OPENING STATEMENT:"Ok, as far as injuries go, (Allen) Bailey has a concussion, (Mike) McGlynn has a quad contusion and JMJ (James-Michael Johnson) back spasms at the end. That's why he came out. There's really not a phase that I can point to that was a positive in this game. I do know we have a high character team and that they will work like crazy to get back and do better than this. As coaches and as players, we will evaluate this and we've all got to do better. We're all in it together and we will do that. With that, I will take your questions."
Where does it feel like you guys are as a team right now?"Well we've got to do a better job putting our players in the right position and we have to do a better job at executing when we are in those positions. When we get that fixed we will be back on track. We've stalled the last two weeks so we've got to get this thing turned around and get us straightened up."
It's hard to let any team get a jump on you like the Broncos did, but when Peyton Manning is running the offense it's almost like a death wish, isn't it?"Yeah, we put a push on there to get back. There were too many things here to really hit between the special teams errors, the interception, the turnovers, there were just too many things. We could never get it back on track completely and get into any kind of rhythm. And he's a great player so you surely don't want to spot him 14 points and try to gain yourself after that."
You seemed to empty your bag of tricks early. You blitzed him, you backed off and then you rushed only three. Do you feel like sometimes you're just kind of picking your poison with Peyton Manning?"Well, you've got to give him different looks. That's one thing you have to do with him and so we did that. Their ability to run the football also adds another dimension to that offense. So you've got to be able to shut down one or the other and we weren't shutting down either. We've got to do a better job there."
Do you feel like the Broncos run offense gets overlooked?"Well you can look at the percentages in games won, the stats there, and they'll tell you that when they run the football they don't lose very many games. They've always done that fairly well but now they are really cranking it up. They did a nice job against us and they did a nice job against Miami."
*What are your first impressions on what your offensive struggles were? *"Well, I'd look at myself first. I'm calling the plays. So was I giving the players an opportunity to make plays? Then I'll go back and look and see if we were executing properly."
When you're standing there watching the first quarter does it befuddle you as to how the score can be 14-0 after all that hard work?"Yeah, listen they got us, that's what I can tell you. I probably didn't go there but they got us today. They did a heck of a job coaching and they were better than we were today."
The run defense these past couple weeks has been up and down, is there an easy fix there?"Well if it was an easy fix we would have fixed it right here. There are things we can work on to get better. That's what we've got to do. Schematically, we will go back through and make sure we are putting the guys in that position where they can make plays. I know we have to do a better job tackling. I do know that, I saw that. When you're in a position to make tackles you've got to do that. We've been a good tackling team and the last couple weeks here we haven't done very well."
Can you speak to the toughness of Alex Smith? He got hit a lot and kept battling."He's a tough kid, real tough kid. He did take some shots. Again, he's a tough kid."
*Beyond the talented Broncos pass rushers, were they doing anything different? *"They really weren't. They did their normal stuff. They did some games, they brought some people, brought an inside defender and dropped an outside guy in pass rush position. But these are all things that they've done. We just didn't handle it very well."
