HEAD COACH MIKE SHANAHAN
On today’s game: “We talked about the keys to the game. Obviously the first one is you can’t turn the football over. Kansas City has an unbelievable home record when they win the turnover battle, and they won it by three today. Credit that to them. They ran the football exceptionally well. You’ve got to be able to stop the run and you’ve got to be able to run the football. Kansas City made a couple plays on special teams right there in the clutch; a big kickoff return to give them field position. Now we go back, obviously a tough loss. We had our opportunities during the game, credit to Kansas City for fighting like they did and finding a way to win. We’re obviously disappointed, but now we go back and get ready for the next game.”
On the status of WR Clifford Russell: “I really don’t know. I don’t know how he is. I know he was numb on his right side. Had feeling in his toes, and that was it. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”
QB JAY CUTLER
On if he was pressing today: “I don’t know. You know, you can’t have four turnovers offensively and score a lot of points. You know, one for four in the Red Zone, It’s hard to win ball games that way.”
On if Denver needed to run the football better today: “You know, we don’t know. We had the turnovers, we got in the hole a little bit, you know, we had to start throwing the ball around a little bit. So we should have played better in the first half.”
On what this loss means: “We’re 3-1. There’s a lot of football left. We’re still a good football team. We can’t go into a panic here. We’re going to go back and look at it and get ready for Tampa.
CB CHAMP BAILEY
On being prepared for the game: “You always think you are doing enough. I’ve been around this game long enough to know if we have a good week of practice or we don’t. Coach (Shanahan) came into the game saying stop the run, run the ball, no turnovers, and we’ll win the game. And, we didn’t do the things necessary to win the game.”
CB DRE’ BLY
On today’s game: “They were able to force more turnovers and we still had chance to win. RB Larry Johnson was able to make some runs. For the most part, we were able to keeps things in front of us in terms of our pass defense. But, we didn’t do a good job against the run this week. Larry Johnson is one the better backs in this league. I know he hasn’t gotten off to the good start he has in the past. He’s a big physical guy and he was able to make some plays. Like we say in this league, ‘On any given Sunday, a team can win.’ Just because they were winless doesn’t mean that they couldn’t win the football game. We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and evaluate this film. Hopefully we can get ready for Tampa next week.
On giving up 30 points or more for three consecutive weeks: “We don’t want to give up as many points as we’ve given up the last three weeks. But, Kansas City was getting good field position. We did good job of holding them to field goals a couple of times. To be good in this league, you have to try to hold teams to under 20 points. Offensively, we couldn’t score the amount of points we have the last three weeks.
C CASEY WIEGMANN
On the Chiefs: “They were 0-3 with their backs against the wall. They had to come out swinging and that’s what they did. The coaches did a good job of preparing them and they were ready to go.”
On playing against his old teammates: “It doesn’t matter. It was fun seeing them after the game. It is what it is. I am a Bronco now.”
HEAD COACH HERM EDWARDS
On today’s game: “That’s a good football team we played today. I think what we finally realized was we had to play with passion – just play, not worry about doing everything right or the score. I thought for the most part we did that.
“We went in with the mindset that they have a very good offense and were going to move the ball some, but hold them to field goals. If you just hold them to field goals you’re going to have a chance. They’ve been a team that has possessed the ball 10 times per game and they’ve scored five times out of those possessions – touchdowns and field goals. We just tried to reverse it and wanted to make them score two touchdowns and kick three field goals and you’ve got a shot. We held them to less than that.
“I thought our offense did a great job of running the ball and keeping their offense off the field. That’s another way you combat a high powered offense like that. Our guys played with a lot of emotion and we took the ball away. Turnovers always help you. That was a big key too. Those kids deserve a win; our fans deserve a win, too. We haven’t won a football game in quite some time. I’ve never been in a drought like this before. Now we’ve got to try and build on this win.”
On the difference in the running game today: “I thought we finished our blocks and we’re starting to learn how to run the ball. I thought we ran the ball last week and while we didn’t win the game, we did some things running in the second half and we built on that. That was our mindset. The only way you can run effectively is if you don’t get behind. We weren’t behind and we kept running it. That was our whole emphasis. It was a close game and we wanted to stick to it. We didn’t get down by two scores or anything like that. That was our plan.”
On the play of your linebackers: “They took the ball away; they ran to the ball. We were a little shorthanded at times and not having (DE Tamba) Hali at full speed hurt. Gun (Cunningham) did a good job. They ran to the ball. The fumble the receiver had, that was a lineman (DE Turk McBride) chasing and hitting the ball out.
“I thought our corners did a pretty good job on the receivers. Denver passed the ball some but (CB Brandon) Carr and (CB Brandon) Flowers – two rookie corners – did a good job. The one touchdown pass (by Denver) in the end zone was a big time catch and the young (corner) came back and intercepted one later.”
On Red Zone defense holding Denver to field goals: “That was the key. I’ve always felt that anytime you get in the end zone that it favors you because the field is cut down and there is not room in the back of the end zone. The throws have to be very accurate. Last year we were in the top three in the Red Zone. If you can hold people from scoring and make them kick field goals, that’s the key. For a team like this that was averaging almost 38 points a game, it was pretty good.”
CHIEFS RB LARRY JOHNSON
On today’s game: “Well, we had great balance. We didn’t make a whole lot of plays in the passing game, but we were able to run the football. We fed off our defense’s energy and their ability to create turnovers. We kept fighting, we had the running game going and the passing game picked up there in the second half. It was a great, complete win. Our kicker had a great day today, just all around. All three phases contributed to a much-need win around here.”
On getting the running game going: “I think so. Anytime you get (RB) Larry (Johnson) the ball like we did and the yards he had, we’re going to have a good chance to win. And then our defense’s ability to create turnovers, like I said. We didn’t have a whole lot of turnovers on offense, when you do that you give yourself a chance to win, even against a really good football team.”
On if missing two TD opportunities early might have hurt: “Maybe, we had a lot of energy today. Everybody played with a lot of energy. All the young guys on our defense flying around, our crowd was into it. It was just nice to get a lead early. Even though we only got field goals, we were still ahead early, so that’s the first time that’s happened in a while it seems like. We got that early lead, we got the momentum, we built on it and just put together a great win today.”
On playing with a lead: “I think it relaxes us a little bit. We hone in on our jobs and individually, you know, make a pass, make a run, make a block, do your job. You know, know your role and do your job and we did that today. We executed and we won the game.”
On what this win means in the big picture of things: “It’s one win. We’re 1-3. But it gives us some confidence. We can beat a team that’s 3-0 and playing the way the Broncos were coming in to this game. I think it’s something we’ve got to build on and certainly next week in Carolina.”
On if the offense was feeding off of the defense’s play: “Oh yeah, no question. That’s when you’re at your best when you’re both feeding off of each other; you know offense, defense, special teams. Making plays making hits. (WR Dwayne) Bowe making great catches, (TE) Tony (Gonzalez) (RB) Larry (Johnson) on and on. When playmakers make plays like that you get the momentum and football as we all know is such a game of momentum. We got that early and built on it wouldn’t let down and had a great team win.”
On his performance today: “I think I managed the game well, I didn’t force anything, I was pretty smart with the football for the most part. It was a pretty good game.”
On if this is the most satisfying win he’s had with the Chiefs: “I don’t know. I guess when you lose 12 in a row, this is definitely significant. It’s a nice win. It’s up there.”
LB DERRICK JOHNSON
On the game: “This was a must win game for this football team. We were getting kind of frazzled. We knew our backs were against the wall to win this game. This team came in 3-0 and played good football. The Denver Broncos played good football. They didn’t let us just have it. We just fought. We had fight.”
On his forced fumble play: “We’ve been working on it all week, the toss from the shotgun. He kind of seized up before the play and just anticipated and I shot the gap. It looked like I was back in college at Texas. I was just making a play. I was making a play for this football team stripping it out.”
On the interception? “I was really surprised I caught it. I was just reading my keys. Knowing that it was third-and-long, don’t jump the little routes and stay back with the Defense.”
On playing in the heat: “We were sweating and we were getting really tired out there. A couple of times I had to get to the sidelines a couple of times to gets some oxygen. We’re a well-disciplined football team and we worked our butts off to get this win. We’re just happy right now.”
On what this win means: “It’s something to build on. This is a division opponent too, so this is a big win for this football team. We cannot be satisfied with this football game, we need to build on it. We beat a really good football team.”
G BRIAN WATERS
On the game: “We are just excited that we played a decent game for four quarters on all sides of the ball and made some plays. Special teams really helped us out and settled some scores for us. We got some turnovers, the defense did a great job of getting some turnovers and getting us in the scoring areas. We did a good job finishing off some (drives) we still had some yards, had some points out there. We wish we would have got some of those and maybe we could have made this thing a little easier. A win is a win and we really needed it.”
On having a short field for the offense today: “The great thing about it is that we were able to gain some points and reward our defense by putting some points on the board. We would love to get touchdowns in those areas, but just being able to put points on the board for a team that hasn’t been scoring very many points. Anytime we can put some points on the board after a turnover is a great thing to really salute our defense for the great job well done.
On the offensive line and Larry Johnson’s performance: “I think everyone is starting to get on the same page. We’re getting better knowing exactly where we’re going to and the running backs are getting better at knowing where we’re going to so they can set up things for us a little bit. And really just finishing blocks and running hard. That’s really what we’ve got to do as a team.”
On today’s pass protection: “We felt like coming into this game that this was an area that we could get better. Our biggest area of improvement is going to be pass protection. We’re really upset because the sack we gave up was really a miscommunication between the quarterback and the receiver and we ended up cutting a guy thinking the ball was going to be out and he ended up getting sacked. So even with that we were able to overcome it. The great thing about is that we didn’t let it bother us and we just got back and went back to work. That’s where we got to be in this game, we have to have our head on strong and just focus on the next play.”
WR DWAYNE BOWE
On the game: “It was great. They (Denver) were behind all four quarters. The offense, we scored almost every time we got the ball and they gained confidence to do their job well and fill the gap and they know that the other guy was going to make the tackle.
On getting a victory: “I knew it was going to happen. It was just a matter of time. It was a big game like this where we needed to show that we can go out and play for four quarters and we did. … It’s nice getting the pressure off of the coaches and staff. We are the one’s that have to go out and do our jobs and make the plays and we showed it.”
On Damon Huard’s performance: “He played like a veteran is supposed to play. He made the throws. He made the checkdowns. Now he has confidence going into next week.”
On wanting to go for it on fourth down during the second drive of the day: “Once you do one thing and it works, and another thing and it works, that builds confidence. That’s what wins games when the whole offensive line and the quarterback is confident. When the quarterback is confident, the receivers are confident. I was just hoping (to go for it), but the coaches made a great decision and kicked the field goal and that kept us in the game.”
On Larry Johnson’s 65-yard run: “It opened up things tremendously, the corners stopped playing back and that just left him with tremendous holes to read. He made some great runs and I made some blocks for him and he finished it off.”
