Jay Cutler
On the way he envisioned the season starting off
“You never know what defenses you’re going to get. They came out in
press man and took a shot and did it so it was a good start. We’re not
exactly where we want to be with just a few things, so there are still
a lot we have to clean up.”
On if that was the called play or an adjustment on the first play
“You just have to guess I don’t know. I thought Mike did a good job
out there. He called the game well, got us in and out of the huddle.
He gave us a chance to get up to the line of scrimmage and make our
changes if stuff needed to be changed. ”
On the offense
“We’ve got few new pieces out there Brandon (Marshall) and (Michael)
Bush other guys. There was a lot more intensity I thought the sense of
urgency with our guys was a lot a lot greater this game. We came out
with a purpose and a little bit more of an attitude up front.”
On how far along is this offense is
“Two preseason games. That’s how far we are so we got two more to go
to clean up stuff until we get to the Colts. So two weeks, then we’ll
be ready to go.”
On utilizing Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery
“We hit some nice shots in there but we didn’t really get a chance to
do what we wanted exactly like we wanted to. This game plan, we had a
day and a half of game planning. Until we really get a full week and
get those guys out there and practice what we want to practice and
see looks in practice it isn’t going to be — you can’t expect to get
everything out there that’s the tough part about the preseason games,
you want to have the finished product, you want to be quick, you want
to be efficient but the practice time and the preparation.”
On the offensive line
“Yeah, we challenged them all week. We challenged them before the
game. Everything starts with them and the defensive is the same,
everything starts with that defensive front. Whenever those guys are
playing and doing their job, we can do our job. That was the biggest
difference from last week.”
Robbie Gould
On the conditions for field goals versus the Redskins
“It was nice out there, it was real nice. It was warm, no wind. It was
good. The guys did a great job.”
On the meaning of kicking a 57-yard field goal in preseason
“You’ve got to go out there, that’s what you’re supposed to do. You’re
supposed to go out there and make kicks. Everyone did a great job from
holding, snapping, blocking and I just got lucky to get it over the
bar.”
On kicking the game-winning field goal with the second team
“Everyone did a great job. That’s what you’re supposed to do. You step
up and make plays and everyone did that tonight. (Matt) Blanchard did
a great job with the offense, leading them down the field and we were
lucky enough to get in range and hit a good ball.”
BRANDON MARSHALL
On the effect on the defense when starting the game with a big play
“It does more for us because we know the only people this year, that’s
going to stop us, is us. What it does is it gets the guys on the
sideline fired up. Those guys like Lance (Briggs) and (Brian) Urlacher
fired up, special teams fired up and we just feed off each other. We
talk about it all the time, defense making a play we feed off of that,
special teams (and all). We just try to play in sync football.”
On getting out on the field with the full offense
“The most exciting part tonight was seeing the other guys. It’s not
just Jay Cutler, it’s not just Matt Forte or Brandon Marshall or Devin Hester. It’s everybody making plays and it’s going to be tough for
defenses to game plan against that.”
Roberto Garza
On how important it was for the offense to play well
“We knew we had to come out and take a step forward in the right
direction and we did that. Our skill position guys had a great night,
most receivers, obviously, our quarterbacks. We had a rough time
running the football today but that’s something we’re going to work on
and we will be better at.”
On the play of J’Marcus Webb, Chris Williams and the offensive line
“It’s tough to say. I think they did a great job tonight but,
obviously, once you see the film we’ll be able to knit-pick
everything. I think, as on offensive line, we did a little bit better
job but we were far from where we need to be but it’s a step.’
LOVIE SMITH
“After last week’s game, we wanted to get back to the practice field
and correct some things, and we wanted to play another football game,
so we put a lot into practice and improving on some things. As far
as the game tonight, we talked about starting fast and I thought the
guys came out, the first offense, and moved the ball. We felt like
we needed to throw the ball tonight. We felt like they were going to
gang up on the run, so it was an early drive by the offense where Jay
Cutler was outstanding, Brandon Marshall getting him into the mix
right away. We spread the ball around to all of the receivers, who had
their moments. Michael Bush coming in and scoring a couple touchdowns,
so I was pleased with what our first offense was able to do when they
were out there. The plan was to play them into the second quarter
and we were able to get that done.
"Defensively, same thing. When you
have an athletic quarterback like Robert Griffin you have to keep
him pinned in. That early pressure on him, Israel Idonije, I think
he had 2.5 sacks; he had good pressure as a defensive end, but also
inside when we played him there in the nickel packages. Special teams
wise, whenever you score a touchdown, usually it is a good day for
the Chicago Bears, but they of course, matched ours with their punt
return. But again, we did some good things tonight, I felt like we
had control of the game until the end when Cousins came in and really
played well for them at the quarterback position.
"When they went ahead
31-30, Robbie Gould, right after they scored, came over to me and
said ‘Lovie, we are going to get the ball, we are going to go down and
kick a 58-yard field goal and we are going to win the game.’ I guess
he was off by a yard, but it was a big night for us and we got some
good things done.
"Injury-wise, when you see a player get taken off on
a stretcher, it is not a good thing. I think Brandon Hardin will be
okay, he was moving everything, he was alert, conscious throughout,
so hopefully everything will be okay with him. Chris Conte hurt his
shoulder, I do not know the extent of that injury; I don’t think it is
too bad. Podlesh, hip-flexor, he should be okay. A couple injuries we
have to take note of and see how they come out.
On whether the offensive line played better tonight than in the opener
“Whenever you have time and are able to do some things in the running
game, they gave us a chance. You have to, of course, go back and watch
the video, things are normally not as good as you think when you have
some success and things are not quite as bad too, but I think for the
most part, from what I was able to see, we did a decent job.
On the play of Israel Idonije
“I have been pleased with Israel Idonije since the first day I got
here. You know what type of play you are going to get from him. He
will be the first one to tell you that he left some sacks on the field
last year, but you know the type of effort that you are going to get
from him playing any role that we, as a coaching staff, think he can
help our football team. But it is always good to see a guy have that
type of night. He is feeling pretty good about himself right now and
should.”
On Michael Bush running the football tonight
“We know Michael can run it between the tackles, but I think it was
good for him to show everyone that he can make you miss also. I think
his second touchdown run, the guy was one-on-one in the hole, it was a
great cut by him to make a guy miss. He is a big back and can do a lot
of good things.”
On what he will say to Alshon Jeffery about the penalty
“Don’t do it. It is kind of as simple as that, we can’t have that. We
had a couple of penalties late there, Thaddeus Gibson also, you can’t
do things like that in critical situations. But we will coach them up,
they are young players, especially Alshon. We will coach them up and
they will see how that can really hurt our football team. But I am
going to talk to him first about all of those good plays he made. He
has done a lot of great things in training camp and he is taking that
over to the games too.”
On the chemistry between Cutler and Marshall
“It’s important because of course you have to have it on the practice
field first, but we all want to see it in the games. That combination
is going to go for a lot of yards, a lot of catches and hopefully a
lot of touchdowns. Both of them are outstanding football players and
if we give them time, we can do some things.”
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