HEAD COACH JOHN FOX
On what it means to be the No. 1 seed
“Well, that means we are the No. 1 seed. We get a week off, which is nice. We got a lot of things to work on and we will take full advantage of that this next week. We will find out who we play officially at the end of the week. We will have it narrowed down starting tomorrow, and so we will start working on whoever it may be. We start this second season, tournament, playoff season, whatever you want to call it. You know, they had people picked to win last year and it didn’t work out that way. So it doesn’t change much when they start doing playoff seedings in my experience.”
On his 100th victory
“Yeah, I think any time you can reach any kind of pinnacle in anything. Our owner thought I was a hundred years old, and I said no just a hundred wins. No, I’m teasing. It is an accomplishment but it’s something of a lot of people’s work. It wasn’t one guy. I have a great staff. I have been with great players and it is a proud mark. I think three more would make it even better. This playoff year, I don’t want to say this year because it is ambiguous, but the next three games.”
On the running game today
“Yeah, we started emphasizing that about a month ago. We put our guys in pads and challenged them, they responded. You know when you get to this time of year, there is a certain mental toughness it takes and you could run into weather and just to close a game, all the situational things we worked on, you need that. We are a work in progress; we are not a finished product by any stretch. But I think we have gotten better over the last month.”
QUARTERBACK PEYTON MANNING
On if the touchdown pass to WR Demaryius Thomas was stretching the limit of the “our ball or nobody’s ball” philosophy
“That was probably the limit right there. I’ve seen in practice now—he can jump; he can really elevate. It’s hard to really throw it over his head, I’ll say that.”
On wearing a glove on his throwing hand
“Yeah, it felt OK today, I guess. I’ve been practicing in it the last two weeks, and I played in it the last two games, so it’s been (good). You know, for wearing it for the first time in my entire football career, I guess you could say it’s been OK the past two weeks.”
On if he feels ‘at home’ now playing in Denver
“I told you guys earlier on: I’ve always thought playing here in Denver is a tough place to play. I’ve played here as an opponent, and our fans have been outstanding all season long, and they were great today, and I truly feel like there is a 12th-man advantage here, and that’s what you want. You want to be a tough team at home, with great fans, who were great today, like they have been all season.”
WIDE RECEIVER ERIC DECKER
On the receiving corps’ effort against the Chiefs
“Guys made some big plays. Our goal is to get better every week. I thought today we made some strides, made some plays all across the board. We need to keep grinding, keep working. When the opportunity presents itself, we need to make a play.”
On setting a team record for touchdown catches in a two-year span
“That’s pretty humbling. It’s quite an honor, but again, my focus is just about the team and where we want to go. That’s just a bonus of winning 13 games this year. We start a new season, and we’re looking towards the next two weeks.”
On if he’ll enjoy the rest
“I think the bye week is nice. We’ve had a couple, and we came back strong. It’s not a matter of getting out of rhythm. We’ve just got to practice like we’re playing this week, make sure we heal up, and give it everything we’ve got.”
TIGHT END JACOB TAMME
On not celebrating
“No, I think it’s just like when we clinched the division. Just the same thing now with the 1-seed. Guys aren’t really focused on it. It’s not something that really matters at the end of the day. It’s great to have home field, now we just have to go out and find ways to win again. Like I said, it is important. It’s great to be able to play in front of our fans because they’re incredible. We just have to use that to our advantage and keep getting better and go get ready to play here in a couple weeks.”
On how satisfying the win is
“We did a good job of doing what we talked about. We need to keep doing that. If you can talk about getting better every week and actually go do it at the same time, that’s what really matters and that’s what we need to keep doing.”
On how beneficial the week off is
“It’s good to get the bye because we have guys that are focused enough where we’ll find ways to get better this week, but also get healed up a little bit – just little things that everybody has at this point in the season. It’ll be good for us.”
CORNERBACK CHAMP BAILEY
On earning the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs
“It’s exactly the way we wanted it. It’s good to have that first-round bye and the No. 1 seed.”
On the emotion at the end of the game
“I think it’s because we have a week off. If we didn’t have a week off, it would be right back to business. But we have a little time to breathe and reflect and really evaluate ourselves. Going forward, we have to make sure we just keep improving.”
On what he will do for the next two weeks
“Become football fans, really. Watch the games, evaluate ourselves, make sure we’re doing the right things this week in practice and just go from there.”
DEFENSIVE END ELVIS DUMERVIL
On the defense holding Kansas City to 3 points
“We came out all week, we knew what we had to do. It was a good team, they have a great running attack, so we knew we had to make sure we fine-tune our game right before the playoffs, and the guys responded.”
On the defense recording 52 sacks on the season
“Everybody played their part. You have to give credit to the punter, he’s been kicking really good, giving us a long field to work with. Offense keeping us off the field, everybody played their part. And obviously the guys on defense executing, believing in our staff, believing in what we’re trying to get accomplished. The crowd noise was amazing. It was a great day for the D.”
On winning comfortably after so many last-minute victories in 2011
“I think we got enough repetition of that last year. This year we’re just trying to start fast and become a dominant team. Every week we play we try to come out and execute that.”
Tags: Kansas City Chiefs, Quotables, Week 17