiver Carlton SandersOn his performance…“We had a couple of guys go down so that gave me more playing time. Today was my day to get out there and Iwas just doing what I could to try and help the team win.”On the touchdown play…“It was just a deep route to Greg (Childs) and I knew that if Ryan (Mallet) got some time he was going to throw itdeep to him. When I was coming off my route I felt the safety stay on top of Greg, and I had a feeling Gregwouldn’t be able to jump up and catch it. I just tried to hustle over there and get in position and hope he tippedthe ball up in the air to me.”On the receiving game…“We practiced well all week, but for some reason we didn’t play well. We just have to get back at it in practicenext week.”Offensive Guard Mitch PetrusOn the game…“We just didn’t go out and get the job done. Week after week we have a tough game and there are no pushovers.We know we are good, but just because we know we are good means we are going to go out and play good. Itseems like on every play we had nine or 10 guys doing their job, but it was just like it was one guy who didn’t makea play.”

On the Ole Miss defensive line…“Basically we had a gap and we were still letting guys through that, and that is unacceptable. We have to go backand look at film this week because that is unacceptable. We’re not giving Mallett enough time in the pocket, so wehave to get that corrected for sure. Our frame of mind has to be different.”

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