CFP NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: OHIO STATE VS ALABAMA

January 11, 2021

Justin Fields

Hard Rock Stadium

Ohio State Buckeyes

Alabama 52, Ohio State 24

Q. Ryan said you were not 100 percent tonight; how do you think your injury affected things overall and how did you feel playing the game?

JUSTIN FIELDS: At the end of the day I'm glad I was able to play, and we didn't get the job done. But of course I could have been healthier, but I was healthy enough. I was able to be out there.

Q. Just wanted to ask you, in regards to preparation for this game, were you able to practice the last several days somewhat unbridled, or was there a limitation on what you could do this past week leading up to it? And besides that, just perhaps if you could just reflect on what this two years at Ohio State has meant for you.

JUSTIN FIELDS: I wasn't able to practice towards the beginning of the week last week. I kind of struggled.

But the last few years have been great. I've made a lot of friendships and made a lot of brothers. We definitely wanted a different outcome, but I'm definitely going to miss everybody.

Q. It seemed like they ratcheted up the pressure, even in the first half, disrupting you a little bit. What did you feel like they were doing that was most effective and made it difficult for you guys to operate?

JUSTIN FIELDS: I feel like they did a good job executing on defense. Of course they have great players, great athletes and they have a great defensive coordinator, so they did a good job doing that.

Q. How much do you think it impacted you guys and what you wanted to do offensively when Trey went out?

JUSTIN FIELDS: Of course, yeah, of course Trey going out, of course he was hot these last few weeks, but we have the mentality of competitive excellence, and when one man goes down, we have to bring up the next man.

But we would've liked to have Trey out there. He's a baller, he's a warrior, but he wasn't able to play with us. But with or without him we've still got to execute.

Q. As you were making your way off the field there, it seemed like you were stopping and talking with a lot of people. I'm curious what your message was particularly for some of the young guys that you had a moment with, who have to take this loss and find a way to use it going into next year?

JUSTIN FIELDS: I mean, yeah, I was just telling the young guys that they have a lot more years left, and I was just telling them to remember what this feels like, never let it happen to them again. Of course they were down. They have time left, so I encouraged them to get back to work as quickly as possible and just remember this feeling of walking off the field with a loss. I just told them to remember the feeling.

Q. How did you -- I know you touched on it earlier, but how did you feel coming into this game? You talked about how well their defense had been playing, and what did you see overall from their defense as the game progressed on?

JUSTIN FIELDS: How did I feel coming into the game and what did I see overall from their defense?

Q. Yes.

JUSTIN FIELDS: I felt pretty good coming into the game. We had a good game plan planned out, but they executed better than we did. Of course Bama is a great team, you have to give them their respect, and yeah, we've just got to be better.

Q. A tough loss for the team today; how will this motivate you in the off-season?

JUSTIN FIELDS: It's going to motivate me a lot. We didn't get the turnout that we wanted to, didn't get the result that we wanted. But that's just going to make us work harder. This team deals with adversity very well. We've been through a lot of adversity this past year. We're just going to use it to get back and just work our butts off.