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Quotes: Osweiler's recaps loss to UCLA, focused on WSU


November 08, 2011

ON RECOVERING FROM THE LOSS:

“Well, I don’t know if you ever fully recover from a game like that. It’s something that definitely just takes time, but it’s Monday – it’s time to move on. I have moved on. I’m breaking down Washington State right now. I’m going to continue to do that the rest of the day and just focus on the Cougars. As bad as it hurts, you have to move on past those games. Because, you know what? Today’s a new opportunity. This is a new week and we have a new challenge ahead of us.”

ON PLAYING IN INCLEMENT WEATHER:

“You don’t change anything. There are little tricks that I’ve picked up throughout high school to help stay warm, keep some blood moving in your fingers, to hang onto the ball. It’s going to be fun. I’m excited. I haven’t played in weather like that for quite some time. But, I don’t know if any of the guys, if not many of them on this team, have ever done that. So, it will be a new challenge for us. But, I look forward to it. Like I said, it will be fun. Maybe we’ll be making snow angels and stuff. Who knows?” 

ON TRICKS TO KEEPING WARM WHILE PLAYING IN THE COLD:

“I’m going to keep those for myself. But, there are little things. My dad kind of passed them down and coaches. When you live in Montana and you’re playing high school football games in November, you definitely pick up little things to help keep yourself warm.”

ON FAMILY SUPPORT IN PULLMAN ON SATURDAY:

“I do. And I’m looking forward to it. I’ve got a lot of family and friends from the Montana, Washington and Idaho area coming over for the game. Pullman is about five hours from my hometown. So, I really look forward to seeing a lot of people who I haven’t seen in quite some time.”

ON BEING A LEADER AFTER THE LOSS:


“I think the biggest key is to get guys to focus on Washington State and move past it. This game – it hurts extremely bad, but there’s no time to sulk. You have to move on. That’s what we’re going to do. And that’s just my biggest thing this week – just getting guys to focus on Washington State and moving past the UCLA loss. 

ON POSITIVE NOTES FROM THE UCLA GAME:

“There’s always positives and negatives in a football game, whether you win or lose. I think the offense did some really good things on Saturday. There were times where maybe we could have sealed the game and we didn’t do that. Obviously, that’s one of the negatives. But, on the positive side, we put together some solid drives, some very long drives at crucial times. Even that last one – we got our kicker into field goal range and that’s all you can ask for out of an offense. I was very proud with how the guys played, especially the offensive line. That might have been their best game all year. From the running game to the passing game – I wasn’t even touched. I didn’t really feel people most of the night. So, I thought the offensive line played tremendously.”

ON IF UCLA DID ANYTHING DIFFERENT:

“Not really. They pretty much stuck with what they had been running all game. They tried doubling some of our guys, and when they did that, I noticed it and just came back to the other side. G-Rob (Gerell Robinson) did a great job of finding a hole on one of our vertical routes. From an offensive standpoint, that’s all you can do at the end of a game – give your kicker a chance. I was very proud of the guys for stepping up in the moment.”

ON THE LIST OF IMPROVEMENTS AFTER THE UCLA GAME:

“There was just one big thing and it should be highlighted really big and it’s called progressions. It’s hard for me to explain the exact situation; but, there was a time and point in that game, very late in the game, where if I would have been on my normal progression – I kind of went away, thinking something different – but, if I would have stuck to what Coach Mazzone has taught me to do, we might have a W in that column right now. But, that’s just the biggest thing – stay on progressions, regardless of what you think in the time and place. Your progressions won’t lie to you. The guy is either going to be open or move on to the next one. “ 

ON PICKING THE RIGHT PROGRESSION:

“It was right after the kick return. We knocked the ball out and I believe it was third down. We called a mesh route and I went G-Rob to Mike (Willie), where if I would have went Pflu (Aaron Pflugrad) to Jamal (Miles), Jamal was walking into that end zone. But, that’s just part of the quarterback. I thought one thing – where, if I would have stuck with what Coach had taught me to do, and been disciplined in the moment, we might be in a different situation right now. But, that’s why football is a fun sport. You have your ups and your downs, but you just have to make sure that you learn from those moments. Trust me, I have. I’ve learned from this one.” 

ON Cameron Marshall:

“Cameron’s a monster. When guys hit him, he’s not going down that first time. He’s probably not going down that second time. Guys really have to gang tackle him. He does a great job of keeping his feet moving. He has great vision. Cameron – I could go on and on about him. He’s a tremendous teammate, especially in the past game, too. He knows the protection just as well as anybody. He understands what he’s supposed to do and he gets his job done. So, to have Cameron healthy is a huge asset for this football team. I’m definitely happy to have him back at full strength.”

ON WASHINGTON STATE:

“They’re a good football team. They’ve played a lot of people very tough. I don’t know if their record exactly shows how good they really are. I expect a great football game out of them. They’re going to be on their home field, playing a night game. I expect a great atmosphere and a great fight out of them.”

ON WASHINGTON STATE’S DEFENSE:

“They like to play zone – two-deep zone. Every once in awhile, they might jump into a three-dial front and play a little man or a two-max coverage. But, they like to play cover-eight. Whether they stay in that, we’ll find out Saturday if they want to change things up for us. But, we’ll be ready to make changes on the fly if we have to.”