dirk digler
10-31-2004, 04:47 PM
Chiefs-Colts Postgame Quotes
Oct 31, 2004, 4:41:48 PM
Head Coach Dick Vermeil
On the game: “The Colts, as you know, pushed us all the way into the final minutes of the football game. There are some things we’ll see that we could have done better and maybe more of, and defensively what can you say about Peyton Manning? What a man. Wow, he’s something. But what about Trent Green? That’s his third highest quarterback efficiency rating in his career.
“We felt all week long we could line up and beat the Indianapolis Colts. They were hurting a little bit, we felt, and we wanted to try and take advantage of it. I don’t know if we did as well as we would have liked to, but when you get 590 yards of offense I don’t know what you left out. I’ve never been involved in 590 yards of offense. I don’t add that high.
“We had to win that football game. It puts us at 3-4 and we go on the road for two weeks. I thought at one time there was no doubt we were going to win the football game and then all of a sudden they come back flying. We didn’t get some things done in the third quarter. It’s hard to complain as a head coach when you reach 590 yards and 45 points. That’s two pretty good weeks of work from an offensive line and running back and tight end. Priest Holmes today became the all-time leading offensive leader in Kansas City Chiefs history – in history, mind you. Tony Gonzalez caught his 500th pass today. We had some people step up and make some plays today. They wanted it badly.”
On the difference between last season’s playoff game and today: “Johnny Morton made some spectacular catches. Really going into the game we thought the wide receivers would be the dominating receivers in terms of number of catches. The two starters caught 10. They were doing a lot of stunting and dogging inside on our running game in the second half, so when the play-action came out of it the people were down inside stopping the run. That let us come up with some plays.”
On the total offensive output in the last two games: “I’d like to believe it’s who we are. Are we going to do it every week? No. I’ve never been involved in two weeks like that back-to-back. Maybe in ‘99, but this is a different style of offense really than our [Rams] Super Bowl offense. We ran the ball today 42 times and had 27 pass completions. We had 69 opportunities to move the football.”
On where the offensive momentum started: “When you work real hard over long periods of time good things manifest. We spend half an hour every day on fundamentals which is some times monotonous. We’re humming pretty good right now. I know this: we can still do a better job with the wide receivers involved. I know we’re better than that on defense, but that guy [Colts QB Peyton Manning] can make a pretty good defense look a little bit shaky. But whenever you get a team totally one-dimensional – 33 yards rushing and 400 and some passing – you normally should win the football game.”
On a defensive play winning the game: “They were trying to score fast so they could on-side kick and get the ball back and try to win it. I figured if they scored they’d go for two and then a field goal would win. So everybody had that information. They had the capabilities, as we know, of scoring quickly. We were in a deep zone and Greg Wesley picked it off. I thought he was going to score with it. We needed a takeaway to balance it up because we went down there and when Priest reached out to make the first down he got the ball knocked out. If not, the score may have been a little bit higher. That really hurts you against those guys because you know they’re going to come back.”
On the Colts fake punt early in the game: “Gutsy, real gutsy.”
QB Trent Green
On defeating the Colts: “It was a pretty special win. If you look at how our defense played in the first half, they put us in a position to get the big lead that we had. In the second half, when they started making a little comeback, the offense stepped up and we were able to put together two big drives to keep that lead big enough that they couldn’t overcome it.”
On Kennison’s third-down reception: “I was trying to look for my underneath guys, because all we needed was six yards for the first down. I didn’t want to try pushing the ball up the field and take a risky throw there. When I looked at the underneath guys I saw that they jumped those guys. So, they jumped the underneath ones, so you know there’s someone sneaking behind them. Eddie [Kennison] did a great job working with me. He saw me sliding in the pocket and just kept working with me and that turned out real big for us.”
On Tony Gonzalez’s touchdown reception: “That’s something we’ve been working on for about three weeks. It was a very timely call on Al’s [Saunders] part. The thing that helped us before the snap was that I was able to get them offsides. Once you get a team offsides you have a little bit of freedom to make a riskier throw. Tony’s one of those guys where you put it up high and he’s going to go get it. Once again, he got that corner beat and I knew we had them offsides. I was just going to fire it up there and he went up and got it. It was like he climbed a ladder to go up and get it. He had a great game and I’m happy for him getting his 500th catch, not only [for him] but because we got the win.”
TE Tony Gonzalez
On his 500th career reception: “I’m very proud. I didn’t even know I had it in sight until earlier today. I’ve got to give credit to Trent [Green] for putting that ball right on the money today. The pass protection by the offensive line was just great. It was a great game for us today.”
On matching the Colts score-for-score: “If you look at last year’s game, yeah. I was so nervous just sitting back there. We had that big lead and you can’t count these guys out. Anytime Peyton Manning’s back there with the great wide receivers that he has on that offense, and the pass protection they were getting, you just get anxious because you know what they are capable of doing. It’s a great win for us and the defense showed up and played really well today.”
WR Eddie Kennison
On the key to this season’s turnaround: “The character. The guys in this locker room have unbelievable character. As you can see, just because we started the way we did, we had opportunities to go out and win and opportunities to go out and play well.”
On the expectations in this game: “You never know what to expect with Peyton [Manning] and the Colts’ offense. We had the mindset that we had to go out and score every time. Because you just never know what Peyton has. The guy is a heck of a quarterback. He stepped up big time for them today. We had to play a little bit harder and a little bit smarter today.”
S Jerome Woods
On the game: “In the second half, they came out after having made some key adjustments. We were doing basically the same thing we were doing in the first half and we noticed they made some adjustments. We got together on the sidelines and talked about it with the defensive staff and players. We just had to go out and fight. I’m just glad we stepped up and made a big play at the end.”
On defeating Peyton Manning and the Colts: “It feels good. We’re gaining momentum. The key for us, after the loss in Jacksonville, is winning these last two at home. We knew we were in for a tough battle. None of the guys here have given up. We know that we are better than our record indicates. It just shows that there’s a lot of pride in this locker room.”
S Greg Wesley
On his interception: “We were just in a cover-two and playing over the top. But I read the quarterback and I saw that he was throwing to the post. So I just kind of cheated on it and it came right to me. When I saw how open I was, I said ‘What the heck, I might as well try and return it back to the house.’”
Oct 31, 2004, 4:41:48 PM
Head Coach Dick Vermeil
On the game: “The Colts, as you know, pushed us all the way into the final minutes of the football game. There are some things we’ll see that we could have done better and maybe more of, and defensively what can you say about Peyton Manning? What a man. Wow, he’s something. But what about Trent Green? That’s his third highest quarterback efficiency rating in his career.
“We felt all week long we could line up and beat the Indianapolis Colts. They were hurting a little bit, we felt, and we wanted to try and take advantage of it. I don’t know if we did as well as we would have liked to, but when you get 590 yards of offense I don’t know what you left out. I’ve never been involved in 590 yards of offense. I don’t add that high.
“We had to win that football game. It puts us at 3-4 and we go on the road for two weeks. I thought at one time there was no doubt we were going to win the football game and then all of a sudden they come back flying. We didn’t get some things done in the third quarter. It’s hard to complain as a head coach when you reach 590 yards and 45 points. That’s two pretty good weeks of work from an offensive line and running back and tight end. Priest Holmes today became the all-time leading offensive leader in Kansas City Chiefs history – in history, mind you. Tony Gonzalez caught his 500th pass today. We had some people step up and make some plays today. They wanted it badly.”
On the difference between last season’s playoff game and today: “Johnny Morton made some spectacular catches. Really going into the game we thought the wide receivers would be the dominating receivers in terms of number of catches. The two starters caught 10. They were doing a lot of stunting and dogging inside on our running game in the second half, so when the play-action came out of it the people were down inside stopping the run. That let us come up with some plays.”
On the total offensive output in the last two games: “I’d like to believe it’s who we are. Are we going to do it every week? No. I’ve never been involved in two weeks like that back-to-back. Maybe in ‘99, but this is a different style of offense really than our [Rams] Super Bowl offense. We ran the ball today 42 times and had 27 pass completions. We had 69 opportunities to move the football.”
On where the offensive momentum started: “When you work real hard over long periods of time good things manifest. We spend half an hour every day on fundamentals which is some times monotonous. We’re humming pretty good right now. I know this: we can still do a better job with the wide receivers involved. I know we’re better than that on defense, but that guy [Colts QB Peyton Manning] can make a pretty good defense look a little bit shaky. But whenever you get a team totally one-dimensional – 33 yards rushing and 400 and some passing – you normally should win the football game.”
On a defensive play winning the game: “They were trying to score fast so they could on-side kick and get the ball back and try to win it. I figured if they scored they’d go for two and then a field goal would win. So everybody had that information. They had the capabilities, as we know, of scoring quickly. We were in a deep zone and Greg Wesley picked it off. I thought he was going to score with it. We needed a takeaway to balance it up because we went down there and when Priest reached out to make the first down he got the ball knocked out. If not, the score may have been a little bit higher. That really hurts you against those guys because you know they’re going to come back.”
On the Colts fake punt early in the game: “Gutsy, real gutsy.”
QB Trent Green
On defeating the Colts: “It was a pretty special win. If you look at how our defense played in the first half, they put us in a position to get the big lead that we had. In the second half, when they started making a little comeback, the offense stepped up and we were able to put together two big drives to keep that lead big enough that they couldn’t overcome it.”
On Kennison’s third-down reception: “I was trying to look for my underneath guys, because all we needed was six yards for the first down. I didn’t want to try pushing the ball up the field and take a risky throw there. When I looked at the underneath guys I saw that they jumped those guys. So, they jumped the underneath ones, so you know there’s someone sneaking behind them. Eddie [Kennison] did a great job working with me. He saw me sliding in the pocket and just kept working with me and that turned out real big for us.”
On Tony Gonzalez’s touchdown reception: “That’s something we’ve been working on for about three weeks. It was a very timely call on Al’s [Saunders] part. The thing that helped us before the snap was that I was able to get them offsides. Once you get a team offsides you have a little bit of freedom to make a riskier throw. Tony’s one of those guys where you put it up high and he’s going to go get it. Once again, he got that corner beat and I knew we had them offsides. I was just going to fire it up there and he went up and got it. It was like he climbed a ladder to go up and get it. He had a great game and I’m happy for him getting his 500th catch, not only [for him] but because we got the win.”
TE Tony Gonzalez
On his 500th career reception: “I’m very proud. I didn’t even know I had it in sight until earlier today. I’ve got to give credit to Trent [Green] for putting that ball right on the money today. The pass protection by the offensive line was just great. It was a great game for us today.”
On matching the Colts score-for-score: “If you look at last year’s game, yeah. I was so nervous just sitting back there. We had that big lead and you can’t count these guys out. Anytime Peyton Manning’s back there with the great wide receivers that he has on that offense, and the pass protection they were getting, you just get anxious because you know what they are capable of doing. It’s a great win for us and the defense showed up and played really well today.”
WR Eddie Kennison
On the key to this season’s turnaround: “The character. The guys in this locker room have unbelievable character. As you can see, just because we started the way we did, we had opportunities to go out and win and opportunities to go out and play well.”
On the expectations in this game: “You never know what to expect with Peyton [Manning] and the Colts’ offense. We had the mindset that we had to go out and score every time. Because you just never know what Peyton has. The guy is a heck of a quarterback. He stepped up big time for them today. We had to play a little bit harder and a little bit smarter today.”
S Jerome Woods
On the game: “In the second half, they came out after having made some key adjustments. We were doing basically the same thing we were doing in the first half and we noticed they made some adjustments. We got together on the sidelines and talked about it with the defensive staff and players. We just had to go out and fight. I’m just glad we stepped up and made a big play at the end.”
On defeating Peyton Manning and the Colts: “It feels good. We’re gaining momentum. The key for us, after the loss in Jacksonville, is winning these last two at home. We knew we were in for a tough battle. None of the guys here have given up. We know that we are better than our record indicates. It just shows that there’s a lot of pride in this locker room.”
S Greg Wesley
On his interception: “We were just in a cover-two and playing over the top. But I read the quarterback and I saw that he was throwing to the post. So I just kind of cheated on it and it came right to me. When I saw how open I was, I said ‘What the heck, I might as well try and return it back to the house.’”