(on what happened in the game) “I think we played a great football team. We needed to play really well in order to win, and we didn’t come anywhere close to that. We weren’t sharp offensively from the very get-go. The turnover on the first play of the game to give them a safety is not the way you want to start a game. For whatever reason, we couldn’t get much going after that. Give Seattle a lot of credit. They are an excellent football team, and they caused a lot of our mistakes. At the same time. we just didn’t play well tonight.”
(on Seattle’s defense) “They have an excellent defense. Certainly, to get behind and give them the lead, played into their hands. That’s what they do to a lot of teams. I think when you get the lead on a team, it definitely benefits their team and their defense. We certainly didn’t want to do that. We wanted to keep the game on the field and keep the score even. We got behind early, and we never could make a run to catch up. From that standpoint, it was a disadvantage for us and an advantage for them.”
(on if the game was what he expected from Seattle’s defense) “We knew they were an excellent defense as far as the scheme we thought they were going to play. Once the score got to 21-0 and 28-0, I think sometimes the defenses change a little bit based on the score of the game. But early on, it was what we expected. They executed better than we did.”
(on if Seattle’s speed on defense surprised him) “We knew they had a good defense. We knew they were fast. It was still a matter of us doing our jobs better. We just didn’t do that tonight.”
(on what happened on the safety on Denver’s first play) “The first play was a cadence issue. We were using the snap count on the play, and due to the noise, no one could hear me. As I was walking up to the line of scrimmage to make a change to try and get us on the same page, and then, the ball was snapped. Really, it’s just an overall … nobody’s fault. (It was) just a noise issue that really caused that play to happen.”
(on if Seattle was the best defense he’s faced) “I can’t say that. I don’t really have a comparison. They are an excellent team. They deserved to win tonight. They played better than we did.”
(on how disappointing the result was based on how Denver’s season was) “It’s disappointing for our entire team. We worked hard to get to this point and overcame a lot of obstacles to be here, putting in a lot of hard work. It is a really good thing just to have this opportunity, but certainly to finish this way is very disappointing. It is not an easy pill to swallow, but eventually, you have to.”
(on if the loss steeled his resolve to return next season) “I addressed those (questions) all week long. It doesn’t change anything on those ends as far as I want to do.”
(on using the loss as motivation for next year) “Certainly, I think it will for our entire team. I think this team used last year’s playoff loss to fuel us. I thought it made us a better team this year. Hopefully, we can use this to fuel us this offseason into next season as well.”
(on how much Seattle was different than any other defense he played this year) “Every NFL defense is pretty unique. They have certain players, certain schemes, and they have an excellent defense. They played well. They executed better than we did.”
(on if Seattle’s defense made him uncomfortable) “I wouldn’t necessarily say that. They just made more plays on defense than we did. Certainly, you force some turnovers, it was probably a credit to them for forcing those plays as far as the offensive mistakes, so I’ll give them credit for that.”
(on if Seattle’s defense was harder to out-think than others) “I can’t say that. I don’t really have a comparison. I thought that our overall execution just wasn’t really sharp, and Seattle’s was. That was the difference for us, offense and defense, they executed better than we did.”
(on if injuries Denver suffered earlier in the season hurt them) “It’s hard to say. You can ‘what if’ all you want. It’s very hard to say.”
(on how long it will take him to get over it) “I don’t know if you ever really get over it. It’s a difficult pill to swallow. I think you have to find a way to deal with it and process it. Like I said, if you can, use it as fuel to make you a better team next year. Obviously, it is a disappointed locker room in there. Guys are disappointed. Our guys put a lot into this season, put a lot into the last two weeks, really laying it all out there. So, when you come up short like this, it is disappointing. Give Seattle a lot of credit, but it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. You have to find a way to deal with it, to process it, and find a way, somehow, someway, try to make a positive from it, but it takes some time. No question, it’s not a quick fix.”
(on what was said after the game) “There were a lot of individual conversations. Coach (John) Fox addressed the team. That’s probably between him and the players. You have some individual conversations with the players that you have battled through this entire season with. You put a lot of sacrifices, a lot of hard work and a lot of sweat into this entire season.”
(on if the loss was embarrassing) “It’s not embarrassing at all. I never use that word. There are a lot of professional football players in that locker room who put a lot of hard work and effort into being here and playing in that game. The word ‘embarrassing’ is an insulting word, to tell you the truth.”
(on if the team was nervous as the game unfolded) “I can’t say that. I can’t speak for every single player. That was not the sense I got. We weren’t just real sharp executing our offense early in the game. The first play was a crazy play, and not the way you expect to start a game. After that, we had the three-and-out, then we had the turnover, which was a poor play on my part – not the way you want to start a game. This is a good football team. We dug ourselves a hole, and we weren’t able to overcome it.”
Stay tuned.
Zennie Abraham | Zennie Abraham or “Zennie62” is the founder of Zennie62Media which consists of zennie62blog.com and a multimedia blog news aggregator and video network, and 78-blog network, with social media and content development services and consulting. Zennie is a pioneer video blogger, YouTube Partner, social media practitioner, game developer, and pundit. Note: news aggregator content does not reflect the personal views of Mr. Abraham.