Nov. 17, 2005

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

Northern Illinois 35, Toledo 17 Post-Game Quotes

Head Coach Tom Amstutz (Nov. 16, 2005 vs. Northern Illinois)

(opening comments)

"I give Northern Illinois a lot of credit. They came out and really battled and their defense played well. We didn't play our best and we have players that can make some of those plays that we didn't make tonight. I told the team that I wouldn't trade them for anyone else and I'm proud of this team."

(on being frustrated about losing at home)

"I'm not frustrated with our team. They did what we asked them to do as far as preparation and we did everything we could to get ready for this game. It just didn't click tonight. Northern made the plays to win tonight."

(on Northern's offense)

"Northern did a nice job of mixing up the run and pass like they always do. They have a good offense and our defense battled them. They had a short field a couple of times and that hurt us."

(on regrouping for the Bowling Green game)

"We just have to go back and look at the film and correct some things. We have to move forward and get ourselves ready to play one final game for our seniors. It's going to take some character win or lose and we have to shake off this game."

(on not being able to score despite having good field position)

"Northern stepped and played well on defense. We just came up short and weren't as sharp and didn't make as many plays as we needed to. That happens in football sometimes. Turnovers are key in a game like this and we couldn't afford to turn the ball over as many times as we did. It had a big impact on our game tonight."

Senior RB Trinity Dawson

"I'm extremely disappointed. We're hurting right now. The whole team is kind of hurting from this loss. All we can is focus on what we have next, and that's Bowling Green. That's where my mind is right now. I'm going to try to brush it off tomorrow sometime and prepare for the next game."

"Give credit to Northern. They went out there and outplayed us. We didn't play to the best of our ability but I'm not going to take anything away from them. They outplayed us and made the plays to win the game."

(Weather a factor?) "No. Not at all. It got chilly out there but for the most part we just didn't execute."

Senior Linebacker Anthony Jordan

"We definitely wanted to respond better than we did. They hit us with a couple of different attacks. You have to tip your hat to Northern. They were successful in what they did. They had a nice game plan and they executed."

"Definitely `mo' got on their side in the second half. We tried to stop that momentum and it seemed like we were fighting uphill."

"They mixed the run and the pass very well. Having Wolfe back definitely helped them."

Senior quarterback Bruce Gradkowski

"Tonight everybody did a little bit of something we couldn't afford to do wrong. On my part, I'm not putting the ball where I should be. On the other part, receivers need to make plays."

"The turnovers are on me. You can't turn the ball over on a good football team and expect to win. They took advantage of the turnovers."

"

NIU Head Coach Joe Novak

"It was a great win for us and I'm really proud of our kids. We knew sooner or later it had to happen because this couldn't go on forever. Toledo's a good football team but we have one more football game to play."

(on Garrett Wolfe)

"I thought he would play but I wasn't sure. I knew he wanted to and that run at the end was the way Garrett Wolfe can play."