J. J. Johnson Came Quotations

I would have liked to play with him for my entire career. I really would have. This is the first time I've had the luxury of having a quarterback that people basically said was a can't-miss guy when he came out.

It feels great. We came out and played really hard. Before the game, people were saying we were going to get blown out.

I think his work ethic is unmatched. When he first came into the league he was more of a winger who would just get forward, get forward and get forward, and never come back. I think he's really developed a lot of defensive abilities.

Mellon had a great game. It seemed like every time we needed a big shot, he came through. I give a lot of credit to Manistique. They just never quit.

We were 18-1-1 in the regular season, but that wouldn't have meant anything if we didn't win tonight. We came out firing in the third period. à We just wanted it. We wanted it a lot.

Well, it was a little bit of surprise that it happened the way it did. I was very happy with the way we competed and played to win the game against Minnesota, but the unexpected came after the game when we heard about Duluth and I don't think anyone anticipated Duluth losing. But it was a pleasant surprise that luck worked out for us and things fell into place.

We came out and played well in the first quarter. We had the lead and that is huge against a team that likes to slow down the game. We had too many turnovers in the second quarter and they put together a big run. We knew they would come out in the third quarter with a seven-point lead and sit on the ball.

We knew if it came to down to foul shooting we'd definitely be at a disadvantage. They were just incredible on the line. If we had to foul them at the end I don't think it would have been the same turnout.

It was like fresh air swept into central Europe. Lots of bright young people came into office.

They came in and gave us great games. They got us back in the game. That's what a team is - different players stepping up.

I remember being at Nebraska, we were down by 20 points at halftime. We came back because they couldn't hold the ball.