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BIG TEN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: NEBRASKA v WISCONSINDecember 1, 2012Kyler ReedP.J. SmithINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Wisconsin – 70 THE MODERATOR: We've got P.J. Smith and Kyler Reed. Questions? Q. P.J., it's probably tough to come up with the words, but how can you‑‑ how would you sum up what went wrong on defense out there? P.J. SMITH: Everything. I mean, everything went wrong. It was a great game plan. Like I told Coach, I said, it wasn't your fault. I'll put this on the defense. We didn't step up. We didn't do what we were supposed to do. It was a great game plan; we just didn't finish the plays. There you have it. Q. Did they surprise you with anything that they did? KYLER REED: No, I mean, everything they did was practiced. It's just we've got to make the play, and we didn't. This type of defense, one player messes up, and they're going for a six, and that's exactly what happened tonight. It's frustrating. I don't put that on Coach. I put it on the defense. I put it on the secondary. You know what I mean? We didn't step up to play. Q. P.J., I understand that it's the way Bo's defense works and everybody's got to play their assignment. But if you saw a lot of these plays, which you did in September, what didn't you guys do specifically tonight that you did back then? What didn't you guys do tonight? P.J. SMITH: We didn't execute. Bottom line. No execution. We didn't tackle. Every time they ran in for a big play, two guys hit them. Just broke the tackle and went for six. So, no execution, no tackling, lack of communication. Q. Did you feel‑‑ I mean, was there some point in the game where you guys felt like you didn't feel like you had any confidence in stopping them? P.J. SMITH: No, we kept fighting. We said, we just do the things Coach asks us to do and we could stop them. They didn't do anything special. It's just, I don't know. It's hard to explain. Q. Kyler, was there anything during the week of practice or in recent days that indicated something like this might happen? KYLER REED: No, I think we had a great week of practice. I won't speak for the defense, but on offense, I think we were flying around and making plays all week. So, no. This was the most confident I've ever come into a game. So I don't think it had anything to do with‑‑ I think we were ready. But obviously, we didn't execute like P.J. said. That's what it comes down to. We didn't do the little things right. We didn't make plays. Q. P.J., when you guys came off the field, Coach was coming over and talking to you guys and asking questions. What were some of the things that he was asking you guys what kind of adjustments were you trying to make in between series? P.J. SMITH: He was just trying to figure out what happened. You know what I mean? Did we give a certain call to a certain person or something or what routes they ran or in the running game, did the guy sway back? How did they block it? We made adjustments; we just didn't step up to the challenge. Q. The bigger picture question for both of you, could overconfidence have been an issue? You guys had won six straight. They were a 7‑5 team? KYLER REED: No, I don't think we overlooked them, if that's what you're saying. I don't think you can be too confident. I mean, you can overlook a team, but I don't think we did. We talked about it all week how good of a team they were. It doesn't matter what their record was. They're well‑coached on defense, and they play hard. They've got smart linebackers that fly around and make plays. So, I mean, I don't think it was overconfidence. They made plays and they executed and we didn't is what it comes down to. P.J. SMITH: No, we talked about it all week on defense. Like Kyler said, we know this is a really good team. They're going to give us their best shot. We knew it was going to be a dog fight and that we were going to get their best shot. I don't know. It was a weird game today for some reason. We just didn't do nothing right on defense, nothing, nothing. Q. Kyler, with a month now to think about this, how do you guys salvage this loss and move on to a bowl game now? KYLER REED: We've had a lot of time to think about it. It's going to be our last game. We've got 29‑something seniors or something like that. So no one wants to go out with a loss. We don't want to repeat last year. So basically you've just got to dig down deep and find the will to keep pushing. I mean, there is still something to play for. That's all you can really do is keep pushing. P.J. SMITH: Push and get 11 wins. Take care of the bowl game and win that, and then you've got 11 wins. We came short of our goal and that's frustrating. But the season's not over yet. We have one more game to leave our mark some type of way. So it's about getting that 11th win. It's going to hurt us, but we're all men. Just got to fight through it and move on to the next game. Q. I know it's kind of a weird question, but you guys didn't do a walk through yesterday. You probably just got on site here today. Did you feel like once you got in that atmosphere that maybe you guys got nervous or the stage was too big or the footing was weird? Was there anything that was foreign or strange about playing on that field tonight? P.J. SMITH: That's not even the answer. It's a game of football. I don't know. KYLER REED: I think it was a normal week. We had a walk through. We got here yesterday. We came in to see the stadium this morning. It was a typical week. We didn't practice Sunday or anything. We didn't do anything extra or more. We just did like a normal week for regular season games. We did the walk through before we left Friday, like we usually do, and it was a late game. We haven't had a late game for a while. But we've played in them before. So it was a typical thing. We saw a movie. It was normal, actually. Very normal. I don't think that really had anything to do with it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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