What Mario Cristobal said after Oregon Ducks beat Washington State

EUGENE — No. 3 Oregon beat Washington State, 38-24, Saturday night at Autzen Stadium.

Mario Cristobal recapped the Ducks’ six conference win.

Below is a transcript of Cristobal’s postgame press conference.

MARIO CRISTOBAL

Q. On the halftime adjustments…

We started fast and we took the momentum and then we allowed for them to take the momentum right back, so we did. We tried some things in the second quarter, we tried to create some explosive plays from a coverage standpoint. They took it away, plus they got a little pressure on us so we made some adjustments at halftime to handle some of their pressures, to create some angles and some leverage on some plays that we thought we could exploit. But we came out and we played really hard, we played hard the entire game. So proud of our guys for doing that

Q. On Travis Dye, Byron Cardwell and the Oregon running game…

Yeah, [Byron] and Seven McGee, he only got a couple carries but he is ready to explode too and so is Trey Benson. Talking about Travis, Travis continues to be a tremendous leader, a difference-maker in this program, one of the best players in college football in our opinion. Anthony again continues to find ways to continue to move our offense, make plays with his arm, with his feet. And then Byron has stepped up and played a significant role and has made some really big runs, some explosive runs, made people miss on contact plus-two. He is a big guy. He plays with older eyes. He sees things and he is a quick study, learns quickly. All in all, just really proud of all those guys.

Q. On Mykael Wright’s impact in the return game…

Huge play. Mykael had been ready to bust out all year long. Blocked it up really well. Good design by (special teams coach Bobby) Williams. Those guys blocked it really well. Mykael hit it and he also broke a couple tackles, almost came out of it clean and went all the way and scored, but a huge boost, tremendous amount of energy that brought to our team. We ended up scoring on that and that kick-started us for the second half.

Q. On not allowing many explosive plays, especially in the run game…

A couple of times they broke contain on us and then a good chunk of those yards are on that last drive when we were playing some f the guys that we need to get better. We played a lot of reserves so certainly that first unit and the guys that are alternating with the first unit they really stepped up. Block construction is paying off. We’re striking blockers. We’re getting off blocks better. We’re making plays. They run the ball well. They really do. They have great running backs. They got two great offensive tackles. They really spread you out with those big splits and our guys just did a really good job controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides and at the end of the day it was the difference in the game.

Q. How do Brandon Dorlus and Kayvon Thibodeaux complement each other?

Brandon Dorlus is as explosive and effective as a defensive lineman you’ll find now. He’s big. He’s powerful, extremely smart, athletic as can be so he has first, second, third down value. He doesn’t have to come out of the game. And when he is playing at the high level…