Head coach Gary Kubiak addressed the media Monday afternoon after the team's 40-7 loss to New England during his weekly press conference.
Head Coach Gary Kubiak
(on injuries today)"We just got a bunch of nicks and bruises. The biggest thing for us right now will be making a decision on (WR Jerome) Mathis' status this week. that could come later in the week whether or not he's going to be able to make it back and play in one of these last two games. (FS) C.C. Brown should be back. Other than that we just got a bunch of nicks and those types of things coming out of the game."
(on frustration with WR Jerome Mathis' injuries)"I really haven't been around him much as a football player, from a standpoint of seeing him very much. We got him back and he did some good things that first week, then we had the issue here with the hamstring. It's frustrating because I would have liked to have seen him on the field as a receiver as well as a kick returner, but if he can't go he can't go so we'll evaluate that here at the end of the week probably."
(on what he saw QB David Carr do yesterday and on film today)"He made some mistakes with the ball. You turn the ball over four times, one of them was unavoidable and the way I looked at it as a quarterback when you get the ball tipped the other three (interceptions) I really just make a mistakes with the football and the throwing game. Those decisions have to be made better; the execution needs to be better. But I'll say this as I said after the game, there's plenty of game to go around, there's plenty of mistakes that everybody has to…as the old saying goes, 'You point a finger and there's three pointing right back at you.' There's plenty of mistakes to go around, the kid got knocked down a couple of times because we busted protection schemes, we busted in a screen scheme, which we worked on all week so we've got to look at it as a group. The quarterback gets a lot of credit, gets a lot of blame and that's the way the business is but as a football team the guys' got to look in the mirror and know that they're doing their part too because we had plenty of mistakes in a lot of areas."
(on Carr trying to do too much in one play) "He can't do that. You've got to play one play at a time. I think it does lead to mistakes, some mistakes for David, some mistakes in his footwork and some mistakes in some of the things that are going on. That has been an ongoing process of me with him of trying to come out of games where his footwork is consistent, his actions on play calls are consistent, let's get consistency there throughout a football game and then let's evaluate how you play in a football game, but you can't let, when you're a quarterback and your drops get skewed, you go the wrong way on something (and) those are mistakes you can't have. You just absolutely can't have because the game's hard enough to play when you're doing everything right and I think sometimes when we get in trouble or something maybe he is trying to do too much and it leads to some more mistakes. But it's an ongoing battle and it's a battle that we'll get through again today."
(on evaluating team after yesterday)"I'm not going to put all the stock in one football game. We've got to go back and evaluate a lot of football games this year, a lot of plays, a lot of situations and that's with every player, not just David. Then we've got to evaluate those situations accordingly. It hurts today, it hurts because you're looking at that game and our football team in one phase of the game played extremely well in my opinion and in two phases of the game we played very, very poorly. We got beat up pretty good, so you're trying to encourage one group that's doing some good things, you're trying to find out why the other two groups didn't hold up their end of the bargain. Today we deal with yesterday's game."
(on going away from rollouts) "A lot of people aren't letting us do that, to be honest with you. They're keeping us between the tackles, they're not letting him move around very much playing us in what we call wide-nine techniques or three-four defense so they'll have a sam or will up the field. The edges, they know that's something he'd like to do, move around and get out of the pocket and if a team studies you and they think they want to keep you in there, they keep you in there. For the most part people have kind of played us that way, yesterday was really no different and we got out of there one time late in the game, but usually if that's a strength for your quarterback people may try to keep him in. Now if you're running the ball very effectively they shouldn't be able to do both, you should be able to somehow get out more or run the ball well. That's something else to continue to work on."
(on what he's hoping to see from Carr these last two games) "As I tell you all the time I just want to see him continue to compete, I want to see him improve. I want to see him go through games where when the call is what it is with his footwork or whatever that his feet are correct; then we go from there with the reads and stuff. When you play the quarterback position, you've got to be the one that's automatic from a mental standpoint with your team and your team's got to see you be automatic and your team can be better from that phase and we've got to help him get better in that phase. I just want to see him get better and play better and there are a lot of eyes on all of us, not just David. We've got a great team coming in here this week and we've got two home games and a lot of disappointment over the last couple of weeks. And how do you respond? How do you play? That's what we need to find out."
(on RB Ron Dayne) "He's really been very good. Somebody told me this is the best three-week stretch he's had since he's been in the National Football League. I told you that's as healthy as he's been. Really those three weeks could have been better; we could have run the ball better yesterday. I wanted to compete and see how we did in those situations and he's been very good. In my opinion, I'm hard on Ronnie (Dayne), I think he could even be better. I think he could have run even better yesterday. I feel like maybe Ronnie's career is taking off again and that'd be a dang good thing for our football team because if he can stay healthy and play like that then we get him some help back there too from that standpoint I think he'll only get better because he's very tough to tackle, he's a big kid."
(on what he hopes Carr will accomplish in situations such as yesterday) "He's in the game because I think he gives us the best chance to win. As long as I feel that way he's going to be in the football game. That was a difficult situation when a kid goes through that it'd be easy to throw the next guy and finish the game and move on to the next one. I don't think that's where we're at, I think the kid needs to play through those times, I think he needs to battle through those times, his teammates need to see him battle through those times. Those are hard funks, sort to speak, to come out of when you're a player. But I think that's something he's got a find a way to do and if we would have stayed out there the whole day he was going to be in there because I think he's the best guy to be in there for our football team right now."
(on the defense's frustration with outcome) "He (CB Dunta Robinson)'s frustrated. When something good is going on in your side of the ball and there's a struggle somewhere else, that's a nature of the business. I have a lot of respect for him because he's playing good football. He's frustrated and we're all frustrated, but we're a team. My message to him and to our players is, 'Just do more. Do your job and do it better. You worry about your job.' Like I said I think a lot of Dunta, I love the way he plays the game. I know there's some frustration coming out right there, which there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that in football. We know the problems we've got that we've got to fix and hopefully our defense just continues to play better and better. I want them to be a great defense and to be a great defense you've can't sit there and look for reasons why something else is going on with your team; you just keep making yourself better. I'm sure he'll do that and our team will do that."
(on whether he thinks Carr might be better with a fresh start)"I don't want to go there. We have two games left. We're going to play these games with everything we've got. I expect him to play well. As I said before, we'll all be evaluated when the season's over."
(on whether he sees positive growth on offense despite the struggles)"You definitely can, and I think over the last three weeks, let me put it to you this way, we have struggled on the offensive side of the ball. We have struggled to protect, and we have struggled with some confidence. If you go back about four or five weeks ago we were probably playing as good as we were playing at some point in there. And I don't have the games right in front of me, but I look at Buffalo and some of the ways we moved the ball in some of those game. But we have struggled the last three weeks and offense is a lot confidence. If things are going good it tends to blossom, and then if things start going rough its hard to stop. And right now we're trying to protect the quarterback better; we're trying to do our job better. We are running the ball a little bit better. But we're definitely struggling, and we've got to come out of it somehow, some way. And someone has to lead us out of it, and that's what I'm expecting (QB) David (Carr) to do. But can good things come out of it? Yeah, yeah, they can."
(on whether he thinks Carr lack confidence and has regressed)"Well, I think confidence is the key word there. I don't think you regress in one game. I don't see that. I think I can go up there right now and put together one heck of a film on the plays that he has made this year and the things that he has done. Then we can probably put together one that has not been as good. But we can probably do that on a lot of players. And that's not just him. If he battles and comes back these last two weeks and plays extremely well, you know, it'll make up for what happened yesterday. I'm looking toward the positive; I want him to look that way. And I want to see him finish well this year these last two weeks."
(on why TE Owen Daniels has been less involved as a receiver)"He has been in on some of it. You know, he's been involved. He hasn't caught a lot of balls, you're right, but he has been involved in some of the things we're doing. He does do a good job in protection when we are max protecting and we have done some max protection to try and help our quarterback a little bit and protect him a little better. But I would agree with you, I would love to get (TE) Owen (Daniels) the ball. I think he's a threat. He is a little nicked up right now with his shoulder. That is not an excuse, but he's been battling through it."
(on whether opponents have been covering Daniels more)"You know, we've kind of been played the same way all year, honestly. People try not to give up big plays; tried to make sure that Andre does get a chance to make a big play and go from there. People have kind of approached us the same way and making us go somewhere else with the ball and do some different things. We have kind of seen the same type of stuff week-in and week-out."
(on WR Andre Johnson and his potential to go to the Pro Bowl)"That's right the Pro Bowl comes out tomorrow. Well, I'm a little disappointed from the standpoint that the kid could have put numbers up this year that could have never be touched. I think there was a time were just looking at it I thought he'd catch 120 to 125 ball this year, which is just off the charts. I mean he's still got a chance to catch 100-plus, which, that's something special. I really can't begin to talk about how well he's played because you see the numbers and just to tell you he's getting those numbers when everybody in the business is trying to take him away from us. It's a credit to him. We move him all over the place to try and get him the ball. He's been very sharp; he hasn't missed a day of practice. I've challenged him. I think he can be an even better player, and I think he will. He's very deserving of a trip to Hawaii with the way he's played this year with everybody really knowing that the ball's trying to go to him a lot."
(on whether RB Chris Taylor will be involved on offense more this week)"Yeah, he's going to get involved here at some point. I have been saying that for a couple weeks, but there is a good chance he could this week, yeah. We're running out of points (when that could happen)."
(on the offense not playing to the level of his expectations)"Well, yeah, it's frustrating. You know, you want to fix things real, real fast. That's just the nature of this business. You want to turn the corner; you want good thing to happen real quick. It's not that easy. I think there have been moments this year were I felt like we're making a lot of progress and there have been moments that just seem like the wheels come off. It is frustrating. It's difficult; you know it's hard. But the one thing that doesn't change is my desire for us to get it right. The only way we're going to do that is if we just keep battling and keep plugging. There are some very good things that have happened. They're not as glaring right now when you're going through stuff like we went through yesterday. But there is some very good stuff going on with some players on this football team. We just have to keep adding to those positives."
(on what he expected from the offense)"Well my expectations never change. I expect us to find a way to move the football, to be creative, to be challenging to our players. I think we may have got away from some of that creativity because of some of the mistakes we have made. That is strictly coaching; that is us, if we have done that. When I look at it I feel that I expected us to move the ball a lot better than we moved it this year. I think that we will. I have no doubt about that. I believe in our scheme, it's moved the football for a long, long time (and) I'm not going vary from it. I'm just going to continue to fight and get better at it, and us get better as a group. And if we do that, then I think we will move the ball a lot better."
(on LB DeMeco Ryans coming off the field for the defense for this first time this season)"That was the only reason we left is because we made him. You know he was banged up and he was hobbling around. (Defensive coordinator) Richard (Smith) called down to me to tell him to come off the field. We made him come off. We sent in a guy for him; he would not leave. He sent him back to the sidelines. And then we made him come off."
(on whether offensive coordinator Troy Calhoun is interviewing at Air Force)"No, he's actually here. He's actually visiting with them as we speak. And I don't t know that much about it other than the fact that they came down here to visit with him. Troy went to school there. He's very well-though of there. It's a very prestigious job and I understand that they are very, very interested in him. If it's important to Troy and his family, then it is important to me and I will do everything I can to help him out."
(on how Coach Calhoun would be as a college head coach)"Troy is a very smart young man. He's great with people. He's a very demanding football coach, and as good of a coach as he is he's an even better person. I know that is why there are here today, because he very well-though of there and I know (former Air Force coach) Fisher DeBerry thinks the world of him. You work very hard in this business as a coach, and if you have guys that have opportunities like that, you need to support them and help them out. Like I said, if it's important to Troy, which I think it is being from there, then I will do all I can to help him."
