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ARTICLE
BRONCOS POST-GAME QUOTES
BRONCOS PLAYERS CB DOMONIQUE FOXWORTH General “They made some big plays against a
talented [Broncos] defense. We did what we did to get us here, which was
blitz and single-coverage. They game-planned very well against us and
executed when they had to.” On Receiver
Coverage “I expected them to come at
me. [CB] Champ Bailey is across from me and he’s a tremendous
corner. No one wants to go at Champ, so I’m prepared for that every week.
“Disappointment isn’t the right
word. I feel bad for the older guys, and some of the guys that may not be
here next year. I fully feel like I will be back in this position before
my career is up. I feel lucky to have gotten this far in my first year,
but we’ll be back in this position.“ WR ROD
SMITH On
Disappointment “This is all you work for. You
work to be in this situation and win, and we didn’t get it done. It wasn’t
a great season. The only way it’s great is if you go all the way.
There’s only one team that has a great season, and that’s the team holding the
Lombardi Trophy at the end of the year. What’s the difference…you don’t
make the playoffs, or you make the playoffs and lose…it’s all the same. If
you don’t win the whole thing, it’s a failure. I’m not going to take
anything away from them, they played a great game, but this is the way I live my
life. If I don’t get the prize it’s a failure.” On Being Eliminated from the
Playoffs “I know what it feels like to hold
the trophy at the end of the season, so anything less than that feels like a
failure. This isn’t on just one player, on play, or one scheme. We
got out played today, and you can’t take anything away from them.”
On the Steelers’
Performance “It’s a long game and each team had
opportunities. We didn’t take advantage of them, the opportunities, and
the Steelers did. They played the way you half to play to win on the road
in the playoffs. They deserve to go the Super Bowl.“ TE JEB
PUTZIER On Being Eliminated from the
Playoffs “I’m definitely disappointed.
All year you work hard to get to the Super Bowl, and we came up one step
short. We have a very good team here, and we’re proud of what we
accomplished.” On Next
Season “Mr. Bowlen and Coach Shanahan do a
great job in putting this team together. We’ve a got a great team this
year, and I think we’ll have a great team next season. It’s disappointing
to get this far and then not get into the Super Bowl.” On the Steelers
Performance “You can’t get behind on a team like
that. They do a great job of running the ball and managing the clock, and
they played a great game. It was tough in the beginning to get a rhythm,
and we just never could get it going. That’s a phenomenal team over
there. What they have done in the playoffs against the top three teams in
the AFC is amazing. They just beat us today.” S NICK General “The disappointment is always going
to be there, and obviously this is going to take awhile before it gets
better. We’re going to marinate on this one for awhile, and then we’ll
have to move on.” On the Steelers’
“I thought I timed it well, and the
ball just stayed up there. It floated around and I was not able to get to
it in time. He [QB Ben Roethlisberger] made a great throw and got it in
there.” On Homefield
Advantage “It’s unbelievable that things like
that [losing today] would happen out here. We played so well at home all
year, and it was definitely disappointing the way we played today. It was
just that type of game where we didn’t get breaks. I give a lot of credit
to the Steelers and their coaching staff.” On the Steelers’
Performance “They didn’t really do anything that
surprised us. I think we had an excellent game plan, and we just didn’t
execute.” On Fan
Expectations “The fans have very high
expectations in this area: in Bronco Nation. I don’t think this
season was necessarily a bust, but obviously we wanted to go all the way.”
WR ASHLEY
LELIE General “I’m so proud of everybody in this
locker room. We kept fighting and played until the final play. We
just didn’t make plays when we needed to.” On Jake Plummer’s
Play “He had a great year, and helped us
to be where we are. A lot of media are going to point the finger at him,
but this was not Jake’s fault.” On Offensive Coordinator Coach Gary
Kubiak “He has helped us all year, and
helped me personally since I was a rookie. He’s a great leader, and
On Aspiring to Return to the AFC
Championship
“I think we’ll get to this place
again, we just have to work hard and good things will happen. Obviously
you want to get to the Super Bowl, but we still think this was a great
year. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll be back
here.” On this Season
Overall “We were 13-3 and we won the [AFC]
West. But, 20 years from now when we people look back, no one will
remember that we got this far. It’s difficult to get to this point and not
go all the way.” DE Ebenezer
Ekuban ON LEARNING FROM THE GAME - “We have
to take it and learn from it and when we’re in the same position next year, we
can play off this and not just in the regular season.” ON STEELERS’ THIRD DOWN
CONVERSIONS – “That really hurt us. I don’t know what their
percentage was but it felt like 80 percent. During third downs they were
just completing those passes and keeping the chains moving, and keeping the
clock moving. They put Jerome Bettis in and they kept running out the
clock. I guess that is something we still have to work on, it has been
giving us troubles all year. So we have to find a way to get
three-and-outs.” DE Trevor
Pryce GENERAL - “Going in you expect to
win or at least play well. You expect to play better than we did. That’s a good
football team. We knew that going in but they still seemed to keep us off
balance. We just couldn’t get ourselves going with the blitz. They played an
excellent game. I thought our game plan was just top notch. We executed it for
the most part. Some times the ball bounces your way and today it bounced their
way. The regular season means nothing at this point. Everybody’s memory is going
to be this game.” LB Ian Gold GENERAL - “We did not complete the
mission and it’s frustrating. Anytime you make it to the AFC Championship game
and lose you hope to lose to a team like that. They deserved to win. They came
out and totally dominated every facet of the game. They got some turnovers and
were able to move the ball on offense. Their defense shut our offense down. When
the other team is hitting on all cylinders like that, hats off to
them.” ON STEELERS THIRD DOWN CONVERSIONS -
“That’s a credit to them. We didn’t execute on defense. We didn’t play anywhere
close to how we wanted to. Unfortunately, it happened that way and we
lost.” SS Nick
ON NEAR INTERCEPTION - “I thought I
had the ball to be totally honest. It was just thrown a little bit above my
outreached hands. [Roethlisberger] just threw the ball pretty
well.” ON OTHER NEAR TURNOVERS - “That’s
how this game goes. Sometimes it bounces your way and you make that play and
that wasn’t the situation all last year. We didn’t have the ball bounce our way
and we had that this year. It just so happens, in this particular game, we
didn’t get a lot of that. I thought Champ [Bailey] was going to make another
spectacular play like he has all year but he didn’t he didn’t make that play.
But, stuff happens.” LB Keith Burns GENERAL – “It kind of reminds me of
(the loss to ON BEING SURPRISED BY PITTSBURGH’S
GAME PLAN – “They did not surprise us at all. We knew what they were going to do
coming in here. We knew who they were and exactly what they do with throwing the
football and the way they ran. The just made the plays and we didn’t. Our hats
go off to them.” ON IF THE SEASON WAS A SUCCESS –
“No, not at all. Bottom line is that there were a lot of guys who were brought
in here to win the Super Bowl. You can pick out a few bright spots on the
season, but to me it is a complete failure. Anything less than hoisting that
Lombardi Trophy is a failure.” WR Charlie
Adams ON HIS LONG KICKOFF RETURN – “There
are a lot of things that could have happened to change the outcome of the game.
There were a lot of ‘woulda, coulda, shouldas.’ Now you just have to swallow it
and look at what you did wrong. They made a lot of plays today. (The loss) is
everybody’s fault. You can’t put this on one person. We play as a team, we won
as a team, and we lost as a team.” ON THE SEASON – “No one in this
locker room has a reason to be ashamed (of the season.) We picked a bad day to
play a bad game. Obviously, we didn’t reach our goal of getting to
FB Kyle
Johnson ON BEN ROETHLISBERGER – “You have to
give him credit for playing well. He came in here with something to prove and he
did it. He deserves a tremendous amount of respect. Now, he’s going to the Super
Bowl; he’s still fighting for that ring. You have to give him a tremendous
amount of credit.” ON MAKING PLAYS – “We didn’t
capitalize on certain situations when the opportunities presented themselves.
They made the plays and they capitalized. They did what they had to do and it’s
that simple. They played well in all three phases of the game, where we could
have played better. You have to give respect where respect is
due.” ON IF THE SEASON WAS A
DISSAPOINTMENT – “I can’t look back on everything right now. It’s too early. The
people in TE Stephen
Alexander GENERAL – “They had a good plan for
us and they got after it. It’s plain and simple. They are a great gap control
defense against the run. On offense, they threw the ball and they threw it well.
Anytime you spot a team 21 points, it makes it tough, especially in the AFC
Championship.” ON ON BEING SO CLOSE TO THE SUPER BOWL
– “That’s the hard part for me. This is my eighth year in the league and this is
the first time (reaching the conference championship) has happened. It is very
frustrating. You just don’t know how often this opportunity will come around. We
need to look at what we did well and what we did poorly. We need to take some
time off and come back with a vengeance next year.” S John Lynch ON QB BEN ROETHLISBERGER – “He
showed he is a great talent, not only throwing the football, but he ran around
out there and made plays as an athlete.” ON THE SEASON’S UPSIDE – “You can’t
forget all the good that came out of this season. We did some outstanding
things. Now all you can do is learn from this and get
better.” ON HIS MISSED INTERCEPTION – “We
have been thriving off turnovers all year and we just couldn’t get anything
today.” RB Mike
Anderson ON THE YEAR – “It is a blessing;
it’s truly a blessing. You have to remember, last year I sat out the entire
year. I can walk out of here with my head up, because we gave it a hell of a
run.
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