By SCOTT PURKS and JIM REESE
Published October 5, 2004
MB: To tell you the truth, it wasn't so much we got away from the run. They came out and were so aggressive they just shut our running game down early. What happened was every time we gave them the ball, they were scoring and it is real hard to come back when you are primarily running the ball. So it wasn't so much a change of game plan on our part as much as we felt the way for us to come back was to throw the ball. And we needed more drives like we got to end the half when our quarterback (Dominic Grooms) took us 80 yards in three plays to score.
St. Petersburg Times: Before the game, you both said whoever had the fewest turnovers would win. (Robinson and Tech each had three). How much do you think turnovers affected the outcome?
Mike DePue: More than turnovers dictating the game, I think it was momentum. We got some early breaks against their very aggressive defense. Our receivers got by their bump and run defensive backs a couple of times and our quarterback (Marcello Trigg, who had four touchdown passes) was able to hit them.
Mike Bradley: Coach DePue is right. It wasn't so much turnovers from fumbles and interceptions as it was misplays and penalties at critical times on our part. They have a bunch of speed, and they can throw the ball and go get it, and we are a team that can't afford mistakes and we made some. As soon as we'd get something going, we'd have a penalty and we'd stop ourselves. We just flat out can't do that and win. But the way their quarterback was throwing the ball, there wasn't a whole heck of a lot we could do.
SPT: Coach Bradley, late in the first quarter Robinson fumbled and one of your players had a shot at falling on the ball but he tried to pick it up and run with it, didn't get control, and Robinson recovered and went from there to go up 7-0. Describe your thoughts on that play.
MD: I agree with coach Bradley on his assessment as to how the tempo of the game dictated strategy. I thought that touchdown for them just before the half was huge for both sides. I know it fired Tech up. And I told our guys, "Hey, learn from this. They can score from anywhere on the field. This game is far from over.'
SPT: Coach DePue, you threw for nearly double your game average (228 vs. 130) What did you see or do differently that allowed you to do that?
MD: What we did was make a couple of changes in our protection. We wanted to give our quarterback more of a chance to step up and throw from a pocket. He had been scrambling in our previous games because we weren't protecting him well enough. We made a couple of adjustments in our blocking scheme allowing him to stay in the pocket where he had great field awareness, and then, of course, he threw the ball extremely well.
SPT: What was the dispute about at the end of the half when Tech scored on that 41-yard pass?
MD: The clock showed no time just as the ball was snapped. To me there was no doubt the play got off on time but some of our kids stopped when they thought they heard a whistle blow. The refs, however, said it hadn't and that's a lesson our players have to heed. You play until the play is over.
MB: Basically what you had was 19 kids stopped and three continued playing. And we were fortunate to score on that long pass. And it helped us, no doubt about it. We came out in the second half and moved the ball. But those dang mistakes hit us again. We had 15 dropped passes in the game. You can't do that against Robinson. They are just flat out too good.
SPT: What is going to happen in district play down the stretch?
MD: I think both of us have a shot at it. We are both 1-1 in district and Jesuit and Jefferson haven't lost in district yet. Tech has to beat Jesuit and we have to beat Jefferson. If that happens, everything is up for grabs.
MB: We've learned from our adversity this year. We lost to Armwood but we learned from that defeat. And we'll learn from the Robinson game. I feel confident if we can eliminate our costly mistakes, we'll be right in the thick of our district race.
- SCOTT PURKS, Times staff writer, and JIM REESE, Times correspondent
