DENVER BRONCOS HEAD COACH JOSH MCDANIELS
On committing penalties early in the game
"It is really difficult to play this team in long yardage situations. I don’t know if it was every drive, but it seemed like it was every drive. I think we had three or four holding calls in the first half. This team, it is a good, physical football team that is pretty disciplined. Committing ten or twelve penalties is not the way you want to play, and giving up some things in the return game set them up with a short field. We tried to pin them back right before the half and then they did a nice job of the one drive – 98 yards before the half and [they] really kind of got the momentum there. You can’t play like that and win against a good football team. We know that and we’ve got to do a hell of a lot better job."
On QB Kyle Orton’s status
"I’m not going to talk about that or the extent of it yet. We have to do some more tests and make sure we are taking care of the players. He couldn’t come back into the game at that point."
On the Broncos overall performance
"Sloppy, certainly. You talk about staying out of long yardage and not giving them extra chances with penalties and those kind of things. Then you go out there and commit 10 or 12 penalties in a game like this, and most of them with our first group out there. It wasn’t like we had a lot of sloppy play there late in the game. You can’t do it – it is hard to win in this league and it’s real hard when you start doing that to yourself – giving the other team 100 yards."
On the Broncos depth at wide receiver
"We’ve got decent receivers, I’ve said that before. We are not concerned about that – that will take care of itself. Hopefully those players will be back and ready to go. The guys that went in there tonight did a decent job and got open and caught the ball for the most part. The problem was we were in long yardage most of the night."
On his first home game at INVESCO Field at Mile High
"It was a great atmosphere. This is an incredible…certainly more than a six on a scale of one to 10. In terms of the crowd it was great; it was a great response there. It is great to play in front of your home fans. They did a great job there trying to help us out early in the game and created some noise. You can tell [the Bears] were having trouble hearing a little bit. There certainly is a level of excitement that you don’t necessarily see in most preseason games, but I think that was good for our team. It just kind of gets you even more ready for the regular season."
On pressuring Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler
"We pressured him. We blitzed a little bit more in this game than we have in our first two. I wanted to do that and kind of test ourselves out in terms of our pressure packages. We did get some hits on him. I don’t think we sacked him. He played well tonight. I thought he really played well tonight. He got the ball out and made some key third down conversion passes there and he stood in there pretty good against the pressure. We got some hits on the quarterback which is good, and that tells us that we have some pressures that we can get home with. We didn’t really create any turnovers. That is the third game in a row that we played on the negative end of the turnover margin and that’s a big problem if we keep playing like that."
On not sustaining drives on offense
"You don’t sustain drives when it’s first and 20. Every drive seemed like it was first and 20 or second and 15. It is going to be hard to do that. There is no doubt about it. You can’t play football in the National Football League when you need 15 or 20 yards to go every time you need a first down. We’ve got to fix what’s wrong. We had some guys commit some penalties and some fouls in crucial situations and times that negated some plays for us. Certainly we are not going to be able to win playing like that. We have got to get better."
On QB Tom Brandstater
"He was ready to go in there and did a nice job. He made one poor decision on the interception but did a nice job and ran the team fairly effectively and scored twice when he was out there. We’ll play with who we can play with and obviously want the best group out there that we can get out there, but life goes on sometimes in this league and you play with who you have. Tom Brandstater has done a nice job of learning our offense. He knows what to do. If needed he will go in there and play."
On Cutler’s return to Denver
"It’s over. That wasn’t the focus of tonight. The focus of tonight is on different things for our football team trying to get better. But that obviously added a lot of drama to the atmosphere. It was a great atmosphere to play in for our football team to try and get ready for the regular season. He did some nice things for them and I’m sure he will have a good year out there in Chicago."
On having limited preparation time before the Arizona Cardinals game
"We are going to use it as an opportunity to get better. We are not just going to go through the motions, certainly. We have a lot of work to do and we don’t have much time to do it. We are running out of time, as is every team in this league right now. You’ve got one game left and a handful of practices before you’re kicking it off for real. Every day, every hour that are there, we are going to try to get better and we are going to use the Arizona game the same way."
DENVER BRONCOS PLAYERS
QB KYLE ORTON
On leaving the game in the second quarter
"I don’t know exactly what happened. It certainly hurt enough, but I don’t know exactly what happened."
On if he is worried about being able to play in the season opener at Cincinnati
"No, I will be ready to go. I am going to work as hard as I can. I don’t know how long I will be out, but mentally I will be ready to go and I think physically I will be, too."
On committing penalties
"We talked about it all week, especially playing this defense. They thrive in long yardage situations. That is where their turnovers come from. That is where they can sit back and play their Tampa-2 and cause all of the short throws. That is what we did. We came out and put ourselves in the hole almost every drive, first-and-15s (and) second-and-20s. You can’t be effective against this team doing that."
More on penalties
"Whenever you have that many penalties—I think we had three points, at least when I was in there. We only had three points and really were pretty much ineffective the entire night. That is an obvious sign of playing sloppy football."
On the Broncos’ depth at wide receiver
"(WR) Jabar (Gaffney), he is a very integral part of our offense for sure. He is kind of a calming factor for the entire unit. We will hopefully get him back as soon as possible and get his presence on the field. He has had a nice preseason. We have got a lot of guys, obviously (WR) Eddie (Royal), and (WR) Brandon Lloyd played a nice game tonight, and we can use our tight ends and backs as well. We will be fine."
On playing against his former team
"It was good to see them. I talked to them before the game. It was good to see them. Hopefully, we would have had a better outcome than we did. They are a good team. I give them all of the credit tonight. They came out and beat us. (They) played better than us and played smarter than us and that is what happens."
On if he is concerned about the Broncos approaching the regular season
"I don’t want to say concerned. We have got to get some things—there are some things that we have got to get fixed reasonably quickly. You can’t say that you have got a whole bunch of time right now. There are things that we have to address that we have addressed. Now, it is time to stop saying we have got time. Time is running out. We have got to get some things fixed. I do think that we have a good football team. Speaking on the offensive side of the football, I think we have a chance to score a lot of points and do the right thing. We have got to correct some turnovers, and we have got to finish drives. We have got to play better than we have been."
On missing key players on offense
"Obviously, you want to play full strength, and I think when we do, we will have a good team. When guys go down, you can’t play full strength all season. That is the nature of this league. Guys go down, and when that happens, guys have got to step up and play well."
On QB Tom Brandstater
"I didn’t get to see a whole lot of it, but I know he made some nice throws and moved the team for a couple scoring drives. That was great. I am sure he is thrilled. We will have a lot of work to do this week."
RB PEYTON HILLIS
On the emotion of the game
"We knew it would be an emotional game. Everybody put a lot of effort into it, because of the rivalry with the Jay Cutler deal. We tried to go out there and do what we needed to do as a team. We did a couple good things, we did a few bad things, now we just need to respond. We have a lot of good players and we are being coached well. We just have to come back and play."
On the offensive penalties
"It is just a part of the game. It will happen. We are trying to get ready for our first regular season game and correct a lot of mistakes. We have to if we want to win."
On the two-back sets
"With [ RB Knowshon] Moreno we want to add size in order to run the ball. I think we did a lot better with that on our first and second drives of the third quarter. We just have to play more as a team. We had a lot of penalties on offense. We started a lot first-and-20, second-and—20, third-and-15, a lot of stuff like that. We can’t allow ourselves to do that if we want to win games."
RB DARIUS WALKER
On his up–and-down night
"It was an OK night. You never feel good if you don’t win. That is really the biggest thing, no matter what happens, you can’t feel good about a loss."
On the fumble
"With the QB-running back exchange, it’s tough because if there is one place you don’t want it to happen, it’s there. Going into score, that can change the whole mechanism of the game, especially for the offense."
On the offensive struggles
"It’s definitely concerning, you have to look at it as we want to a lot of things, we want to do a lot of positive things. Today we did some not-so-good things too, so we have to go back in and work so the mental errors and bad things can get corrected for us to be a good team."
WR BRANDON STOKLEY
On the offenses progression
"I don’t think we did. We have a lot of work to do. We’ll get back on it tomorrow and hopefully improve next week and get a good feeling for Week One in Cincinnati."
On pre-season wins
"It doesn’t matter if it is pre-season or not, you always want to win anytime you take the field. You want to have a good feeling coming into the locker room, because it doesn’t matter whether it is pre-season or regular-season. We are disappointed to lose.
On the goal for the last game of the pre-season
"Win. We were unable to tonight, so win."
OLB/DE ELVIS DUMERVIL
On the late hit in the first half
"I haven’t watched the film yet, but we’re just playing football out there. Whatever calls the refs made were the appropriate calls."
On defensive intensity
"We’re trying to play hard and that’s what we’re trying to emphasize all off season during training. We wanted to come out here and be smart and tough and be physical and that is what we’re trying to show across the nation this year."
On confrontation with QB Jay Cutler
"It’s just like any other quarterback. I don’t like quarterbacks. Me and Jay are cool off the field. But once I get on that field, I like to go after quarterbacks. We came in the same year but it’s football. On the field it’s a different atmosphere for me. We’re just playing football, it’s nothing personal. I’m just trying to get after him and I’m sure he’s just trying to make plays as well."
On Chicago’s 98-yard touchdown drive
"We did some good things on that drive, but we made some bad penalties, myself included. I think that we wish we could have taken that back. They executed and won that series."
TE TONY SCHEFFLER
General
"Obviously there was a lot of hype coming into the game, but they came out and got the best of us today. They were a little bit better than us with the first group, and we had a couple of injuries. We just have to keep working and move on"
On worries from 0-3 start in the preseason
"It is just the turnovers and the penalties. We have taken ourselves out of the last two games on turnovers and penalties alone. We just have to move forward. We are not putting ourselves in favorable positions with first and fifteen and second and twelve, and it is hard to move the ball when that is the case."
On QB Jay Cutler
"I think he wanted it really bad. He did a lot for this team and this city. But now he is in Chicago, and from what I hear he likes it. He came in here and played well. He is good in the pocket, and he has the arm to beat you deep on the scramble. He is a great player, and I think he will be a great player in this league for a long time."
DL KENNY PETERSON
On losing the game
"The game does not count, but it still matters. It gave us the opportunity to go out there and work on what we needed to work on. Chicago was a great test for us, they are a physical team, and Jay [Cutler] at quarterback gives them another dimension…We want to go out there and put on a good showing, and make sure we execute on both sides of the ball. We need to play complementary football like coach said, and we did not do that today, and they put us in some positions that we did not want to be in. We have one more week to iron out the wrinkles and get where we want to be, and then go from there."
On QB Jay Cutler
"Anytime you play with a guy, and you see him with another jersey on your going to heckle him a little bit and talk a little trash. But it is all in good fun and good competition."