STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 30, 2023

Troy Taylor

Postgame Media Conference

Oregon 42, Stanford 6

Q. Just kind of opening thoughts on this one? How would you evaluate the team's performance overall in this one?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, unbelievable team we played. Really good in all three phases. They're a legitimate team. We knew that coming in. They're well coached, really talented, very explosive. Our guys did some good things and we just got to convert more, you know, in the red zone. Haven't done a great job of that.

But I am proud of how our guys competed. We'll move into the bye week and continue to get better and press towards Colorado.

Q. Did you get a sense the way those first few drives went field goals weren't going to cut it in this game?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, they're explosive obviously and our defense did a really good job in the first half, but, you know, you put an explosive offense on the field that much, they're going to make plays. They just are.

So we did some good things converting and moving the ball, but just didn't make enough plays, enough big plays down the stretch and in the red zone to make a difference to get some touchdowns early on.

Q. Last couple weeks you guys have struggled to finish drives a bit.

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah.

Q. What do you think you need to do to get better, get over the hump?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, you're right, we have struggled to finish drives. I think it's not one thing. I think you could point at every position, and I got to do a better job of having a better plan.

But it's not one thing. You know, we got to be able to run the ball as the field squeezes and there is not as much space. You got to find a way to run the football, and then you got to, if you get one-on-one coverage, you got to make plays.

We have come close. We had one early in the game we almost converted in the end zone. Just didn't make enough of those contested catches in order to really threaten these guys.

Q. Just talk about the first half; it was a 14-6 game. What did you guys do well to keep it as close as it was?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, I think we converted on some third downs and competed and kept them off the field, right? I don't know what the time of possession was in the first half, but they were on the field, off the field quite a bit.

I think we went maybe three and out on them on the first two drives possibly, and then we had some longer drives.

And then, you know, we just didn't put enough drives together in the second half and they were on the field a lot. You know you're playing with fire when you have a team that's that talented and they get that many opportunities in the second half.

Q. How is Ashton doing?

TROY TAYLOR: I think he's going to be okay. He looked good. Just his eye, looking him in the eyes. I didn't talk to anybody, but he said he felt good. Hopefully be okay.

Q. Was the plan to run Justin that much or just how the game...

TROY TAYLOR: It was, yeah, it was. They're a talented team. With quarterback runs you get one more in the box to try and out number them.

Did some good things with the Q run, but hopefully won't have to rely too much on that. Going to have to do that sometimes.

Q. Just talk about where things sit running back-wise, how you're evaluating that position. A lot of different guys moving in and out.

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah. I mean, I think EJ came in at the end and did some really good things. Loved to see him get the ball and make something happen.

Open competition really at every position. That doesn't change. But was happy to see EJ make some plays, break some tackles, and make some people miss.

Q. You mentioned going into an open week. What's the plan for the next two weeks really?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, yeah, so we'll -- we will evaluate the tape. Kind of a regular day after the game, and then they get Monday off, that's their day off, and then Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday we'll get practices in.

Not a lot of the contact, but we got to get better. We got to continue to press and get better and start working on Colorado.

Obviously Colorado has a game to play next week; we do not. So combination of getting better and getting guys healthy that have been injured and focusing and getting a jump on Colorado.

Then evaluating the things we do well and things that we maybe don't do well. As coaches got to kind of figure out the best plan to give our guys a chance to succeed.

Q. Talk about that third quarter. They outscored you 21-nothing. What went wrong there?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, I think we didn't maintain -- we weren't on the field enough on offense, and obviously they created some big plays and some chunk plays and we didn't do enough -- good enough job keeping them off the field.

With a team like that -- we did in the first half. They've blown pretty much everybody out in the first half. I was proud of our guys that we were in the game and close. We weren't able to sustain many drives on offense, whether it's making plays at wide receiver, making throws, protecting, running the football, we just were not able to really sustain any drives.

Q. You kind of already answered my question. Seems like the first half it was intentional to control possession as much as possible.

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah.

Q. What went well to make that happen the first half?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, I think we been pretty good -- outside of the SC game -- pretty good coming out in the first quarter. We just got to be able to sustain that. Our margin against a team like this is going to be slim, margin for victory.

We're going to have to make more plays, take advantage of our opportunities, and clearly we did not do that.

Again, I love this team. I love these guys just because they just continue to compete and give everything and get back the next day and they're ready to compete again. These guys will continue to compete and we'll have our opportunities this year.