HEAD COACH JOHN FOX
On what he said at halftime
“There were no mystery words of wisdom at halftime. I think it was just guys knew how poorly we played in the first half and made a decision to play better in the second half, and they did.”
On if he’s been a part of a game like this
“Yeah, been a part of a few of them. But, I’m not sure, I’d have to look back. That was as good of a second half of football as I’ve been a part of.”
On going into the bye on a win
“We can only control the next one and this was the one that was real big for us because it was against a division opponent. You’re doing everything you can to win your division, so anytime you go against a division opponent, that’s key. They were a game ahead of us and we made up a little ground at this point.”
On the mindset at halftime
“I was talking with somebody going into the locker room at halftime and when you looked at it, they had about 150 yards of total offense and it was 24-0. We presented that to the football team. Defensively, we thought we could hang in there, we just couldn’t give them short fields and turn the ball over. On top of it, now it can be our turn to create turnovers as well. We stepped it up and I think we grew a little bit.”
On the Carter fumble recovery touchdown
“I think what really kind of started us off was to be able to go down the field to start the third quarter. I thought Peyton and the offense did an outstanding job and Mike McCoy and his offensive staff. Even in the first half when we were down 10 with the two early miscues in the kicking game, I still felt confident that we could level the playing field as we went. It was just a great effort on our guys’ part to keep fighting and we’ve had some practice at that.”
QUARTERBACK PEYTON MANNING
On whether the team’s previous comeback efforts helped tonight
“I think offensively, it certainly did. I think guys understand from the past few weeks that we can score quickly. We are able to come back, it’s just a matter of how far we can come back, how big of a hole are we in. Disappointing start – I thought we really had a good plan and were really determined to get off to a better start on the road in the division. We just had some things that we didn’t expect to go our way and just had a hard time overcoming them in the first half. I thought the second half, everybody was accountable and was professional. We got back to the plan. We had 30 minutes and thought it was important to get off to a good start with that first drive. I thought that was really key, putting that drive together and hitting DT on that touchdown. That sure set the tempo for the second half.”
