Jordan Kovacs on the Defense

Jordan Kovacs talks about the play of the Defense on Saturday.

Question: Even though you got the win over UMASS, how disappointing is it to play the way you did way defensively?

Jordan Kovacs: “Clearly it is disappointing. The offense played great, but defensively we struggled. It is no surprise, but it is great that it happens in a game with a win. It could have been worse and we’re encouraged that we can clean it up. It is better to see these things now than a loss. We obviously got a lot to correct and we’re going to do that.”

Question: Any reason for the let-down?

Jordan Kovacs: “No reason in particular. You got to give UMASS a lot of credit. They are a very good team and maybe they caught us off guard, I don’t know, but we are going to get back to Michigan football this week.”

Question: You guys were on the field a lot in that fourth quarter.

Jordan Kovacs: “UMASS did a great job of holding onto the ball. I don’t know what the time of possession was but I think they had the ball a lot of the game. Our offense scored, but they scored quick and defensively, we didn’t do our job of getting off the field.”

Question: It looked like they were lining up and running nothing overly fancy or tricky was it?

Jordan Kovacs: “No. UMASS, I think they are a pretty good team. They got some good backs, got some big offensive linemen. I know it is not nothing we are going to see in the Big Ten, but they just came out and smashed us in the mouth today and like I said, we’re going to correct that.”

Question: Coach talked about you guys losing contain quite a bit. How frustrating was it to see that time and again and getting some plays?

Jordan Kovacs: “That was tough to see defensively and it happened to me a couple of times. When you play a team like UMASS, they do a lot of shifts and motions. You just got to get back to fundamental football and knowing your responsibilities and I think that would make a world of difference today if everybody would have been technically sound.”

Question: It didn’t feel like a wining locker room necessarily or felt like a different kind of winning locker room. Did you get that vibe too?

Jordan Kovacs: “Oh yeah. We’re not satisfied with the win. It is a win. We are happy we didn’t lose, but we were not satisfied with the way we played defensively and we’re going to make corrections.”

Question: Can you talk about the stretch right before halftime when you caused the turnover?

Jordan Kovacs: “At that point in the game, they had a lot of momentum, they were rolling and I knew we had to make a big play. I realized he was carrying the ball pretty low, I figure I got to make a play, went for the strip and it conveniently fell right into my lap.”