<p>Transcript Of Navy Head Football Coach Paul Johnson's Comments Following Saturday's 25-24 Loss To Boston College In The Meineke Car Care Bowl</p>
<p>Johnson: It was a heck of a ball game. I'm disappointed for our football team and our seniors that I couldn't help them any better or help them find a way to come out on the right end of the score but I'm awfully proud of the way they fought and played. We were outweighed pretty good and I thought our guys fought and really took the fight to them for most of the game. In the end we got a couple of crucial, critical penalties that set us back and running the option there at the end was probably a poor call on my part, but that's what we do. We run the option, that's what we do, and you have to execute and catch it and maybe we could have punted it back to them, but who knows what happens. The critical play of the game was on third down when we tossed the ball to Shun White and we got the holding penalty. I thought that was critical and I thought the quarterback draw in the third quarter where we got a big first down and it was called back was critical too. It's tough for us to overcome that type of thing. It just didn't work. It's disappointing. I feel for the guys in that locker room because they played their hearts out.</p>
<p>Q.: In the third and fourth quarter you didn't have as much success running the ball. Was that because of adjustments they made?</p>
<p>A.: I don't think they did anything differently. We didn't execute as well and we kept hurting ourselves because we kept getting backed up deep in our territory. The one time we had a first down on the quarterback draw it was called back because of a hold that really hurt us and there at the end we were able to get a couple of first downs and we only needed one more first down to win the game and I don't know what happened on the call but we got called for holding again so that pushed us back. After we got backed up we were just trying to run the option and hopefully hit a big play and it didn't work. We didn't execute the play.</p>
<p>Q.: Are you surprised they settled for the field goal and didn't try and score a touchdown? It obviously worked out for them.</p>
<p>A.: Worked out? I thought it was going to be close when they ran another play there. I knew they didn't have any timeouts left, but it worked out. They did the right thing. They won the game.</p>
<p>Q.: Can you talk about your strategy of opening the game with Bryant at quarterback and Kaipo at wide receiver in the triple stack formation?</p>
<p>A.: They were so much bigger than we were and we thought that if we started the game and spread them out a little bit and made them run we could wear them out some. I don't know if I have ever played in a football game where the two defensive tackles weighed 345 pounds. It took away most anything we had inside. We didn't have much of a chance to run anything between the tackles so we had to make it a perimeter game and in the second half they did a good job. They just started playing harder and became harder to block.</p>
<p>Q.: Coach can you talk about the end of the first half where there was a six to 10 point swing? On third down and one you threw for the end zone and on fourth down you decided to go for it and didn't make it instead of kicking the field goal. BC then went down and kicked the field goal. Did that deflate the team at all?</p>
<p>A.: I don't know if it deflated the team. We came out at the start of the second half and drove the ball 80 yards and kicked a field goal. Any time that you don't get points it doesn't help, but hindsight is 20-20. We could have lined up and kicked the field goal and missed it and everybody would have asked why we didn't go for it on fourth and one. In this business when it works your smart and when it doesn't work you're not smart. They were firing the corners at times on the perimeter and in short yardage. I thought they might fire the corners and we would get a cheap score and I felt like we had a play that would get us the first down on fourth down if we didn't score and to their credit they ran a stunt and we didn't pick the guy up and they made a play.</p>
<p>Q.: How much did those passes that Kaipo was able to complete help the running game?</p>
<p>A.: Any time you can hit play action it helps. They were double run supporting and firing the corners so you have to try and throw the ball once in a while to slow them down otherwise they are going to kill the pitch guy before he gets the ball. I felt like we needed to get on the perimeter and try and make it a perimeter game and we did that for a while. We executed pretty good and we hit some plays. We just didn't help ourselves at the end.</p>
<p>Q. How about the two holding calls?</p>
<p>A. I saw the first one on the quarterback draw, that was right in front of me, and our guys just blocked him to the ground. The second one who knows, I couldn't see it.</p>
<p>Q. You seemed to get a lot of pressure on Ryan today. Was that because the secondary did a better job covering people or did you do some things up
front?</p>
<p>A. We ran a lot of zone pressures and we brought some guys off the edge. It was a combination of things. I thought our defensive staff had a really
good plan. Coach Green did a nice job.</p>
<p>Q. What did Boston College do differently on defense from the first half to the second half?</p>
<p>A. They ran faster and played harder. They started scraping the linebacker out some; he was kind of a plugger in the first half, but all in all not a whole lot. It's not like they lined up any differently. They did some stunts, but that really didn't change anything for us.</p>
<p>Q. Can you talk about your slot backs? It seemed like you got contributions from a lot of guys.</p>
<p>A. I thought they played their hearts out. I thought the guys inside played their hearts out. There at the end we tried to hit the trap back inside, there was nobody there, but it was 345 pounds against whatever our guys weigh and they just knocked us back. It wasn't for a lack of effort. Our guys were fighting them. They were rolling guys up front and we played with the same five guys out there the whole game. I'm proud of our guy's effort. Like I said, I just wish I could have found one more thing to help them win the game.</p>
<p>Q. On a real positive note coach, yes you guys lost and a loss hurts, but you showed the nation today that Navy is for real and can play against some of the top programs in the country. That has to make you feel good. </p>
<p>A. No, it doesn't feel good. It feels really, really bad.</p>
<p>Q. I'm talking about the total program, not just today.</p>
<p>A. I'm proud of our seniors, I'm proud of this season and the last four years. Hopefully these seniors have laid a foundation for the program. I told them after the game in the locker room that I was really, really proud of them. I think that's why it hurts so much. I wanted them to win. I'm going to have other games. I wanted them to go out, they deserved to go out, winning this game. They really did. </p>
<p>Q. How do you build on this performance for next year?</p>
<p>A. The same way we've always done it, we will come back and get in the weight room and start our off-season program. We will start recruiting full force and get ready to play next year.</p>
<p>Q. Did you ever feel like you were in control of the game?</p>
<p>A. I felt like if we could get two scores up in the second half we would be in good shape, but we could never seem to do it. They kind of got the field flipped on us. Their kicking game really hurt us. Every time the two teams punted we would lose yardage. We went the entire first half and most of the third quarter without punting, but once we both started punting the field got flipped and we couldn't do enough on offense to change the field position. I thought at the end of the game, when it was third and six, we had the perfect play called and without the holding call it's either first down and game over or fourth and inches and maybe game over. It's tough when you lose a game that way.</p>
<p>Q. Is this the toughest loss you've had at Navy?</p>
<p>A. They are all tough. Nobody likes to lose.</p>