Quotes from Georgia Tech players following the team’s 24-19 loss to Pittsburgh Saturday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh:
QUARTERBACK TAQUON MARSHALL
On the slow start:
“We didn’t come out like we wanted to. Before the game even started, we said regardless of how we started, it’s about how we finished. We didn’t start the way we wanted to. We finished a lot better than the last couple of games, but it just wasn’t enough.”
On the interception:
“We weren’t on the same page. We talked about it on the sideline (and) got on the same page after that. I think that kind of blew the game right there, just knowing that we would have scored – more than likely we would have scored – and then come down again and scored again, which would have put us up, but we weren’t on the same page. It sucks because I threw an interception and it kind of changed the course of the game.”
On energy level:
“We were never down in the first half. We knew we’d get something going. We just tried to tell each other like, ‘Hey, it’s not going to happen in one play. Just got to put a drive together, get some plays going and then everything’ll get rolling.’ We were never down. Even coming into halftime being down 21-0, we were never down. Nobody was ever hanging their head. We were all calm on the sidelines, just trying to get some corrections in, trying to make sure everything was right, everyone was on the same page. So when we did come out in the second half, as you can see, things were clicking a lot better. We were moving the ball pretty well. So we were never down. The energy was never down. We just came up short.”
DEFENSIVE END ANREE SAINT-AMOUR
On play in the first half:
“I felt like there was a lot of misfits in the first half, as well as the missed tackles. Coming back in the second half, it was just saying, ‘We’ve got to execute, we’ve got to execute.’ The coaching was there, the game plan, it was there. It was just like, ‘We’ve got to be what we’ve got to be and make the tackle.’ I feel like we did that in the second half pretty much.”
On energy level:
“Me personally, I feel like we had the energy there (in the first half). It’s just we didn’t get to rolling the way we needed to. We didn’t hit it off like we needed to, like we did in the second half. And that’s a big difference in games. You have to come right out off the bat, first quarter, shooting your shot. I felt like that was the problem.”
FREE SAFETY MALIK RIVERA
On his interception:
“I saw we were in cover-3. I saw the tight end going vertical and I saw the pass was going backside and I thought somebody was coming back on the reverse. Just trying to get there as fast as I can since I knew I was a little out of position. Ajani (Kerr) made a great play deflecting the ball. It just happened to land right in my hands.”
On his late-hit penalty:
“I thought he was still in-bounds. I hadn’t heard the whistle be blown yet. My thing is, if I haven’t heard the whistle blown, I’m going to try and make sure he’s out of bounds at the very least. That was my perception of the play.”
On if Pitt showed anything different:
“I don’t think it was anything different than what they showed us on tape. It was just missed assignments and people have different reasons for them. So I can’t explain why they had missed their assignments, but I know I had a couple missed assignments, and that was just maybe my eyes were in a bad place.”
LEFT GUARD PARKER BRAUN
About the slow start:
“I don’t know. I don’t think there’s any rhyme or reason to why things are going the way they’re going. Or if there is a reason, I certainly don’t know, because I’ve been trying my hardest to take care of my responsibilities and to lead, but I don’t know. I wish I could tell you that that there’s a reason for it or there’s something we could fix, but the past two years, it’s just been happening.”
On frustration level:
“Pretty high.”
On being a play or two away from winning the game:
“Same as last week. It’s like we’re doing the same things over and over again. It’s frustrating.”
Jackets voice their confusion, frustration over loss
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