DENVER BRONCOS HEAD COACH MIKE SHANAHAN

Opening statement

“In the first half, I thought we obviously missed on some opportunities. They only had about 120 yards total offense in the first half, but still made a couple plays, but I thought we would still come back in the second half and take control. They were seven for seven on third downs in the second half, and we couldn’t get much going after the first drive. So give credit to the Raiders, they made some plays to control the tempo, and did it quite well.”

On Special Teams Play

“A couple missed field goals and a punt return does not help your team win. We are obviously disappointed in that. We moved the ball well missing a field goal is not going to help us.”

On Third downs

“It was a drastic change. They went one for five in the first half, and seven for seven in the second half on third downs. Obviously they executed much better and I am disappointed on our part in third downs.”

On the passing game

“I think there was a lot of plays out there that people could have made, that they didn’t make today. We had a few drops, and that doesn’t help our quarterback. Obviously the interception he threw doesn’t help either. They challenged us man-to-man the whole game, and normally plays that we make the second half we didn’t make. If we made those plays, it would have changed the momentum of the game. But congratulations to them, they did it, and we couldn’t get it done.”

On Denver K Matt Prater

“I am disappointed. It looks like he has lost a little bit of his confidence, and young kickers go through that a lot, and he is going through that right now. He had been perfect in practice all week, and he has to take it from the practice field to the playing field. Hopefully he gets his confidence back, and next week, when presented with the same opportunities, he takes advantage of that.”

On Oakland WR Ashley Lelie

“When he was here, he was making the same plays. When the ball was thrown up in the air, he was coming down with it. It didn’t surprise me at all. He has excellent hands, when he was here he was pretty productive.”

DENVER BRONCOS PLAYERS

QB JAY CUTLER

General

“We took our shots. We just didn’t make plays when we needed to.”

On first quarter fumble inside the 10

“That was my fault.”

On being a QB

“Quarterback and head coach are the only positions that keep track of wins and losses. If you can’t get the job done, they are going to find somebody else.”

On the Raiders

“We knew they were going to come in and play hard. They played good defensively. They have the best cornerback (CB Nnamdi Asomugha) in the game. He takes away half of the field. They have a good defensive line and linebackers and they came out to play. They had a good game plan and they were smart about”

WR BRANDON MARSHALL

General

“We didn’t get it done. We tried to take advantage of mismatches. We’re immature; we’re a fairly young team. We’ve been battling ups and downs all year.”

On the Raiders

“This was not a trap game for us. We knew before the game we were going to get their best shot. They are a physical, hard-hitting team. We just didn’t get it done. Hopefully we can get it adjusted and get it done this week. Their record doesn’t show it, but they are one of the most talented teams in the NFL. They showed what they can do when they can put it all together.”

On early turnovers

“We have proved this year that it is hard for us to get back in the game when we make early mistakes. We didn’t get the job done whether it was by the deep ball or the running game.”

On if he was going to watch the Chargers game tonight

“I’m going to relax, go home and get off my feet. I’ll definitely be watching, but we control our own destiny. We don’t want to get in the playoffs off of what they do, we want to get into the playoffs because of what we do.”

FB PEYTON HILLIS      

On the fumble in the first quarter

“It was miscommunication. It was supposed to be a pitch play, but I wasn’t ready for it and [QB] Jay [Cutler] handed it to me. I should have been athletic enough to make that play. It hurt us early in the game and killed our rally.”

On if the Broncos overlooked the Raiders

“I don’t think so. We came out and had a lot of mistakes. It’s football, it’s the NFL and you have to come out and play everyday. We have to play well on both sides of the ball; offense and defense. We put our defense in bad situations and we can’t do that as an offense.”

WR EDDIE ROYAL       

On losing to the Oakland Raiders

 “It’s an enlightening experience. We have to play better than we did tonight and we have to make plays. We have a big one next week against the Jets and we have to be ready. Tonight was a tough game, but the bottom line is we have to make plays.”

On if the Broncos overlooked the Raiders

“We didn’t look past them. We came out tonight and we fought hard, and so did they. We have to give them credit, they played well. But, we have to find a way to win. We’re going to take things one game at a time, refocus and get ready for the Jets.”

WR BRANDON STOKLEY      

On losing to the Oakland Raiders

“It was very frustrating. But, that’s the way the NFL is, you have to come ready to play every game and if you don’t have your ‘A’ game, you’re not going to win.”

On tonight’s performance

“We didn’t execute tonight. We got down first and goal, and turned the ball over in the red zone and we can’t do that. We had a chance to come back in the second half. We have to stay level headed and come back next week and prepare for the Jets. They played better than us tonight.”

On what can be done next week to improve

“We have to do the little things, the right way. They got on a roll tonight and we couldn’t stop them. We took what was there, but we still couldn’t make plays. They have a lot of talent, but what happened tonight is the nature of the game. If you don’t play good football, you’ll lose. It just comes down to execution.”

TE DANIEL GRAHAM

General

 “We didn’t come out and play four quarters like we have the last couple of weeks. You have to play well in all phases of the game, but they outplayed us today.”

On the fumble during Denver’s opening drive

“That just kills the offense. We moved the ball pretty well, and to give up the ball like that just kills the momentum.”

On losing the last three home games

“Right now things aren’t going well at home. We have to play much better at home to keep our advantage.”

On playing the Jets next week

“It will be a big challenge on the road. The Jets are playing well right now, and we just have to figure out what kind of team we want to be.”

LB JAMIE WINBORN

GENERAL

“We knew these guys would come out and play hard. We made a lot of mistakes on offense, defense, and special teams.”

“Today we just didn’t do the things we needed to do to win. We didn’t stop the run as well as we wanted to, we didn’t stop the pass as well as we wanted to. We gave up a special teams score, and we turned over the ball on offense. When you do all those things, you usually don’t win.

On losing the last three home games

“We just haven’t played our better games at home so far. We will start Monday and get this thing turned around.”

CB DRE’ BLY

General

“Oakland didn’t really have anything to lose, just like KC (33-19 on Sept. 21), but they still have great players. Today we totally beat ourselves. It happens sometimes in football, but we are still the top in our division.”

On losing the last three home games

“We have to find a way to win, especially at home. We just have to keep preparing, and keep our confidence. We still have a chance to do great things if we finish strong.”

On the defense

“Except for the play to (WR) Ashely (Lelie) [51-yard reception in the fourth quarter], we played well enough on defense to win, but we didn’t force turnovers. At the end of the day, if you look at the top of the division, we are there and that is all that matters.”