Head Coach John Fox
On injuries
“Update on the injuries: [CB] Tracy Porter, knee. [WR Matthew] Willis, hamstring. [SLB] Nate Irving, concussion. [RB] Willis McGahee, rib. [TE] Jacob Tamme, groin. He did come back to the game.”
On being one third-down stop away from getting the ball back for the second week in a row
“It was the second week in a row we lost by six points. It’s the second week in a row we started very slowly – different side of the ball this time.”
On it being frustrating that the Broncos still had a chance to win
“It’s just frustrating losing. I think you work too hard. You put too much into these games. Those players in that locker room, all the staff, coaches… We just have to put 60 minutes together and I don’t know that we… The closest we got was in our opener (vs. Pittsburgh). Those are two good football teams. That was a very good football game today as witnessed by their record. You can’t dig yourself that deep in the hole in the case of the last two games.”
Quarterback Peyton Manning
On his comfort level“Well, I think you try to learn something from each game. You know, it is hard to look past a loss, but you certainly study yourself during the week. And at least we get back to a little bit of a normal routine, from a week’s standpoint—[we’ll] be able to study this tape and study what it is we are doing wrong and study anything we are doing well and try to build off that. I think it is still probably a process. But it is hard to think about anything really besides losing two games in a row in a tough fashion.”
On what went wrong in the first half
“Yeah, it is hard to pinpoint. We will get a good luck at the film and see what it is. [I] certainly give Houston credit, but [that’s] not a team you want to get in to a lot of third-and-longs. I don’t know how many we had, but we weren’t very good early on third downs. [We were] probably a little bit better late there in the fourth quarter—got to be able to convert from third downs. A lot of time third-down conversions—if you can follow it—you can kind of convert it on actually first or second downs, if you do a better job staying at third-and-manageable. It seems like we had a few more third-and-longs today, and that is kind of playing into Houston’s hands.”
On the late-game firepower the last two weeks
“Yeah, certainly we are 1-2, and that is what you look at. Like I said: when you study the tape, one of the first things you study is what you are doing wrong. Why are we having to come back? We are not doing our jobs well enough as a team to get ourselves in a hole against two good football teams two weeks in a row. I certainly appreciate the guys competing, the guys fighting, and we’ve been knocking on the door there at the end. Like I said: it would be nice to get off to a better start. If you don’t, though—sometimes it happens—you still can find a way to win. Hopefully with that kind of effort … we can win a game with that kind of effort sometime later on in the season.”
Cornerback Champ Bailey
On coming up short for the second straight game
“We’ve got to start faster. I felt like the first five minutes, we were good. Then all of a sudden, they throw two balls over our head. We can’t live with that.”
On how Houston was able to convert big plays
“I honestly don’t know, exactly. It’s one of those things as a corner you just don’t want to do, is give up a deep play. They could throw 100 comebacks and curls, but don’t give up the deep one. It’s tough out there. It is what it is. We’ve got to learn from it and try to get better.”
On a key catch by WR Andre Johnson that extended a late Houston drive
“I was right there. It’s just two good players making plays. His quarterback put it right where I couldn’t get it, so I’ve got to give him a lot of credit. Once I started following [Johnson] around, he didn’t have a catch in crunch time. He made it happen. I’ve got to give him a lot of credit for that.”
Tight end Joel Dreessen
On the reason for the Broncos’ slow starts offensively
“I don’t know. We’re just struggling to find a little bit of a rhythm right now. I thought we really were going to find, some confidence, especially when we got the safety and got the ball back and drove down there. We went up 5-0, but we’ve got to find ways to do better than that.”
On the adjustments the offense made in the fourth quarter
“It’s tough to say without looking at the film, but all I can do is control what I can control, and I’ve got to get better. I’ve got to get better and getting open. I’ve got to get better at blocking so we can start faster. Everyone in this locker room just has to be concerned with how they can find a way to get better personally.”
Linebacker Wesley Woodyard
On if he thought he might score on his interception return
“I did. I joked the whole week with the guys like, ‘Man, if I ever get the ball, I wasn’t going to get touched.’ I saw the end zone so it felt like it was 200 yards away.”
On getting down early in the game
“We started off slow and can’t do that, especially with a good team. They came out and ran the ball really well the first half. In order to be a really good team in the NFL and a team that is solid week in and week out, we have to start fast.”
On the loss
“A loss is always frustrating, especially when we were right there in it at the end. We know we should have won that game so we have to continue to play fast, and come out against Oakland because they are going to be ready. They don’t care how we start; they are going to be ready to play.”
Wide receiver Brandon Stokely
On his advice to the younger WR’s
“You just keep on plugging away, keep on working hard. It is the third week of the season and nothing is written in stone yet. We still have the rest of the season in front of us so learn from this, put it behind us, and get to work next week.”
On the second half
“You feel like you have some momentum for the first time. The defense stepped up and we were able to get some things going but it was too late.”
On the Broncos fourth-quarter charge
“It doesn’t count. In the end, it is a loss. You play to win and we haven’t done that in the last two weeks so it is disappointing.”
