Head Coach John Fox
On injuries
“[G] Chris Kuper looks to have a broken lower leg, and [FB] Spencer Larsen sprained his knee.”
On making the playoffs
“We’re AFC West champs. It doesn’t matter how you do it. Once you get into the dance, they can’t kick you out, so what we do with it we will be determined here next weekend. We’re excited about it. The team is excited about it. Obviously we didn’t want to get into it without winning tonight, and I can answer questions on the game tonight. It was unfortunate. I thought it was a great effort. We just came up a little short.”
On confidence in the offense going into the playoffs
“We didn’t get enough done tonight. I think we need to score more points. I think our running attack has been effective. It was very effective again tonight, and our passing game is something we need to improve at. We’ve got all next week to do that.”
On the running backs
“I think our running backs have done a tremendous job all year – our offensive line, the whole blocking element whether it be our fullback, tight ends, our offensive line. There have been some pretty good teams around here in the past, and to break a franchise record rushing the football, it has a lot of people’s signatures on it.”
Quarterback Tim Tebow
On his feelings on winning the AFC West
“It’s, obviously, a little bittersweet right now. We would have loved to have won that game, and [had] a little bit more momentum going into the playoffs, but, I think it’s still a special thing what we accomplished, to come back to win the AFC West, and I still think that’s very special.”
“First and foremost, like every week, I just want to thank my lord and savior, Jesus Christ, and thank my teammates for their effort and my coaches for their game plan and their effort the whole day. I’m very proud because you just saw character for 60 minutes, once again, so that’s what I’m most proud of.”
On his confidence
“The three losses haven’t shaken my confidence. I’ve had to go through a lot of ups and downs in my sports career, and so I’m not going to let a few losses affect my confidence. I’m still out there playing the game that I love, so I still consider myself very blessed and honored to be playing quarterback for such a great organization.”
“There have probably been a few plays in there I should have tried to force, to make a play, you know, make something happen. But that’s just part of the game.”
On his and the team’s mindset heading into the playoff week
“I know our coaches will come up with a great game plan, like they always do, in this week, and we just have to go have a great week of practice and execute and come out and find some momentum early in the game and try to get things going.”
On assessing his own play
“Well, obviously when you lose it’s just not good enough, and for me it wasn’t good enough, and I just have to get better and learn from my great coaches and just come out next week and try to be a better quarterback, a better leader and be a better player.”
“As a quarterback you’ve just got to find a way to put your team in the end zone. We had a nice drive going, and I fumbled—and that was very disappointing—just trying to fight for extra yards. And we had other opportunities we just couldn’t take advantage of. We’ve just got to find a way.”
Cornerback Champ Bailey
On getting into the playoffs on a loss
“It’s good to get in regardless. We have to get better. We have to prepare better, we have to play better, period, if we want to win this game next weekend.”
On playing the Steelers
“They are in the tournament every year. They are a good football team. We definitely have to bring our ‘A’ game. We’ll look at tape and see what they’re doing well and what they’re doing bad and go from there and just prepare our butts off for this game.”
On the feeling of the team entering the playoffs
“It’s good and bad. It’s a little bittersweet because I know we’re better than what we’ve been showing. It’s just that we haven’t shown that. To go into the playoffs with losing the last three games, it sucks. But, we’re in it. We just have to keep preparing, stay positive and move on.”
On the defense’s effort vs. Kansas City
“Definitely – in the second half, anyways. I think in the second half we picked it up. We started doing our jobs better. We have a good defense, we just have to correct some things and make sure we’re perfect out there.”
Wide Receiver Eric Decker
On offensive struggles
“It’s tough, because you’ve got a defense that’s playing so great and you want to be able to score some points and take some pressure off them. I think we all understand that it’s a little frustrating. We want to score touchdowns, and we’re not doing that. We’ve got to find a way. We’ve got to get in the film room, practice and just get better.”
On having confidence given three straight losses
“It takes a couple plays. If you start the game out quick, get some points on the board, keep rolling, keep executing, I think that’s when you get your confidence back. When you can score those points, you understand, ‘OK, we can do this.’ We’ve just got to go out there and do it.”
On Head Coach John Fox’s message to the team
“We’re AFC West champs, congratulations. We get another opportunity next week, let’s make the most of it, and we’ve got to get better, period.”
On what it will take to turn things around
“Our defense is playing lights out. When they have seven points on the board, we’ve got to do a better job of executing and take some pressure off them. There’s no one answer, a miracle to get it done, we’ve just got to get better.”
Defensive end Elvis Dumervil
On getting into the playoffs
“We have to get better. When you get to the dance, you’re there. This is my first time, so I’m looking forward to the experience.”
On entering the playoffs coming off a loss
“It’s kind of bittersweet. The good thing is the crowd was excellent today for us as far as the defense and being loud. They gave us a lot of energy. We just have to do a better job in all three phases and try to get a collective team win.”
On getting better for the playoffs
“Why not? We’re a streaky team. We don’t want to be streaky, but we have the ability on offense, defense and special teams to get things done. We just never know. As far as the defense, we have to do our job and then hopefully the offense can get going and special teams can get going. If we can do those things and get clicking – we just have to make sure defensively-wise we’re ready.”
On whether the loss takes away from being AFC West champs
“No, because when you go back in the record book, it’ll say AFC West champs. We’re proud of that. We did some good things this year to close off the season. Obviously to get to where we want to get to, we have a lot of work to do.”
Running Back Willis McGahee
On the team’s rushing performance vs. Kansas City
“We didn’t do a good job. You can run the ball and get three or four hundred yards. But, we didn’t get a touchdown running the ball, we didn’t get touchdowns passing.”
On winning the division despite a loss to close out the season
“I don’t think it’s a hard way. It’s a lesson learned. You don’t want to come into the playoffs like that, because everybody’s going to be on their A-game. We’ve got to be on our A-game, so that’s the thing that we have to get in everybody’s head. You’ve got to be prepared. You’ve got to study film. You’ve got to do this; you’ve got to do that. Those guys, I think it’s really starting to get to them now.”
On winning the AFC West
“It goes both ways, you know? Like I said earlier, we had to wait for another team to win their game to let us know we were going to be AFC West champs. At the end of the day, we made it; we’re in it. It’s over with now, and we’ve got a big game coming up this weekend.”
