Fox: Broncos 1st stringers ‘played pretty well’ Saturday

HEAD COACH JOHN FOX comment on last Saturday’s game:

“I thought our first group played pretty well, played with a little spark, played with a little energy. There are a couple things we’ve got to get cleaned up—obviously, the turnovers. I misspoke the other night; we actually got credit for a takeaway there on the last kick of the half, but there was no time left. But we were still minus-2 in the turnover margin, and that’s something we want to clean up. All in all, I thought it was a pretty good effort on their part, and we’ve got a lot of work to do with some of the backups that went in.

“I think it’s great for the whole team. As I’ve said before, he’s (Peyton Manning) raised all boats. When you get in that position, and you get to the biggest point yourself, when things don’t go perfectly, that’s kind of the right way to point fingers. He gets that. I think it’s kind of who he is, and that does help spread throughout the football team.

“[Defense] Way better in the first half than the second half. A lot of it wasn’t so much physical as it was mental. There [were] a lot of young players out there. I think at one point we had six college free agents out there, but those are valuable lessons and valuable experiences moving forward. Hopefully they’ll learn from it and get better from it next time out.”

RUNNING BACK RONNIE HILLMAN on his status:

“I’m not full strength, but I’m getting there. I’ll be there “It’s very frustrating to get out here and reinjure yourself. You just have to roll with the punches, get back through training and get healthy again.”

“It felt really good. I’m easing into it. I don’t want to get out there and run too much and pull it again. It’s coming along pretty well.”

“It helps a lot [working with Peyton]. You have a vet like that who’s willing to help and critique your skills and the proper route on what to do, it helps a lot.”

“It’s pretty much, he tells you what to do and you do it. Fans have read about it. He’s like, ‘This is what I want.’ And that’s what you give him. It’s a little bit [intimidating]. You’re like, ‘Oh man, I have to do this right.’ But once you get going, that’s the last thing on your mind.                                                                                                                               

“I expect to play Sunday. It’s not my call. It’s [the coaches’] call. So, whatever they want me to do, I’ll do it. I feel ready to go.”

MIDDLE LINEBACKER JOE MAYS on the defense:

“It was terrible. We know how we can come out and play this game. We know that we can come out and play with the best of them. We definitely didn’t show that this past weekend. We have a lot of improvement to make. We still have time. We’ve got a lot of young guys on the team. We’re all going to get better together.”

“Yes, no doubt about it. We gave up too many big plays. Most of it came from the run. We just have to be better. We have to continue to come out here and work hard each and every day and just try to fit up these runs a little bit better than what we did.”

“It’s technique. It’s all technique. We can play our base personnel against whatever personnel they put out on the field. If you don’t have the right technique in there, if you’re not playing the right technique, you’re going to lose. That’s what we did this weekend.”

“It’s very important. Not only for the rest of the NFL to see [the improvement] but for us to come out here and know that we can stop the run any given day. It’s important for us to come out here and work on it each and every day and to try and set the mentality for every single defensive player on the team.”

“I was disappointed. I was a little upset with myself. That’s one thing that I wanted to wipe out. A lot of people said I missed a lot of tackles, and I did. I wanted to kind of wipe that out a little bit and I felt I kind of set myself back just a little bit for a quick second. It’s going to get better. It happens to the best of us but I just have to continue to keep a positive mindset to keep coming out here and working.”

 Injury Updates

“[DE] Jason Hunter, triceps; [G] Chris Kuper, forearm; [DT] Kevin Vickerson, concussion; [S] Jim Leonhard, knee; [LB] Keith Brooking, hamstring; [WR] Andre Caldwell, rib cage; [LB] Nate Irving, rib cage; [LB] Mike Mohamed, hamstring; [S Rahim] Moore, hamstring.”