On the atmosphere today: "A little bit different, not tremendously different because on a Monday and Tuesday you have a chance to kind of digest a win or a loss and learn from it and move on and start thinking about the next team. It's always nice to come into work after a win on the weekend, but it's all business here on Wednesday just getting ready for Carolina."
On Panthers QB Cam Newton: "Very unique. I haven't watched them play a bunch. We haven't had a ton of games that you're studying for the week before and really watching their offense playing against the upcoming defense you're seeing for whatever reason, just because the way the schedules matched up, but obviously a guy that's that big and that fast poses a lot of threats. I know our defense has their hands full with him."
On Panthers LB Luke Kuechly: "Very good. He's played middle linebacker; he's played the strong side and the weak side. For a rookie to do that, it's pretty unorthodox. There's not a lot of rookies that come in and play multiple positions. I think he's second or third in the league in tackles. To have those kind of statistics as a rookie is something you don't see. He has the stats, but you turn on the film, he just shows up. He's all over the place, harassing guys running routes, he's always around the ball making tackles and assisting on tackles, so he's a very good pick for them."
On the offensive line: "It's kind of gone the way we've been told it was going to go. Coach Knapp kind of said from the get-go this is a process. We're not going to have this Week 1. We're not going to come out and understand all the zone cuts and all the reads and have a real continuity with it up front with five guys working together. He said it was going to take some time and these last couple weeks, we've really seen that progress come together and make consistent plays in the running game. It didn't really matter who the running back has been. It's been Marcel [Reece]; it's been Darren [McFadden] and Goody [Mike Goodson] and even a rookie [Jeremy Stewart] in there, so it's come a long ways. It's where I think Coach Knapp thought it would be. I'm sure he hoped it would be where it is right now a little bit earlier, but we knew it was going to be a process and we need to continue to get better at it and keep seeing those numbers go up these next two weeks."
On if the offense is good enough to keep into next year: "Second year will do wonders obviously. With free agency and the draft and adding players here and there, you're only going to get better."
On being patient through the process: "That's just part of the deal. Anytime you have an entire new regime, a new staff in, you know it's going to take awhile for every phase of the game to kind of figure things out and get comfortable. So you can't let that frustrate you. You have to understand good or bad plays you throw on film early in the season are chances to learn and figure out how to get better."
On if it's different preparing for a team you don't see often: "Not different at all. It doesn't matter how often you play a team. You have to prepare each week and even when you play in-division opponents, we do a good job and our division does a good job of changing things up and not seeing the same looks over and over again, so we're going to continue to work a normal Wednesday, Thursday and Friday like we would any other game."
On McFadden and Goodson: "Last week we ran the ball so much. First and second down it was heavy run and they just kept giving each other breaks, giving each other blows on the sideline. It really doesn't matter who it is. They're both similar, the speed, the quickness, the size, they're pretty similar. They both do a great job in the pass protection stuff, so there's definitely a difference between them and Marcel obviously. But it's just nice to have that kind of change of pace. You give a Darren a chance to catch his breath on the sideline and get reenergized and refreshed during a drive and have him come back in later on in the drive once you cross the 50. That's something that I know defenses don't look forward to because you can get worn down at tailback, doesn't matter who you are. But with that change of pace, it was really good for us last week."
On game ball for Goodson: "Coach does that after wins and he made some phenomenal plays, plays where there wasn't a whole lot to be made and he figured out a way to break an arm tackle, spin off a guy and make a guy miss and get some explosive-gains plays."
On if Goodson is excited to return to Carolina: "Yeah, he hasn't talked a whole lot about it, but you can tell. Anytime you get a chance to play a place that you've been, guys get more excited for those games. We know Goody is getting excited to go back there, he spent a lot of time there, so especially for him, we want to go there and play well."
On Goodson doing a good job in the zone-blocking scheme: "Yeah, I think he'll get better at it too. It's not in his background, the zone-scheme, but he's got great vision and he showed he can make the first guy miss in the hole, which is something you have to do in this scheme every once in a while. It seems like when he's put in, he's done it just about every single time."
On Carolina's defense: "It's a group that doesn't need to bring a lot of exotic pressures. This is the third week in a row we've played a really good defensive end combo. These two guys on the edge, they're both double digit sack guys. Last week, [Tamba] Hali and [Justin] Houston and then the week before with [Elvis] Dumervil and Von Miller, that's three weeks in a row for our tackles to have just a guy on each side. It doesn't matter, they can switch sides, it doesn't matter, that guy is going to be a good pass rusher. It's a team that doesn't need to bring a ton of pressure to get pressure. Like I said, between two guys they have 20-plus sacks."
On run game tiring out the Kansas City defense: "It's tough on the defense. If you can sustain long drives, it just gets those guys gassed and then helps out with some of the pass protection stuff too because they're not quite coming off the ball like they normally would. It was a physical game. That's a physical football team. They play us physical every time so we're a little worn down from that game and we need to get our legs back for this week."
On lack of success on East Coast trips: "We talked about it. We know it and all this is is an opportunity to change all that. Go in a different time zone, playing at 10:00 a.m. our time, we know what our stats are as far as that's concerned and all this is is a challenge and we need to change that perception."
On how they address the issues going to the East Coast: "Coming out fast. They're a team that scores fast and has struggled late, so we need to match their intensity early and come out of the gates firing. We need to find a way to score early slow them down early because that's something they've been really good at."
