Mario Cristobal met with reporters after the Canes' 28-23 loss to Georgia Tech. Here is everything he had to say:
On the Georgia Tech pass defense: They did a good job playing coverage with some of our stuff. We failed at some routine plays. It falls on coaches and players equally, but we had some drops in critical situations. Coverage wise, they mixed some things up. The bye week certainly helped them find some tells that helped with the underneath stuff.
They were keeping everything in front. Sometimes you just gotta pound the ball away and make it a slower, not as exciting game, but put points on the board and sustain drives. But we didn't do that. Credit to them, they just did a better job on third down and fourth down than we did.
On Georgia Tech’s rushing game: They did what they do. They run a counter. They run a power sweep. They run some split zone. They run some wide zone. They got the ball off the edge several times. Not only on sweeps, sometimes on outside zones. Some of it was busts. Some of it was just them playing really good. Sometimes it was getting an extra hat there and we’ve got to make an adjustment to get one there. So it falls on all of us, the way they ran the football, knowing that they were banged up at quarterback. They did a better job than we did.
On the disappointment of losing to a team with an injured quarterback: Extremely, extremely disappointing. As you can imagine, the entire locker room is really upset, down, disappointed. You have to own it. You can't sugar coat this or that. We didn't do a good enough job. We knew it was going to be a great atmosphere. We had a pretty good feel for what to do and how to do it. The routine stuff that we're good at doing did not show up. At the end, we certainly had a chance with the ball to go and take the lead again, but we turned it over.
We gotta own every bit of it, all of us. In this profession, when you take one on the chin like that, you gotta be a grown man, you gotta own it. There's no finger pointing. You don't talk about it very much, you just go do something about it. We have a bye week with everything in front of us to play for, to do something about it. We all feel sick to the point where it drives us to be better. Because certainly that was not our best football.
On the offensive struggles: It's a slow-paced game, but I don't think that should be used as a reason to be out of rhythm. I think we got ourselves, for the most part, in third and manageable. And we didn't get it done. The fourth and short, that's a play that we've been really getting. We turn the ball over to them, I believe it resulted in points as well. All the things that we've been doing good, we didn't do today. And on the flip side, [Georgia Tech] did really, really well.
On being aggressive with two-point conversions and fourth downs: You take the two points late in the third quarter. You want to be able to make it a game. That's exactly what the chart says and how we want to come back and be able to put ourselves in position to win. We don't second guess that one at all. The 4th and 3 early in the game, we felt very confident about our fourth down package. We felt that we had something there that we could not only have a first down on but score on. We've been aggressive all year. We were aggressive today, but that one did not work out.
On the reaction to the loss going forward: Just don't sidestep it. The film's gonna tell everything. I'm sure a lot of guys are already in the iPads watching that. I know every coach is. Yeah, it is frustrating. It's infuriating. And with all that being said, you have to own it. There's just no deflecting. Get on that plane, eat it. Let it really make you upset, disappointed, and driven, and go to work.
You never pay any attention to the outside stuff while you're doing well. You can't pay attention and follow that trap now when you take one on the chin. It's time to buckle up. It's time to be a grown *** man and go to work. That's the bottom line. There's no magic. It hurts. It stinks. It's a really, really tough loss that we brought upon ourselves. And when I say that, I also credit Georgia Tech. I don't disrespect our opponents when we lose a game. But we brought this upon ourselves, and we're going to dig ourselves out by doing the things that we do well and getting better.
I have complete faith in this team, everybody in it, every coach on the staff, every member of the organization. Being hard on one another during a loss is a must. You must demand the most of each other during difficult times. And this is a difficult, difficult day that we have to handle and we will handle. And we'll come together and shut out everything else and go to work.
This loss needs to hurt everybody really badly, all of us in our gut, in our heart, every ounce of our soul. It does. It needs to drive us. That's how we built this thing. That's the DNA of the program. And that is what we trust in and believe in. We trust and believe in each other, so that's why we're going to get it done.
On the Georgia Tech pass defense: They did a good job playing coverage with some of our stuff. We failed at some routine plays. It falls on coaches and players equally, but we had some drops in critical situations. Coverage wise, they mixed some things up. The bye week certainly helped them find some tells that helped with the underneath stuff.
They were keeping everything in front. Sometimes you just gotta pound the ball away and make it a slower, not as exciting game, but put points on the board and sustain drives. But we didn't do that. Credit to them, they just did a better job on third down and fourth down than we did.
On Georgia Tech’s rushing game: They did what they do. They run a counter. They run a power sweep. They run some split zone. They run some wide zone. They got the ball off the edge several times. Not only on sweeps, sometimes on outside zones. Some of it was busts. Some of it was just them playing really good. Sometimes it was getting an extra hat there and we’ve got to make an adjustment to get one there. So it falls on all of us, the way they ran the football, knowing that they were banged up at quarterback. They did a better job than we did.
On the disappointment of losing to a team with an injured quarterback: Extremely, extremely disappointing. As you can imagine, the entire locker room is really upset, down, disappointed. You have to own it. You can't sugar coat this or that. We didn't do a good enough job. We knew it was going to be a great atmosphere. We had a pretty good feel for what to do and how to do it. The routine stuff that we're good at doing did not show up. At the end, we certainly had a chance with the ball to go and take the lead again, but we turned it over.
We gotta own every bit of it, all of us. In this profession, when you take one on the chin like that, you gotta be a grown man, you gotta own it. There's no finger pointing. You don't talk about it very much, you just go do something about it. We have a bye week with everything in front of us to play for, to do something about it. We all feel sick to the point where it drives us to be better. Because certainly that was not our best football.
On the offensive struggles: It's a slow-paced game, but I don't think that should be used as a reason to be out of rhythm. I think we got ourselves, for the most part, in third and manageable. And we didn't get it done. The fourth and short, that's a play that we've been really getting. We turn the ball over to them, I believe it resulted in points as well. All the things that we've been doing good, we didn't do today. And on the flip side, [Georgia Tech] did really, really well.
On being aggressive with two-point conversions and fourth downs: You take the two points late in the third quarter. You want to be able to make it a game. That's exactly what the chart says and how we want to come back and be able to put ourselves in position to win. We don't second guess that one at all. The 4th and 3 early in the game, we felt very confident about our fourth down package. We felt that we had something there that we could not only have a first down on but score on. We've been aggressive all year. We were aggressive today, but that one did not work out.
On the reaction to the loss going forward: Just don't sidestep it. The film's gonna tell everything. I'm sure a lot of guys are already in the iPads watching that. I know every coach is. Yeah, it is frustrating. It's infuriating. And with all that being said, you have to own it. There's just no deflecting. Get on that plane, eat it. Let it really make you upset, disappointed, and driven, and go to work.
You never pay any attention to the outside stuff while you're doing well. You can't pay attention and follow that trap now when you take one on the chin. It's time to buckle up. It's time to be a grown *** man and go to work. That's the bottom line. There's no magic. It hurts. It stinks. It's a really, really tough loss that we brought upon ourselves. And when I say that, I also credit Georgia Tech. I don't disrespect our opponents when we lose a game. But we brought this upon ourselves, and we're going to dig ourselves out by doing the things that we do well and getting better.
I have complete faith in this team, everybody in it, every coach on the staff, every member of the organization. Being hard on one another during a loss is a must. You must demand the most of each other during difficult times. And this is a difficult, difficult day that we have to handle and we will handle. And we'll come together and shut out everything else and go to work.
This loss needs to hurt everybody really badly, all of us in our gut, in our heart, every ounce of our soul. It does. It needs to drive us. That's how we built this thing. That's the DNA of the program. And that is what we trust in and believe in. We trust and believe in each other, so that's why we're going to get it done.
