Northern Illinois at Central Michigan
11/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 5, 2005
Central Michigan Head Coach Brian Kelly
"My hat goes off to NIU and Coach Novak. They made plays today in a very hard fought game. They won today, they beat Central Michigan and they deserved to win."
"The game shouldn't have come down to three points. We had the football plenty of times and we had plenty of chances to score on offense. It was a tough loss."
"We kept battling and kept competing and fought back. We battled the best we could and came up a little short. Give NIU all the credit, they were the better team today."
On the penalties: "I always tell the team that penalties could eventually get you beat. But, it's not one thing that made us lose when you have two good teams getting together."
On NIU wide receiver Sam Hurd (12 rec., 266 yds, 3 TD): "Hurd was the difference-maker in this game. He made big play after big play. We did everything we could to stop him, we brought pressure on almost every down and they made the plays."
Northern Illinois Head Coach Joe Novak
On throwing the ball early in the game: "We wanted to throw the ball to start the game. We felt kike that gave us an opportunity to get them on their heels early in the game. CMU's front four, along with Toledo, is one of the two best in the league. We felt that we needed to throw it in order to be successful. I still feel that the best way for us to control a game is to run the football, but we're banged up. Obviously, we miss Garrett (Wolfe), and A.J. was out there today, but he's still pretty nicked up. We just felt that we needed to throw the ball today.
On CMU's defense: "We knew that they would blitz off the corners - they've done it all season coming into this game. Our coaches did a great job of designing a package to combat that.
On NIU controlling its own destiny and staying in the MAC race: "It's good to know that next week means something. It doesn't matter if we play the San Francisco 49ers next week, it still means something. It's November, and it's in our hands, and that's a good feeling.
On penalties: "Penalties were a factor today. We had some penalties we didn't like, but I'm sure that Brian (Kelly) had some that they didn't like either. There were a couple of big penalties in the ballgame."
On his defense giving up 97 plays and 588 yards of total offense: "Central Michigan's offense is tough to defend. They really like to spread you out, and we struggle at times to tackle in the open field. But, our defense made a big play at the end when we needed it."
On his offense: "We throw the ball as well as we ever have right now. It's never really been our strength, but now we've got great balance in our offense and I think that's really helped us."
On CMU learning to be a championship program: "CMU has taken bigger steps faster than us. Brian's only been here for a year and a half but he's gotten his team in position to compete for a championship this year. That team is a sound football team that plays hard, tough, and physical football. Kent Smith has really developed into a good player for them. With what they have in place, from the coaching staff to the facilities, CMU is going to get nothing but better from here on out."
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