Browning: "That’s the best defense we’ve gone against, and I’m anxious to see how it looked on film and how we stacked up."
ATLANTA — Washington quarterback Jake Browning reacts to the Huskies’ 27-7 loss to No. 1 Alabama in the College Football Playoff:
(on Alabama’s speed) “They’re really fast. We knew that coming in. They’ve obviously got a lot of really good athletes. I mean, yeah, they’re fast for sure.”
(on finding balance between getting ball out quickly and avoiding turnovers) “I’ve just got to do my job going through my reads. If I start worry about all that, that’s not my job. That’s the O-linemen, and I thought they did a good job of that. I thought I walked into some sacks and I’ve got to be better with the ball and sit in there a couple days. But we’ll know more when we see the film. That’s the best defense we’ve gone against, and I’m anxious to see how it looked on film and how we stacked up. Obviously it hurts right now.”
(on his pick six at the end of the half) “That totally changed the momentum of the game. I knew that coming in. They’ve had some games where it gets close and then they get a defensive touchdown and then it starts rollin’. I’ve just got to throw it away. Stop trying to make something out of nothing.”
(Did you talk about maybe just running the football in the final 2 minutes of the half?) “Yeah, we had talked about it. But we wanted to take one or two shots (downfield) just to give it a shot. We had talked about it. At the end of the day, I was ‘hot’ on that and my job’s to not make a bad play worse. I should’ve just taken a sack or launched it out of bounds. That’s obviously on me.”
(How quickly did they close the windows on you?) “Yeah, it’s a good defense. I think they can get in a quarterback’s head. I don’t think they did that necessarily, but you have to get rid of the ball pretty quickly. They have elite pass-rush guys. I thought we did a pretty good job of that overall, but you’ve got to make a couple more plays. And turnovers, when you play a good team like that, that’s what it really comes down to. They beat us in the turnover guy.”