OPENING STATEMENT
CRISTOBAL: Really proud of our guys. Really physical play in the trenches on both sides of the ball. I’m proud of the way our guys came out and showed our prowess in handling inclement weather and continuing to play hard throughout the entire game. In every critical situation it seems like our team responded to adversity pretty well and then took momentum of the game after a rough start. We threw an interception, had a safety and found ourselves playing from behind, but once we took the lead it felt like we started gaining more and more momentum. Just really proud of our guys, our coaches, our players. We played through a lot of injuries. Ryan Walk got hurt as well, a guy who is one of the hearts and souls of our team. Coming up here to play one of our rivals and coming out with a victory in that sort of fashion - rushing for 329 yards - just a really positive day.
Q. How defining of a performance was tonight for Travis Dye?
CRISTOBAL: He gets better and better all the time. He’s a game-changer and he changed it in a lot of different ways. He got banged up last week, and you would have never noticed in the way he practiced all week and the way he played tonight. Tremendous leadership skills and ability to make big plays in the most critical situations. And again Travis is just scratching the surface of what he can be.
Q. On the defensive effort, especially early in the game…
CRISTOBAL: Outstanding, I mean held them for the entire game to less than 170 yards, I believe. Without a doubt we were having a tough time finding our way on offense early. It was raining sideways just about. The passing game - we had to be smart. We had to limit what we were doing and it felt like it was a three-and-out, four or five plays and out just consistently [for the defense]. It’s not just that, it’s the way they were doing it. It’s the physicality. You could hear it. It just sounded different from the sideline, the way the front seven was playing and how much our defensive backs were smothering their wide receivers as well. Great defensive performance. I know we gave up that long drive we would like to have back, but certainly all in all just really proud of the way those guys played tonight.
CRISTOBAL: Really proud of our guys. Really physical play in the trenches on both sides of the ball. I’m proud of the way our guys came out and showed our prowess in handling inclement weather and continuing to play hard throughout the entire game. In every critical situation it seems like our team responded to adversity pretty well and then took momentum of the game after a rough start. We threw an interception, had a safety and found ourselves playing from behind, but once we took the lead it felt like we started gaining more and more momentum. Just really proud of our guys, our coaches, our players. We played through a lot of injuries. Ryan Walk got hurt as well, a guy who is one of the hearts and souls of our team. Coming up here to play one of our rivals and coming out with a victory in that sort of fashion - rushing for 329 yards - just a really positive day.
Q. How defining of a performance was tonight for Travis Dye?
CRISTOBAL: He gets better and better all the time. He’s a game-changer and he changed it in a lot of different ways. He got banged up last week, and you would have never noticed in the way he practiced all week and the way he played tonight. Tremendous leadership skills and ability to make big plays in the most critical situations. And again Travis is just scratching the surface of what he can be.
Q. On the defensive effort, especially early in the game…
CRISTOBAL: Outstanding, I mean held them for the entire game to less than 170 yards, I believe. Without a doubt we were having a tough time finding our way on offense early. It was raining sideways just about. The passing game - we had to be smart. We had to limit what we were doing and it felt like it was a three-and-out, four or five plays and out just consistently [for the defense]. It’s not just that, it’s the way they were doing it. It’s the physicality. You could hear it. It just sounded different from the sideline, the way the front seven was playing and how much our defensive backs were smothering their wide receivers as well. Great defensive performance. I know we gave up that long drive we would like to have back, but certainly all in all just really proud of the way those guys played tonight.
