RB Darren McFadden carries the ball. Photo by Tony Gonzales
Head Coach Dennis Allen
On change in momentum with the third-quarter QB Carson Palmer sack and fumble: "Yeah, obviously it was a competitive game and then that was kind of where the momentum of the game kind of turned around. They got us pinned back and then the sack-fumble right there was a huge play in the game."
On lack of touches for FB Marcel Reece: "We had Darren [McFadden] back and we wanted to get Darren some touches. He did some nice things in the game. I think he had a 36-yard run in the game, so it's really just the way the game kind of played out."
On the difference between Broncos and Raiders now versus last year at this time: "I couldn't really comment on Denver's football team. I'm not in that building. I wasn't here last year so I can't really talk about where the Raiders were last year. I know, obviously, this year our consistency has not been where it needs to be. There's times where we do some really good things. There's other times where we compound mistakes at times and that's what we have to do a better job of."
On deferring to the second half: "The thinking is that we wanted to have the option there in the second half to come out and have a chance to do something in the second half. Really, if you look at the game, the way the game played out, we get the ball first there in the second half and we have an opportunity to go down and score and put some points on the board, which would have been a great deal. We had the holding penalty, I believe it was, or had a penalty there, which put us out of field goal range and really kind of stopped the drive. That was the thought process behind it."
On plan to stop LB Von Miller: "We had a plan to give Khalif [Barnes] some help and some chip help. I thought we did a nice job of it the first half. We weren't able to protect as well against him there in the second half. But in the first half, we kind of held him in check a little bit."
On Peyton Manning's success on third down: "Number one is Peyton Manning is a Hall of Fame quarterback. So he does that to a lot of teams. But obviously that was the critical variable, I thought, defensively in the football game is that we didn't do a good enough job of getting off the field on third down. You know the first drive of the game they convert three third downs on the first drive. I thought we did a nice job of getting them to third down, but against a guy like that, you have to be able to get off the field. We weren't able to do that enough times. I thought our defense, I know we gave up some yards, but I thought defensively our ability to stop them in the red zone, I thought our guys played extremely hard, we got a little bit of pressure on Peyton there, especially in the first half. So I pleased with the effort. Obviously, I wasn't pleased with the outcome."
On the week: "Tough. Yeah, tough."
On challenge focusing on football: "You know, I went home on Sunday and took my father off life support and that's not easy to do. So, was it hard? Yeah, it was hard. But I know my father would want me to be here with this football team. And I wanted to be here with this football team. I'm sure you guys can imagine that it wasn't an easy situation."
On support from the team: "A ton. A ton. I received a lot of support from a lot of different people. This organization has been outstanding to me as far as that's concerned. The players, the coaches, as well as countless friends, family, even people around the league, have been very supportive in this situation."
On if he felt McFadden needed to be limited in his touches: "No, not really. We wanted to give him an opportunity to get the ball and we did that. We only had 47 plays, I think it was, in the game offensively, so it's really hard to really get a lot of people a lot of touches when you only have 47 plays. We had a plan to get Darren the ball some and I thought we did a nice job. I thought the touchdown down there in the red zone on the screen play was an outstanding call in the game. I thought we executed it tremendously and we were able to get points off of it."
On what he'd like to see from the team in the final month: "I will say this – I thought our guys went out there and competed. That team that we played tonight obviously is a great football team. They're led by a Hall of Fame quarterback. I think John Fox and his staff do an outstanding job. Our team fought tonight. We came up on the short end of the stick. The Denver Broncos were better than we were tonight, but I thought our guys fought and that's what I want to see the remaining three games of the year. I want to see our guys fight and compete because that's what it takes to win in this league."
On Phillip Adams: "I was real pleased with the way Phillip Adams played and Phillip has earned the right to get more playing time."
On Terrelle Pryor: "We've had a package in for Terrelle in both games, but again, like I said, we had 47 plays in the game tonight, so the situation didn't play out. Terrelle, I believe, will continue to be on our active game day roster and we'll continue to carry a package of plays for him."
On injuries: "Michael Huff went down with a wrist and then Darren also went down at the end of the game with that same ankle."
On if the injuries are a concern: "Well we just got off the field so I don't really know exactly where it is, I just know he wasn't able to finish the game. Concerned is more with the injuries in the secondary."
QB Carson Palmer
On playing on four days rest: "I really didn't notice that big of a deal body-wise, but obviously preparation-wise you've got to cram a lot in a short week. But it's really not that big of a factor in the game, especially when their team is on the same schedule."
On the loss: "Extremely frustrating to rack up this many losses in a row and in the fashion we've done. It is just extremely frustrating."
On the communication with the wide receivers: "A number of different things. Any time you come off of the field after a situation where you didn't make a third down, there are a number of different situations where you're talking about what they saw, what you saw, things like that."
On getting sacked and fumbling: "[LB Von Miller] got a good pass rush and being in that situation, backed up like that, I've got to throw the ball out of bounds. I didn't have the guy that I wanted to throw it to open and I tried to pull back and throw it to another guy. Obviously, looking back on it now, I wish that I would've just chucked it out of bounds."
On the team's goal in December: "To get a win. This team desperately needs a win."
On what it would take to get a win: "I wouldn't just say that we're on the cusp of it. I wouldn't say it's really close, obviously with some of the scores of these games and each week is something different. It's been a handful of different things that have stopped us from being successful on offense and I know you've got to keep grinding, keep working. We've got less than a month left in the season; we've got to keep working."
RB Darren McFadden
On the game: "Coming off a short week, it's hard. I feel like we prepared well and we went out there and we tried to execute, but we just came out on the short end."
On facing QB Peyton Manning: "He's a great quarterback. He's seen every defense in the league and he knows the perfect play to get his offense in and it showed out there tonight."
On third down struggles and penalties: "It's one of those things that we have to just come back and execute our plays."
DE Matt Shaughnessy
On the defense: "The defense is wanting to go out there and play as hard as we can, keep the offense on the field to score points and try to make plays on defense. That was the goal, that's the goal every week."
On their goals: "Yes, I mean that's football. We want to get on the quarterback; we wanted to stop the run, but some things you can't control. But we're out there playing as hard as we can and playing for one another."
On QB Peyton Manning: "If he sees something he'll change the play and run where he thinks it'll be a weakness on the defense. He's pretty good at that."
On next week against Kansas City: "We need to come together. Everyone has to fire on the right cylinder and come through with a victory."
On the team through the adversity: "No one is down, no one has got their heads down. We all know what we have to do to achieve our goals and it's just up to us to do it."
LB Philip Wheeler
On pass rush consistency: "He's a great quarterback, as in calling the right plays for the right situations, and that's still not an excuse. I felt like we got decent pressure on him at some times and I feel like we just have to get off the field on third downs. We can't have long drives; when we have long drives, the pass rush starts to get tired so we have to eliminate long drives."
On DB Phillip Adams' interception: "We definitely had momentum and we felt like we could beat these guys. We felt like that coming in, we can beat them, but it gave us more confidence to get an interception, a turnover, and then for our offense to score. We felt good about that."
On Coach Allen's situation: "Coach Allen is the type of coach that doesn't want attention on him like that, he wants us to stay focused. He's where he wanted to be, with us here. He wouldn't want to be anywhere else, but with us for this game so he did what he had to do."
DB Phillip Adams
On pressuring QB Peyton Manning: "That was the goal. You have to pressure him and get him in uncomfortable situations. That's all we tried to do."
On his interception: "I was just doing what I'm told to do, it wasn't anything too crazy. Like I said, if it weren't for my surrounding teammates I wouldn't have made the play."
On the momentum shift after the interception: "You go through situations in a game where you just don't know. You just try your best to do your job individually and help your teammates out, that's it."
On earning more playing time: "I just keep working. I just keep working every day and I try to put myself in the best positions possible for my teammates. They hold me accountable and I hold them accountable and I always want to be where I need to be for them."
