Postgame Quotes: McNeese State
11/9/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Recap | Final Stats
Head Coach Clint Conque
On notching a statement win against McNeese State:
“To come into Lake Charles and Cowboy Stadium, facing the number six ranked team in the country, that’s a difficult task for anybody. Coming off a disappointing loss last week against Sam Houston, I give all the credit to our players and our coaching staff. This is a difficult environment against a very football team that is very well coached. It could be a statement win, but it all depends on what we do with it moving forward. We’ve got a lot of football left to play, but we go into the middle of November very relevant and a lot of opportunities ahead of us. We’ve got a three game road winning streak now, and we’ve positioned ourselves to play for a lot starting next week.”
On adapting to McNeese State’s defensive scheme:
“Our goal is to be balanced. We like to run the ball and control the clock in that regard, and we’ve been successful at doing that for the majority of the season. But tonight, give McNeese credit, they came in here with the number one ranked defense in the conference and really did a good job of neutralizing our rushing game. They forced us to have to open it up in the passing game. I thought the tight ends, the receivers and the backs all did a good job of making the offense click. Zach did a tremendous job tonight of extending plays and made some really nice throws downfield. Our offensive line did a great job of protection. You still want to be balanced, and we had to go to the air more than we wanted to tonight, but I thought we responded to that challenge in a positive way.”
On where the team is with two weeks left in the regular season:
“We’ve accomplished some big things, but we have an awful lot left to play for. Right now we’ve secured a winning season, which was the first goal we had on our list. We’ll enjoy this for 24 hours, but we’ve got Abilene Christian coming to our place Saturday, and they’ve been a dragon slayer this year. They knocked off an FBS team, was right there poised to beat another, and they have played really well this year. They took game a really good UCA team and are great at causing turnovers. But we’ve secured the winning season, we’re still in the mix for the conference championship, and we’ve put ourselves in a good position when it comes to the postseason. It will all come down to how we handle success. I thought we did a great job this week in our preparation and how we handled adversity, because we did not play very well last week down at NRG Stadium. Now the challenge is to see how we handle this success, and that will help lead to how successful this season ultimately will be.”
Quarterback Zach Conque
On what the victory means for the team:
“It’s huge. Coach mentioned how few teams in the country can say they knocked off two top-10 teams, and it feels great to be in that conversation. For the seniors, it means a winning season for them, which is something that hasn’t happened for a few years. Moving forward, you don’t want to think too far ahead, but it’s key to get this win on our resume.”
On his performance against the Cowboys:
“(McNeese) did a good job of stopping the run tonight. They shut me down, they shut Gus down, and we knew all week going into this game that we’d have to throw the football efficiently. Our receivers did a great job of getting separation and they really made it easy for me.”
On building on the momentum from tonight’s win:
“We learned how to handle adversity following last week’s loss, bouncing back and getting a huge win on the road in a tough environment. Now we’ve just got to take those lessons and keep moving forward. We’ve got Abilene Christian coming up so the focus has to be on them. These last two games are huge. We’ll enjoy this one for 24 hours, but then we’ll throw it in the trash tomorrow night and get ready for ACU Saturday.”
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