Postgame Quotes & Notes Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders • INVESCO Field at Mile High • Monday, Sept. 22, 2003 DENVER BRONCOS HEAD COACH MIKE SHANAHAN General: “I thought we had a great week of preparation. I thought we came out ready to go, on offense and on defense, we made some great plays early and got them behind. It was a nice way to cap off a Monday night game.”

On the First Quarter Perfection “I don’t think any thing is perfect. I thought Jake had a couple plays in there that were big time plays. A couple third-down plays weren’t designed plays. It’s always nice to see someone step up into the pocket and scramble and make a couple big plays like he (Plummer) did. I was really pleased with his effort – I thought he played exceptionally and made a couple big time plays.”

On the Defensive Play Compared to Last Game vs. Raiders (November 2002) “I don’t really know, I just know that we were very prepared. Our coaching staff did a great job of getting these guys ready to play. I thought we had an excellent week of practice, and our game plan was to challenge their wide receivers, rush their quarterback, and react to the line. Our guys were ready to go.”

On the Broncos’ Offensive Formation “We came out with a three wide receiver set more than usual this year, and that was our game plan in the first half. I think it gave us a good chance for a couple good plays because the match-ups are a little bit different. With that, we lost a few players in the second half, and ran out of options. But it was sure nice to find a way to get a couple first downs at the end.”

On Injured Players “Well, you wouldn’t believe me, anyway [laughs]. [RB] Clinton Portis basically has what he had last week – a bruised chest, and he’s sore. [FB] Mike Anderson had a knee injury. At first, Greek [team trainer Steve Antonopulos] thought it might be a torn ACL or MCL, but Clinton felt pretty good about it after the game. So we’ll wait and see, but it looks positive. S Kenoy Kennedy has a badly sprained ankle, and his injury is probably the worst out of the bunch. Clinton Portis didn’t hurt himself any worse than he was a week ago. I’d say Kenoy Kennedy is very questionable for next week, just from seeing him on the sidelines and talking to Greek. Like I said, Mike Anderson, we’ll have a better idea of his injury tomorrow after Greek takes a look and he is examined by the doctors.”

On WR Rod Smith’s Ejection “He told me that they were pushing and shoving. When he went to push the defensive player he said he gave the umpire a good shot right in the jaw, so he knew he was in trouble. It obviously was not intentional, he was going after the player, but that will cost him a few dollars.”

On Getting an Early Lead “Any time you get up on somebody you take them a little bit out of their game plan, so it’s always nice to get a good lead. We experienced that last year. It is hard to stay with your game plan – any time you get down in a game you obviously feel frustrated. I can tell you from first-hand experience; I’ve been down there before. Not too long ago – in fact, it was Monday night a year ago. They battled back there in the second half. It is sure nice to be 3-0. Because we are playing on Monday night, we have a little less preparation time this week, and we need to get ready for Detroit.”

On Setting the Tone with a Sack on the First Play of the Game “I think you feed off each other when you get a big play. I don’t care what team it is, you feed off each other and that first sack was very special. I think it was [DE] Trevor Price, I’m not sure. I saw [DE] Bert Berry come around underneath*, but it was great penetration, and I thought our defensive line and defense played spectacular the entire game. They played fast and made some great hits. A lot of guys made tackles, and offensively I think we made some big plays when we had to.” *Sack was credited to Berry.

On Limiting Clinton Portis’ Playing Time “That was because he re-injured his chest.”

Denver Broncos Postgame Quotes & Notes Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders • INVESCO Field at Mile High • Monday, Sept. 22, 2003

DENVER BRONCOS QUARTERBACK JAKE PLUMMER

On a Strong Start “It was a great game plan by both Coach [Gary] Kubiak and Coach Shanahan. We were a well-prepared team. We practiced really hard and well all week. We had an extra day of practice and were ready to go. We came out firing. I felt good, the shoulder wasn’t an issue, and the guys up front gave me a lot of time. The guys down the field got open, so we could make a lot of big plays.”

On his Shoulder “I landed on it on the boot-out in our end zone where I had to throw it away. And [DE Trace] Armstrong kind of pushed me down, and I landed on it a little bit there. That jarred it a little bit. It got a little stiff towards the end of the game in the fourth quarter when it got a little colder. But other than that, it didn’t bother me at all. It’s good that it stayed healthy. It gives me another week to have it heal, and it felt good throwing the ball, which is very important.”

On Getting the Wide Receivers Involved “We were able to get into a tight formation with everyone bunched down in there and get some good match-ups down the field. We didn’t know how they were going to respond to it, but we got the chance to get the ball down the field. [WR] Ashley Lelie made a couple big plays, especially the where I stepped up and they came out on [WR] Rod Smith and Ashley kept running. Those plays happen, I’m just glad he got the ball in the end zone before it got stripped. We made some big plays and put it on them early in the first half. And coming out and scoring on them on the first drive of the second half was really big, too.”

Was the First Quarter Perfect? “We scored three times, I don’t know how we could have gotten our defense off the field any quicker, maybe if we had scored four . But we were really efficient. I think if you look at the third quarter, we got a couple first downs, but could have kept our defense off the field even a little bit more, even into the fourth quarter. We shouldn’t have let them even have a chance to get back into the ball game. We didn’t do that offensively, we had a couple three and outs, and that’s something we can keep working on. We’re just going to continue to improve. We have to rest tomorrow and get ready to come and play Detroit.”

Winning Definitively as a Confidence Booster “They are such a big rival – playing the Raiders, our number one rival, on Monday Night Football… I just know we prepared well all week. And you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen going into a game, but we know we prepared. To win like that is definitely a confidence booster. We go 3-0, now we have Detroit coming up in less than a week. It’s important for us to not get too carried away. And how we’re going to be preparing – we know we’re good, and we know we can play any team. We just have to keep practicing hard and get ready for the next week.”

DENVER BRONCO PLAYERS (1)

RB Clinton Portis ON HIS INJURY—“My ribs popped out, probably in the first few plays of the game. I got them popped back in, and continued to play through the pain. Pretty soon it started to tighten up again, and had to come out and miss the second half. Fortunately, Griff (Quentin Griffin) came in and finished things up really well. If it had been a crucial situation in the game, I would have come back in. Coach Shanahan stressed that we must be prepared for anything all week long, and fortunately, our guy stepped up when they needed to.”

WR Rod Smith ON HITTING THE OFFICIAL—“It was an accident. The guy had me by the head, and I was just trying to break away, and I guess I accidentally hit the ref. I guess he was just trying to break it up too, and I just got him. I would never do something like that, and I absolutely apologize for what happened. It was not my intention at all.” ON THE DEFENSE—“Defensively, it was a huge day (Denver held Oakland to 195 total yards). Our secondary played great and our linebackers were awesome. We needed all our units to come out together and play with some fire and that’s what we did.”

DE Bertrand Berry

Denver Broncos Postgame Quotes & Notes Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders • INVESCO Field at Mile High • Monday, Sept. 22, 2003

GENERAL—“We just had a great game plan. We knew what they were going to do coming in, so fortunately we were able to get a couple of good stops right away, and they had to play catch-up from there. We definitely wanted to come out and deliver a message (on national TV). It was huge that we had a great offense behind us to help out. They really set the tempo from the get-go, and after that, everything just came together.” ON RICH GANNON—“He’s a great player who has hurt us over the last couple of years. You don’t want to let him get in a rhythm, because if he does, he will kill you. Our game plan was to go out and get pressure on him and not let him let put us on our heels.”

LB John Mobley GENERAL—“Compared to what we did last year on Monday and Sunday nights, this was a big step forward for us. Hopefully, we can continue this trend for the rest of the year. We just hate the Raiders in general. This is definitely a game we wanted to win in a big way.” ON THE DEFENSE—“We really didn’t do anything special. In years past, we let him (Gannon) sit back there and dictate what we did on defense. This year, our objective was to get some pressure on him and make him conform to us.”

CB Kelly Herndon ON THE DEFENSE—“Maybe they weren’t expecting us to come out like we did. We definitely hadn’t played like that over last couple of years. I think our speed helps us out a lot. We get out there and we fly around. Our guys up front had them moving all around, and we just made the plays when we needed to.” ON HIS —“It was great to get the interception at the end. The rest of our defense did a nice job shutting down all their options, and I was able to step in front of the ball and get it.”

WR Ed McCaffrey GENERAL—“Our defense really took it to them. This Monday night game feels a lot better than last year’s. We got out fast and put a lot of points on the scoreboard. It got a little sloppy at the end, but that happens when you have a big lead. I don’t think our first quarter could have been any better. We got sloppy at the end, we just had some dumb penalties and we were trying to run out the clock. We’re pretty happy right now, and we couldn’t have asked for anything more tonight.”

TE Shannon Sharpe ON TEAM CHEMISTRY—“I’m tired of all these people talking about other teams and how they’re so great. They talk about all these teams that are supposedly set for the Super Bowl. But you know what? We played like a great team tonight, and we showed what we’re all about. We knew what we had to do when we came out here. We had a great week of practice and we knew we had a great game plan. The question was whether we could come out and execute. For three quarters, we played about as good as we can play. We did not throw many passes tonight, but the ones that we did, we made count. It’s been awhile since we’ve played with this kind of fire and chemistry. It goes back to the ’97 and ’98 seasons when we won Super Bowls. You can just sense that we’ve got something special going right now.” GENERAL—“Our barometer is 30 points, and anytime we put 30 on the board, we’ve got to feel pretty good.”

OAKLAND RAIDERS HEAD COACH BILL CALLAHAN General “First off, let me being here: We didn’t play our best football. The start of the game really put us behind the eight ball. We did not start fast or start the way we want to normally. Consequently, it kind of dovetailed and we kind of spun a bit as the game went on. Our guys fought back a little bit more in the second half, but it wasn’t enough.

“Credit goes to the Broncos; they did an excellent job. Right now we’re 1-2 and we need to improve. We’ve got another division game coming up against San Diego on Sunday, and it’s going to be imperative that we turn this thing around quickly.”

On Denver’s Offensive Gameplan “It was exactly what we thought (it would be). They executed very well, and they were timely in their calls. It’s a system that forces you to be disciplined (to defend successfully); management of containment is a tough chore against this offense.”

On Oakland’s Offense

Denver Broncos Postgame Quotes & Notes Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders • INVESCO Field at Mile High • Monday, Sept. 22, 2003

“Offensively, we’ve got to get into a rhythm. We have not found that rhythm. We’re going to have to go back and retool this thing. It’s pretty obvious that we’re not getting it done the way we have been. We’ve got to get back to good, old- fashioned, hard-nosed, bloody someone’s lip football. We changed the offense last year and we’ll change it again. It’s a pretty flexible system; we’ve shown our ability to adapt before, and we’ll do it again.”

On the Game’s Beginning “As a competitor, you get frustrated. You want to show your best in front of the nation, you want to go out and play your best football and you have a system you believe in that led the league in total offense. It culminates to the point where you’re not pressing, but you’ve got to find something that works, and we were searching a bit tonight.”

On Rich Gannon’s Sideline Outburst “He was being Rich. He gets frustrated. I think he was yelling at everybody. He’s a prideful man; he’s a quarterback that takes a lot of pride in his craft and when things don’t occur exactly right, he gets a little upset. We understand that. He’s been doing that since Jon (Gruden) had him. We appreciate it. We’ve just got to settle him down and put him back out there.”

On Oakland’s Defense “We’ve got a lot of young kids on defense right now. Everyone talks about our age – I’m more concerned with our youth.”

OAKLAND INJURIES: OT Lincoln Kennedy (strained calf); RB Ronney Jenkins (ankle)

OAKLAND RAIDERS PLAYERS OT LINCOLN KENNEDY On the offense: “As an offensive line, we have to protect better. If they’re only going to rush four people – which is what they did for most of the game, except for a couple of blitzes – if they only rush four, we need to keep Rich clean. First and foremost, we have to pick up the level of our play. You are not going to revamp your whole offense at this point in the season. You can’t dump the whole playbook and start over. We as players just have to pick it up. We certainly have to be more diverse in our play calling and, when that happens, we just have to pick it up.”

QB RICH GANNON On the offense: “There are a lot of things we’re going to have to address as an offense, but we’ll do it, and get back to work this week.” On his sideline outburst: “That was something between me and the coaches. I never discuss what goes on on the field. We’ll just leave it at that.” On the Broncos: “They played very well. We struggled coming in and continued to struggle tonight. They are a good football team, and tonight they came in and showed it. This is as bad a loss as I’ve ever had…at least in the regular season.”

RB TYRONE WHEATLEY On the Broncos: “They played a heck of a game – hat’s off to them.” On the offensive struggles: “We have to keep a positive attitude. There’s nobody jumping ship; there’s no one quitting. Hell, they played a good game.” On play calling: “If the Commander in Chief wants to run the ball, then, hey, we’re calling in the ground troops. Call in the Green Berets, because we’re going in there. But if he wants the Air Force, we roll with the Air Force. If anybody has an opinion about this offense, you just keep it to yourself. He’s the coach, he makes the schemes; when he plots the gameplan in front of you, you just take it for what it’s worth. Like it, hate it, that’s what we’re going with.”

WR JERRY RICE On the offense: “People are on to us right now. They’ve got our number. We have to regroup and start doing something a little more different. I’m not saying we’re predictable, but when you’ve got the opponent out there calling out plays, and they know what’s coming, then we’ve got a problem. They know what plays we’re calling, they pretty much know what routes we’re running – they pretty much have us down right now.”

Denver Broncos Postgame Quotes & Notes Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders • INVESCO Field at Mile High • Monday, Sept. 22, 2003

On the Broncos: “They came out ready to play. There was no doubt about it. They jumped on us quickly and, before you knew it, it was 21-0.”

POSTGAME NOTES

! Denver has not trailed all year, and has scored on its first possession in all three games (FG, TD, TD). The Broncos have led for 165:50 out of a possible 180 minutes in 2003 (92%).

! Denver is one of six remaining undefeated teams, joining Indianapolis (3-0), Kansas City (3-0), Minnesota (3-0), Seattle (3-0) and Carolina (2-0); only Minnesota of that group is 2-0 on the road. The Broncos are also one of six teams that are 2-0 or better in division play.

! The AFC West (7-5) is the only division in the NFL that is two games over .500; the only other one with a winning record is the NFC South (6-5). The AFC West is the only one with two 3-0 teams.

! SERIES STUFF: Oakland now leads the all-time series, 52-32-1, but the teams are dead even over the last 52 at 26 wins apiece. Denver Coach Mike Shanahan is now 13-4 versus his old team, including an 8-1 mark in Denver. This was the fifth Bronco win in the series by 20 or more points.

! This was the 13th time that Denver and Oakland met within the first three games of the season; Denver owns an 8-4 edge in those games, including a 6-1 lead in Denver.

! In the 14th meeting on Monday night between the two, Denver now leads 7-6-1.

! This was Denver’s fifth straight win in a home opener after playing either one or two games on the road to open a season (last loss was in 1983; the Broncos are 8-1 since the ’70 AFL-NFL merger in such situations).

! This marks the ninth time in Denver franchise history that it has opened with a 3-0 record, but only the second time it has done it with two of the wins coming on the road (the only other time being 1986); four of the nine times include a win over the Raiders (1986, 1989, 1998, 2003), and three times it included a 2-0 division record (1989, 1997, 2003). A closer look:

Season Start Overall Season Start Overall Season Start Overall 1970 3-0 5-8-1 1989 3-0 11-5 1998 13-0 14-2 1977 6-0 12-2 1996 3-0 13-3 2002 3-0 9-7 1986 6-0 11-5 1997 6-0 12-4 2003 3-0 ?

! This is now the second time in franchise history that the Broncos have scored 30 or more points in each of their first three games (98 total); the 2000 team also did it, and scored the most points (111) after three games.

! Four of Denver’s five sacks came on third downs this evening.

! Denver was 0-of-6 on 3rd-and-10 or more coming into tonight, but converted on a 3rd-and-10 and 3rd-and-13 on its second touchdown drive of the game.

! WR Rod Smith returned his first punt tonight since 1997.

! QB Jake Plummer’s 40-yard run was the longest by a quarterback in Bronco history; previous long was 38 by Bubby Brister in 1998; Marlon Briscoe had a 34-yard run in 1968; John Elway’s longest rush was 31 yards.

! Denver had four plays of 40 or more yards tonight—including three of 44 (two Ashley Lelie catches and a Mike Anderson run).

MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS

Denver Oakland First Downs Plays/Average ...... 28 / 4.6 22 / 3.6 Third Down Plays/Average ...... 12 / 8.2 15 / 3.9 Average Yards To Go...... 6.5 9.5 3rd & 5 Or Less ...... 2-of-5 2-of-3 3rd & 6 Or More...... 4-of-7 2-of-12 Plays In Plus Territory-Yards ...... 17-149 18-61 Time Spent In The Lead ...... 54:28 0:00 Red Zone (Scores-Att-(Pts)) ...... 4-4 (24) 1-2 (7)