Upcoming Event: Football versus #18 Virginia on December 6, 2025 at 8 p.m.
Football
vs #18 Virginia
Quotes: Northwestern 24, Duke 20
9/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Coach David Cutcliffe
“There are three things on my mind. I told them this is certainly not a time to hang your head. This is not typical of Duke losses in recent times. But it's daggum time to be frustrated. The difference of the game ? and of course we really whipped them in so many areas ? came down to turnovers. We had an offensive turnover that led to points; we really had a turnover in the kicking game ? a major mistake there that led to points. We don't take the ball away. I am still not pleased with the precision of our offensive execution. I like the fact we are running the football, but I am not pleased with the precision of our offensive execution. We have got to pick that up a notch. Then we will make those plays that win ball games.
“It is just frustrating. I have been doing this a long time. You don't lose games you should win. That is my job to see that happens. We have no excuses. We didn't make the plays we have to make to win the ball game.”
On going for it on fourth down late:
“I thought they threw the ball too well. They were being too successful, and we didn't want to put them in a two-minute situation. They got the football, and I was afraid offensively we wouldn't take it back down the field. It proved to be a great decision. We held them, have plenty of time left on the clock, we run the punt back in great field position so it proved to be a good decision. I made my mind up that I wasn't going to kick a field goal and take it to one point.”
On Johnny Williams:
“Johnny is a really good football player. I want him to keep his feet a little bit better when he catches the ball and finishing. He is really a good yards after the catch guy. I think Johnny still has the early in his career jitters and is getting used to it. The one of those things that I was really kind of surprised ? Jay Hollingsworth had this a little bit, Cliff too ? there are some shoe-string tackles. There was some tripping and falling offensively ? that is what I mean by execution. You have a game where there are 472 yards ? two things, one we don't execute on third and short in the first half and that irritates the heck out of me. If we make those plays we are fine. And the other is I don't think we are getting everything out of every play we can get ? either a drip or an errant thrown ball. Again, that is my job to make sure the execution is there.
“All we can do is ? this is two down and 10 to go ? to go back and to go to work and stay working like we are. We got better. We are a better team than we were last week. This is a much better team than what they were against James Madison. It is just frustrating because I thought we were a better team than [Northwestern is] but we didn't win the ball game."
On bouncing back:
“I just challenged our seniors and challenged our team. Our theme is to just keep getting better. We will practice tomorrow night and we will go out there with the attitude of getting better. I am a big believer in this business and I have been in it for 33 years. Regardless of the score on Saturday, you go back to work the same way. It is all about getting better and having fun playing football. My job is to get them prepared so they can have fun. The fans cannot sense this, but the energy on our sideline on the second half was phenomenal. It makes me daggum sick that these kids came up short.”
On his thoughts about the game:
“We are going to learn from this one because we just didn't make the plays down the stretch to give us a ?W.' They were the better team tonight.”
On fighting back:
“We didn't give up until the end of the game. It came down to the last play. We actually got better as the game went along. Coach always stresses getting better as the game goes and we have been doing that.”
On taking such a close loss:
“It is very disappointing to lose a game like that. It comes down to making those crucial plays to win a game but we didn't do that, but we will learn to do that.”
On what he can take from the loss:
“Everything we do whether it is a win, lose or tie we learn from it. We just go back and look at the film tomorrow. There are a lot of good things that happened and some bad things. We just have to eliminate those bad things and we will be alright.”
On losing such a close game:
“Not even the freshmen and sophomores but the seniors because you cannot get used to this at all ? it is a sick feeling. I mean I want to throw up now. As a senior, I have to do my part as well as the rest of us to continue to lead this team. Take the lessons from it and come back to work.”
On what the difference was in the loss:
“We did our parts and it came down to those few crucial plays on defense, offense and special teams. We have to learn to eliminate those and we will be quite alright.”
Players Mentioned
QB
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