HEAD COACH DENNIS ALLEN
On the starting quarterback:
Coach Allen: "I think obviously we have to look at it. I think when you look at it I don't think Matt [Flynn] played well in this game. Obviously, I thought Terrelle [Pryor] came in and gave us a spark. I thought he played well in the game. I think that's something that we have to go and look at it. I'm not going to make any decisions on anything, obviously, tonight. I want to get a chance to go back and look at the tape and see how things went. But it was obvious that Terrelle gave us a little bit of a spark tonight."
On the positives in the game:
Coach Allen: I think the positive is that we battled back in the second half. I thought for the second straight week I thought our second team players came out and competed and played well in the second half of games. Obviously we didn't start off the way we wanted to start off. We can't continue to spot teams like that in first half of games. We have to come and we have to play better. We have to execute better, specifically early in the games. So yeah, there was obviously some positive things there with the way that Terrelle came in and played. I thought Matt McGloin did some good things there in the second half. Thought we competed with the second group. But there's obviously a lot of things we have to get fixed, specifically early in the game."
On Flynn's playing time:
Coach Allen:"That was kind of what the plan was going into the game that at some point there in the first half we wanted to get a series or two with Terrelle. Obviously, I felt like he [Pryor] was playing well and I wanted to see a little bit more of him."
On satisfaction with defensive effort:
Coach Allen: "No, no. We have to play better. We have to execute better. We have to play better. It's really the bottom line."
On the run defense:
Coach Allen: "I didn't it was good enough. Without actually going back and seeing the tape to be able to go through exactly where the breakdowns were, I didn't think the speed was good enough. I didn't think the tackling was good enough. I thought we made too many mistakes and too many errors."
On DJ Hayden:
Coach Allen: "He made a couple plays. He was rusty. There's no question about it, he was rusty. It's his first game experience since November of last year so I'm sure we'll go back and look at the tape and see that there were some positives in there as well as a lot of things we have to try to get corrected. So I'm glad he was able to get out there and play. There was a lot of firsts that he got out of the way tonight, so I'm looking forward to continuing to improve as we move forward."
On if DJ Hayden came out healthy:
Coach Allen: "Physically, as far as I know right now, he came out of it just fine."
On Flynn's interceptions:
Coach Allen: "Listen, we can't make those mistakes, especially against a good football team and expect to win the ball game. We have to be able to protect the football. We need to be able to take the ball away more on defense. Really, offensively and defensively we didn't play together tonight. We turned the ball over which gave them opportunities to score. Defensively, we didn't do a good enough job stopping them, which forced the offense into a little bit more of a catch-up mode type of game plan. We have to do a better job of playing as a team and being able to execute the game plan."
On quarterback decision:
Coach Allen: "Listen, I want to take a look at that, just like any other position, just like anything else we look at and I want to look at what gives us the best chance to win and that's all I'm concerned about."
On if the offensive line made progress:
Coach Allen: "Listen, I mean, we didn't do a good enough job in the first half. So small step forward, I don't know. I look at the first half and say, 'we have to play better.'"
On why Pryor gives the team a spark:
Coach Allen: "I think his mobility and he was able to create some plays down the field. Listen, he made some throws down the field too that were impressive throws. What I want to look at it is, who gives us the best chance to move the ball down the field and score points. And what combination of things give us the best chance to move the ball down the field and score points. Obviously, I'm not going to look at one night and base any type of decision based off of one night. I'm going to go back and I'm going to look at it and we'll see where we go from here."
On if Pryor gave the team the best chance to win:
Coach Allen: "I think Terrelle played better tonight."
On if Janikowski's field goal miss was a result of the hold:
Coach Allen: "I'll have to look at it. He doesn't miss many so there's obviously something that didn't quite go right."
On if the hold will affect punter decision:
Coach Allen: "I think it's a big factor."
On Darren McFadden:
Coach Allen: "If we had to play a regular season game today, he would have played."
On Rod Streater:
Coach Allen: "Streater had a concussion."
On Tyler Wilson:
Coach Allen: "We were kind of thinking about getting him some snaps there at the end of the game. I felt Matt gave us a better chance right now to get the ball in the end zone there at the end of the game, so I wanted to give him one more shot."
On other injuries:
Coach Allen: "Brice Butler still has the hamstring – it's tightened up on him. Joselio Hanson with a groin and Usama Young with a hamstring."
On Flynn's first interception (intended for Denarius Moore):
Coach Allen: "There was miscommunication between the two as to what was supposed to happen and those things can't happen."
QB MATT FLYNN
On difficulty getting into a rhythm:
Flynn:"Yeah. Obviously it wasn't what I, or we, were looking to do out there. They have a good defense and if you make mistakes, they take advantage of it. We made too many mistakes and just couldn't really get into a rhythm out there."
On preparation going into next week:
Flynn:"You just have to understand what you did wrong, understand the mistakes that were made and correct them. It was a good challenge for us against a defense like that. You just have to understand the mistakes that were made and correct them, teach on them, and try not to let them happen again."
On the offense:
Flynn:"For sure. We all have to get coordinated. We all have to fix little things that we do. We all have to look at ourselves and understand that it's time to get going. It's still preseason but that's not what we want to do. I think anybody would say, out there at the beginning, we were very frustrated with how we performed. But like I said, you watch it, correct it and you have to move on. You move on from this and get on to the next game."
On if issues are fixable:
Flynn:"Absolutely. Everything's fixable. It's all correctable mistakes here and there and it's just stuff that we have to clean up."
On the first interception:
Flynn:"Yeah. They brought some pressure and we just kind of weren't on the same page right there with what was happening. I was trying to get it out quick and it's just something that we have to clean up, we have to be better with."* *
On if the sacks have to do with noticing the blitz:
Flynn:"I think last week [at New Orleans] there was probably one instance where that probably happened, where it was definitely a misread by me on the sack. I hadn't seen one today, but we'll look at it and see who's at fault there. The bottom line is it hurts the team. It doesn't matter who it was that missed it, we can't let that happen. We have to stay on schedule, especially after a return like that. We can't come out first play and take a 10-yard loss."
On the fan reaction:
Flynn:"That's the game. That's football [and] that's going to happen when you have passionate fans. Fans expect a certain level of performance and we obviously didn't meet that today."
QB TERRELLE PRYOR
On his performance against Bears:
Pryor:"I just think I competed. That's the first thing coach said in today's meeting, that he was looking for guys to compete. Any time competition has come, ever since I was young, I always wanted to compete. To me, it's just what I do. I work hard, and I've been working hard – that's how I expect to play. It's not individual though, my teammates: linemen, receivers making great catches, running backs blocking the guys that are going to make me hot. Other guys made a lot of plays it wasn't just me."
On the importance reps against the opponents' first team:
Pryor:"I wish they would have stayed in longer, the Bears first team, because I wanted to get in there so bad against them. They finally let me in and we did a little something on them before the half. I really wanted to go against them a couple more series at least, but that didn't happen."
On whether or not he has an edge for the starting QB job:
Pryor:"I can't say, because Matt [Flynn] does a great job. He did a great job last game moving us down the field with that two-minute drive. Like I said, you guys have been interviewing me for a good while now, and every day I just want to get one percent better – that's my key. All I want to do is get better. I have a love and a passion for this game that is amazing, it's incredible. I love this game more than anything. I just want to get better every day."
