Denver Broncos Regular Season Quotes Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010
CORNERBACK CHAMP BAILEY
On Chargers QB Philip Rivers “I’ll tell you what, every year he gets better. He’s had some spectacular seasons and I don’t know how he gets better every year — he’s just one of those guys you have to keep grinding (against) because he’s going to make some plays.”
On Chargers QB Philip Rivers’ ability to have success with an inexperienced receiver corps “He’s good — that pretty much sums it up. (Colts QB) Peyton Manning is doing the same thing in Indianapolis. You put some new guys in there and he still keeps it going. He drives that offense and like I said, it’s similar to what Peyton is doing in Indy.”
On whether Chargers QB Philip Rivers should be considered in the top tier of NFL quarterbacks “Absolutely — he just hasn’t won the big one yet, and with the way he’s playing, I don’t see him not winning it sometime.”
On the keys to slowing down Chargers QB Philip Rivers “We’ve been able to disrupt him a little bit, get in the pocket and get him off the spot sometimes. I think that’s the key to beating him — you have to rattle him in some kind of way and hopefully we can get that done.”
On how the Broncos played against Chargers QB Philip Rivers last season “Those are some of the things you look at because they are game planning against us and they’ve had two weeks to do it. So, we know they’re going to have a great game plan. (Chargers Head Coach) Norv (Turner) is one of the best minds in football. You can look back at (last year) and see how they changed their strategy and hopefully that doesn’t work again this year.”
On how the Chargers start slowly each year, yet still finish strong “I don’t know. I know they don’t plan it out that way, but for some reason, they play their best football in November and December.”
On whether the pressure from the front seven in Denver’s victory over Kansas City last Sunday increases confidence for the secondary “Well, this is a whole different ball game. It’s not the same team, so what we did (against Kansas City) — it might or might not work in this game. We have to do the things that we did and some things differently, just to find a way to get to (Chargers QB Philip Rivers). Hopefully if we get to him early, they don’t make the correct adjustments to stop us in the second half.”
On Chargers TE Antonio Gates “He’s big and strong, first of all — and then, he’s quicker than any other big guy in the game. When he creates that separation, pushing off and running good routes, it’s hard to cover him because he’s a big body.”
On the evolution of the tight end position “They’re big and big targets. When you can find guys that big that can move — it seems like guys that are big are getting faster and faster every year. The more you can have, the better, because it creates a lot of mismatches.”
On defending a player who is bigger than he is “I just try to shadow him, not let him touch me too much. I might get my hands on him sometimes, but for the most part, you can’t let him push you around.”
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