Joker Quotes From The Post-Game Presser

    ---On the game overall: "Again, I like the effort that this football team is playing with. We started fast offensively. We hadn’t turned the ball over in a few games and we put the ball on the ground in the first drive. Not only did we put the ball on the ground, we allowed those guys to return it to the 25-yard line, gave the defense a short field. I thought the defense competed their tails off. The first two scoring drives were 25 and 52 yards and then they got 12 yards. We gave them way too many short fields. I thought we played sloppy also in the special forces." ---On winning on the road: "To win on the road, you have to play as a team. You have to, first of all not turn the ball over, give the defense short fields, and if you do get short fields, you’ve got to go in and get the stops." ---On whether this game was a missed opportunity: "It’s a missed opportunity because when you look at how we moved the ball offensively and fumbled the ball going in. It’s a game of not taking advantage of momentum on offense. We had the momentum in the first half at one point and handed it back to them. We had the momentum in the second half, two straight drives and we handed back to them also. With the snaps, our defensive plan just couldn’t hold up." ---On switching quarterbacks: "We’ve got to be able to throw and catch the ball also. They started stacking the box a little more also and stopping the run. We just couldn’t throw the football." ---On why he punted again after the penalty for running into the kicker: "You know, the guy (punt returner) had put the ball on the ground a couple times, and we’ve got a pretty good punter. We wanted to take our chance again. We didn’t punt it where we were supposed to and he fielded it; it was low. But he had put the ball on the ground at least two times; one we got. I wanted to give our punt team another chance." ---On the ten fumbles between the two teams:  “I don’t know. I wish I had the answer to that. I don’t think we had fumbled since the Louisville game. We had fumbled, but we hadn’t lost any fumbles since the first game. And today, we were way too careless with the ball — put the ball on the ground on the first drive when we had a chance to score on our first drive for the second week in a row. That’s big, especially when you’re on the road. And not only did we fumble it, those guys get the chance to flip the field to a short field. So we’ve got to be able to protect the football." ---On Towles' play: “He didn’t have as good of command as he’s had. There was one day (last week in practice) that I thought he did real good command of the ball. Today, he just didn’t have that.” ---On the bad snap on the long field goal: “We just mishandled it. We mishandled the snap. I wanted to give (Craig McIntosh) a chance — it was 53, maybe 54 yards. It was very makeable with the wind, and we botched the snap. Again, it’s after a turnover and we didn’t get anything out of it." ---On whether he'd change any of his decisions during the game: “You know, looking back on it, you probably should’ve not punted — declined the penalty on the running into the kicker. Just looking back on it. Because they got the ball on (UK’s) 45-yard line. They got a field goal; we held them to a field goal, but that would’ve been the one thing I would do.” ---On Kentucky's strong defensive play:  “After three quarters, we’d given up 188 yards on defense. That’s a pretty dang good day — on the road — creating three turnovers; two on defense and one in the special teams area. That’s a pretty dang good day playing against a team of this caliber. So I thought our defense held up. Again, the three drives, three touchdown drives (for Missouri), were 25 (yards), 52, 12. And then one they scored on defense. So you’ve got to say is our defense played good enough to win. The thing they’ve got to do is keep them out of the end zone, make them kick field goals when they get those short fields.”   That was painful.