HEAD COACH JOHN FOX
On his thoughts on the game
“I’d say probably without looking at the tape yet, I thought we played 60 minutes. We started a little faster as a football team than we have to date. All in all, probably at this point without seeing the tape, I’d say, ‘Yes.’”
On CB Champ Bailey’s performance
“We’ve matched up Champ quite a bit thus far in this season and even last season for that matter. Champ wasn’t in on that last drive. We wanted to keep him out of there but all in all, he kind of gets that draw week in and week out.”
On holding a lead the whole game
On playing with a lead
“It’s a lot more fun than the alternative, that’s for sure. We really hadn’t had that much in the first half this season. We had a slight lead in the Oakland game here last home game, but other than that, we hadn’t seen that very much. It’s something we were going to try to do. The only thing, as a tribute to those guys in that locker room, is we’re trying to put wins together and this was our first time this season that we’ve got back-to-back wins.”
QB PEYTON MANNING
On the team’s performance
“I’m sure the coaches will find some mistakes on the film, but it’s what we’re looking for offensively, defensively, and special teams—kind of feeding off one another. I thought we did that. It was good energy from the sidelines. The defense sure did a great job against a really good offense. Our running game really came alive tonight. I thought that’s really where it sort of set the tone for us, offensively. The offensive line, tight ends—[TE] Joel [Dreessen] and [TE] Virgil [Green] and [TE] Jacob [Tamme] were outstanding. [RBs] Willis [McGahee] and Ronnie [Hillman] made some great runs. All of the deep passes were off play action. If you’re not running the ball well, there’s no reason for a defense to bite on play action. Because we were running it effectively we got the safeties and linebackers to bite and got DT (WR Demaryius Thomas) down the field a couple times.”
On stringing together a couple of wins
“That’s what [Head] Coach [John] Fox has been preaching to us, about trying to find some consistency. You sure would hope you’d be better coming off the bye week. I thought the bye week came at a good time. You should be more rested and guys’ legs should be better. I thought we played fast tonight; played with a lot of tempo and had a lot of plays. I think we possessed the ball for a decent amount of time. Defense seemed fast out there as well, so I think we used the bye week to our advantage.”
On the first touchdown drive of the game
“That was huge. We talked about getting off to a fast start. We had the offsetting penalties on the first series that prevented us from getting a first down and then had to punt but getting the ball to the 2-yard line is not ideal, but that was a good drive. Hit the deep play to DT (WR Demaryius Thomas), which certainly shortened the drive for us. I thought our red-zone efficiency has been pretty consistent most of the season. Against the Saints, that sure is a team you want to score touchdowns as opposed to field goals.”
RB WILLIS MCGAHEE
On starting fast and not letting the Saints back into the game
“You’ve got to give credit to the defense. They played against a great offense, and they did a great job of containing them. The defense really was the star of the day. Our job was just to feed off of those guys.”
On the offense scoring 34 points against the Saints defense
“Not only Coach [John] Fox, but us players, we put ourselves to the test and just focused on what we needed to do. Stop worrying about getting ahead in the game, and just take it one play at a time. We did a great job today.”
On the offense clicking throughout the night
“I knew we were going to have a good day. We just showed what our offense can do. We did it for 60 minutes, but we still had a couple errors.”
LB WESLEY WOODYARD
On his interception of New Orlean’s QB Drew Brees
“He is a great player. They ran that play earlier in the drive and I wasn’t there to make that play so I knew I had to come back and make something happen.”
On limiting the New Orleans offense
“They are a good offense and we made some mistakes but the thing is we played hard as team, as a defense and that is what it is all about – being there for your teammates.”
On what the bye week provided for the team
“We were able to get fresh. We were able to get back, sit down, and work on the mistakes that we made in the first six weeks.”
CB CHAMP BAILEY
On limiting the New Orleans offense
“It is hard to do that. I have to give a lot of credit to the coaches and my teammates because we have really been honing in this week trying to make sure we are doing our jobs and do it full tilt. We haven’t put together four quarters like we did today. We hate that he gets that last touchdown but that is one of the best in the game and is going to make plays. You just have to limit him and I think we did that well today.”
On the defense’s performance
“One thing that we have been lacking the past few weeks is coming out and starting fast. We didn’t do that tonight; we made sure we started fast and kept it rolling throughout the game.”
On putting together a complete defensive game
“You can’t have a lead like we had and give it up, that shows a lot of character in this locker room. When you give up big leads like that, it’s like you took your foot off the pedal. We can’t afford to do that around here.”
Tags: New Orleans Saints, Quotables, Week 8
did the win last night i had to go to bed