Stanford coach David Shaw: ‘That was about as poorly as we could play from start to finish’
Here are some additional postgame quotes from Stanford coach David Shaw, a few Stanford players and a few UW players, as provided by UW athletics.
UW quarterback Jake Browning
(What was it like? You guys absolutely dominated them. Did you expect that?) “We didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t play them last year so I didn’t really know what to expect but I thought we started fast and kept our foot on the throttle and kept going.
(Were you shocked you had so much time in the pocket?) “No. I thought our offensive line was going to match up well against them and they have been doing well all year. They have gone against some really good D-lines every single day and have been for a while. I thought if they compete and do their job we were going to be fine. Everyone just did their job. It wasn’t anything flashy about it. Everyone did what they were supposed to do and we executed.”
(On the environment at Husky Stadium) “It was one of the coolest things I have ever been a part of. Rushing the field at the end of the game was really cool and just to have their support helped a lot. Stanford had trouble operating on offense because it got so loud. We have been there before. It gets loud and you can’t hear up close so the fans helped a lot tonight and it was a very cool environment.”
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UW defensive lineman Elijah Qualls
(What were you guys doing in the first half that was so successful?) “Playing with the technique that we have been working on all week. As technical as this team was we were going to have to be even better with our technique. We couldn’t play wild, we couldn’t play out of our frame, we couldn’t do whatever we wanted to, we had to use our technique that we are taught.”
(On the physical matchup) “I just felt like we knew that is what kind of game it was going to be. We came into the game throwing our all into it. Body, physicality, passion, into every single play and that got us ahead.”
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UW safety Budda Baker
(On the history of the UW program) “I came here and knew the history. I came here and knew the Dawgs haven’t been on top in a very long time. For me, I am a hometown guy just trying to get them back on top. Any player is trying to get their college on top so that is what I am trying to do. Tonight felt great. It felt like the time that Lawyer Milloy and all those guys talk about.”
(Did it feel like a coming out party with the whole country watching?) “It was pretty cool. We knew it was on ESPN and Stanford have been the bullies for a really long time so we knew it was going to be a great game. We knew we had to stick to our game plan to win.”
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UW defensive end Joe Mathis
(On Oregon next week) “It is on. We have to come in tomorrow and get some work in and get ready. We need to build off of this and do even better this week.”
(How gratifying is it to hold Stanford’s offense and hold McCaffrey?) “It is crazy. We have had this game circled since spring time. They beat us so bad last year. We wanted them so bad. Every day in the weight room, you know Stanford saying don’t let them walk all over you. We finally got them and we kept our foot on and kept going. We didn’t stop and I am proud of the guys. I love my teammates. Now we just have to go get Oregon.”
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Stanford coach David Shaw
(Opening statement) “Well that was about as poorly as we could play from start to finish and that’s the bottom line. I talked to the guys, they understand it, they know it. We did not rise to the challenge. That starts with me. We didn’t do enough to get our guys ready. Because that team that went out there tonight is not the team that played last week, it’s not the team that we practiced all week to come up and play a really good team in their house. Just did not play well. There’s no other rhyme or reason to it, it’s not the noise, it’s not anything else, we did not play well. Every time we had a chance, either they made a play that we couldn’t make or we made a mistake and they took advantage of all of our mistakes tonight. So hats off to Washington, they did a great job. Coach Petersen and his staff did a great job preparing for us and they played really, really well.”
(Do you think you were out physicalled tonight?) “I don’t know, that’s for you guys to say if you want to. That’s probably one of the nicer things said about us this week, you can say that. We didn’t play well. We didn’t block well, we didn’t run the ball, we couldn’t pass protect and we couldn’t complete passes with any consistency, particularly the first two and a half quarters. Just not the style of football that we can play, not as well as we can play. Injuries don’t matter, back-ups don’t matter. We’ve got a lot of guys that we’ve been rotating in, they’re used to playing, we just didn’t play well. Periodically that happens in a team sport. The better teams, they don’t really play well, you find a way to win. But against a good team, that plays as well as Washington played tonight, you don’t start off well, you get behind by a lot and it’s hard to catch up.”
(On Washington’s front seven) “They played extremely well, they just did. They knocked our guys back periodically. We had a couple of run lanes and got some chunks and we couldn’t convert on third-downs. Every time we had something going, we’d have a penalty or something that knocked us back. You get into third and long, especially, I don’t know how many third and longs we had in the first half but it was a good portion of them. Third and long in the noise, with the pass rush that they have, that’s going to be really tough. So we got ourselves behind the eight ball, by first of all not being able to stop them when they had the ball, I don’t know if they scored touchdowns in the first three drives or whatever it was, and then not being able to convert our third downs, and staying in manageable third downs first of all, and not being able to convert them. That’s just a bad recipe in particular on the road.”
(Did not having Meeks and Holder affect your ability to cover Ross, Pettis and the other receivers?) “That’s tough to say. I haven’t watched the film. I haven’t evaluated every play. But it wasn’t just the passing game. It was their passing game and their running game. They were very efficient throwing the ball, they were very efficient running the ball and had explosive plays in both the run and pass. That’s a recipe for success.”
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Stanford receiver Michael Rector
(On how surprised he was by the way tonight’s game went) “Obviously we came in expecting to get a win, but I’m not really surprised by the result given the way that we played. I think on all three sides of the ball we have a lot to clean up.”
(On not being able to get things going offensively) “I think it’s just a lot of things that were shooting us in the foot like penalties. It’s really hard to get in the end zone when we’re hurting ourselves like that. We failed to get into a rhythm early and that’s the result that we came out with.”
(On how to get back on track) “We take it like every game. We’re going to lick our wounds. Whether we win or lose, we’re going to take a day to take it all in and watch the film. We’ll scrutinize what we can do better and come out and play better next week.”
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Stanford safety Zach Hoffpauir
(On Jake Browning) “They ran a lot of things that we saw on tape that we practiced I just don’t think we executed it in a timely manner. We needed to get off the field on third down and they ran the plays that we were ready for, we just didn’t execute.”
(On Washington’s passing game) “We didn’t make the play when the play was there to make. Washington made the plays. Give all the credit to them. They’re a good receiving core, probably the best we’ll see, at least in the Pac-12. I don’t see many being as all around—all of them can run and catch, they’ve got a good scheme. They’re one of the best we’ll see this season.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 11:36 PM with the headline "Stanford coach David Shaw: ‘That was about as poorly as we could play from start to finish’."