Denver Broncos Post Game Quotes vs. Kansas City– Sunday, December 7, 2008
DENVER BRONCOS HEAD COACH MIKE SHANAHAN
Opening statement “I’m pleased with the effort of our football team. I’m also impressed with the way Kansas City played. They played extremely hard throughout the game. We made some plays when we had to in the fourth quarter. We had an improvement in our rushing defense and you saw that today. Kansas City moved the ball a little bit but we were able to keep them out of the end zone. Offensively, we had a few good drives when we needed them, and we made some big third downs there at the end. It was a great effort for our football team for the full 60 minutes.”
On Overcoming Mistakes “We lost the turnover battle, and we don’t normally play well when that happens. But we made some plays we had to make, and I was very pleased with that. It wasn’t easy. Any time you miss a field goal and have an interception returned for a touchdown it puts you against the odds, but we kept fighting and that’s what you have to do. This game came down to the last few minutes and we made plays when we had to.”
On RB Larry Johnson “Larry Johnson made some plays. We had him stopped at the line of scrimmage and he still found ways to get yards. Holding him to 3.3 [average] yards per carry is obviously hard to do against good running backs who make plays. But we made the plays when we had to make them.”
On S Josh Barrett “For his first game he played exceptionally well. Any time you ask a rookie to come in and start against [KC TE] Tony Gonzalez it’s obviously a tough situation to be in, especially for a young guy, but with his size, we thought he could match up. He obviously made some big plays today.”
On the running backs “We have a couple guys who can go out there and perform. What we were planning on doing was to bring a guy from the practice squad and now we have to. We have a fullback, Andrew Pinnock who is getting used to our terminology. I think we’ll still be alright.”
On the number of rookies starting “Any time you have eight rookies starting, you can’t anticipate that … I’m really proud of the way they stepped up. You have guys that have not played in the National Football League who look like they have played for a number of years. We have veteran leadership that is making those guys step up and perform at a certain level. By no means are we perfect, but to have the adversity that we had today, I’m very proud of how they played.”
On QB Jay Cutler “He played excellent and managed the game well. Their DB [KC Maurice Leggett] made a great play on the interception for the touchdown, but Jay didn’t panic. He was cool, calm and collected and he made the plays that he had to on the third down and the long drives.”
DENVER BRONCOS PLAYERS
QB JAY CUTLER
General “Kansas City did a good job keeping everything in front of them. It kind of hurt losing [FB] Peyton [Hillis], but [RB] Tatum [Bell] stepped up and played well.”
On the first quarter interception returned for a touchdown “The guy made a good play. They were in man-to-man coverage and [WR Brandon] Stokley ran an option. He [Kansas City Chiefs CB Maurice Leggett] made a cut, made a good play.”
On his response to the interception “Coaches expect us to keep attacking and to keep going down field. If I’m afraid to go down field after making a mistake, we’re not going to be able to do what we want to do.”
On WR Brandon Marshall’s performance “That was big for him. As a team we can function whether he has ten catches or two catches, but this will help him a lot. He hasn’t been 100% all season, but looked good today and had a good attitude.”
On the third down conversion, in the fourth quarter, from the one yard line
Denver Broncos Post Game Quotes vs. Kansas City– Sunday, December 7, 2008
“We work on that all summer. We have a lot of options on that play and it takes a lot of practice in order to get it down. [WR] Brandon [Marshall] made a good snag.”
On the running back injuries “It seems like we have one go down every game. But, we have [RB] Tatum [Bell] and he understands the system; knows when to cut back.”
On playoff potential “Anything can happen and that’s the kind of mindset we have. This is the time of the season when you want to play your best football. We don’t want to have to squeak it out in order to get in.”
WR BRANDON MARSHALL
On scoring two touchdowns “That’s big for me, it felt good to get in. After my first touchdown, I kissed the end zone. It felt good to get in, but even better to get the win.”
On his second touchdown “I was hungry for the end zone. When I got the ball, I smelled it and I got it in. That was a big touchdown for us.”
On his health “For the past two weeks, I felt great; even better than when I came into camp.”
On FB Peyton Hillis’ injury “It’s alright. We have T-Speed [RB Tatum Bell]. Hillis has been playing great, but Tatum is a premier back in this league. I’m excited to see what he can do.”
On winning at home “It means a lot when you play good in front of your fans. They paid the big bucks to see us play; this is our way to pay them back. We have good fans and we want to treat them good.”
On making the playoffs “This is football in December, where the best man wins. We have great character in the locker room and in the huddle; that gave us the edge today. We have a lot of ball left to play. The organization is heading there, right now. It’ll be good to get back there; we haven’t been there in two years.”
On coming from behind “That was good for us. We were able to prove to ourselves that we could come back from a bad start, which we haven’t been able to do all year. That’s big for us to do, especially in December.”
On the team’s injuries “It shows the characters of our coaches and our front office to get guys that can step up and make plays. As a team, we don’t expect to miss a step when guys go down.”
C CASEY WIEGMANN
On playing his former team “It is a team you always want to beat in the division. We knew we had our hands full, and went out and executed.”
On playing for the Broncos “It is a good fit for me and I am enjoying every minute of it.”
On injury problems at the running back position “We just have to play well up front. As long as all five of us (offensive linemen) stay healthy, we will be ok.”
On winning at home “You have to give the fans something to cheer about. Hopefully we can give them something to cheer about from here on out.”
Denver Broncos Post Game Quotes vs. Kansas City– Sunday, December 7, 2008
On falling behind 10-0 “Our job is to play for sixty minutes. It was still early in the game, and we were able to battle through it and get the win.”
WR EDDIE ROYAL
General “The coaches are doing a good job of getting me the ball, and different people are stepping up at big for us. You have to be prepared for every team. We knew Kansas City would be tough, and we were prepared to battle for four quarters.”
On leading the AFC West “It is a good feeling, but you have to go to work every week. We needed to play better at home, and we did that today.”
On having four drives of 80-plus yards “It is a testament to our offensive line. We tried to pound the ball, and mix in the play-action today, and we did a good job of that.”
LB NATE WEBSTER
On returning from injury “It has been a long time. It’s like an old girlfriend, we broke up, but now we are back together.”
On the defense “For us to hold (Chiefs RB) Larry Johnson to 40-something yards (11-36, 3.3 avg.) today was a plus. We will feel good tonight and celebrate, but we will go back to work tomorrow and stay focused.”
On stopping Kansas City on fourth and goal in the 4th quarter “All of us were talking about maintaining our focus and doing our jobs. We were able to come up with a big play. You have to have pride in your defense.”
CB DRE’ BLY
On the Chiefs final possession near the end zone “I had a great break on the ball, but (LB) Jamie (Winborn) had good coverage on his guy and got his hand up to knock it away. Today we stuck together, and we got the stop on that big fourth down play. On the final play my goal was to hit him high and hard, that way he couldn’t get in.”
On the Kansas City Chiefs “They played hard. They don’t have anything to lose, and it shows in the way they play. Their team is very aggressive, and their record is an understatement. We have to throw out records when playing division games. We came out today on fire, and late in the game we had our way. We just have to be playing hard.”
On how the defense played in general “We definitely played well. Our goal was to eliminate Larry Johnson, and we did it today. We knew what was at stake when coming into the game, and we knew we couldn’t fold. It was a rivalry game and we knew they would be fired up.”
TE DANIEL GRAHAM
On a slow start “We weren’t worried. We came out a little slow, but we settled down later in the game. We came out in the second half and fought hard enough to get a win.”
On winning “It was a big win for us after what they did to us last time. We came out and executed the way we wanted, and it was nice to defend our home field, because we haven’t been able to these last few games. Today they called the tight ends’ numbers late in the game, and gave us the opportunity to play a big role. Now we have to get back to work and prepare for Carolina.”
Denver Broncos Post Game Quotes vs. Kansas City– Sunday, December 7, 2008
INJURY REPORT
Brandon Stokley- Ankle Mario Haggan-Knee Peyton Hillis- Hamstring
KANSAS CITY HEAD COACH HERM EDWARDS
Opening Statements “I thought it was a very good football game. Both teams, I thought, did some very good things. In the second half, it was on us. They put points on the board, we didn’t. When they put ten points on the board, in the second half, that was the football game. We got in position a couple times, offensively, but couldn’t put any points on the board. The last drive is what killed us, because we went backwards and they got some points out of that. Defensively, we didn’t get off the filed on third down. They did a good job making third downs on us.”
On his decision to go for it on fourth down “I just wanted to do what I thought we could do. It was fourth and five. I felt that if we didn’t score, we could have at least pinned them back and then we would have had the chance to stop them, and make them punt. I just thought that we needed to play aggressive, and we did.”
“I thought that it was our best chance [to score]. I just felt that, if we didn’t make it, the worst case scenario was they would take the ball over at the one. Then, once they got the ball, they started running it a little bit. It took some time off the clock. They threw one pass and made a good pass to [WR] Brandon [Marshall] in order to keep the chains moving. We had a second opportunity, and they converted a third down again. You just have to give them credit.”
On the Cheifs pass rush against Denver Broncos QB Jay Cutler “I think it was just hard, we played against a good quarterback. A couple of times on the boot pass, I thought we had him. At one point when he went on a long drive, and they made the field goal, we had him almost sacked and he got away. He’s an athletic guy. You have to give him credit, they have a good offense. They moved the ball, they blocked us. That’s trouble when you have a good quarterback, and good receivers.”
On Cheifs QB Tyler Thigpen’s decision to run it on fourth down “It was not his initial plan; he had an option to make a throw. He just felt that he wanted to run for it, and he did. It was a pass play, but he didn’t see anyone open, so he took off running.”
On the Cheifs struggles playing at INVESCO Field at Mile High “For one, the Broncos are a good football team; I guess that’s the right thing to say. It’s hard to beat good football teams at home.”
KANSAS CITY PLAYERS
CB MAURICE LEGGETT On His Interception For A Touchdown “I saw he (Jay Cutler) was looking inside, but I had help inside, so he threw to the outside and I was already there. He tried to look me off for a second, but it was third down and I had to get rid of the ball.”
On Interception Returns For TDs In Back-to-Back Games “It’s very unique, and I think it comes from me just doing my job. The main thing is when you play defense is to just do your job and good things will happen”
On Being In Games At The End “It’s very good for us a team; we’re moving in the right direction. It’s really making us closer and making us believe in each other. Now we just have to move on to next week and focus on San Diego.”
LB DERRICK JOHNSON On Most Important Thing For A Defense
Denver Broncos Post Game Quotes vs. Kansas City– Sunday, December 7, 2008
“Stopping the run is first and foremost. But on passing downs, getting to the quarterback is definitely the most important thing. We didn’t do that today.”
On Lack Of Sack Production “That’s frustrating, we’re trying so hard and sometimes we get to him but he gets the ball out. That quarterback (Cutler) has really good feet and he made some plays today. The Denver Broncos did a really good job of making plays when they needed to.”
On Team Effort “You can’t confuse good effort with results, but we’ve been playing our butts off. The Denver Broncos really made some great plays and in a game that comes down to two or three plays, that’s really huge. The game today legitimately came down to two or three plays and they were the ones who made them.”
QB TYLER THIGPEN
On The Late Fourth Down Play (4th-and-goal at Denver 5) “It was a called pass where we were trying to isolate Tony (Gonzalez) one-on-one. The defensive ends got a good rush and they had Tony covered. I saw an opening in the middle and decided to go for it. I came close, I just didn’t get in.”
On Moral Victories “It’s not really a moral victory. They are a good team and are probably going to win the division. For me, moral victories are when you’re willing to settle for second or third place, but we were trying to win the game. We know that we were two or three plays away from having the game go the way we want, and that goes for the whole season.”
On Denver Running Out The Clock “Give their offense credit. They got those two first downs they needed. Our defense played good, they were just out their a little too long.”
DE TAMBA HALI
On Lack Of Sack Production “It’s frustrating when you get close to the quarterback but you don’t get the sack, and that happened a few times today.”
General “We were just half a step too slow today. We’re playing our tails off. Whatever our coaches call, we play as hard as we can and try to execuite. At the end of the day, you can point your fingers at me because I’m not getting to the quarterback.”
TE TONY GONZALEZ
On If This Was Some Kind Of Moral Victory “No, not all. Not for me, anyway. I always play to win the game and I thought we could have won today. I’ve played in this league too long to settle for moral victories. For a young team, yeah, that might be great, but my window is closing. So it’s win or nothing.”
On The Loss “It always hurts more after a loss. Physically, mentally, and the plane ride home always seems longer. I didn’t think that our season would be this way record-wise, but we are getting better, especially on the offensive side..”
On The Twilight Of His Career “My situation is … (pauses)… I don’t know. I don’t know where I’ll be next year, but I know that this team is moving in the right direction. We might be like the Miami Dolphins, where our record isn’t where we want it, but next year, we’re in position to make the playoffs.”