--pws
from http://www.patriots.com/news/index.cfm?ac=latestnewsdetail&pid=28844&pcid=47
Colts Postgame Quotes - 11/4/2007
Indianapolis Colts players comment on their 24-20 loss to the New England Patriots at the RCA Dome on November 4, 2007.
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY
(general comments)
"This is certaintly a tough one but you have to give a lot of credit to New England. We were up 10 points in the fourth quarter and they found a way to come back and win. They played with championship effort, championship big plays down the stretch and they made them and we did not. So that was disappointing. Usually you want to feel like you can close people out in the fourth quarter and we couldn't do it. We didn't have an answer for Randy Moss today. We had a lot of attention paid to him trying to stop him from catching the deep balls but he caught the deep one at the big time of the game. That really was the play of the game, got them a quick score. We played hard. We didn't play maybe as well as we would have liked, but I think you have to credit them. They force you into playing perfect. They have a lot of weapons on offense and defense. It was a great game. It was a game that was good for the league and I'm sure good for the people on TV. We are disappointed we didn't win it but we have to come back now and get ready to play on Sunday. That's what we said all week. It wasn't going to be one of those games that determines your season. We got to get ready to go and I think our players will."
(on Patriots play)
"They made some mistakes with some uncharacteristic penalties early. Then we got in a situation where we were up a score and you know they are going to throw a deep ball to (Randy) Moss to get back in the game. We let him get behind us which all our guys are disappointed about. They came and got some good pressure on us. They got two sack fumbles at the end which is tough. But that's them keeping the pressure on people forcing you to play well all the way through for 60 minutes. The last game here, the championship game we won it in the last minute. They won it in the fourth quarter today."
(on first half of the season)
"That's what we said all along. We have to keep the pace going and try to stay ahead in our division. The second half of the year is going to be tough. We are 7-1 at the end of the first half. I think we would probably take that every year, but the disappointing thing is you can't lose home games. You don't like to lose in your building. This is one that will remain with us for a couple of days, but then we have to come back on Wednesday and be ready to start work on San Diego. We will look at the tape tomorrow, make our corrections, and see where we could have done things a little bit better."
(on closing out the game)
"We had our game plan set to go. It would have been great to have Marvin (Harrison) out there. They were missing some guys too. We had our chances. We scored enough to get up 10 points and you have to be able to clamp down and win it at that point."
PEYTON MANNING, QUARTERBACK
(on if the game got away from the Colts)
"I couldn't tell you until we watch it tomorrow. Certainly you have to give New England a lot of credit. They played better than us and deserved to win. I am sure we will see some mistakes on our part and some chances that we had that we just didn't take advantage of."
(on not scoring touchdowns early in the red zone)
"That is something that we are always trying to avoid. You always want to try and get touchdowns as opposed to field goals. Certainly, I think one time down there we got no points and a couple times down there had to settle for two field goals. You certainly want to try and get touchdowns down there."
(on if New England did anything the Colts did not expect)
"I don't really want to get into the X's and O's. They have excellent players, they made some good plays on defense and it's always a challenge when we play against them."
(on New England's defensive scheme)
"It's something that they played against the Cowboys with Jason Witten. Like I said, with Dallas Clark you always have to be alert as to how teams are going to play him different ways. I think offensively we are always trying to be mixed, get pass game and the run game going. Of course Joe (Addai) made a great play on the two minute drill there at the end of the first half. They were certainly in pass coverage and he did a great job of getting into the end zone. You never know quite what kind of identity the game is going to take on, but for us we are always going to do both, run it and throw it."
(on bouncing back from the loss)
"We have no choice. We certainly need to. You are exactly right, it has been while (since a loss). In November and December Mondays we are used to not having to come in since we won, so we will have to go in tomorrow and go back to work. We need to correct our mistakes and we need to get healthy. We need to get some guys back out there on the field for sure and go back to work. It is an extremely tough test going out to San Diego. They certainly seem to be playing like the Chargers that everyone else knows and I know what a tough defense that is. We have to regroup and get ready to go out there and try to bounce back."
(on starting the season 7-1 and upcoming second half of the season)
"Well, November and December games are certainly, probably the most important. We have gotten off to a good start. Certainly disappointing today, but we need to hopefully play even better in the second half than we did in the first half."
JOSEPH ADDAI, RUNNING BACK
(thoughts on the team's performance)
"When you lose it's kind of hard but at the same time we've got a lot of games to play. We're going to forget about this game and go back and watch it and learn from the mistakes and get ready for next week."
(on scoring field goals, not touchdowns in the first half)
"It is tough, but at the same time you got to understand that they're a good team. They came in undefeated and we knew it was going to be a dogfight and we had to try to stick it out in the end, but they got the upper hand."
(on his touchdown in the first half)
"It was really just a situation where there were just a couple of seconds left and I had some key blocks, but none that really matters because we got the loss. They played well enough to get the win. It was a tough game and they did what they needed to do to get the win."
(on running the ball well in the first half)
"It was whatever they were giving us. The situation was we were able to run it and we took advantage of it. It's really tough because we got the loss, but we got a lot of games to play, so we can't just think about this."
JEFF SATURDAY, CENTER
(On missed opportunities in the "red zone")
"You always look back on the red zone and those opportunities that are frustrating, and it was frustrating. We felt like we should have gotten in the end zone, but we didn't do it."
(On New England's defense)
"You've got to give them credit, they played great defense down in the red zone. As frustrating as it is, we've got to go back and watch the film and make adjustments."
(On leaving too many points out on this field early in the game)
"Anytime you're in the red zone you want to score touchdowns. Field goals don't do it, especially against championship caliber teams, a team like New England. We have to go back and see why we didn't put in. Most of it we probably did ourselves. We didn't complete the passes, we didn't get the runs in."
DWIGHT FREENEY, DEFENSIVE END
(on people believing in the defense)
"I don't know. They can look at it two ways. We will probably hear all types of stuff. I know this, obviously we played a decent game defensively and showed that this is not going to be a 54-7 game. It's not going to be the huge scores. We know each other. It's almost like a division game."
ROBERT MATHIS, DEFENSIVE END
(On Colts defensive performance)
"In the end, we didn't get the win, so we have to keep working."
(On where the Colts go from here)
"We just have to pick up the pieces and get it right for next week."
(On playing a "full" game until the final whistle)
"You have to play 60 minutes. Unfortunately we didn't do that today, so we have to get better and go back to square one."
(On if this will cost them down the road)
"You don't want to get in trouble with position with New England. We are now, so we've got to make the most of it and do the best we can."
MARLIN JACKSON, DEFENSIVE BACK
(thoughts on the game)
"We gave up some big plays at the end of the game and you can't do that against these guys, and they took advantage of it and that's what happened. We stuck with our game plan, we were doing a great job with everything we were doing in the first half and we made a couple mistakes in the second half that kind of cost us. We have to go out and get better every single week. This is the middle of the season. We still got a lot of games left and maybe we'll see them again."
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