Broncos 39, Chargers 38 – Shanahan’s Monday Presser

HEAD COACH MIKE SHANAHAN

On if anyone called him and asked him why he went for two against the Chargers
“Not really. I am pretty happy we made it though.”

On if he was planning on attempting the two-point conversion ahead of time
“We talked about it when we got the ball. I told these guys to get ready for it because if we score a touchdown, we are going for two. I just wanted to get it into the back of their mind. You can always back off of it if you want but I wanted them to be ready. If we scored, to go for two.”

On attempting the two-point conversion to win the game
“As I said before, you kind of have a gut feeling. We have a lot of confidence in our offense, offensive line, your receivers getting open and just coming into an important game. We only got about six plays in the third quarter and we had a bunch of plays in the fourth quarter that got our momentum going. I thought that with the coin flip, it was worth taking the chance.”

On if it is in his personality to go for two in a win-lose situation
“You go with your gut feeling. I remember the one time we were playing the Rams and we had the ball backed up right around the 30-yard line and we went for it on fourth and one. Our defense had been on the field for a long time. Was it a smart call? Probably no. You can kind of get a gut feeling with your football team and you just do what you think is right. I thought that was the right call and thankfully it worked.”

On Chargers RB Darren Sproles
“Sproles is one of the most underrated backs in the National Football League. He has great strength and great speed. When he caught that screen pass he ran away from a couple of our players that can run. He has strength, quickness, agility and if you make one mistake on kickoff coverage, he is gone. I have a lot of respect for him. It is a great one-two punch that they have.”

On Saints RB Reggie Bush compared with San Diego RB Darren Sproles
“To be honest with you, I haven’t studied Bush yet. Obviously I watched him a lot in college, but I haven’t really gotten the chance to study him. I know both guys can make plays when there is nothing there. Not everybody has talked about Sproles but you can see it in preseason and on special teams over the last number of years. You can tell that both are great competitors.”

On the offensive line’s play
“First of all, they are very talented. If you take a look at Ryan Harris and Ryan Clady, both guys have really stepped up. You have two first-year players with Harris getting hurt and having back surgery early his first year. He got some practice time and some NFL scheme (experience) but not a large number of plays. You have guys who step up like Casey Wiegmann, who is stepping up and getting the job done for Tom Nalen and he has done exceptionally well. (Chris) Kuper gained a lot of experience last year playing the guard position and he played extremely well against Minnesota (last year), and that is one of the reasons why he had the opportunity to start this year. Ben Hamilton is obviously a big plus. It all starts with the offensive line. If you don’t have a good offensive line, the chances of being successful are not very good. I remember last year Matt (Lepsis) was hurt and couldn’t play at the level he normally played at. So these guys stepping in and playing has really helped us.”

On T Ryan Harris and T Ryan Clady stepping up
“Number one, you go though the OTA days and you have 16 days there, actually 17 along with the preseason. It’s not like it used to be. The players come in and by the time you start your preseason they have a good feel for the offense. Not everyone can step up and play at the level that they have played, especially so early. I think Rick Dennison does an excellent job of teaching; he is an excellent coach who is very well organized. These guys have picked things up really quickly. They don’t make mistakes and they compete and that gives you a chance.”

On the Chargers without LB Shawne Merriman
“I remember when Shawne went out last year they went 4-0, so that shows that they are a pretty good football team. One thing you don’t want to get into is talking about what happens to a team when they lose people. How do you play when you lose Tom Nalen? How do you play when you lose Brandon Marshall, Boss Bailey, Anthony Alridge or Ryan Torain? That is part of the National Football League. You are going to lose players. You hope that you don’t lose too many at the same position. Just like right now, San Diego is hoping they don’t lose another outside linebacker because you usually have depth at one or two guys but you don’t want to lose too many at one position especially a great player. All the sudden you are average at best, but you still have to go out there and play. Sometimes you have to use schemes to compensate for your weaknesses. Everybody knows that. Its part of the National Football League and that is part of the game, looking at your talent and trying to come up with a game plan.”

On the Broncos’ offense
“You are judged week by week. We started out 2-0 last season, so we can’t get too carried away with what we have done. This football team has a good feel. We are young with a very good attitude and a game like that really helps because it shows that you can find a way to win against a good football team. It is a good first step and at the same time it is very irritable.”

On the Chargers feeling like they were robbed by referees on the Jay Cutler pass play at the end of the game
“Well obviously, I think Ed Hochuli, said that they missed a call. I grade the officials all the time. You take a look at offense, defense and special teams and you send in a report each week. This was the best crew that we have had in the last 20 crews I have graded. They did a heck of a job. Every game that you see that is within a point or a field goal over the last couple years, it may be a call or a non-call that wasn’t right but that is the nature of this game. You have to find a way to win. We still had the ball at third and 10 and had to get it into the end zone. Third-and-10 and then fourth-and-four, we still had to make a two-point conversion. It wasn’t like somebody gave us the touchdown. You have to go out there and still get it done. That happens all the time. I can’t tell you how many times it has happened but I can tell you the situations that it occurred. The bottom line is that it is over and you have to deal with it. That is just pro football, not something that you like but something deal with.”

On his offensive coaches
“I’ve got the best coaches—(Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach) Rick Dennison, (Quarterbacks Coach) Jeremy Bates. With a guy like (QB Jay) Cutler being able to do so many things in his third year… Jeremy is a very bright guy and he does a great job with the quarterbacks and the passing game. Same thing with Rick Dennison. There is no brighter guy than Rick Dennison. I just don’t understand why he’s in coaching—you’re an engineer and you have all of these degrees. You’re lucky to get a guy that smart. That’s why we do the things we do. We have a heck of an offensive staff right now. We have a lot of guys who are hungry just like the players. They are excited about these guys, they work extremely well with the players and to make things work like they did you have to have top, top guys. Jeremy is doing a good job play-calling, just changing things up. He has a great relationship with the quarterbacks—studying, throwing. It’s kind of fun to see guys work like that with quarterbacks. It reminds me of when I was younger getting a chance to spend time with guys like (John) Elway, (Steve) Young, (Joe) Montana for a short time, the (Steve) Beuerlein’s, the (Gary) Kubiak’s. It’s exciting.”

On whether Jeremy Bates calls the offensive plays
“When a guy shows that he can take responsibility, I give him more responsibility. It’s very similar to what happened last year.”

On whether WR Brandon Marshall’s performance was the best he has ever seen from one of his wide receivers
“Yeah, obviously the (number of) touches, there is no question about it. Coming back after being gone for a week is pretty special, so he stayed in shape. Having the type of game that he had is really a credit to him staying in shape.”

On RB Andre Hall playing after the death of his mother
“It’s amazing that he’s been able to handle himself the way he has. The funeral is today at 11:00. He is there right now with his family, and he will come back tomorrow night. (S) Marquand (Manuel) had a tough situation with his daughter. He got the game ball. His daughter has been very sick; she’s 2 years old. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but he’s been going through a tough time and he’s been working through practices with his daughter not in very good shape. It’s just unbelievable how guys can focus when there are tough situations at home and a lot of these players have. We have a special group of guys.”

On RB Michael Pittman
“He is a guy who is just a football player. He’s a tailback, a fullback, a special teams (player). He’s just a hungry guy. Even when he goes out on a pass rush he’ll chip a defensive end just because he doesn’t like him. He’ll knock him down, that’s the type of strength that he has. He is a guy who was a good pickup for us and I’m glad he’s on our team.

“He gets the ball in the end zone. He is 220-something pounds, he’s strong and he’s got some good power. I think he’s a good changeup. Using Michael as the third down and short-yardage back has worked well for us.”

On the defense’s performance against San Diego
“First of all, we played extremely hard. Our goal coming in was to stop the run or at least limit the run. I think they had one 18-yarder, but besides that we did a pretty good job most of the day. We have to get better in a few areas in our pass defense, but if you stop the run you are going to make some strides. We’re not there, but the thing I was most pleased with was the effort. They made some big plays on us and we’ll have to work on that, but you have a chance if you stop the run.”

On injuries
“(DT Josh) Shaw took 40 stitches in the calf and played for a half. It looked like there was a hole in his leg. That just shows you the mental toughness that some of these guys have. He just got to the sideline and said ‘Hey, tape it up.’ He didn’t know how big the cut was until after the game.”