Ryan Day Press Conference: Ohio State coach credits defense in win at Washington

SEATTLE – We have video of Ohio State coach Ryan Day's comments following the top-ranked Buckeyes' 24-6 win over host Washington on Saturday at Husky Stadium. Click here for our story on the game.

Here is the transcript of Coach Day's comments. The video is embedded below.

* On who is his favorite Caden (or Kayden) – "Yeah, they both played well. I thought the plan going in was that Larry Johnson talked about, four guys playing as one when you're going against a quarterback like this. It's easy to find yourself going off on your own and trying to make plays.

"And then it's easy for there to be layers that get disoriented. And before you know it, he can split out or squirt out. So all those guys working together worked because if you understand that the coverage and the rush are working together, now they're starting to see how this works.

"The second part of it, they're able to stick with it, cage it in there and then get the sack. So did a great job stopping the run, had a good plan. But it was about the execution of it. So both of those guys played great."

* On defense being consistently good (or great) – "We're just growing, we gotta grow.

"I think it's a great reference point to come into a stadium like this. It's a great environment. I thought that the fans on their end were loud and showed up in a big way.

"It was great for our guys to see some red here. I think anytime you take a young team on the road, it's great to have familiar faces in the crowd and they had a presence, and that was great. But I think the guys believe in the system.

"I think you have some guys in there like Sonny and Caleb and now Caden and IGB that have played a lot of football, and they're kind of the guys that are leading the way, and then quickly these guys are following because they believe in them because they've seen it. And I think you mix that in with the chemistry of the defensive staff and the game planning and the execution of it all. I think you're seeing that.

"Now, we're not where we need to be in terms of down the road. I think we still got a lot of work to do in all areas, so we have to continue to work to get better. But you're seeing, obviously, the potential of where we are.

"But each week, we're gonna have to continue to get better, because in this conference, that's our first conference win, a lot of work to do. But it does give us something to refer back to of, you just went into an environment, they won 22 straight games, and this team won. And if we can do some things a little bit better, we're gonna come out of this film session thinking that we could have even played a little better in certain areas.

"But that's it, this time of year, you gotta continue to figure out what the issues are and continue to get better, but I think the confidence is there, and it should be."

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