Rutgers Head Coach Chris Ash
CHRIS ASH: Appreciate you guys being here. I'll go ahead and just make some comments. First and foremost, hats off to Indiana, played a good game, made more plays in critical situations than we did and won the game. Absolutely love our football team, though I said that several times. The way they played in the second half is an indication of the type of chemistry and love for each other we have on the football team. This team's got a lot of fight in it. You guys have asked me before, has this team quit, this team hasn't quit, there's a lot of fight in this team, this team won't quit. We got better today. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough, but absolutely love our guys, I love our team and we'll continue to improve if we stay the course and practice the way that we did this week. We did a lot of things different here during the week to try to address some of the issues that we had in the last couple weeks and we got better. Didn't look like that in the first half. We dug ourselves a hole again and a lot of it had to do with third down. We weren't good on third down on either side of the ball in the first half. Pass protection against pressure offensively.

And then defensively we just had mental errors or poor pass drops that cost us on third down in the first half that did dig us a hole that we couldn't get out of. But, again, I think we got better and we need to continue to get better and we're not where we need to be by, obviously, by any means, but again this team is fighting and they're going to keep trying to get better and improve as we move forward. So with that I'll just go ahead and open it up for questions.

Q. On the last play, the offsides, were you okay with that? Did you think the man in motion came forward?
CHRIS ASH: No, no, we've got to have more discipline in that situation. It's a critical situation in a game, exactly what we hoped would happen in that moment, we scored, conversations of onside or kicking it deep, we decided to kick it deep, having trust and faith that we could get a stop. We had a timeout and we were right there and it didn't work. We have just got to coach it better.

Q. You said before that Rutgers has to stop beating Rutgers. You had six penalties. Do you feel like that was the case today?
CHRIS ASH: We beat ourselves again today. The penalties, that's not a high number, but when they occur is the biggest issue. Two of them in the first half were on third downs defensively. A third one there at the end of the game on fourth down came defensively. They're just critical situations that seemed to come up and bite us. But we beat ourselves again, unfortunately. That's tough to say, but that's reality.

Q. Were you pleased with the way that Art played, just his decisions he was making and also the fact that he took some big hits and he really kind of stood in there all day?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I think today you saw some glimpses of what Art could become and what we have been seeing in practice. Art's a warrior. He took some shots. He's big, strong kid, and he got up and he kept playing. He made some really good throws in there today, obviously wish he would have had the one interception back, but he made some really critical plays in that game today and he keeps getting better. Keeps getting better. We just got to keep working with him and he's got to keep working and grinding and I think we have seen a lot of improvement from game one to this game today.

Q. Seemed like it's been a long time since you had as many receivers involved in the offense as well. What kind of boost was that and what changed this week?
CHRIS ASH: It's what we have been really trying to get to. We have to get more guys involved and we have to get the ball in more guys' hands and we were able to do that today. I think we threw the ball more than we have today and we were able to protect well against four-man rush. That was a positive. But we were not able to protect well against the pressure today that we saw, which was disappointing. But I think what happened is, again, that was the plan to try to throw a little bit more, we did a good job up front protecting when they rushed four, Art made good decisions. We ran good routes. All 11 were working together when we had success of the.

Q. In the second half improvements, what did you say to the guys in the locker room and were there a lot of changes that you made?
CHRIS ASH: No. Halftime adjustments, guys, to me are a lot of times overrated. Most of the adjustments you make in a game are throughout the first half because you see what they're doing and you make adjustments on the sidelines and at halftime a lot of it is just reconfirming the adjustments that you made as you move forward. You make some but it's not drastic. So we didn't make any changes, the halftime conversation was we beat ourselves in the first half. We did a lot of good things, but it was the third down conversation and that's what the halftime was. We've got to protect better on third down when they bring pressure and on defense we've got to get off the field. We can't beat ourselves with penalties or poor pass drops or not running a blitz the right way. Supposed to go contain and we go inside and the quarterback gets outside and can extend plays. We just can't do those things. That was the conversation at halftime.

Q. I know you're not big on moral victories, but is this something you can build on, just being able to play competitively and within three minutes of the game still have a chance?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, it's a good question. Because again, we're all here to try to win. But we improved a lot and the team showed me a lot in the second half. Very, very disappointed that we didn't get a victory. If we would have played cleaner we could have. But very, very pleased about the fight, the effort and the attitude of our football team in that second half. That's what we need. If we want to continue to get better and give ourselves a chance to win games, we've got to go out and play like that from the start to finish. We've got to prepare the way we did and we got to play that way. The effort and attitude was great in the first half, it was just we kept beating ourselves. Second half we cleaned it up and still some mistakes. But yeah, I take a lot out of this game, good and bad, even though it's a loss, there's a lot to learn, a lot to build off of and we'll do just that.

Q. Was there anything they did in the first half, it seemed liked there was a lot of times where they would get a receiver in space with a lot of green maybe with soft coverage on your part?
CHRIS ASH: No, there were, when you can't rush the passer and you give the quarterback time, and you're playing zone coverage, receivers are going to eventually get open. We have got to do a better job of putting pressure on the quarterback defensively, whether it's rushing four or bringing pressure. That's really what it was. We're not sitting here being able to rotate eight, nine defensive linemen and our guys get tired and we've got to do a better job of finding a way to get pressure on the quarterback so there's not time for guys to sit in zone coverages and get open.

Q. What did you think of Justin's kick?
CHRIS ASH: Awesome. Really proud of the kid. I think that, I've been asked before, just about the confidence in the kicker, and putting him in that situation and had 100 percent confidence that he would go out and hit that thing. He's been doing it in practice, he's got a lot of strength, got a strong leg, he has been doing that in practice probably for the last three or four weeks and really, really happy for him. He's kicking off exceptionally well, in my opinion, and to be able to go out there and hit a field goal from that distance and still give us an opportunity -- because if he misses the game's over -- and to do it in that situation from that distance was awesome to see.

Q. Have you seen him kick it farther than that?
CHRIS ASH: In practice. He's been able to get probably 55, 56 yards in practice. So he could not have done that in training camp but that's just a testament to his work ethic and commitment to trying to get better. And a lot of it is just the mental part of it, he's really believing in himself right now.

Q. Mike Tverdov made a couple plays, had a big third down stop at the beginning of the second half, almost stopped that touchdown from Indiana in the first half. What did you think of his performance?
CHRIS ASH: I said before I absolutely love Mike Tverdov. He's a young player who has tremendous upside, he plays the game so hard. A lot of people don't realize but Mike's playing out of position because that's what we need him to do right now. What we call our Jack position we got three guys that we thought would have been there not there, so we have moved Mike to learn a new position and he's done it in a couple weeks and it was his first start and he made a lot of plays today. Made some mistakes, but that's part of the process, the growing and learning process, but he has got a bright future and I can't say enough good things about the kid.

Q. Can you talk about the checkoff play to Washington.
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, we kind of been living on bunch formations and the toss play and it's something that has been there, we practiced it a lot, and again it just felt like the right time to call it and John called it and almost -- didn't execute it cleanly, but it was a big play, we really thought it would go for a touchdown and almost did. But again that's another freshman in a critical situation where he made a pass and it may sound simple, but that's a critical situation where we needed a play and a freshman made it.

Rutgers Player Quotes
Rutgers Quarterback Artur Sitkowski
On the team's play: We played tough. I'm proud of my teammates. I'm proud of the o-line. I'm proud of everyone. We rallied together and worked our tails off. We showed significant effort. I truly believe we did that.
 
On if this was the best the offense play all season: "Yeah, I believe so. It's something to build off of. It's going to give us confidence going into the next game with Illinois. I'm really excited for what that brings us."
 
On playing tough: "As long as you can get up, you're good to go. My dad always says that if you're living or breathing, you know you're ready to go. That's one thing I pride myself on. I have to be tough. I owe it to those guys. I owe it to this University everything, I owe this coaching staff everything and most importantly, I owe my brothers everything. I'm going to go in there and give it everything I got.
 
On the team's confidence in the fourth quarter: "Absolutely we had confidence. I believe we can do something special. We haven't played our best football and when we do, we can be really good. I'm really excited for what the future hold, but the only way for us to do that is to work hard throughout the week. That's where the games are won."
 
Rutgers Wide Receiver Shameen Jones
On the play of the offense: "I felt like we did well. We made a lot of progress from the last few weeks with all the mental errors. Today was a big step for us and showed that we can move forward."
 
On the play of the wide receivers: "I felt like we all did our job. We did well and had a lot of effort. We all made plays when we were called on, so it was definitely a good step for us."
 
Rutgers Kicker Justin Davidovicz
On his field goal in the fourth quarter: "I was just trying to zone everything out and focus on the snap, the hold and the kick. I knew Billy [Taylor] would snap it perfect, Cole [Murphy] would hold it perfect and the o-line would block for me, so I just did my job to put it through to give my team a chance to win."
 
Rutgers Linebacker Deonte Roberts
On the game: "It was a real close game. With the start of Big Ten football, you're going to see a lot of games like that. You hope to come out with the win, but we just have to get better. Come tomorrow, we're going focus on the next opponent and improve on the things we need to from this game."
 
On this game being a confidence builder: "We're just trying to take it day by day. We're not trying to overload our head and listen to the outside noise. We just need to handle our business and handle our individual jobs."
 
On his fumble recovery: "It was a momentum swing. We needed to make a play. I saw my opportunity so I just tried to make a play to help my team."
 
Rutgers Defensive Lineman Jon Bateky
On the difference in the team during the second half: "It was just us focusing on doing our job to the best of our ability. We went into the game knowing we had to take care of our jobs, and everything else would follow.

Indiana Head Coach Tom Allen
On the game: "Every win is a tough win on the road. I'm thankful to get this win and proud of our guys. I thought we played a great first half, coming in here and starting fast. Defensively we had a bad penalty early on that touchdown drive but after that I thought the boys played great. Offensively, we never punted in the first half and scored every time we had the ball. Good job at the end to get a field goal. Great job by Logan Justus who continues to excel as the field goal kicker. We really challenged our guys at halftime to finish and we did not. I think that's something we have to learn from and grow from. We let them hang around and hang around. Then we made it interesting at the end. I want to see us play a full sixty minutes. That's where the growth has to come next. It's good to be able to learn from those situations when you get a win."
 
On the approach in the second half: "We were trying to establish the run game more and we didn't execute. We have to score points. If you have a chance to go up 31-7, that changes the complexion of everything. We knew that and had several chances to do that and just couldn't do it. Obviously you're trying to utilize the clock as much as you can and be smart with that. At the same time, you have to go play ball and win the game. That's got to be fixed.
 
On going for fourth down and not attempting a field goal in the fourth quarter: "We've done this study for the past two years. We have a whole scientific approach to how you manage the game. The study shows us, based on history of games, that the difference between going up 13 points and being up 10 points doesn't change anything. You say, we'll all they have to do is kick a field goal and they'll tie you? Well, when teams know that all they have to do is get six points and that a touchdown will beat you, the 13 doesn't help you. The 14 does. We wanted to go up by two full scores. To me, the rationale was, whether you are up by 10 or 13, it's a wash. And so we went for it. At the end of the day, it worked out for us. But I'd do it again every time.
 
On establishing the run and getting the ball down the field: "We got the ball down the field at times. We took some shots. I still want to continue to grow that. We didn't run the ball like I wanted us to. We'll still keep working at that. You have to establish that. But at the same time, we're taking what they're giving us. They load the box, you spit the ball out on the perimeter and make them pay. We tried to establish the run in the second half but it just didn't work.
 
On the decision to go for fourth down late in the game: "That was my call. I said we came to win the game. I didn't come here to fiddle around at the end. I believe in our offensive line. I did not call a freeze call. They jumped, and therefore Peyton Hendershot did what he's been coached to do. We were going to run the ball and give him the ability to read it and get the first down. Because we knew that if we got the first down, the game was over. I knew that once the clock got under 2:50, they couldn't stop the clock. So yea it was a gamble, but we came here to win the game."
 
Indiana Linebacker Reakwon Jones
On the win: "Every win you get is a good win. I'm extremely happy that we got this win. I'm not satisfied with how the game ended. I addressed the team in the locker room after the game and I told them 'I'm happy we won, but we all feel like we left something out there. And that's how you should feel. We should play to a higher standard. And we left a lot of plays out there that should have been made that made this game a lot closer than it could have been.' Going into this next week, we're really going to emphasize finishing. I think they guys are ready, I'm very confident in them. I think we know that we left some plays out there and we need to come back strong next week."
 
On why he addressed the team: "I didn't want anyone to feel complacent or content with that win. Every win is a great win, but I don't want them to think that is our standard. Our standard is a lot higher. We left stuff out there. We can be happy but at the same time know that we made mistakes and we need to come back and really emphasize finishing and working hard."
 
On the second half: "The energy on the sideline died down in that half. We didn't score in that half and we let them score. When we come out of halftime, our mindset is that it's 0-0. I wanted to tell our team, this stuff can't happen if we want to get to where we want to be. We know what kind of team we're trying to be. Whatever the outcome may be, you have to come back the next week and treat it like the start of the season."
 
Indiana Quarterback Peyton Ramsey
On the second half: "They made adjustments too. Scoring on all four of our possessions in the first half, they had to adjust. They did a good job, but obviously we didn't do a good job of executing. It came down to little things. Just missed assignments. There's no one person to point fingers at, it was a collective offensive effort that needs to be better.
 
On the locker room after the game: "A win is a win, especially in the Big Ten. It's hard to win. But obviously, we're not satisfied. We're going to learn from it come Monday and move on."
 
On the fourth down at the end of the game: "I wasn't even expecting the ball to be snapped. Then the ball was snapped and they just took off and Peyton Hendershot made a heck of a catch. We were just trying to draw them offsides at first. We could have changed the play, we could have taken a timeout, so I wasn't really expecting to catch a snap there."
 
Indiana Wide Receiver Nick Westbrook
On the team's offense: "The gameplan was to get our outside receivers involved more and throw the ball downfield more. That was definitely part of the gameplan because we have great receivers. We know we need to utilize that.
 
On the message postgame: "Yea, we didn't finish. We came out with the win, which was great. That's just something we have to do moving forward. We preach finishing every game. Our receivers did make some plays, some third down receivers that did help us at least stay in the lead and keep us able to win the game. That's one positive I'll take from it."
 
Indiana Receiver J-Shun Harris II
On getting more involved: "Played a lot in the slot today and felt great to be able to contribute to the team and you know when some guys go down, guys have to rise up and we have experienced that in the receiving room but the huskie position as well today."
 
On getting a touchdown in the offense: "It felt awesome, the last time that I was able to get into the end zone as a receiver was freshman year, that felt pretty good, there was not the huge uproar that we usually get at our home stadium, it was silent so it did not feel as great as it would be if it was at home, hopefully in the future can get one at home as well."
 
On team message after this game: "We still have a lot of stuff that we have to work on and we learned from this game, coming out first half all fire and in the second half we did not finish so we just have to continue to stride for that greatness in that second half, because as we get further into the conference, the second half is going to be more important."
 
On looking ahead to next week against Ohio State: "Not concerned by any chance, we have things to work on and Ohio State needs to work on some things as well, that is one of the factors where we have to get stronger, get better and if our conditioning is there and we need to run more and just need to figure out a way to continue to finish. Our coaches are doing a great job of continue to put that button in our heads so we know our second half score is 0-0 no matter what the score is, so go out there and win that half again."
 
On being able to contribute as a wide receiver: "It feels great and I was practicing as a receiver all camp and up to this point as receiver as well so I am not scared or I would say limit myself to just punt return because I know at any point or any play I would be in a situation where I am in right now so I have been practicing and mentally preparing myself just in case because in the game at any play anything can happen so thankfully I did not put myself in the back or being sappy about not playing receiver but showing up each and every day and being the leader for the guys whenever they needed me."