Notable quotes following Michigan State’s loss at Nebraska.
LINCOLN, Neb. – Michigan State has dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season.
The Spartans (6-5,4-4 Big Ten) lost 9-6 to Nebraska (4-7,3-5) on a snowy Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Here are notable quotes from Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio and players following the loss:
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to put the ball in the end zone in the red zone.”
– Dantonio on Michigan State finishing 2-for-3 on red zone attempts with just two field goals.
“I thought Lombardi played pretty well. You’ve got to make some decision on what you’re running – you can’t run it all, but I thought he played pretty well.”
– Dantonio on the play of redshirt freshman quarterback Rocky Lombardi, who finished 15-for-41 passing for 146 yards and an interception, and Michigan State reducing the playbook a bit in his second start for an injured Brian Lewerke.
“I felt pretty confident in my first start and I still feel pretty confident. I think it’s the same. Obviously the main difference between this start is you’re in the loudest place in the Big Ten, the atmosphere was great. That was a big difference.”
– Lombardi on the difference between his first career start – a 23-13 win at home against Purdue last month – and his second.
Michigan State’s anemic offense spoils another strong defensive performance
“I would think if there’s a level of frustration, it would come from the head coach too. So yeah, I’m frustrated about points… but the play calling was fine. There’s an execution factor that’s involved here. Some of it’s the weather, some of it’s (Nebraska) making plays on the ball, some of it’s us.”
– Dantonio on Michigan State’s second game in a row without a touchdown. The last time the Spartans lost while allowing fewer points than Saturday was a 6-3 defeat to Illinois on Oct. 20,1973.
“I think our frustration is more so frustrating because we want to win. I don’t think it’s any personal frustration, or any jawing back and forth – there’s nothing like that, but it’s definitely frustrating because we want to win, especially when we feel like we’re playing well in certain areas.”
– Safety Khari Willis on the defense playing well while the offense continues to struggle.
“We had too many drops, I felt. If you had to point to one thing in the football game, you got to look at the dropped passes.”
– Dantonio on Michigan State numerous drops in the game.
“I didn’t see any drops.”
– Lombardi on Michigan State’s drops.
Nebraska rallies late for 9-6 win against Michigan State
“We just felt like we needed to rest Brian this week until he was able to sort of settle himself a little bit, settle his shoulder. He could have played.”
– Dantonio on the decision to start Lombardi instead of Lewerke, a redshirt junior who has an injured right throwing shoulder.
“The fourth quarter has been killing us and we’ve got to find a way to finish in those situations.”
– Linebacker Joe Bachie on Nebraska scoring the final nine points of the game in the fourth quarter.
“I contribute that losing your composure, I guess I would say.”
– Dantonio on Michigan State being flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct three times.
