by Kevin Trahan (@k_trahan)
How would you assess the pass rush during the Penn State game?
We had chances. We definitely had chances to get some sacks; we just didn’t finish our tackles and kind of let them get away from us a couple times. I mean, we were there quite a few times. There could have been big plays we just let them go. I think that’s a key thing we have to focus on, is finishing our tackles and we’ll get some sacks.
Penn State got a lot of easy dump off passes. Is that because you guys were blitzing some linebackers?
I’m sure that had to have been it. I mean, we were in (PSU quarterback Matt McGloin’s) face a lot and that’s a quarterback’s safe route — their check-downs and stuff like that. It was good to get pressure on him, but those little passes kind of did hurt us because we didn’t make tackles and didn’t focus on that stuff.
Is it tough to prepare for two quarterbacks on the same team with different styles (MarQueis Gray and Max Shortell)?
I don’t think so. All through camp we’ve gone against Trevor (Siemian) and Kain (Colter) and both of them bring different aspects to the game, and I think that’s going to help us a lot.
Would you compare Siemian and Colter to the Minnesota duo?
(The Minnesota guys) are a little bit bigger. MarQueis is a big guy who can run, so we’ve really got to focus on our tackling and we’ve got to make sure, if we get there, to bring him down.
Was last week’s game your worst tackling performance as a team?
Definitely. Definitely. It’s something we’re going to focus on this week and hopefully come back out and prove and do the right things.
Did this fourth quarter performance bring back memories of last year?
It was a completely different situation. It’s a new team; we know what happened in the past and we really learned from it. We just had to make one or two plays down at the end and it would have gotten us off the field in those long drives and we didn’t capitalize on that.