Head coach Gary Kubiak liked the way his team battled back to beat the Dolphins 29-28, but now he's ready to turn his focus to the Detroit Lions.
Head coach Gary Kubiak
(on after having a day to soak up the win) "It feels a lot better than how we felt the last few weeks. A lot of good things happened during the game and a very, very tough situation but had some players step up and make some great, great plays. That's what this league is all about when you step up and make couple of those plays and everybody feels a lot better. But it's a tough league, and yesterday we had some guys really step up in some tough situations."
(on if anyone was hurt in the game) "No, we're pretty good. We'll still be monitoring (S Dominique) Barber from day to day. I was just looking at that before I came in. It looks like we'll get (TE Mark) Bruener back possibly this week and (RB) Chris Taylor is still kind of day to day. So, really coming out of the game, I think we're pretty good."
{QUOTE}(on giving a game ball to G Chester Pitts) "I had every intention of giving him (G Chester Pitts) one last week. Starting 100 straight games for this organization, that's a heck of a feat. Chester's been out there from the get go and plays extremely hard. (He's) played very, very well for us. I was hoping I could have given him one last week had we gotten that done. We didn't but made him a captain. He was our sixth captain going into the game and just been playing very, very well. So, well deserving, unfortunate a week late, but (he's) very, very deserving."
(on T Duane Brown doing well against DE Dwight Freeney and LB Joey Porter giving him problems from the get go) "He's (T Duane Brown) catching some different players. (DE Dwight)Freeney's a spinning top so to speak, not as big a player. (LB Joey) Porter's a real technician. (He's) been doing it a long time. He showed Duane a lot of different looks as far as how he wanted to rush the passer and what he wanted to do. He's (Brown) seen a lot of good players and different type of players. I thought he held up pretty good. He gets a little tired at times – naturally, when you're playing a bunch of plays and some of his sets would get a little sloppy. It's just reassuring to him that he has to be automatic all the time in everything that he's doing. He could play better than he played yesterday. For the most part, he's doing a really good job. He just needs to continue to battle because it's never going to be easy when you're over there. (You're) usually playing against the best rusher when you're over there."
(on how he assesses S Brandon Harrison and if the two long touchdowns were his responsibility) "Yeah, he (S Brandon Harrison) got caught a couple. I know one for sure, the double pass so to speak, it was a reverse pass. He's a young player. I would say that he got caught yesterday with some lack of communication on the back end. He's a young guy and he's really relying a lot on (S) Will (Demps) or whoever is back there with him. We had a couple of situations where we didn't communicate very well on a couple of calls and a couple of checks in the game. He kind of became the culprit from that standpoint. We need to do a better job at helping him. But at the same time, he needs to grow up very quickly. He probably played better his first time out. He'd be the first one to tell you that, but he's also doing some very good things too. His consistency is very important to the growth of our defense. I've got a lot of confidence in him. He's working very hard at it, and I think he'll continue to get better."
(on the way the defensive line played) "I think I've said this for a couple of weeks, I like the combination that we're finding. We'll go on three weeks now with this same eight. I think we've kind of found each guy's role. I think (DT Tim) Bulman has added to the process. (He's) becoming a much better player, was very effective yesterday. I thought (DE) Anthony Weaver played as good as he's played this year yesterday. (DE) Earl (Cochran) continues to get healthy and play better. So I think just a group, I think (defensive line coach) Jethro (Franklin) and (senior defensive coach) Frank (Bush) have done a good job of kind of finding a niche for all eight of them and how he's rotating them and keeping (DT) Amobi (Okoye) fresh. I think they're playing better from that standpoint."
(on what this will mean for QB Matt Schaub in the long run) "Hopefully, it means a great deal. It's tough playing quarterback in this league. You're going to go through tough times and how you battle through those tough times really probably will have a lot to do with whether or not you do it a long, long time at the starting level. He went through a tough time yesterday. He starts the game - he was not very clean. He made some mistakes with the ball. It's disappointing from all of our standpoints. But at the same time, he kept plugging. When the team needed him to make the biggest plays he could make, he found a way to get that done. So, very encouraged by the way he finished the football game, and we'll continue to search for that consistency. But I know he's very capable of doing that."
(on some of the players being upset that QB Matt Schaub got booed during the game) "That's part of the game. That's part of it. That's part of playing, and you've got to battle through adversity. If you're a quarterback in this league, you better expect it because you're going to have days like that. But the good ones find a way to work through it."
(on if there was a communication problem during the game with QB Matt Schaub's helmet) "Yeah, there was early in the game. Our first time out, we had actually had a problem a few plays before that and then it broke down again on us. Sometimes when a quarterback gets hit in the pocket, sometimes that communication system will get rattled. Yeah, we did have a problem that one time, but we normally work through it. We give (QB) Matt (Schaub) a few things to go to if he can't hear or doesn't know what's going on. But we did have one situation."
(on what is plan B if the communication system fails) "Well, we just give him a couple of calls to go with or else he starts screaming real loud. That's usually the best plan. The hard thing when you're sending plays into a quarterback, you assume sometimes when he's looking over at you that he's hearing you because it's just part of the nature of how you do things and you're talking and talking and all of the sudden there's no response and he doesn't walk to the huddle. So you don't know whether he hears you or not. So I'm always telling him, 'Give me a nod. Let me know that you hear what I'm saying. Let me know that you know what's going on.' But sometimes that doesn't happen, so you better be ready to move to the next play and he did. We had a problem and he moved on and called a couple of plays on his own because of that situation a couple of times until we got it fixed."
(on the thought process to calling a quarterback draw on QB Matt Schaub's touchdown run) "Well, we worked together. I work together with (offensive coordinator) Kyle (Shanahan) every down, not just fourth downs or second downs or first. We work together every down. We had a set group of plays that we liked inside the five yard-line that we go into the game with, and we used them all. I mean, the first one we ran where we got Andre the ball on the first down down to the three - we came back with our next two and about the only run we had on our cards down there was the quarterback draw that we liked. We talked about it and took a shot because of the coverage that they were playing. Kyle's doing a great job. He's getting better every week. He's calling a lot of great plays, very comfortable with him right now. He's doing a heck of a job."
(on if offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan calls the plays) "He calls a great deal. Yeah, we work together. We work together throughout the game but I'm very comfortable with a lot of things he's doing."
(at what point in his career he got to call plays) "I called them very quickly. I can't remember it's so long ago. I worked with (Denver Broncos head coach) Mike (Shanahan) through a great portion of my career the same way. It was a certain time - I couldn't tell you exactly when, where he totally went away from it and said, 'Go ahead.' I can't remember when that was. That was a long time ago."
(on what his process with CB Dunta Robinson will be this week) "Well, first off I'm encouraged from what I've seen. He hasn't been able to practice with us, but from when I've seen him work he's looked like he's ready to go. I think we'll have to be smart. We'll put him in a competitive environment on Wednesday. Whether that's scout team or however we do that, we'll see how he comes out of that. We'll work him Thursday probably on a limited role with the defense. I think by Thursday, evening we'll have a good idea of whether or not he's ready to play some this week."
(on if he does play, if he'll come off the bench) "Well, I think if he does play we're definitely going to put a play count on him. So, whether that means he's playing in base or playing in nickel, whatever he does, we'll definitely have to monitor his reps. He's not going back out there to play 40 or 50 plays in week one."
(on if it is harder to get the first victory and what it's like to be in Detroit and Cincinnati's position) "Well, we know exactly what they're going through. We've been going through the same thing. They went down to Minnesota yesterday and controlled the football game all day long and got beat by a pass interference call and a field goal. So we know exactly what they're going through. They're the same group of guys that were 6-2 last year after eight games that was playing very, very well. We know for a fact, I don't have to tell our guys, we'll have to play better than we played yesterday to beat them. We have to continue to clean up our football and continue to clean up what we're doing to have a chance to continue to be successful."
(on if it's the hardest to get the first victory) "I don't know. I mean, you're trying to get them all the time. This one was a very difficult one to get. It sure looked like with four minutes left last week, we were going to get the first one then. And then we looked like we were dead yesterday. That's part of football - just keep playing and you have to give yourself a chance to win."
(on preparing for Detroit QB Jon Kitna or QB Dan Orlovsky) "No, we're going to play their offense. From what little bit I've seen of them today, before I came down here, it looks like they're doing the same things. I know (Lions QB) Jon's (Kitna) a very capable player, he can get hot. He's won a lot of football games in this league with some different teams."
(on improving against the run and the improved run game) "Well, we're getting better in the other two phases. Yesterday, we were facing a team with two very good backs. We knew that we felt like, we should say, for us to run the ball against that team, which we think is a very good defensive team, we would have to loosen them up with some of the things we were doing throwing the ball. So I liked our game plan, but at the same time we were very, very aggressive. The turnover problem hasn't been solved. We've had problems from that standpoint, and it gets this team in a lot of trouble and holds it back. We just have to continue to address it and work on it. The players have to be hard on themselves and our quarterbacks have got to protect the ball better."
(on if he thinks QB Matt Schaub has matured as a decision maker) "Well, we're trusting him a great deal because we're being very aggressive. Like I said yesterday, our players knew going into that game we were fixing to throw the ball a lot, especially early. When you're doing that, you are trusting your quarterback. But your team goes kind of as he goes, so it was a tough situation we put him in from a game plan standpoint yesterday. But for us to get to where we want to go we've got to continue to handle those things better and better."
(on if he thinks QB Matt Schaub was a little rusty) "I don't think he's rusty. I just think he made a poor decision on the first one (interception). The inside linebacker came off. He's just got to get off that guy and go to number three. The second one was just, I can't find an excuse for it. We had come off the timeout; we had talked about the play. I think (QB) Matt (Schaub) even said this, we not only made a mistake with the ball but we busted the formation. We missed a motion. So it was strictly not executing in what you're doing. And those things are going to happen sometimes and right now they are happening too much. We have to find a way to protect the ball better."
(on if the return of CB Dunta Robinson can be a spark for the team) "I know our guys are looking forward to him coming back. We talked about it in the locker room after the game. I asked him if he's ready to go and he's been chomping at the bit. I know he can't wait to get back out there. It's been a long, long haul for him and he's worked extremely hard. He's had this day earmarked and his teammates think a lot of him so I know they are excited for him to get back on that field."
(on QB Matt Schaub saying they had the Dolphins right where they wanted them in the huddle before the last drive) "Well, I think guys handle pressure different ways, players you know. I think that's good getting in the huddle. I mean, everybody knew the situation and everybody was very down coming out of what had just taken place from a standpoint of the situation in the game. But as a quarterback you have to be able to handle those situations and get everyone in the right frame of mind and find a way to get it done. That was a very difficult situation."
(on DE Mario Williams lining up in different spots but working primarily on the left side) "He worked on both sides. He worked on both sides yesterday. We're able to do a lot of things with him because of how smart of a player he is. We actually give him some freedom sometimes depending on some calls that we make. He's so sharp of what's going on and down and distance and understanding and studying offensive football right now, we're able to get some of that done. But he's been effective on both sides. He's getting some help. He's getting some more help inside."
(on breaking the season down into quarters) "I just told them the night before that the first quarter of our season was poor. I just tried to compare it to being in a game. You know, playing a bad first quarter, getting down 14-0, you don't call it a day, you keep playing. And we've had a bad first quarter; we got the second quarter started on the right foot yesterday. Just looking to improve as a football team. Looking to be a much better team at the halfway mark."
