Sorry this is late, but school gets going this week and I had a soon-to-be-1st Grader that needed a wardrobe! As always, the quotes are courtesy of the Denver Broncos P.R. Staff
DENVER BRONCOS HEAD COACH JOSH McDANIELS
Opening Statement
"We didn't start the way we wanted to against a team that started fast last week against Pittsburgh. The game's last year, they really got out in front of people. They did some good things. We talked about it, but we really couldn't handle their speed of the game early. We had way too many penalties, just some sloppy play. Obviously it's our second preseason game. We have plenty to work off of heading into Pittsburgh (next Saturday)."
On What He is Happy with At This Juncture
"We stopped them four times in the red area, which was an issue. One of our worst situational plays last year was third down in the red area. We're not very good, we're one of the worst teams in football, and now for the second straight week, our people have gotten down in the red area and we've made stops and made them kick field goals which is the best we can do at that point. That was good, and so was the two-minute drive before the half. It was executed well, we didn't have a whole lot of time (0:59 on the clock at the start), and we got down there and scored. The passing game for the most part was pretty effective early, and we did some good things there. In the kicking game, I thought we were much more competitive than we were last week. Our coverage units didn't give up a bunch of big plays, (Perrish) Cox had that one big return, which was good for us. We had some young players that I thought stood out in terms of the coverage unit, down there on the punt team. (Matt) Prater kicked the ball well in terms of his kickoffs, and (Britton) Colquitt punted well, so there are definitely some positives from tonight, which there always are in a preseason game. We're trying to build on those and fix the things that we didn't do well."
On Running The Ball More
"Yeah, I think so. The issue we kept find ourselves in were second-and-9, second-and-10. Our first down rushing wasn't as productive as we would have liked it to be. I think we were trying to avoid third and long as much as we could, so that kind of kept us out of some second down run opportunities. But we came in looking to run a little bit more than we did."
On Injuries and Overall Health Of The Team
"I'm not going to state timetables, this, when, and all that stuff. But I think that hopefully we'll have some guys turn the corner this week. We're hopeful to have more guys out there who weren't out there tonight next week against Pittsburgh. That's going to start with (those players) being able to practice this week. There's nothing we can do about that, we can't change the fact that they're not ready to go. All they can do is work hard, and that's what they're doing and we'll try to treat them as well as we can and get them back out there as soon as possible. We've have got to work with what we have."
On WR Jabar Gaffney
"Jabar is a steady and consistent player who makes the plays that he has an opportunity to make. I think he showed that again tonight. He did the same thing last week, and really that's been his history. He's had chances and opportunities and he's made the most of them. He's a solid, dependable guy for us in the passing game, and a good leader at the receiver position."
On QB Kyle Orton's First Half Performance
"The speed of the rush, and he was running a lot in the first quarter, which is obviously not his forte and it's not what we're looking for either. But I thought he did a decent job of really maneuvering in the pocket, out of the pocket. He kept some plays alive that let us keep some drives going, and I know he had a couple of penalties on some of those. But I didn't think he was really the issue. He was accurate most of the night, I know he had a couple of beat balls, but those are going to be 50-50 that he overthrew and then he really got going there in the second quarter. He really had a nice two-minute drive and I think he has good command right now. He's confident in what we're doing and he knows exactly where to go with the ball. He saw the defense well every snap and knew exactly what he was dealing with and the ball went to the right place."
On LB Joe Mays
"With D.J. (Williams) out, we were really going 3-4-2 inside with (Wesley) Woodyard, Akin (Ayodele) and Joe. We just decided to go ahead with that group early. Woodyard was playing in the kicking game and also in sub situations. So it's nothing more than the fact that we're going to go ahead with a three-man rotation. When D.J.'s back, maybe it will be a little different. He (Mays) is competing for that ‘mike' spot. There's no question that we know what he can do and what we're doing and every rep that he has is a good opportunity for him to learn everything."
On OT Zane Beadles
"Depth can come from a lot of places, and at this point we're going to go ahead and use him at guard and swing him to tackle, which is what we did to give ourselves an opportunity to try to define how we're going to make the final roster fit. If he ends up being our fourth tackle and playing guard, we need to make sure that we use him in the preseason so he's ready to go if that's what we need him to do. You'll probably see more of that next week (vs. Pittsburgh) and the same against Minnesota. We'll evaluate him at more than one position."
DENVER BRONCOS PLAYERS
QB KYLE ORTON
On his confidence in the two-minute offense
"Well, I think the whole offense is (confident), not just me and got protection to throw the ball, the receivers did a good job getting open and I think we feel confident with a lot of our plays that we can get the ball down the field."
On his chemistry with WR Jabar Gaffney
"We have for awhile, even last year - he's a very dependable receiver. I think he's underrated in his playmaking skills. He made a lot of really nice catches for us in tight coverage but he's certainly one of our most dependable players on offense."
On whether he's making more of an effort to throw to the receiver's back shoulder on sideline routes
"We've worked hard on it but a go route can be thrown a lot of different ways and we certainly always want the home run so if we can get by the guy and throw it down the field, it'd be great and take it for a touchdown but certainly if the timing is good and the ball has good placement - especially in this league with no contact down the field, it's tough to stop."
On whether he felt increased pressure due to signing his contract extension
"No, not at all. I feel like I go out to try to prove myself every week and prove myself to my teammates and my coaches every week and kind of went about the same approach this week."
WR JABAR GAFFNEY
On whether the final game of the 2009 season gave him confidence going into this season
"A little bit - that was a good confidence booster. It would have been better with the win but yeah, that definitely helped and showed a lot of the guys that I could step up and take that role."
On how he gets open so much in this offense
"(Laughing) that's what Coach McDaniels told us our job is the first day when we walked in - get open and catch the ball. We work hard and we have a good group that we go up against every day with (CB) Champ (Bailey), (CB) André Goodman and that whole secondary so working up against those guys - it helps us get ready for the game."
On whether this offense is similar to the one he ran in New England
"Yeah, we're getting there. We've got a little bit more work to do but we're definitely starting to move the ball a bit more and showing what the offense can do."
On the performance of the first-team offense over the first two preseason games
"It's progress, it's progress. We feel like we can be better - we had a couple of stupid penalties and the interception on the end of the first drive, (if) we can get rid of those and just start playing a little bit starting we'll be a lot better."
LB MARIO HAGGAN
On how the first-team defense performed tonight
"They (Detroit) had four scoring drives. That says it all. We just got to be more firm. We did a (good) job in the red zone of not letting them get seven points, but they dinked and donked it around the field. Some things we just have to clean up. We have got to go back and look at the film and assess how they got those yards and what we need to do better. If you want to just talk about what we did in the red zone, I think we did a tremendous job; but we didn't do what we needed to do to keep them from getting that far."
On where the defense can improve
"There's room for improvement all over the field, even in the red zone. In the NFL, if you can stop teams from scoring seven - if you can hold them to three on as many drives like that then you give your team an opportunity to win, which I think we had an opportunity. We just didn't finish the game as a team."
On what the defense did well tonight
"We did some things well. I think we got a little bit of a pass rush. I think we got a two-minute drive where we scored. We moved the ball up and down the field. The things we didn't do well were turnovers. We actually had a couple of penalties that negated some drives, and we also had a couple of penalties that kept some drives going. If we can eliminate those things, then I think we will be a better team next week."
On playing outside and inside linebacker
"I am just trying to soak it all in and do what is asked. Right now, they are asking me to do both. I'm here to help this team win, and that's all I want to do is play football and do my best. Wherever I need to be that what I'll do."
WR BRANDON LLOYD
On how he feels two games into the preseason
"I feel like we are making a lot of progress. I feel like we're aggressive in what we are dialing up and we're consistent on our short passes and waiting for the run game to start picking up and it is going to open up a lot more for us. We just have to get more consistent when we are taking our shots and make the defense pay for it."
On the play of QB Kyle Orton
"Just his overall intelligence and his knowhow, you know. Not just what he knows about the game of football, just what he knows about the offense and how he just applies both - his film study - and he just goes out there and he executes. He does such a great job."
On how Orton's progression has helped the receivers
"We have lot more freedom this year than we had in last year's offense. You know, we are able to do a lot of things at the line of scrimmage that we weren't doing last year, and that's what makes it fun. We are not pigeon-holed or being stuck in the play that we are in. We can make an audible and get out of it."
On the two-minute offense
"Playing in our home stadium should be an advantage for us - with the altitude and everything - but we need to be good at our two-minute when we need it, you know, situationally. Going into the halftime we want to pick up some more points going into the half or we need to put some points up on the board at the end of the game. So, I think we are satisfied with how it's working now and we still have things we need to improve on, but we're just going to start with executing when we need it."
LB JARVIS MOSS
On how it feels to play with a cast on
"It feels weird, but hopefully I can use it to my advantage. You know, it's heavy so I'm trying to swing it around and work on some moves with that thing or something."
On if this is where he wants to be at this point in the preseason
"Definitely not, but at the same time like you said it is preseason. You know, they have a couple of more weeks to adjust and you know fix some things. That's what the preseason is for."
On what the team can do to improve
"We need to prepare, lock in, focus all week long and recover. Make sure we take care of our bodies. You know, just buy into the coaches' game plan. Whatever they have for Pittsburgh, we have to buy into it and lock in and be detailed."
WR MATTHEW WILLIS
On having to settle for field goals in the second half instead of touchdowns
"We came out and scored early and we didn't execute in the second half and we were stuck with just three points instead of seven so it's one of those things that we've got to go back and work on and make sure we get the seven points because we're not going to win with just field goals."
On his performance
"It's those little plays at the end of the game, you get yourself into position to win the game and we have to execute those plays at the end of the game and I wasn't able to come up with it. You just try to go on to the next play and hopefully you can make something happen."
On the play of QBs Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn
"They both played really well. We were scoring touchdowns, Brady led a great two-minute drive and we didn't execute on that last play. We had an opportunity to score to win the game and it just comes down to executing again."
On whether losing a preseason game means something
"Absolutely. These aren't just games that you don't think about - you want to win and we have to learn from them come Jacksonville and the regular season because it counts then so we take these games very seriously and we want to win."
TE RIAR GEER
On playing for the Broncos
"I'm definitely blessed and it's unfortunate that we had two tight ends go down, but luckily for me, I got an opportunity, got a shot to go in there and show what I can do so it was just an awesome experience."
On whether it feels like a job interview
"It's a job interview for the whole NFL - if I don't make it with the Broncos then other teams can look at the film and see if they like something that they saw from me and then maybe pick me up, so it's definitely a big deal."
On his progression since OTAs
"I definitely think I have a long ways to go still but from first day of camp until now, I've definitely seen a huge jump in just my blocking and just playing at the speed you have to play to be in the NFL."