University of Richmond Athletics
Richmond Football Postgame Quotes -- Oct. 21, 2006
Oct. 21, 2006
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Richmond Head Coach Dave Clawson
On his team's play:
"I mean if you give our defense a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, you figure you're going to win the game. If you put our offense on the field with a lead in the fourth quarter, all year we've been able to run the ball and drain the clock and find a way to win the game. And at those two critical moments we failed. We couldn't stop them when it counted and we couldn't keep the ball and move the ball and drain the clock when we had to. In some ways the shock of the game isn't that we lost it here but it is that we were even in it at all. The two turnovers absolutely killed us again and just not being able to make plays in the fourth quarter killed us."
"We got off the field. We executed on offense and we were able to build a lead. When you have a 10-point lead at the end, with us up 24-14 in the fourth quarter, things are looking good for us. You have two-play or three-play drive for 66 yards and a touchdown you know, we haven't done that all year. And we come back and turn it over. Just a disappointing night in a lot of ways."
"Every team has an identity. Our identity has been to play outstanding defense - we haven't given up that many points all year. New Hampshire got 27 but one was a defensive score. This is the first time that someone really went up and down the field against us - at times almost at will. I really thought that with where we were defensively that couldn't happen. I felt that with a lead in the fourth quarter we could put it on the offensive line to help move the football. It's disappointing when you think, "Hey, this is your identity and this is what you do well," and those things let you down in the fourth quarter. I think that's probably the biggest disappointment from this game."
On Delaware:
"They ran a lot of spread sets. The nature of a spread set is that they're going to have some inside matchups and quite honestly, we felt good with our matchups. Our linebackers are as good as anybody in the conference and a lot of times they were getting a tight end on those guys so give them credit. They made plays."
"They went up and down the field on our defense and offensively we couldn't get a first down when we needed to."
On the play of his team tonight compared to other games:
"New Hampshire, we're playing the No. 1 team in the country and we're on the road. You can maybe draw some positives from that. There aren't a lot of positives you can draw from this performance. You can't play up to a lot of good things that we did and I just feel that this game was played the way we want to play it with a lead in the fourth quarter. The two things that we've counted on all year - good defense and the ability to run the ball - let us down."
On the Richmond special teams:
"The special team problems have plagued us all year...Our kickoff return right now is the worst in the A-10."
On Delaware's play:
"To say that we weren't ready would be putting Delaware down. Delaware played a great game."
On Josh Vaughan's fumble in the first quarter:
"He was looking to strip the ball the whole way and the tip was out the whole way. I saw it coming. He was out front, the guy was catching up to him. You teach ball security but that was a terrific play."