END-OF-SEASON PRESS CONFERENCE

THURSDAY, JAN. 10, 2008

On former Assistant Head Coach/Defense Jim Bates --
"First of all, I would like to mention that Bob Slowik will be our defensive coordinator and he will be calling the defenses. I talked to Bates and asked him if he would like to stay and be the linebacker coach, and he decided not to. I have some strong feelings toward Jim, and he has done a lot of good things in the National Football League. I thought as a defense overall we had to move in a different direction. The four previous years, we are in the top 10 (scoring defense), and we did a lot of good things on defense. When (former defensive coordinator) Larry (Coyer) was gone, it obviously had nothing to do with football. Larry Coyer was an excellent football coach, and I did make a decision to go in a different direction, but it was not based on football at all. So, this just didn't work out to what we had planned, and it comes back to me. Hopefully we can make some changes and we can get back on track."

On how the defense will improve in 2008 --
"Well, first of all you can't just go by the statistics of another team. You have to know how somebody coaches, and I know how instrumental (Defensive Coordinator) Bob (Slowik) has been since he has been here, relative with the input he had from (former defensive coordinator) Larry (Coyer). I will go back to (former defensive coordinator) Greg Robinson and he was here for six years. Before I made a change with Greg, we were 6-10, and after the change, we were 11-5. I told Greg going into that year that we are going to have to change what we are doing defensively. Greg didn't feel comfortable with the change, and so I made a change. I told him if we didn't play well on defense, I thought we would have to make a change. When (former defensive coordinator) Ray Rhodes came in for two years (2001-02), I felt very good about him and what he did here. Obviously, he had some health problems. We have a philosophy here on defense that I would like to get back to a little bit, and Bob (Slowik) knows that philosophy. So that's why I think he will do a great job."

On if the Broncos' defensive struggled in 2007 were due to the scheme or the players --
"Well, going back to me, I am in charge of this thing. I just think if I were to have done a decent job coaching, we would have won 10 games or more. And so, it goes back to me. You have to make the decisions that you think are in the best interest for our football team, and sometimes it doesn't work out. My job is to take a look at everything and decide what is best for the organization. That's the bottom line. I just thought when you give up 100 yards a game on rush defense for a number of years since I have been here, there were a little philosophical differences."

On the defensive philosophy that will be brought back --
"Well, just take a look at what we have done here for the last 12 years. We've had a certain philosophy. Sometimes you have to tweak that philosophy. It goes back to what we have done for the past 12 years. We got back to it after we couldn't stop the run this season, back to more of the eight-man fronts, but it was different coverages, assignments, but it just never came together. You don't go four years with a philosophy of giving up being in the top 10 defensively (scoring defense), and get away from it for as long as we did. Hopefully we will get a little bit better."

On allowing former Assistant Head Coach/Defense Jim Bates more range to coach his defense in 2007 --
"Well, I think I said that after the fourth game, when we were giving up 187 yards rushing a game, that we had to make a change. So, we went back to some of the eight-man concept, so I thought we had to make some adjustments. Again, it goes back to me. I gave Bates the freedom to run the defense that he would like, and it just didn't work out."

On some of the draft choices that haven't worked out for the Broncos --
"I think obviously those weren't good drafts. And the free agency, that stands for itself. I think you have to average it out through the years. The bottom line is you have to look at wins and losses, and that is how you judge everybody. Sometimes it will be good drafts, sometimes it will be good free agency, but the bottom line is that you have to find a way to win. Obviously, we didn't do a very good job this year, but again, the bottom line is we were 7-9, how do we correct it? It's my job to make changes and to do the right thing. If you don't win, you deserve all the criticism that you get."

On WR Javon Walker --
"Well, I'm not going to talk about the guys that we have who are up for possibly free agency or contracts for obvious reasons. We will talk with Javon and some guys like (RB) Travis Henry, (S) John Lynch and different guys who have question marks on where their career will go from here."

On evaluating the roster --
"The same thing we do every year. We will find out which guys are most valuable to our football team. Some contracts we will redo, other contracts you decide if you are paying too much for what you're getting. We will try to come up with a plan going into free agency and the draft, and see who will give us the best chance to be successful."

On what will be done differently in 2008 --
"Well, the first thing you do is decide what areas you need to improve, what you have to do from a coaching standpoint and look at myself, the offensive staff, defensive staff and special teams and make adjustments there. We go back and look at the film from a couple weeks and evaluate personnel and schemes. After that is done, we develop a game plan. We will do what we have been doing here for the last 13 years."

On what will be done differently this offseason as compared to those of previous seasons --
"It is always intense. Any time you have a season like we did, you are very disappointed, especially if you come in at least thinking of it being a 10-win season. You just have to look at different areas and make sure that it doesn't happen again."

On what changes will be done to the offensive coaching staff --
"The only thing we are going to do is Joe Baker is going to come over from the linebacker position and take Jim Ryan's job (offensive assistant), and Jim Ryan is going to coach the linebackers. Other than that, we will look at some of the things we did right and go from there. I was really pleased with some of the things we did offensively. You look at your center (Tom Nalen), left guard (Ben Hamilton) and a guy like (WR) Brandon Marshall, who missed all of camp, a guy like (WR) Rod Smith who you think would kind of give you some depth, we had a stretch in there of five or six games where we were averaging well over 30 points per game. When you lose (WR) Brandon Stokley and (TE) Daniel Graham, you kind of go back down again. I saw us getting better and even though we didn't play as well as I would have liked us to, I think that there is a big future."

On figuring out a reason why there was a differential between yards gained and points scored --
"Yes, you take a look at turnovers and time of possession. You take a look at the lengths of the drives, and it's not really hard to figure out why you don't have those points. There are a lot of factors involved."

On having the personnel to win 10+ games next season --
"I think you always have the personnel to win 10-plus games. We have to get a little bit luckier than we did this year health wise. I think this was the most we have ever lost since I have been here. We lost 62 guys on offense. I think one year we lost 62 guys on the team. You take a look at a guy like (C Tom) Nalen, (G Ben) Hamilton, (WR) Rod Smith, (RB) Travis Henry and all of a sudden you have so many of these young guys play. I think it's good for us for the future because you have some guys who have gained some experience, and some of the guys you weren't sure about have stepped up. I'm hoping that helps us in the long run. It's not excuses; It's just the way it is in comparison to what we have done before."

On the gap between the Patriots and Colts and the rest of the NFL --
"I think the gap is very big right now between the Patriots and Colts, and everybody else. You look at what the Patriots have been doing offensively and defensively, and what the Colts have been doing offensively and defensively... These are two teams who are obviously above the rest. Everybody is trying to catch up to those guys and with good reason. Both teams' defenses are in the top two or three in almost every statistical area. You take a look at their offense, and yes, it doesn't take a genius to figure that one out."

On the Chargers --
"Well, number one San Diego is a team that has as talented personnel as anyone in the National Football League, especially on defense. If they put their best game together, they can beat both Indy and New England. They have been inconsistent this year and have played their best football in the latter half. Teams are going to have to play well to beat San Diego at this time."

On the offensive line being a concern going into the offseason --
"Right now, (C) Tom Nalen believes he will be back. (G) Ben Hamilton is feeling the same way. (T) Matt Lepsis never came back this year. Matt Lepsis has had a great career here with the Denver Broncos. This was not a good year for Matt Lepsis, and he would tell you that he probably should have retired before this year started. We should have Nalen back full speed, and Hamilton, with the addition of some of the other guys who have played. (G Chris) Kuper and (C) Chris Myers, I feel good about them. Will (T) Ryan Harris step up? Kuper can play tackle. Does (T Erik) Pears keep getting better? That is part of the evaluation process over the next number of months."

On the defensive personnel --
"Basically, it was the same personnel we have had for the past couple years. In the last four years, we were in the top 10 of points given up. This year, we were obviously way down. I thought the personnel were very similar to what we have had the last four years."

On LB D.J. Williams --
"He did some good things for never playing that position (middle linebacker) before."

On if the turnover in personnel contributed to the record for the year --
"First of all, we will take a look at the secondary, and that has stayed pretty much in tact. The linebacker position stayed pretty much in tact, and there was no change on the defensive line. I thought we improved ourselves on the defensive line. We probably have had more defensive players in here than we have ever before. We will have the chance to evaluate a lot of these guys. I think we have a young group coming up, and not that I don't think we need more depth, but I think we have a chance to get there. Relative to the offense, I think we have been through that with a number of players. There is some optimism there with the guys we have coming back, and the youth of our football team."

On his relationship with Pat Bowlen --
"Pat has been great. He understands the time we put in and how we look at it, and that you are going to go through some tough times. He's a great owner. The reason I think he has had so much success is because he understands the big picture."

On if he feels pressure --
"Nobody can put more heat on me than me. What kind of heat can I put on me? It's not financial; It's winning. That is how you last in this game, and if you don't, it gets pretty tough with the time we put in. You have to have thick skin and believe in what you are doing."

On Defensive Coordinator Bob Slowik --
"Well number one I think he understands that offenses are very good. He is very flexible with his scheme, and depending on what a team is doing, he has the ability to attack that offense with his defensive plan. He's been here with me for a number of years, and he knows how I like to operate. There is one thing about this league and that is you go against some teams with strengths and weaknesses, and you still have to find a way to win. I don't care if you have a mismatch. What can you do to give you the best chance of winning?"

On G/C Chris Myers playing tackle --
"He didn't play any tackle. Chris Myers is not a tackle, but he's a good football player that can play the center and guard positions. We've got some competition there like you mentioned, you never know what's going to happen with Ben (Hamilton). He could have one hit and he could be out. (C) Tom Nalen is usually a warrior after an injury--he comes back full speed, he's been working extremely hard. We'll do what we can do to get as much depth as we can at those positions. "

On T Erik Pears --
"He's done a good job. He gives you everything he's got, I like the way he handles himself."

On WR Javon Walker coming back 100 percent from a knee injury --
"I think you'd have to talk to (Broncos Head Athletic Trainer) Steve Antonopulos there. The doctors thought that after his surgery that it would take five to six weeks to get back full speed. There's talk of a microfracture (procedure) somewhere down the line. I don't know when that'll be, it could be two to three years from now, it could be four years, you just don't know."

On QB Jay Cutler entering his third NFL season in 2008 --
"I think it'll be a lot easier for him. Any time you go a full season as a starter, it's a great learning experience. I go back and look at Tom Brady, take a look at (Peyton) Manning, take a look at (Ben) Roethlisberger, you take a look at their first 16 games, first 24 games, you take a look at their growth... It's night and day. It really slows down for you a little bit, you have another offseason to study film, be around the players, but you still have to grow, you still have study, you still have get better. It just doesn't happen, you've got to work to make it happen, hopefully Cutler will do that."

On why he expects great things from Cutler --
"I don't know if you can say a guy is great until he proves himself. What made everybody excited about John Elway when he first came here? I think every saw a strong arm, they saw a great competitor, they saw a guy that would compete and I think that's what they see in a guy like Cutler--A strong arm, a guy that will compete, a guy that loves the game. Now he's got to go out there and do it just like John did. I just remember John in his fourth year because nobody believed in John Elway, and John had to prove himself in a playoff situation and he finally got to that Super Bowl. The only thing you heard about John when he first got here for the first four years was he never got to a bowl game in college and he has never taken the Broncos to a playoff game then all of a sudden we're in the Super Bowl. After four years, there it was... `Yeah, he can take us to a playoff game but he'll never take us to a Super Bowl,' and that went on for another eight to 10 years but he believed in himself and worked his rear end off and finally got to the promised land. That's what it is about the National Football League--Eventually you've got to do it. I was in the same situation with Steve Young following Joe Montana. He got booed off the field both times in Championship games because he couldn't win the big one and he finally did and got the monkey off his back. That's the profession we live in, that's the one I live in every day. Nobody cares what you've done, you've got to get it done. I think we can all relate to that in sports and in general."

On what Cutler needs to work on --
"A lot of things. He's got to work on ball position, he's got to work on footwork, consistency with his throws, short throws as well as the medium range throws. There are so many things... Blitzes and how to react to them, your footwork, when there's pressure how to step up and scramble, different things that all quarterbacks go through. Then the game slows down for them a little bit because they understand defenses, they understand where people are, they play at the level a couple of these quarterbacks are playing at right now."

On RB Travis Henry --
"Like I said, I'm not going to talk about those situations. But any time there's a setback with a guy, I think you have to look at what he did in his first four or five games then you make the decision on what you thought he did in those four or five games."

On Henry's knee injury --
"I don't think he ever recovered. He had the MCL and I don't think he ever recovered, never got back in football shape and tried to work though it but never did so I don't think he ever got healthy. Any time you're out 3-4 weeks with an MCL, you kind of get out of football shape unless you can really work. He tried but never could get back in shape."

On injuries being a problem in the future with Henry --
"I'm hoping not, but could it be an issue? Sure if he keeps in getting hurt but with a good offseason program he should be coming back to full speed. I think the question everybody has, you take a look at the money involved, you have to make a decision about what you think is best for the organization because once you make that commitment, it's a big thing, so you've got to look at everything."

On not overworking RB Selvin Young --
"Any time a guy gets hurt as many times as he did, you know there's no possible way he can carry the ball 20-25 times a game. His body just wouldn't hold up. He went down too many times this year. You are looking at a guy that has big-play potential. You give him that ball 15-20 times a game, he's going to average over five yards per carry. You just can't overwork Selvin Young. You could see that this year. Same thing with Andre Hall. Andre Hall was nicked up the whole year but when he did play, he played a very high level. Take that screen play versus Chicago before the half, when he breaks a tackle against Tennessee and he goes the distance--you could see big-play potential. He was banged up a big part of the year. He was going to be our kickoff returner. That's part of the evaluation process that we're going through right now though free agency and the draft--Who do you bring in and how do they help you on special teams?"

On the Broncos' special teams --
"We definitely need a returner. If we had the right returner that we thought we had in Andre Hall this year, I think Andre Hall would have broken three of those returns for touchdowns. I could tell you each one but you'd have to see it from the end-zone camera with his speed and agility. The thing we're going to have to get better on is our kickoffs. I thought at the end when Todd (Sauerbrun) was released we helped ourselves there, we had more of a hang time with our kickoffs. We had to get better on our punting. Our punting was inconsistent this year so we can get some help with our kick and our special teams. We've got a couple guys we think that can help us that we already have on our football team that we'll have to evaluate as time goes on."

On DE Tim Crowder and DT Marcus Thomas, who are entering their second season in 2008 --
"With defensive lineman, it usually takes a couple years. It doesn't happen over night. The thing with both Marcus Thomas and Tim Crowder, they both got a lot of experience this year and usually the jump from the first year to the second year is huge in defensive lineman and even more from the second to the third year. With the playing time both of them got, I think they've got a big upside."

On DE Jarvis Moss' recovery from a leg injury --
"Obviously he's going to start behind because he was on injured reserve the majority of the year. But he's been working in the weight room every day. You can see the hunger there. You can tell he's got passion for what he's doing, so I look at him coming back and playing at a pretty good level."

On other injury upates --
"(DE) Ebenezer Ekuban I think will be back in the middle of May, June. A little bit of a question mark there. Any time you've got an Achilles' problem, it takes sometimes longer. Besides him, we've got some bumps and bruises but nothing that will take surgery. I think Selvin Young will go into surgery, just minor on his knee, but that's more of a week, two-week recovery time. It shouldn't set him back at all."

On watching the playoffs --
"I'll watch every game."

On what he thinks about the Patriots --
"Any time you go undefeated, that's something special. I think everybody knows that it doesn't really matter what you do in the regular season. It's what you do in the post season. They've got some pressure on them. It's going to be interesting to see if they can step forward with the pressure that they're under and play at the same level. If they do, a lot of people will consider them the best of all time."

On evaluating free agents --
"One thing that you've got to understand is since I've got the final say does not mean that I go out there. I don't have the time to do that. We've go people that have been on the road that have evaluated every guy that's out there in pro football. We've got five guys on the road doing that. They'll come back here in about three weeks and we'll go over all their recommendations in free agency, height, weight, speed, what they've done, their character. The pro scouts that have been looking at these guys, we'll put them in a pecking order and then they'll recommend which guys would come in and help our team, evaluating our team as well on a daily basis. We do the same thing in the college draft. I don't even know all the guys that are out there. All these guys have been evaluating these guys for the last year. They've been on the road every day. Even though I get the final say, there's no way I could do that without guys that are out there constantly on the road making recommendations of what they think is in the best interest of your football team."

On evaluating current players on Denver's roster --
"No question about it. We have these guys that are out on the road that are never here. They come in and evaluate guys, they compare them to other guys in the league, that are never here, they don't know there personality, they don't know if they're good guys, bad guys just based on play. That is something you have to do. You've got to get an independent contractor that looks at your players because sometimes you like a guy because of his character, for whatever reasons, it's really a good cross-check for us."

On S Hamza Abdullah --
"When he did play he played well, he had some good games, some poor games but I think he's got a big upside, hopefully he'll play well in the future."

On free agency --
"What I think what you do is you take a look at who is out there. Are you saying (S) John Lynch is a mistake? Are you saying (TE) Daniel Graham is a mistake? I know the ones that you are insinuating. It's an evaluation process. How do you eliminate those mistakes? How do you have the good drafts? That's what you're working for."

On RB Selvin Young stepping in with injuries at the running back position --
"The one thing is when you lose a couple players, what you really kind of hurt is your special teams too because these guys don't get the experience that you'd like because they're really core special teams players. So when you do lose a guy here and there, the Selvin Youngs or the Andre Halls, guys that you'd really like to see how good they are, they're playing so other guys are playing those positions. But to answer your question, you'd always like to be young if you can, obviously from a cash standpoint, from the salary cap, but you've got to find out what gives you the best chance to win. Obviously we're a younger football team right now than we were a year ago."

On S John Lynch --
"I think John will decide here in the next month what direction he wants to go. I had a good talk with John today, talked about an hour-hour and a half. (We) had a good conversation, and well see what happens."

On if RB Travis Henry will be with the Broncos' No. 1 running back in 2008 --
"There's a lot of money involved. You've got to make a decision for a big signing bonus what's the best for your organization. To tell you he's going to be our number one running back next year, I could B.S. you but I wouldn't be telling you the truth. There's a lot to weight on who is out there and what his status is physically. Is there any adjustment with the signing bonus? There are so many factors involved, to say one way or another, I wouldn't be telling the truth."

On former Denver LB Al Wilson being cleared to play by doctors --
"To be honest with you, our doctors felt like he could play right away. It was another doctor that felt differently. I'm glad that whatever situation has warranted for Al has cleared him to play because Al has a lot of passion, he's done a great job for us, a great leader... I wish him nothing but the best."

On the importance of a quarterback and a head coach in the NFL --
"You better have a quarterback, I don't care where you're at. If you don't have a great quarterback, you better have a great defense. To win Super Bowls, you have to have an organization that has a lot of people going in the same direction. There just can't be a quarterback and head coach. It's got to have a good offense, good defense and people working together. It does just happen. It's hard to do. You've got to be a little lucky with injuries. I'll go back through 13 years and you've got to be lucky in those great years. In a 13-3 year or 14-2 year and you take a look at the injuries, you're pretty lucky in the stretch. But you've still got to be able to win when you have an unlucky year and you still got to be able to win 10 games, there's no excuse not to win 10 games."

On the Patriots --
"You've got one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game and maybe the best coach with three Super Bowls in how many years and a chance to do it again. The proof is getting it done and he's gotten it done, both of them. You cant take away those rings."

On WR Brandon Stokley as Denver's No. 2 receiver --
"I don't think he's a guy that you want to play in the No. 2 spot. I think he's a guy that you play 25-30 times a game. You put him in that slot role, he's going to get open not matter who is covering him. I think if you play him 50-60 plays a game, I think you're going to wear him down especially nine to 10 years in the league. I think it's a mistake so you have to evaluate what your players can do and sometimes you have to play them a little bit more than you want to because of injuries but to do that to a guy like Brandon was a mistake for us and one of the reasons why he couldn't play the last couple games."

On WR Rod Smith --
"I've talked to Greek (Broncos Head Athletic Trainer Steve Antonopulos) about him and supposedly he's going well and what a warrior he is and what a big influences he was for our football team in the locker room. A guy like that, he's the reason why you win Super Bowls with the character and that type of character and that type of mindset... When he's not playing to influence the younger players on the football team."

On WR Rod Smith's future with the Broncos --
"I'm going to try and get Rod Smith a part of this organization doing something because he's a guy that comes around very seldom. Hopefully we can work something out down the line, something that he's interested in, somebody that smart not to coach, you've got to try to get a part of your organization doing something."

On having WR Rod Smith's presence in the locker room --
"It's always great to have veteran players, players that guys respect around, especially with a guy like Brandon Marshall to listen to Rod every day. I think we all know as a player you can only really lead when you're playing. It's hard to do from the background, but if anybody could do it, Rod could."

On players buying into the system that got the Broncos to two Super Bowl wins --
"If they don't buy into it then they won't be around. That's why you've got to make the decision that you think will give your football team the best chance to win. Sometimes you've got to get rid of talent to get that message across regardless of somebody's potential."

On WR Rod Smith and the other veterans influencing the younger players --
"I think what Rod's saying is that he understands what it takes to win Super Bowls. Not many people do. He understands the grind, he understands how tough it is as a football team and an organization to get everybody on the same page. He see these kids with talent, but they don't have the mindset to do the little things that it takes to separate yourself. He's not afraid to call people out and that's what you need. You need you leaders taking over and let some of the younger guys know that that's the way we do things. If you want to be part of this organization, a part of this professionalism this is the standard you're going to have to operate at. Sometimes, it takes a guy a year or two to understand that."

On former Broncos WR Domenik Hixon, who was claimed off waivers by the Giants --
"We were trying to get him on the practice squad. But we looked at him enough that we felt that Andre Hall was a better look for us than Domenik Hixon. If we knew Andre was going to go down, we probably wouldn't have made that call. Just because a guy has an 85-yard kickoff return doesn't mean that that guy's arrived. We'll see if he does it over time. Domenik Hixon was a guy that we looked at, obviously drafted and liked a lot. We gambled on the practice squad and we lost, but I still think he's got a ways to go before he arrives"

On the Broncos' special teams getting better as the season progressed --
"I feel very strongly about that. Like I said, we played a lot of people on special teams that didn't practice it with people going out, you don't have that kickoff guy hanging with that hang time or you don't have that consistent punter. Obviously Jason Elam did a great job with some clutch kicks throughout the year."

On having younger players on the roster --
"I think any time you have young players everybody says, `Hey is this a football team that can win with young players? Are you rebuilding because you have young players?' I know after our 8-8 season my first year everybody thought we had three or four years to rebuild, we just didn't have enough players and all of a sudden you're 13-3 and you lose and all of a sudden you get a little bit of respect because these young guys or free agents stepped up and played at a certain level. Maybe it was Terrell Davis or maybe it was Tony Jones coming in, but that's part of football, I can't answer that question. I just know you get a guy like (WR) Brandon Marshall, a young player, you take a guy like (QB Jay) Cutler, (DE Elvis) Dumervil, guys like (OL) Chris Myers and (G Chris) Kuper stepping up, (RBs) Selvin Young and Andre Hall playing at a certain level, (TE) Daniel Graham coming in and doing a pretty good job and (WR Brandon) Stokley, even though he's not a young guy but a new guy and he steps up. On defense you got a (DT) Marcus Thomas coming in and starting at defensive tackle, (DE) Tim Crowder having a good influence on what we're doing and obviously Elvis and his pass rush were better than most people thought and you take a look at the secondary we got some experience, older guys, (CBs) Champ (Bailey) and Dré Bly... (S) Hamza Abdullah, still fairly young. Linebackers, guys like Jamie Winborn, Ian Gold... You take a look at D.J. (Williams)--not young guys but guys that have some veteran leadership there. You're just hoping that you have the right mixture and you're always trying to get as young as you can, but guys have to be players and so there's a fine line to try to get that chemistry right, there are a lot of things that go into it."

On LB Jamie Winborn --
"He was our best special-teams player, him and (Jordan) Beck played exceptionally well on special teams. Any time you play great special teams, we're always going to look at you for a starting position. When he did play (on defense), which Jamie did the last couple games, he played well. Beck didn't get a chance to play very much but he did a great job coming in. He was a difference maker on special teams, so a couple additions that we did bring in at the linebacker position helped us on special teams. We probably have more depth on the defensive line, guys to chose from, younger guys, than we've had in a long time. Which guys will be players, I don't know, but we do have a lot more number than we've had before so we have a lot more competition."

On Jim Ryan coaching the linebackers --
"Jim has worked with the linebackers with Larry (Coyer) and then went to the offensive side and he's been an offensive assistant here for the last year working with protections and routs. Jim is an extremely bright guy. We were just hoping some day that we would have a position that he could fill and I know that he'll do a heck of a job just like Rick Dennison's done with our offensive line. I am excited for Jim. He'll do a heck of a job for us."

On WR Brandon Marshall topping 100 receptions this season --
"He played extremely well.  He made a number of great plays for us, and I was really impressed by his maturity.  He will continue to grow on the football field and as a person, and he will be one of our top guys coming back next year."

Ending the year on a positive note --
"It has been a tough year and you always like to end it on a positive note.  We kept their team in check for most of the game and you obviously have to give credit to their offense for making plays in the fourth quarter.  It's always nice to finish the season off with a win."

On the defensive performance in overtime --
"Anytime you give up plays and a two-point conversion in the fourth quarter it's going to cost you.  Then, to go into overtime and to get the turnover we did...the wind was a little stronger than people thought.  Regardless of if we won the toss, we kind of wanted to kick off anyhow."

On RB Travis Henry having no carries tonight --
"He's just not back to full speed yet.  He's better than he was but he needs to get back into football shape.  Anytime you have the type of injury that he had it takes a while to get back to full strength."

Did he caution the players to be safe during the holiday week? --
"We have grown men on this team and people should be smart enough to understand what happened last year.  These players understand what happened, and they know how to handle themselves and we'll leave it at that."

On the evaluation process at season's end --
"We'll do the same thing that we do every year.  We'll have a chance to take a look at the offense and defense and special teams and see how everyone has done.  We'll put our players in a pecking order and look at our players' contracts.  We have a little more time off than we would want so we have plenty of time to do that."

On this season being harder than 1999 (Broncos last losing season) --
"We had a chance this year for a lot of players to get some experience, so that's a positive.  We'll go back and try to put a good football team together.  Hopefully next year we'll be a little more successful than we were last year."

On QB Jay Cutler's season --
"Overall for him to play the way he did was certainly a credit to him.  I think we have one heck of a quarterback for the future, and I think that was evident in the way he played this year.  With a lot of guys going down this year, he found a way to put points on the board.  He's played pretty consistently and guys stepped up and played at the level that they needed to play in the National Football League."

On WR Rod Smith --
"I talked to Rod about where he was at, and I know he just shared that with you, and that was my suggestion.  So, we'll just have to wait and see.  I think everybody knows what Rod Smith has meant to this organization.  He's a natural leader and one of the reason's we've had the success that we've had is because of Rod Smith.  He's a big reason why some of our younger players have developed the way that they have."

On young players making big plays tonight -
"You want to see young people make plays.  When you have some veterans go down it's nice to see the way these players responded."

On Brandon Marshall Getting 100 Catches --
"I told him before the game that I was going to try, but, you know, anything could happen. Luckily, we were able to get him the ball. He got four of five before half time and then I told him I was going to try to get him the rest."

On What He Will Be Working On In the Offseason -- "I think myself, Brandon [Marshall] and Tony [Scheffler] are going to go somewhere on the east coast and just work on timing and things like that. I'm going to watch the film and watch some other teams, see where we are, and go from there."

On How Important This Win Was Today --
"We wanted to win. We just wanted to finish strong. We started off well and I thought we were able to throw the ball well. We kind of had a lull in the fourth quarter but we were able to get a turnover in overtime, and seal a win."

On Benefit of Winning Final Game --
"The taste isn't that nasty now. Sometimes you have to deal with adversity and you just have to deal with it. The tough thing is, we're going to be watching more football on TV. We're not going to be in it. But, the good thing is, we ended it on a positive note. We got a little momentum to take us into the offseason."

On Ability to Run the Ball --
"Rod [Smith] talked to us last night as a group and told us, that when we run the ball well, we win. Statistically when we are averaging 4.5 yards a carry, over 100 yards a game, we're in position to win. We gave ourselves a chance to win tonight and that's all we can ask for."

On Having 100 Catches This Season --
"I'm not going to lie, sometimes I like to be a little shy, but I had my eye on it. It's definitely a milestone for me to accomplish that. It's definitely a blessing. The good thing about it, you can't get content, because there's much more to come."

On Injuring His Knee --
"The DB just hit me low, my thigh, just above my knee. It's something you just have to suck up, and play through it, you know, fight."

On Plans for the Next Few Weeks --
"I'm going to travel a little bit. I have the opportunity, I'm young, and I'm able to. So I'm just going to go see the world. [Where you going?] No telling. Last minute flights; last minute vacations. Have time to get our heads right."

On this Season --
"It has been a crazy season. We desperately wanted to go into the offseason with a win and feeling good about ourselves because we haven't had a whole lot to feel good about lately. Maybe this will kind of give us a little spark and as we go into all of the other stuff, the off season workouts, and all of that stuff. Have some confidence and feel good about ourselves."

On How Many Years Left in His Career --
"I think each year as you get older, you think more in terms of year-to-year, rather than long term contracts or anything like that. I just want to sit back and really just focus on the season. You know how it is. It's a mental grind and you want to focus as hard as you can. Get into the offseason and let everything fall where it may. I'll see what Mr. Bowlen wants to do and what [Coach] Mike [Shanahan] wants to do, and make my decision from there."

On this season being frustrating --
"This season has obviously been very tough. We lost a couple of close games that we felt we should've won, and obviously we haven't played as well as we were hoping to play. We have two games left, and hopefully Monday night we will play a little bit better."

On what he hopes the Broncos accomplish in their last two games --
"Well, I think what we would like to do is play well. We are playing San Diego, who is probably playing as well as anybody right now in the National Football League with the way they are running and throwing the football. They have the best turnover ratio in the National Football League. It's a great challenge for us. They are doing how they did last year, playing the best football toward the end of the season. It's a good challenge for us to at least finish the season on a positive note and have a chance with players that haven't played a lot to see what they can do."

On K Jason Elam --
"He has been playing very well for a lot of years. Obviously he is a clutch kicker and that is a credit to this organization with the way he handles himself on and off the football field. I think what he has done on the field speaks for itself, and it's nice to have a guy you can count on and someone you can consider a team leader."

On Elam --
"To have a guy for 15 years and to handle himself the way he has in clutch situations says a lot about the guy. We have a lot of class guys in this organization."

On signing K Matt Prater off Miami's practice squad --
"We obviously signed (P) Paul (Ernster) and (K Matt) Prater. These are two guys who we think have a lot of ability. Prater kicked off today and had an excellent day kicking off. It's a guy who we think has a big upside. We had him scouted a while back, and wanted to bring him in here and see how he does."

On if S John Lynch will play next season -- "I haven't talked to John about it. I expect John to come back and play unless he tells me something different. I'm sure like most players, after their 15th year they come back and see if they are wanted back and see if they can help themselves to be the best player they can be. I think it's like all players who have been in the league for a while. They have some reservations. I think John played very well this season. I thought he was banged up, which truly hurt him. Hopefully he can finish the year strong."

On Chargers CB Antonio Cromartie --
"He's playing really well this season. He's got a lot of picks. He's taking chances and you can take chances when your front four and your front seven are getting that good of pressure. You've got to keep your eye on him. "

On finding motivation after being eliminated from playoff contention --
"Yeah, it's tough. Any time you're eliminated from the postseason and you have a few games left to play, that motivation is kind of lost but the team has a lot pride and we want to finish the season strong and try to get theses next two."

On being motivated by Denver's 41-3 loss to San Diego earlier this year --
"We talked about it this morning in the meeting, 41-3 or whatever it was. That's embarrassing. It doesn't happen to this organization often, so hopefully we'll be ready on Monday and have a better showing."

On if the Broncos have something to prove against the Chargers --
"Yeah, I guess so. Obviously they're playing better football than us this year and last year, and so we have something to show, something to prove. Guys are a little banged up right now, but luckily with the Monday night game we have an extra day to get everybody back and have a strong showing."

On the Broncos performance -- "I really thought we'd be ready to play today.  I thought we had some chances early.  You have to give a lot of credit to Houston to come out in the second half and control the tempo of the game and run the ball extremely well.  They did a great job mixing things up and we just really have to get things going.  They did a much better job of getting their team ready than I did.  We got outplayed and outcoached- a lot of credit to Houston."

On how the Broncos offense handled the ball -- "Anytime that you can't run the football- and they were doing a pretty good job of running the football- it comes down to them getting the job done and us not.  They did a much better job of stopping the run than we did running it, but it hasn't been done many times this year."

On the Broncos not being able to get their momentum back -- "I thought we got back in the ballgame when it was 17-13.  We got a little bit of momentum going and did a great job and then the 74-yard drive for a touchdown.  I'm disappointed that we weren't able to put points on the scoreboard and I'm also disappointed that we ran the football the way we did."

On if the loss of WR Brandon Stokley effected the outcome of the game -- "I think the key was a guy like (TE) Daniel Graham, you lose a guy like that early in the game it is obviously effects you.  I try to get guys like (TE) Chad Mustard and (TE) Tony Scheffler to come in, but we had our opportunities on offense.  They did a much better job of getting their team ready to play than I did and, obviously, the results were pretty good."

On if tonight's loss ended their playoff chances --  "I don't know.  You'd be able to tell me."

On his decisions on 4th downs -- "One time we were on the 35-yard line another time we thought it was worth the gamble.  We have been in very similar situations this year.  It's a gamble and obviously it didn't work out."

On not calling running plays after a certain point in the game -- "After the score went up 17-13 we went to two TE and had a couple of running plays and tried to get it to go in a different direction.  They did a good job of stopping the run.  They did a much better job of stopping the run than we did running the football."

On what he said to Texans head coach Gary Kubiak following the game -- "I just said, `Hey, great job.  You got your team ready to play.  You outplayed and outcoached us.'"

On what he will tell his team going forward --  "You've got a couple days off and you've got two games left and I think everyone understands that they play hard, work hard and their chances of being back aren't very good.  I expect the team to play much better than they did today."

On the Broncos preparation versus execution --  "We had a day and a half preparation so, obviously, it different than any other game during the year.  I don't know, maybe I worked the guys too hard.  I don't really know what it was, but we didn't have the energy that we had a week ago and you don't know what the situation is.  I told them that I did a bad job of getting them ready because they didn't have the energy, but the bottom line is that we didn't get it done."

On his thoughts on the game -- "We made some plays and we got it going towards the end of the first quarter and in the second quarter we played well.  We came out in the second half after that touchdown and seemed to get the momentum back and made some plays.  That has been our biggest downfall this year.  But, we have two more game left.  It is a gut check because everyone will be evaluated.  Coach (Mike) Shanahan is going to see who wants it and who want to be here."

On if he thought a season like this was possible -- "Oh no.  Just looking at the talent we have.  We have a young, up and coming quarterback (Jay Cutler), a guy with a lot of ability.  We have had some injuries, but guys have to step up and that is part of the game.  Just looking at the veteran leadership we have on defense, I was very excited to being here and I still look forward to being here.  This is more wins than I have ever had in the last four years.  I am just going to keep fighting and keep trying to do all I can do to help this team win."

On Mario Williams -- "Good player, obviously they draft him first overall. So they are getting their money's worth these days, aren't they?"

On the level of frustration -- "It's frustrating. I mean we go out and play so well last week. I thought they were quicker than us, they were ready to play, and they dominated up front a little bit, I missed some throws early on, but we just weren't sharp. It just wasn't there. That level that we had last week wasn't there."

On feeling the frustration early in the game -- "No, I thought we came out well.  We had a good pre-game, everyone was there. Offensively we moved the ball at first drive and got down there, I mean I thought things were looking good."

On how much trouble the Texans caused defensively -- "Man, I don't know. We'll have to go back and watch the film to see what happened. To see if it was us or see if it was what they were doing. I thought we had a good game plan, we were calling stuff and it was working. We got rid of some of the keepers early on because they were blitzing so much, but we had some good stuff."

On how tough it is when you can't establish a run -- "It is difficult. Obviously they ran the ball better than us today. We ran the ball really well last week, I thought we were going to have another good performance with Travis (RB, Henry) and Selvin (Young, RB), but the holds weren't there. They were bringing a lot of guys down."

On the Broncos season -- "Things have been changing all year for us. I can't speak for anybody but myself. I've been inconsistent.  This team has been inconsistent. I think it's a product of our youth, and things have been constantly changing for us throughout the season. I mean since camp. What we're doing now is totally different from what we were doing in camp. I think familiarity will help us to be a little more consistent. I think, to be flat out honest, some better personnel would help us be more consistent, and some more experience would help us be more consistent. We don't have what we need right now, and that's clear. There's no excuses for this team. I'll speak for myself first of all. There's no excuses for me. There's no excuses for anybody right now for what we've done. We have talent."

On the Texans having a better record than the Broncos -- "I don't care. It doesn't mean anything to me. I know I'm not happy with what our record is. We're better than what our record shows, so that's the most upsetting part. I don't care if somebody else has a better record than us."

On the Broncos personnel -- "I think we haven't been playing as well as we need to be playing. If we're consistently inconsistent, it speaks for itself. We're not going to be bad for eight games out of the year and okay for three and decent for a few other ones. You have to look yourself in the mirror and if you're that inconsistent, maybe it's not that you're inconsistent maybe you are that person.

On frustration -- "I don't know that this is as frustrated as I've been all year. This is the most I've said about my frustration all year."

On the playoff picture -- "We shouldn't even be looking at the playoff picture. We need to look at ourselves and get better. If we can manage to win these next couple games and find ourselves in the playoffs, we're lucky. That's plain and simple. We need to look at ourselves not look at the standing in our division or anything like that. What's important is that we right this ship."
 

On how he is dealing with losing -- "I am not dealing with it very good at all.  I really don't know what to do about the losing.  I try not to go crazy when I go home at night.   The best thing about it is that we have a coach that understands how to get you ready to go and play.  You put everything in the past behind you.  I am the type of person that is going to keep on fighting and there are a lot of guys in the room that will keep on fighting.  We are going to figure out a way to get this thing going back to the old Broncos' days where there were many loses, if any at all."

On so many young players playing and the bright future -- "Every time I think about it I just try to challenge myself and just try to get better each and every day and each and every game.  I try to be more physical in running the offense.  These other guys have been in the offense a year already and I am coming in behind.  I am trying to catch up to where those guys are so we can keep moving for the future."

On why RB Selvin Young was signed as a rookie free agent --
"That's why we took him as a free agent. We contacted him as we talked about from day one. We talked to him in the fifth round, and we thought he'd get drafted. We kept communication going hoping that if he was a free agent we'd have a chance to get him, and luckily we did. "

On Young contributing as a rookie --
"You never know what guys are going to do. You give them an opportunity to show what they can do, and I think we were seeing what Selvin could do in the preseason. I said it in the preseason--it wouldn't surprise me if he was a starter in the National Football League and be over a 1,000-yard back. I said the same thing about Andre Hall when he got his opportunity. When guys go down, other guys get opportunities and sometimes guys take advantage of it sometimes they don't."

On RB Andre Hall carrying the ball 20-25 times a game --
"You never know. Andre's been nicked up. He got nicked up in a game with his thumb. He's been nicked up in the preseason. So you always hope a guy can stay healthy. Selvin, the reason why he didn't play at Texas as much as he would have liked to is he got banged up quite a bit. He's been able to stay healthy for the most part, Hopefully, he can keep that going."

On the durability of running backs --
"That's the case in the National Football League. That's why you need depth--guys go down. For a back to stay healthy is a little bit unusual. We've been lucky for a couple years and unlucky other years. That's why you need depth on your football team, and that's why when a guy does go down you're hoping a guy comes up and shows you that he's a football player. You never know for sure."

On it being more difficult to find depth at running back --
"I'm not sure. Since we've been here, we've gone through a lot of backs. You've got to be lucky to stay healthy at any position, especially at the running back position. The size of these guys that get after your running backs--linebackers, defensive lineman, the secondary, guys giving them little shots in the open field--it's hard to carry the ball 25 times and stay healthy unless you're a bigger guy and some of those guys can't stay healthy."

On if Young needs to gain weight --
"I don't think he needs to put on a lot of weight. The guy's tough as nails, he blocks, pass protection, he blocks in the open field. We've got him in the nickel and he takes on linebackers. He gets the job done. I kind of like him where he's at averaging 5.7 yards per carry, that's pretty good for a young kid."

On Young having the potential to start for the Broncos --
"I've said that from day one he could be our starter. Andre Hall could be our starter. We've got some depth there. Everybody's kind of throwing Travis Henry under the bus. He led the National Football League after four games averaging five yards per carry. He had a rib injury and obviously he had an MCL where he missed three or four games. You just don't come back in football shape right away. It takes time. Travis Henry is still the same back he was after the first four games. He was going through a tough time with the rib injury and obviously with the MCL he's got to get back in football shape. We put him in a tough situation in that game putting him in at the tail end of the game when they knew we were going to run the football, but I thought he needed it for this coming week."

On having two different kinds of running backs --
"You can never have too may backs. Raider game, we didn't have any backs. Cecil Sapp, Mike Bell wasn't dressed... I wish Mike would have been dressed so we could not play Travis as much as we did. I didn't envision that happening, but it did happen. Selvin went down early and I had to play Travis more than I wanted to for the reason we just talked about. That happens, and you only have 45 guys that you dress out. You've got three specialists and normally 21-22 guys on defense. You don't have a lot of depth at a lot of different positions. Kansas City yesterday dressed out 19 guys. If they lose one of their tight ends during the game, it changed their game plan completely. That the nature of the NFL."

On RB Mike Bell being inactive --
"There's competition at every position. Mike was not one of our top three running backs with the guys we just talked about, and Paul Smith has played better on special teams than Mike has, so that's why Mike hasn't been dressed. If something happens to Paul, which it did a week ago, Mike came up and played in the Chicago game. Every game you have a chance to show people what you can do. If a guy goes down, you're hoping that you take advantage of that opportunity when it comes."

On speaking with his son, Kyle, who is the Texans' quarterbacks coach --
"To be honest, you're so busy during the week, the time you talk is right before the game and you don't really have time to chit chat. It'll probably be like we normally do. We'll talk right before the game and wish him some bad luck and go on."

On looking forward to the Texans game --
"I'm always rooting for Houston because our relationship with Gary [Kubiak] when we're not playing them and obviously you want to see your son do well, and I've got a lot of other coaches that I know on that staff. You're always rooting people that you're familiar with and that you respect. "

On seeing Kyle Shanahan on a path to becoming an NFL head coach --
"You've got to earn your spurs. He's got a long way to go. I'll tell you one thing. He's a lot further along than I was when I got into the NFL at 31. Just being around the game as a kid, studying at the collegiate level, the pro level from an X's and O's standpoint, it's not even close."

On who his wife is rooting for --
"You'll have to ask her. If [Kyle Shanahan] was a head coach, it'd be no question, it'd be him. Assistant coach, I think she's pulling for us."

On maybe not looking forward to the Texans game --
"You don't get into that. You look at the schedule and you know the guys that you're familiar with, the guys that you aren't. You've always got relationships in the NFL, sometimes assistant coaches, sometimes head coaches. I think you always want to beat people that you respect and you've been around. You want to find a way to win those games."

On preparing for the Texans on a short week --
"Like a normal preparation week you work extra Friday, Saturday and Sunday knowing that you've got a few more days off after the game. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a mini bye week I guess you could say (after the Thursday game), so you do a load on the front side."

On having most of the game plan finished --
"Tomorrow the whole game plan is in. We'll review the whole game plan, and Wednesday we'll review before we take off."

On talking with Texans Head Coach Gary Kubiak --
"I talked to Gary a couple weeks ago. We talk every now and then. He enjoys it. He enjoys being a head coach. He enjoys the organization as we all do. He doesn't enjoy being 6-7, but they're trying to turn it around and do the things that it takes to be a franchise that's in the playoffs and hopefully winning games in the playoffs."

On the biggest adjustment from being an assistant to being a head coach --
"You're not just dealing with the offense. When you're the offensive coordinator, you've got your tunnel vision. You get your game plan together. As a head coach, you're wearing a lot of different hats--offense, defense, special teams. You're talking about free agency, the draft, the organizational schedule, so there's a few more things you've got to do."

On how much Texans Head Coach Gary Kubiak took with him from the playbook --
"He's got everything. If I would have tried to limit him, he's smart enough to already have it in his house anyhow."

On P Todd Sauerbrun's legal situation --
"Let's let due process take care of itself, and if he's guilty he's going to have to pay the price."

On Sauerbrun's future with the Broncos --
"Let's not talk about the if's. Let's let the due process take care of itself, and we'll talk about it then."

On addressing player discipline issues with the team --
"You address all those types of things within the organization. Like I said, let's let it take care of itself. We've already been through one before. You had the guys hung upon a wall, so let's wait first."

On the offensive production --
"When you're averaging 5.8-6 yards per play, the points are going to come. It just happens. When you have penalties, you have turnovers. You've got red zone... There are a lot of things that keep you from scoring points. The defense obviously was not playing the rush as we'd like. A combination of those things. You're going to get the ball back more and you eliminate some of those little mistakes and the points come. We've talked about that for the first 5-6 games and that's inevitable. That's going to come when you're averaging that many yards per carry. Any time you're in the top five in rushing yards (and) passing yards, the points have got to come, but it's guys playing together eliminating mistakes, eliminating turnovers and feeling more comfortable with each other. Hopefully we can keep on doing that, and if we do we'll be one of the top offenses."

On QB Jay Cutler --
"I thought he played very well. He made some plays when he was kind of getting out of the pocket looking down field. He did a great job using his eyes a few times in coverages knowing where he was going to go but not looking there, knowing if you look there it'll be covered. That comes with experience. (He made) a couple big-time plays in that game that a lot of young quarterbacks don't make because they want to stare at the area they know they want to throw to. Pretty impressive."

On WR Brandon Marshall --
"He's starting to really grow up. He's starting to learn how to be a pro with the way he practices and the way he prepares. He's playing a complete game. Not only is he catching the ball, but he's blocking as well. He's got some great veteran leadership around him teaching him how to be a pro and it seems like he's having fun doing it. He's made tremendous strides from a year ago. He's made tremendous strides from the summer camp, playing through injuries, kind of getting out there playing with a little pain. I'm impressed."

On Marshall's productivity being what he envisioned -- "We knew the type of ability that he had, but a lot of people have ability that can't carry over to game day and you're always hoping a guy's going to step forward and make the plays that he made, but you don't know for sure. But yeah, he has stepped up and made a number of plays this season and it's really a credit to his maturity."

On Marshall making moves in the open field -- "He's definitely good running with the ball after the catch. He's strong. Any time a guy is 6-5, 230 and can run a 4.5-40 and has got agility and he's not afraid to hit people, that's a good sign. He'd going to get better, too. He's going to learn after that one cut, how to turn up field, when to turn up field, and he's a young guys that's going to get better and better."

On WR Javon Walker's healthy --
"Any time you're gone after surgery as long as he's been, six weeks, and try to come back, it's tough. You want to go full speed. We had him in Chicago. Maybe it had a lot to do with the weather, it was cold and rainy, but he could never get it loose. Then I was really guarded after the Chicago game and this game. He looked better during Friday's practice but still wasn't full speed. With Brandon Stokley being a game-time decision, I wasn't really sure if Brandon was going to be able to play. So when Brandon was able to play, I though we had to have at least two healthy guys out there because if Javon went down right away and Brandon couldn't play the second half, we'd be in a situation similar to what happened in Oakland with the running back situation, and I didn't want to put Brandon [Marshall] out there when he was hurt when Stokley went down. It turned out pretty good for us because Glenn [Martinez] stayed healthy and Taylor (Jacobs) came in and played well."

On WR Brandon Stokley's production after his season-ending injury in 2006 --
"You never know how a guy relates to your team or how good he is until he comes and is a part of your organization. This guy's a winner. You could see it from day one. He loves to play the game. He loves to compete. I didn't want to play him as much as we've played him this year. I really wanted him in that third down roll if Javon would have stayed healthy. Obviously with Javon being down, we had no other choice than to play Brandon as much as he's played and he's really stepped up and done everything you could possibly as a guy to do especially coming off an ACL. He was hurting in this last game and still played into the third quarter, which gives you an idea of how tough he is mentally. Hopefully he can recover quick enough where he can play against Houston."

On S Hamza Abdullah being healthy --
"I believe so. He had a little double vision out there, and that's the reason why he couldn't go back in. According to Greek [Head Athletic Trainer Steve Antonopulos], he'll be fine."

On not having a long injury list going into a short week --
"We'll wait and see. It's still early."

General --
"Coming into the game, I was hoping we'd play a complete game and I thought we did that today on offense, defense, and special teams.  You look forward to playing complete games and it was a total team effort out there today.  We did not have many mistakes, and the ones we had early in the game we overcame. I'm proud of the way our team played today, and hopefully we can get ready for Houston [Texans] in a short week."

On QB Jay Cutler's best performance in this game -- "I think so, probably from a stat stand-point, definitely.  He made some great plays against the defense.  He's been consistent all year.  To have as many big plays as we did today, it was a total team effort."

On RB Selvin Young setting the tone early -- "When you moved the ball as consistently as we did, a lot of things go your way.  We converted some third downs and made some big plays on first and second downs.  We made some big plays when they [Chiefs' defense] were supporting the run, and when you do that you put points on the board.

"Selvin is in excellent football shape, and with [RB] Travis [Henry] - anytime a running back is away for four weeks, it's hard when you have a knee injury to stay in football shape.  Tonight we wanted Travis to play 10-20 plays to get back into football shape."

On WR Javon Walker --
"I just didn't feel like he was able to go full speed.  In practice he took a lot of reps, but I just didn't feel like the reps were full speed.  With Javon not playing much in the second half, I thought we needed some healthy receivers.  
With [WR Brandon] Stokely going in, we decided right before the game, that was a game time decision.  If he wasn't feeling good enough we were going to keep him out."

On playoff chances --
"I didn't know until after our game that San Diego had won [to Tennessee].  I wasn't real pleased with the outcome - the players had to tell me."

On WR Brandon Marshall gaining yards after the catch -- "He's 6'5", he's two-hundred-and-thirty-something pounds [230 lbs], he's got quickness, he's tough, and he knocked out two defensive ends.  He has a lot of confidence and that will just keep on growing."

On the biggest challenge of a short week -- "We've had this before and it's obviously a challenge for both teams.  We are taking off Wednesday afternoon and heading to Houston.  It's just as tough on both teas, obviously a little tougher on us since we are traveling."

On going against Texans Head Coach Gary Kubiak -- "Well, he has done a great job with the program, thus far. They had a big win today, against Tampa Bay, who is an excellent football team. He also has a lot of character. When you have a lot of guys go down, you have to have others step up. He has just done an excellent job coaching."

General --
"You don't get many of these in the NFL. Teams are just so tough, that it's hard to get victories like this. We could have laid down in the second half, but we kept pressing and our defense held them."

"We came out in the second half and kept it up on third downs and we didn't have a turnover all day."

On the Running Game --
"We were running that left side all day and [RB] Selvin [Young] was making great cuts."

On His First Four Touchdown Game --
"It took a little longer than I wanted it to. The offensive line did a great job the whole day, so I have to give them a lot of credit."

On If He Thinks This Is His Best Game So Far -- "Our runners ran the ball very well, and our receivers made some big plays. This was our game plan coming in, just to go out there and perform well as a team. We feel good about what we've done today."

On WR Brandon Marshall --
"You never know what he's going to do when he catches the ball, but you know that he's going to make a play out of it. He might run back and forth for a one yard gain. But, more times than not, he's going to give you a ten or 20 yard gain. I was happy to see him go out and have a big game for us."

General --
"I was really looking for 305 (yards) or something like that. That's something I can work on in the offseason."

"The future is bright for this team. But, everyone knows that you have to worry about right now. Each and every game you leave everything out there. This is definitely something we can build on."

"It's my job just to be patient and feed off the offensive line. The last few weeks we've been hitting sparks, but it lit on fire today."

On Gaining Motivation --
"This is your J-O-B. A person like me doesn't need motivation. Even if I'm the guy holding the ball when we kick it off, I'm fine with that."

"My thing is just keep on pushing and take advantage of every opportunity I get. I could be here today and gone tomorrow. It's great to be somewhere and have a home where people believe in you."

General --
"Kansas City is struggling a bit, but they are a good football team. In the NFL you can't take any win for granted."

On DE Elvis Dumervil --
"We are proud of him. All you hear about is `He's not the ideal height, or the ideal weight,' but all he's done since high school and little league is produce and he is a great kid."

On Facing the Houston Texans --
"We just have to go back to work this week. We made a commitment to study each game and this is no different. Each team is lucky that they are familiar with each other. I don't know who has the advantage; it's one of those things where we will see after the game. You could say they know, that we know, that they know..."

On the Defense --
"We haven't played this well since maybe the first two weeks of the year. We know what we are capable of but we have to do it every week. I still don't think we are where of what we can be."

General --
"When you play together like we did today, this is what the result will be every time. It was a total team effort. Everybody played well, and that's what it's all about. We are a veteran team and if we play like we played today, we'll keep building more confidence."

General --
"We've got an explosive offense. It's just a shame that we didn't start from Week One. The defense came out to play today and they put us in position to score easily."

"Whenever you play KC, you are going to get a physical game. I'm a little sore, but it's football and that's what it's supposed to be.

On the Penalized Touchdown Celebration --
"It was for all of my family and friends in Florida. They don't get to see snow much, so I showed them some snow."

On the Defense --
"We had more opportunities than we did last week, to get to the quarterback. We were getting good push up front and the coverage was there as well."

On Getting Three Sacks --
"It's a good feeling, but it's a better feeling to go out and dominate at home like we did. We have to bring it back to when INVESCO was a feared place to play in."

On RB Travis Henry resolving his legal situation --
"I'm glad it's over, and it's time to move on and get ready for the Chiefs."

On RB Selvin Young --  
"He practiced today, so all three running backs should be ready to go. He had a bruise in his arm and his knee was a little bit sore. The treatment the last couple days has helped so he's able to go today."

On RB Andre Hall's health --
"He'll practice today."

On having a sense of relief that Henry's legal situation is resolved --
"I'm happy for Travis (Henry). Now it's time to go onto the next step and get ready for the Chiefs."

On playing the Chiefs for the second time this year --
"I don't think it really matters. You play each other every year. They know us, we know them. It's always a very physical battle as it was in Kansas City. We know that game really doesn't mean a whole lot right now. They're like us. They're desperate for a win, and we're going to get their best shot."

On regrouping after two back-to-back losses -- "It was tough to go to Oakland and have turnovers, penalties and to have a chance at the end to make it a game. The thing about this team is we have said all year long it is a veteran group and has a lot of character, so we will be ready by Sunday."

On RB Travis Henry winning his appeal --
"We are happy for him. We have backed Travis as much as we possibly can along with Coach Shanahan and this whole organization. We're happy he got off and everything got cleared up. He's back with us.

"I think when it first came out, obviously, it was a little distraction, but we moved on. He kept playing and it kept getting stretched out, so we are happy for him for sure."

On playing Kansas City for the second time this season on Sunday --
"We are fresh off of them still. Both teams kind of have a good feel for each other, which is kind of a good and bad thing. They're probably going to have some wrinkles and we'll have some wrinkles. We don't know whether they are going to come with the same stuff as they did last time. I think we have a good game plan, and we'll just see how it turns out on Sunday."

On having a chance to make the playoffs --
"We're not even talking about that. We are just taking it one game at a time. We lost a big opportunity at Oakland. I think these guys have realized that. There has not been a lot of talk about it. We are just worrying about Kansas City right now then next week worry about the short week going to Houston."

On having a game plan for Kansas City DE Jared Allen --
"You do, no question about it. You have to have a game plan. The guy is really long and can bat passes down at the line if he doesn't get a big push. He creates havoc. He caused some problems for us the first game, and this game we will definitely have to take into account him. It's something you definitely have to be aware of."

On TE Daniel Graham --
"He's a pro. He comes to work every day with the right attitude and just goes out there and does his job. He doesn't complain about not being involved. He just goes out there and does what's asked of him."

On the attitude of the team suffering consecutive losses --
"Like I have been saying, this team has good leadership and veterans. These guys keep the morale up and attitudes up. I thought we had a good practice and we will try to continue that through the rest of the week. You have to have a short memory in this league. It's just one week at a time and you can't worry about last week."

On having something to prove this week --
"It's totally a different game and is a totally different defense. We are obviously going to look at some of the stuff we did against them the first game, maybe take some of that stuff and add on to it. We watched the film as an offense and as a group. The guys pointed out the mistakes, and I thought it was good. We are not worried about it. We know we have a good offense and can score points."

On what he expects from the Broncos in thei final four regular-season games -- "Obviously we want to play well. Any time you have four turnovers like we did then you have another situation where you get a rushing the kicker call, which keeps the drive going, that's 31 points right there out of 34. You give up 31 points with four turnovers and a mistake on special teams, you have a hard time competing in a game. We will keep on working on things that we have done poorly and hopefully we'll get better."

On the team's run defense against Oakland -- "It's a combination of things. One person being out of position and one person missing a tackle. That's what run defense is. We'll keep on working on it. Since the bye week, that was not one of our better games."

"Obviously we would like to play better than we are playing. We talked about the Raiders coming in. They were fifth in the National Football League rushing the ball--There's a reason for that. We did do some good things, but you need to be consistent. We give some credit to them, and their running backs fought hard. At the same time, we take on a lot of that responsibility ourselves. We just need to keep on working on those things, and hopefully we will get better quick."

On giving up a lot of points in recent weeks -- "Any time you give up 4-for-5 in the red zone, an 80 percent touchdown ratio, that's not good. It's also not good to turn the ball over four times. We all know that's common sense football. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out."

On coming back from the consecutive losses in the last two weeks -- "It's never fun to lose. We'll see what we're made of. You can go through some tough times and very tough moments, but we have the character to fight through it, and hopefully we can get it started this Sunday against Kansas City."

On needing players to step up -- "Well if you have to have one of those pep talks, you've got the wrong guys to start with. We just are not playing as good as we are capable of playing. You can't turn the football over. Any time you turn it over for 31 points, on our side of the 50 (yard line), I don't care who you are, you have a hard time winning football games. We have to play better. The obvious is you give up 4.3 yards per rush. They (Raiders) had a couple of good runs in there. We didn't run the ball the way we are capable of running. Hopefully, we will get a little bit better in both of those areas. Our plan going in was not to play (RB) Travis (Henry) that much. I thought that it might come back to haunt us, and it did. Maybe we should have dressed out another back, but with a couple of guys being injured on special teams, I decided not to go in that direction. When (RB) Selvin (Young) went down, we gave him the ball too many times."

On seeing progress on defense -- "Any time you are losing, you always want to make more progress. That's that way I look at it on offense, defense and special teams. On special teams, we lost some valuable field position on kickoff returns. Everybody looks at the offense and defense, and nobody looks at the special teams with that hidden yardage. That's what separates the teams."

On Assistant Head Coach/Defense Jim Bates -- "You talk about as soon as there is a little adversity, it's going to go back to the coach. We are all disappointed. We're not scoring as many points and putting the ball in the end zone. I'm disappointed in myself. It's my job to get the job done. If we don't get it done, it comes back to me. Don't worry about Bates, the offensive line coaches or the other assistant coaches. Talk about my situation, and we'll be all right."

On playing younger players -- "We are going to play to win. We will play who we think will give us the best chance to win."

On RB Travis Henry -- "Take a look at what Travis has done. When he was healthy, he was leading the National Football League. Just because he's hurt doesn't mean he can't play. The game plan going in was to give him the ball about 10 times and maybe play him 15 or 16 plays. When (RB) Selvin (Young) went down, we had to play him. You could see that he wore down a little bit. Like I said, if I had to do it over again, we probably would have had another running back up."

On this being the toughest season as a head coach -- "Yes, it is tough. Any time you lose it is really tough, especially when you are used to winning."

On WR Javon Walker -- "He played a little bit better. It was an improvement over Chicago. He's not there yet but has made some strides. Hopefully this week he'll do a lot better in practice and be closer to full speed. He does look better."

On Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell -- "It's hard to speak about JaMarcus Russell. He only played a handful of plays. If you are going to judge him by what he did in that game, it's a little premature. They did a good job of running the football, and they scored in the red zone. They got the job done, and we didn't."

On looking at the division's quarterbacks -- "Well, you don't know what they're going to do until they do it. I feel really good about our guy, but I can't speak about the others. I feel really good about (San Diego QB Philip) Rivers, and the way he played last year. Even though he has gotten some criticism this year, I think he is a heck of a football player, and think he'll be one of the top guys in the league."

On believing the division can still be won -- "Sure. We have to get a little bit of luck and need to play much better than we are playing. We are more worried about us playing a complete football game than the playoffs for obvious reasons."

On the death of Redskins S Sean Taylor -- "I think you do try to communicate with people who have gone through similar situations, and you try to do the best job you can in handling a situation that is very tough. It's very tragic."

On the improvement of the offense in recent games -- "When you average what we're averaging rushing the football, and when you average what we're averaging when we pass the football, you have to eliminate the penalties. You must take advantage of the opportunities once you get into the red zone. I was hoping we could have played a little more consistently throughout the end of the season. You've got a lot of guys in new positions and sometimes you will stub your toe here and there. I think we feel a lot more comfortable with each other. Everybody makes mistakes, but we just need to make a few more big plays and feel comfortable with each other."

On the Oakland Raiders -- "You take a look at a team who is fifth in the National Football League in rushing the football, and I think they were dead last a year ago, so that is a big improvement. What has hurt them is turnover ratio. Every time you make a lot of mistakes you are going to lose the football game. They are a much improved football team and we know what we need to get done. I'm sure they are going to thrive off their last win, over Kansas City, so I'm sure they are feeling good about themselves as well."

On the offensive line taking time to recover after losing two starters -- "Everything takes time. The bottom line is we are moving the football. I have said the points would come, and they have come."

On WR Javon Walker's availability for Sunday's game -- "I really won't know until he practices. He obviously played in the game, mostly on third downs, but I'm sure he will feel a lot better this week than he did last week. We will evaluate him this week in practice, and hopefully there won't be a setback."

On WR Brandon Marshall -- "Number one he is a starter. He has the opportunity to play more. When you get those opportunities, you have to take advantage of them. He's done a great job of learning to be a pro and seems to be improving every day, not only as a receiver, but his work ethic. Trying to just be a pro football player is half the battle for some of these guys who have a lot of talent. Brandon has made some big strides over the last year."

On the loss to Chicago -- "Any time you lose like that, any time you lose in the league, it takes a toll and takes a few days. We've got a lot of character, we've got a lot of veterans in there so we're going to have to be moving on. We know we've got some games left, so we have to get ready. "

On the toughest part of his first 16 games -- "It was spaced out. That made it easy. It wasn't coming in and just going 16 straight. Obviously going five and having an entire offseason to get ready made it a lot easier. It's a long season, especially on the younger guys who haven't been through it, haven't been though a whole season, it's long, it's tough, it grueling, it takes a toll on your body and your mind. I think that's the hardest part to get used to. Right now, college football is shutting down so your body's kind of used to four or five years of going 10-11-12 games and being done, so it's a long season."

On how much the offseason helped -- "It made a huge difference. To be able to go in there for five games and get a fell for everything and go through some of the ups and downs then be able to have a whole season to talk about it and look at it on film. To go through the offseason and the training camps as the starter, as the first team guys getting all the reps, made a huge difference."

On how much more comfortable he is after his first 16 games -- "I feel a lot more... After the first five I felt a lot more comfortable. Things come to you, you're just out there reacting you're out there thinking wondering where guys are going to be. You get to play call and see the entire picture and know where everyone's going to be. You know where your hot routs are. You just get a better feel in the pocket, when to step up, when to get out. Experience makes a big difference."

On the Raiders this week compared to the Oakland squad Denver faced earlier this season -- "They're still are really good defense. They've given up a little bit on the run these past five-six games, still doing well against the pass, still doing well against third downs, forcing turnovers. They've got a fast group, good corners, strong linebacking crew and a good front four. They're still doing a lot of the same stuff, but they can play still."

On TE Tony Scheffler's growth -- "A lot. Last year me, [Brandon Marshall], and Tony were just out there, kind of just running around, trying to make plays, not really sure what was going on. It took Tony a little bit longer than me and [Marshall] because of his foot. Getting back from his broken foot in the offseason, he just gained his confidence and getting back into hitting and he's blocking well. He's come a long way since the beginning of the season. We kind of expected it. We knew it was going to take a little bit longer but it's just good to have him out there making plays for us."

On Scheffler's catch in the end zone against Chicago -- "It was something, wasn't it? He did that last year in San Diego where he just kind of tipped one up in there air and made an acrobatic catch. He has good body control, great hands, sees the ball well and he wants to make big catches for us, and I think that's the most important part. He wants the ball, has a good feel for coverages, knows when he's going to be open, knows when I'm going to be coming to him. Him, Brandon (Marshall) and [Brandon Stokley] they're playing well."

On WR Javon Walker being more of a weapon this week than last week -- "I think last week we kind of limited him a lot. Third downs and whenever [Brandon Stokley] needed a blow he'd come in. I think it was kind of more of a feeler game for him to get out there and see how it felt. I talked to him after the game, but I didn't really go at him because I wasn't sure where he was going to be, how he was going to feel. I talked to him after the game and he said everything felt great. I think he's looking forward to this week of getting in there with [Stokley] a little banged up, so I think he'll definitely more of a factor."

On the Redskins' Sean Taylor -- "It's tough. Obviously we dealt with it here, I dealt with in college. What can you say about it, it's one of those senseless acts that takes away a life. It's tough, I feel for the Redskins. Obviously the Broncos team and organization's been through it. It's not going to be going away for a while. They're still going to be thinking about it next year and they year after that. He was just a great player obviously, I didn't know him, but I heard he was a good guy, Patrick Ramsey played with him and said he was a good dude. He had some problems in the past and had to overcome them and he was getting his life together on and off the field. It's tough, our hearts and prayers go out to him."

On the Redskins having to play after the death of Taylor -- "I couldn't even imagine. Having to play this Sunday and then turning around to play Thursday, two games in 10 days, it's tough. Every time I've had to deal with it, it's been in the offseason in college and here. It makes a big difference. You don't have to go to work, you don't have to concentrate. It's going to be tough for those guys. I don't know how they're going to do it. Maybe they're rally around it and pull it together, but I couldn't even imagine going through it."

On moving the ball and putting up more points -- "We've been moving the ball and getting in the red zone all year, we just haven't been having those stupid penalties and kicking ourselves in the toe. We've had a few big plays obviously, some really big touchdowns. Guys are just doing what they're supposed to. We're getting down in the red zone and everyone is tightening it up a little bit and not having those penalties and not having those turnovers. We're taking care of the ball. We've won the turnover battle the last three games, so guys are just doing what they're supposed to."

On not letting drives stall -- "Putting up 34 points the last couple games, 27 in Kansas City, two of those games on the road. You're not going to score every time. Those guys get paid, too. They watch film, they get paid, they know what's coming and they're going to make some plays. Two of those down in the red zone were my fault. We missed some guys. It's going to happen, but I'll take 34 and however many yards we had every other game."

On injuries at RB --
"I really don't know. We'll get a better feel on Wednesday. Andre Hall sprained his ankle on the first play of the game, actually he was pretty lucky, it looked like he could have broken it taking a look at the end zone copy. For him to play with that type of ankle injury is really a credit to him to last as long as he did in the game, but I'll know more on Wednesday. "

On when RB Selvin Young will return --  
"I don't know, we'll find out Wednesday. These guys are getting treatments and doing what they can to get ready so we'll just have to wait and see."

On Andre Hall's MRI --
"It's just a high ankle sprain, so we'll see how quickly he gets better."

On status of RB Travis Henry --
"I have not heard anything about Travis."

On similarities to the Detroit game --
"Detroit was a much different game. We barely scored on offense and they moved the ball pretty good on defense. It was a little bit different but the end result was the same."

On the loss to the Bears --
"It's always disappointing. Anytime you feel like you have a game won and you give it back it sticks with you for a lot of years. I go back to Seattle a decade ago and that sticks with me. We have a 21 point lead. It's one of those types of game where if you don't take advantage of an opportunity and you can't close it out it's disappointing but we'll work through it and get ready for the next week."

On the Seattle game 10 years ago being comparable to the Chicago game --
"Unfortunately, I've been in a few of those, but that's the one that sticks out, being at home and at one point I think it was 24 [point lead]."

On being glad to almost be done with the NFC North --
"I've never thought about it that way, but obviously we didn't take advantage but we've still got another [game] so hopefully we can finish a little bit better."

On taking positives out of the Chicago loss --
"You better take a positive angle. You look at the positive and the negative. You don't lose and just say, `Hey, everything was horrible.' We had three 85-yard drives in the third quarter, that was pretty good. We did some good things, defensively to