Blake Anderson

Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn andArkansas State head coach Blake Anderson talk at midfield before the Arkansas State game Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

Arkansas State dropped to 0-2 on the year Saturday night with a 51-14 loss to Auburn.

Check out what head coach Blake Anderson had to say after his team's loss below.



Opening statement:



"Not how we wanted it to turn out, obviously. I think we did a few things better than we did in week one, scoreboard doesn't really show that. All in all, I challenged the guys at halftime just about playing hard for another 30 minutes, and I think they did that. I would like to think we will find some positives out of what we did in that 30 minutes. We've got to find more consistency in every phase. We have got to tackle better defensively to be even close to what we are capable of being defensively. We are virtually the same defense from a year ago with even a couple of additions to it and have not played near to what I think we are capable of. Offensively, we need consistency there, and it starts at quarterback. We've just got to calm down and make some better decisions."

We knew the challenge was going to be big. We knew physically that we were going to be up against some mismatches early. We were hoping we could ride out the storm, and even when we bounced back and got the touchdown right there out of the gate I thought the guys were responding the right way. But (we made) just way too many mistakes from that point on until halftime to give ourselves a chance to play well. I thought the catch they made on the post route was one of the best I have seen. It took the wind out of us because I thought we were right there and in great position, both corner and safety, and the safety from the backside were in great shape and don't make the play, and from that point I just don't think we recovered. So, we have work to do, but we can't do it until we get home so it's a long bus ride home."



On Auburn's fake field goal as a game-changer...



"Oh, huge. Yeah, that one is kind of a dagger for you. That's an execution thing. We are not really bringing the rush off the edge. We should have been in good shape to play it, and it was just poor eye discipline and where we are supposed to be, and that's what I am talking about. We have the opportunity to be in position to make the play and turn the ball over on downs, and we are not where we are supposed to be.



On the fake field goal and the other two big Auburn plays...



"Those three plays are hard to overcome. We've got the opportunity to have the guy down for about a four or five yard gain, and it turns into a long touchdown. You've got the chance to break up a pass and it turns into a big one, and then we have got the right call on, on the field goal to be protected on the edges and we just don't do the job correctly. That's where just execution and details ... We said this a week ago, we didn't make as many mistakes this week, but we still made some critical ones, and that one was big."





On matching up with Auburn...



"Well, there were some physical mismatches today. I mean, to tackle a great back in space with a lot of big bodies around him, I would love to see that change. The whole conversation coming into this thing was we knew that there would be some things in their favor through the first half. We felt like that if we could hang close, stay close, keep it a game, that potentially third or fourth quarter some of our quickness out in space might give us a chance to be in the mix. You had to make it a 60-minute game and the second quarter just got away from us, and at that point it is just not the same conversation anymore.



On getting ready for their next game...



"Well, we have a Friday game, so long trip back, we will rest tomorrow and heal up as best as we can, and be very critical of the mistakes on Monday, but we are going to have to do it in about an hour. I will send them out of the room, tell them to get a drink, come back in and start right back on Utah State. It is going to be really quick. We have been through this before. Same kind of situation and schedule we put together last year, with Appalachian State week it was a Thursday game. At least we gain an extra day here. They know what to do, now it is just about going out and doing it consistently. They know what to do. It's about going out and doing it consistently. We're not having missed assignments, we're having high distal problems running, gap integrity problems. Throwing and catching problems, it's the little things, if I'm a contain guy be a contain guy. It's not that they don't know the schemes, they know the schemes. We just got to get consistently, so we're doing exactly what's asked.



On Auburn's kicking game...



"They've got one of the best kickers I've ever seen. The guy kicks it over the scoreboard about every time and we finally backed our return guy up to the back of the line to dig it up anyway, and it was honestly one of the ones he could get his hands on to do something. We've got to make them punt to have a punt return opportunity, and that was the area that we felt like we might have an advantage. If they punted the ball with (Cam Echols-)Looper back there and our match-ups on their coverage team. If they don't punt the ball we don't get to put them back there, so I honestly think just watching, we did some technique and some better things... but the way they kick the ball there's just no way to see it."



On dropped passes and other miscues...



"Well we snapped the ball, we grabbed today. I think we maybe had one drop, maybe two. One of them was a competitive play, the other one was just a flat out drop, so we eliminated some of those issues. This is a physical match up issue, too. We knew this was a team we were not going to have a whole lot of on-on-one battles in our favor, if any. Our fastest guys are just like their fast guys. It wasn't like we were going to run away from anyone, so I think as much as anything there probably is some things we did do a lot better that you'll have to see on tape because just the mismatches and the physical nature of who we played don't allow you to see it on the scoreboard."



On changing the quarterback...



"Number one, I'd never make that decision this quickly. I'd want to go back and dissect it all. I thought Chad (Voytik) did a great job in the second half, settled down and played the way we needed him to play. I don't think we'd ever decide not to play Bo. You know we even talked about an opportunity for Justice (Hansen) to play tonight regardless. But I think we just have to go back and really look and make sure we're putting both of them in the right positions to be successful. There's sometimes I think that they're doing the right things, but they're not getting a lot of help. In that case I don't want everyone to be too critical on a guy if he's doing what he's supposed to do. He can't control the other team. We'll take it one day at a time, but there's been no conversation about making any changes."