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Denver Broncos | News

That's What He Said: 49ers Postgame

Broncos Head Coach John Fox

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On the game

"I think like any first game, there's things that you need to work on and we have plenty of those things but for the guys that played, I thought they fought hard and found a way to try to win there at the end. We had some young guys that I thought showed pretty well. C.J. (Anderson), Brock Osweiler, Duke Ihenacho. The thing I was pleased with, we were plus-four turnover ratio. We didn't turn it over, we took it away four times. That's an area we were looking to improve on. Balls we got our hands on – on defense – we caught. I think those are big factors in a game."

On Brock Osweiler

"That's a tribute to his work ethic. He's got a pretty good teacher there in (Peyton Manning) and he's handled that very well. I think he's grown from it and I think he just continues to improve."

On the first team offense

"Without looking at the tape, I thought we ran the ball pretty efficiently. We didn't have them in there that much. We'll ease them into this. They've not played a full game since January, so it's like anything else. You ease them into it and we'll build those reps moving forward."

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Quarterback Peyton Manning

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On playing fast

"Well, they told us it was probably one series. I tried once - we punted them down there, backed up and stopped them and got the next series at the 50. I made one final attempt at the Head Coach, but to no avail. It was one series, and we got a couple of first downs. Had a second-and-10 play where we only got one yard. That put us into a third-and-long. That's not a team you want to get a lot of third-and-longs against. They're good on third-and-long. We just couldn't convert third-and-9. Some things to work on and I'm looking forward to playing a little bit more against Seattle next week."

On the defense

"We created a lot of turnovers last year. It was another good start from that standpoint tonight. Different guys, some young players – Nate Irving making a huge play and (Shaun) Phillips running it back for a touchdown. (Kayvon) Webster making some nice plays. As an offense, you always like to see your defense out there creating turnovers because usually that's going to mean really good field position."

On Julius Thomas

"Julius has gotten quite a number of repetitions during training camp due to the injuries of Joel (Dreessen) and Jacob (Tamme). Julius has really taken advantage of those opportunities, even going back to minicamps and OTAs. He continues to make plays in practice and made some nice catches tonight. I know he just wants to get more comfortable in the entire offense – the run blocking, the pass blocking and certainly in the pass receiving. Everyone has seen what he's been able to do. I just think he'll continue to improve and I think he can be a big part of this offense this year."

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Safety Rahim Moore

On the defensive performance

"We went out there and did our job but I think as a team we did well overall. At the end of the day we still have a lot of corrections to make and a lot of mistakes we made – special teams, offense and defense. Tomorrow we're going to go back to the drawing board and fix them and get ready for Seattle."

On not allowing a touchdown

"Yeah, that's a goal. It's not always going to be like that but if it is then that's great. It's a good start, to see where we are as a team. We have a lot of corrections to make, trust me. Even though it looked good, there were some things I felt like I could have done better too. But that's part of preseason – get out there and see where you're at, correct the mistakes and get ready for the season."

On Duke Ihenacho

"He played fantastic. It was his debut, I told him to go out there and just do him and he did exactly what he does in practice. He flew around. He made tackles, made plays and every time you see him he's always flying in the play. He's come into his own and at the end of the day his hard work is showing and that's what it's all about."

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Linebacker Shaun Philips

On his touchdown

"I can't be a playmaker if the other ten guys on the field don't do their jobs. I just go out there and try to stick to my role and do what I do best and help those guys along to. I try to make plays for them because I know they're trying to make plays for me."

On how the defense played

"It was solid but not where we need to be yet. We're still working to have no weak links, no kinks in our armor and that's why we play these games. That's why we have preseason, that's why we have practice, to try to strengthen our kinks and that's what we're trying to do right now."

On a specific weakness he saw

"Stopping the run. We gave up a couple big runs, a couple five-and-six yard runs at a time. If you want to be a successful defense you can't do that. That's the first thing you need to eliminate. We'll go back and watch film and we'll get back to the drawing board."

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Tight End Julius Thomas

On the pace of the opening drive

"It something that we're working towards – if we can get the ball moving that fast it's an advantage and we'll just keep trying to polish it up."

On his thoughts after the first game

"It's exciting to get a win. It's been a while since we've been able to take the field against another opponent. We were really looking forward to it and we know we probably have stuff on both sides of the ball that we need to make improvements on, but we'll take this first win and build on it as the season goes."

On being the next man up

"That's how this league works. Unfortunately some of our other guys have been down with injuries and it's fallen on me. I'm very appreciative and grateful for the opportunity. I'm just trying to do what I can to help out our team and hopefully make a few plays along the way."

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Wes Welker

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On his first live action with the Broncos

"It was good to go against somebody else. We've been seeing the same guys for the past month or so and we're just ready to get out there and play against somebody else. It was good to see and good to have that competition going against another team."

 On what you can take from one series

"Just some of the mistakes that we made – trying to correct those and move it on to next week and just try to move it all together."

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On what you take from the first preseason game

"You don't really get to get into that flow but it's just one of those deals you try to move forward with and make the best of it."

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Sylvester Williams

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On how he played

"I played alright. I started off slow and started to pick it up as I got going. I was done after the first half. Hopefully I can continue to get better."

On how the defense played

"I think we played really well on defense. We had four turnovers on defense, that's great. We were able to score a touchdown. It's always great when you can score on defense."

On putting on a jersey for an NFL team

"I'm just glad I got my first game out of the way so now I can just focus. I know what they expect next week. It's kind of hard when you're going against your own teammates to get a feel for the game so now I know what to expect come next week."

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