What Jonathan Smith Said After Oregon Beat Oregon State
Opening statement:
"It was tough. They played well offensively in the first half, we were trying to get them off the field, couldn’t do it, so we got behind. I was pleased we started the second half with a score, and we were going to have to chase from there. Guys continued to battle but didn’t play well enough to beat a good football team at their place. Disappointing, obviously, but we’ve got another game to play."
On his message to the team afterwards:
"Similar to what I just said, we didn’t play well enough to win. I appreciate their efforts throughout – not all I appreciate – but we get an opportunity in another month, give-or-take, depending on when this bowl game is, to continue to work, continue to be around each other and improve, and play another game."
On if he second guesses the two-point tries:
"We’re coming down here to win the game and if you play the game with the normal strategy, you’re going to end up tying and trying to match their score. We were going to go for two to try to win the game. So the logic is, you go for two earlier so you know how that plays out, so then you can have your strategy based off of it after. Not totally second guessing it."
On the end of the game emotions:
"I think it’s the emotions and things got a little chippy, they got a little too far chippy. Some of that I saw out of our team and I was not very pleased. That’s not a part of the game that we want to be apart of."
On the slow start:
"There’s probably multiple factors, we’ll watch this tape. I know we were out of position a couple of times for large creases. That’s a good offense and that quarterback played well. He threw the ball today well and we’ve got to affect him more, but weren’t able to do it."
On if Oregon’s speed was a big factor:
"They’ve got some speed to them, I didn’t see it as drastically a factor. I thought the time of possession, and then when we didn’t move the ball offensively, it never gave us a chance for a rhythm and we’ve got to get off the field on third down and didn’t do it."
On where the momentum came from down the stretch:
"We had the opening drive and go down and score, credit to our guys. When you’re chasing points like that, we’re throwing it a little bit more than our base run game. We just kept going and were able to score some points in the second half."
On the sequence leading to halftime:
"We were trying to flip this momentum at some point, and to be able to get a stop there and we couldn’t. I was pleased with the 30 seconds we had, it got to a point where it was a 59-yard field goal try or try the Hail Mary. We’re down 21, we needed something good to happen at that moment."
On if WSU defeating UW affected the team’s mentality:
"We tried to talk about it early in the week, with that result we’d have the opportunity to come here and play and tie for the Pac-12 North championship. We tried to address it early, I don’t think it showed up today, I think their effort was great."
On his contract extension:
"I feel like we’ve got a lot of work still to do. I’m appreciative of the belief in the direction this thing’s going, appreciative that the administration recognizes I’m not doing this alone, in regards to continued support for our staff and our support staff, and to continue to invest in football."
On preparing for the bowl season:
"These guys are going to get a little time off when we hit the road recruiting tomorrow. They’ve got to finish some school, they’ve got a couple of weeks of that, so we’ll look at this first weekend as a potential time to practice, then find out exactly where we’re going, who we’re playing and dive into it after that."
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