Northwestern-Minnesota postgame press conference notes

Fitz: “We just beat ourselves.”

By Caleb Friedman@calebfriedman Nov 19, 2016, 6:48pm CST

Pat Fitzgerald

To open the press conference: “I’d like to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.”
On the performance as a whole: “We beat ourselves”
On the offensive line play: “There were a lot of one man breakdowns, especially up front. We had plays that were there, and we had one man breakdowns”
On Minnesota’s defensive line “I’ll give credit to Minnesota. They outschemed us I guess.”
On Austin Carr going to the locker room: “He’s doing well.” Fitz wasn’t prepared to say if Carr was in the concussion protocol or not.
On Minnesota having seven targeting penalties thus far this season: “That’s a question for Coach Claeys.”
On the performance as a whole: “They wanted it more than we did, and that’s dissapoointed. Weve typically gone where the offensive line has taken us. We’ve been inconsistent up there, and we were inconsistent there today.”
On the decisions to go for it on fourth downs rather than kick field goals: “I felt like points were at a preiumium. We do a lot of sabermetrics on that stuff, but it doesn’t matter when you don’t execute. I was trying to be aggressive.” Fitz said that he wanted to maximize the opportunities the offense had when it was in Minnesota territory.

On how Minnesota frustrated the Northwestern offense: “They mixed it up. They played a good game. We've gotta give them credit.”
On Clayton Thorson being sacked eight times and not having a lot of time to throw: “It’s something we talked a lot about all week, just being efficient in and out of our breaks. It’s part of football, so we just have to learn from it.”

On what Fitz told the team going into the fourth quarter: “He told us we had to increase our intensity and be ready to go. It’s a Big Ten game, hits are going to come. He told us to get ready for a physical fourth quarter.
On the offense’s inability to convert opportunities in Minnesota’s half of the field: “That’s on us as an offense. We just didn’t get it done, in their end of the field especially. It’s been the story of the year, though. Not just today.”

On the team’s slow starts and the team’s psyche heading into the Illinois game: “We started slow. Again. We did the same thing last week against Purdue. Next week is a very big game for us. We started the game slow and we finished the game slow.”
On the forced fumble and recovery on a kickoff at the end of the third quarter: “Just trying to make a play for the team. I saw the ball and just went for it, and it came out and just happened to be right there.”
On the Illinois game next week: “It’s a one game playoff next week. You win, you’re in. We just gotta flush [today].”

On Fitzgerald speaking to the team before the fourth quarter “Coach Fitz pulled us together and just told us about being disciplined as a defense and to control what we can control.”
On the state of team after the loss: “We just gotta look forward to next one. Our backs are against the wall, we gotta win.”
On the team’s slow starts: “Just being able to adjust right away. You come in anticipating what they’re gonna do, but if things don’t go exactly correct you gotta be able to pivot.”