Q: What are your thoughts on being on the opposite sideline of a player like Peyton Manning?
Carr:"Like I said before, when we played Tom [Brady], played Philip [Rivers], all these guys, I'm glad that I don't play defense, because I don't think I'd help us much if I did. But, it's cool. It's one of those things that early in the week, you're like, 'Wow, that's pretty cool.' But at this point, I'm trying to beat him. That's my mindset, and that's his mindset. He wants to beat us and we want to beat them and we work our tails off to do that and that's just what it is. Right now, I'm just focused on us, really, focused on our team and making sure we're doing the things at practice we need to do."
Q: His rookie season he went 3-13 with the Colts. He said that experience was his best teacher. Do you think these ups and downs are going to make you a better quarterback?
Carr:"From where I started, absolutely. Looking at it now, just the progress, the people that I've gotten to play against, the teams I've gotten to play against, seeing all these pressures. The best way to learn is by experience, for me. A lot of people learn in different ways, but for me I need to be out there and I need to see it. For me, it's been great. I'm looking forward to getting some wins going on, going into the last half of the season. That's really where I'm thinking about, but it's been good." Q: What is different this week from prior weeks?
Carr:"Me, for me, I take a look at my routine and I sit back and I say, like [offensive coordinator] Coach [Greg] Olson and 'Flip' [quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo] have taught me, you look at your routine and you say, 'Is this helping me be prepared for game day, or do I need to do this area better, this area better?' So, I'll go back and I'll feel really good about one area and say, 'You know what? I probably should have done this area better.' So then I'll make sure my routine, I do that area better the next time until I find that winning formula for me. I found a good routine that I've gotten from a lot of quarterbacks and put it together to make my own, but just really trying to put together the best one weekly, to make sure I'm fully prepared and out there to do my job the best I can."
Q: It seems like some quarterbacks can feel pressure even if they can't see it directly. Is that something that you can learn or is it something that you just have? Do you think you feel pressure, is that something you can learn?
Carr:"I definitely don't look at it. You kind of just have to know, based on your rules, based on the protection, based on what blitz they're bringing, you know what's going on. There are a lot of things going on in your head where you're not even looking at, so I never look at it. A lot of times if I get hit, I don't see it. My wife tried to scare me the other day and I told her it doesn't work anymore, because I'm just used to looking down the field and getting blasted if I do get hit. I guess it's wearing on me. (laughing) It's one of those things, that for me I try to act like it's seven-on-seven, that's just my mindset. I try to just go out there and act like it's seven-on-seven and I'm just out there and I'm trying to complete passes, and then if I get hit, I just get hit. That's something I've worked on since college. I really wasn't good at it early on in college, and I worked on it, pretty hard. My coaches pushed me really hard to do it and it's something that 'Flip' and [Offensive Coordinator] 'Oly' push me really hard to do, is just make sure you're going through your reads, just read progression. That way, you're so locked in on your reads and the coverage, you don't even look at that stuff."
Q: So, DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller…
Carr:"Oh, you know where they are. It's just like playing J.J. Watt, you know where he's at. You know where those guys are, but I won't be looking at them. I'm not helping us if I'm doing that."
Q: What are some of the things you saw in last week's game that you can improve on?
Carr:"Man, so much. It's like every game that I've learned so far, as a rookie, it's different every time because no one look is the same, one guy plays something different than another guy. It could be the same coverage but they play it different. Things for me, it's just strenuously I get my notebooks out and I'm just writing notes. I have notes and notes and notes, pages of notes, to where I can always go back, and I have those to say, this is what happened last time so then it registers in my mind, don't let that happen again kind of deal. So, I can't just put a finger on, here's the answer, but it's something that I go back at and I see what I need to do better, and that's what we do."
Q: Your yards per attempt was pretty low your first couple of games but has gotten better in the last month. Has your offense been opening up for you or what has changed?
Carr:"I don't know. For me, I just go out there and I just try and do my job. I don't know, I just try to throw completions. As long as we're completing the football, we can't argue with completions. It's too hard out there just to get one to argue about any kind of completions. So, for me, I just go out there and just execute it. I don't know if it's what the play is called. I know early on in my first couple of weeks there were down field shots that I missed because I wasn't used to reading that coverage that way. So, my coaches, they helped me, they taught me and then we hit those shots. It's a growth thing. 'Flip' and 'Oly' just keep putting it on me, 'Make sure your eyes are here versus this coverage, make sure your eyes are here versus this coverage so you can see that.' I praise God that we can see those things down the field, but those guys have worked really hard to make sure that I'm seeing those things."
Q: Mychal Rivera has more than doubled his catches in the last two weeks. What is going on there?
Carr:"Really it's just – in this League, you hear a lot about matchup, who's guarding who. You hear a lot about what coverage are they playing. Obviously if you're playing Calvin Johnson you're going to put two guys on him, all those kind of deals. For him, it's just worked out to where whatever the play is called and whatever coverage they play, it's just worked out to where the ball needs to go to him. He's the guy that needs to win and he's winning. He's doing a great job. He's such a hardworking guy, that's why I love throwing to him. I can trust him, I know he's going to be exactly where he's supposed to be. [Tight ends coach Mark Hutson] Coach 'Hut' and [senior offensive assistant] Coach [Al] Saunders, they coach him really hard and he responds to it well. He's doing great things for us and hopefully he can continue to grow because I love throwing to him."
Q: Are there things when you watch Peyton Manning that you can put in your arsenal or that you wish you had in your game?
Carr:"I did in college. I don't, obviously, this year I don't because these weeks, there's so much – defenses do so much that you can't – like in college, you looked at the defense and then now I can watch a NFL game, watch what he does. I can't do that anymore. There's so much in a defensive package that I have to just focus on them. But, there are things that I did in college, pre-snap, whether it's check in place, fake hand signals, just all that mechanics. That stuff works, man. Obviously, the guy has been doing it for five billion touchdowns, he's been doing it for a while. So, I did a little bit of that kind of stuff, but to be completely honest, I tried to take a little bit from everybody, but try to mold it, I want to be myself. I want to be my own guy to where kids can look up to me and say, 'I want to be like that guy.' Just like that."
Q: So you don't do Omaha?
Carr:"No, no. (laughing) My nephews do, but I don't."
Q: What needs to happen to get the running game into a better rhythm?
Carr:"To be honest, that's something for Coach Sparano to answer. I can answer anything you want about me. I can answer anything you want about our team, but when it comes to that kind of stuff, that's stuff for him because I'm just going out there and just whatever the plan is, whatever our plan is, I'm just going out there and trying to make sure I'm handing it to the right guy. That's all I'm trying to do."
Q: Is your communication with your wide receivers good enough? Could it be better and what needs to happen to make it better?
Carr:"Oh, yeah. For me, it's just time. When I think back to, obviously, my relationships in college, that's all I can go off of, we just spent time together. We had so much time together. We grew together. That's the same thing we're doing now. You look back at Week One to where we are now, we're light-years ahead of where we were. So, it's just going to take a little bit of time, and i like where we're at, now it's just ironing out those little details. Which to be completely honest, they're always going to happen. The less those kind of things can happen with us, our group will just grow and our bond will just grow. But, I love my receivers. Those guys, as we see on the film, they make play after play for me. They're doing a great job and I'm going to keep throwing it to them."
