Do you think you answered questions today about you carrying the team?
It's not necessarily something you think about but obviously every week you want to, as a quarterback, play as good as you can because when the quarterback plays it gives you a chance to win every week. That's just the nature of what we do with this business, so I understand that. Really just making the plays that are there and we did so today. Some guys came through and made some great catches, Evan (Engram), Zay (Jones) and (inaudible) all over the field. It's just cool seeing our offense take off like that especially after somewhat of a rough start. Not rough but a three-and-out and they scored on first possession and so we kind of got in a hole there. A big turnover kind of propels us, gives us some momentum and we scored off it. I think that is the biggest things, we play complementary. When defense gives us a takeaway, we scored on it. We put together some really long drives in key moments in the first half, beginning of the second half, just played complementary ball.
How important was this win after last week's loss?
It just shows what this team is made of and the direction we are headed. I think that's huge and to get some momentum back this last stretch at the end of the season. Obviously these game are huge if we want to give ourselves a shot at the postseason and you can't win five of them if you don't win one, as I said that after the Ravens game. So same mindset, we still believe everything is in front of us and this was a great start, great momentum but going back to a big win over Baltimore a few weeks ago and we didn't play well last week, so how do we take this momentum and use it to fuel us? Have a great week of practice again. I thought we attacked every day in practice, guys were really locked in and you can tell our preparation was really good this week. We have got to do that every week and I think that is where this team is growing and starting to stack more games like this. It is just fun to be a part of.
Walk us through the touchdown run?
Honestly, I probably should have handed it, but, like I had like 53 linebacker on the edge, he stepped down one or two steps and I really felt like I could out-run him to the pylon and that's just what I did. Luckily, got the stiff arm but he recovered a little better than I thought he would so it was close to being a TFL. That's one of those plays if you make it, it's great like it was, but if you don't make them, it's a bad play to take a TFL on the goal line. It was one of those plays, one of those days where we made those plays. Good, great teams do that. I think that is where we are heading and I just excited.
Was that your first stiff arm?
Yeah, I haven't had a lot of successful ones so that was a good one. That was a good one for me. If you score no one is mad. If you don't it is a different story.
How was the foot jury?
Yeah, it's OK. It's about what I thought, sore, but nothing that is going to keep me out of the game or that limited me. When the game is going you are not thinking about it. Obviously it is not ideal but it is not something I really thought hindered me at all. I think as the game got going, especially as I got warmed up, settled in at first, making sure I'm good and I didn't want to do anything too crazy. I wanted to get the ball in my hand. I thought we had a really good plan and then settled in and was able to make some plays getting out of the pocket and those types of things so it was good.
Did you feel rusty not practicing until Friday?
Not really. A little bit because you don't get as may reps. Usually I will rep things multiple times and you feel good but that wasn't the case this week. But with our offense and the way we've built this thing I have gotten a lot of these reps in the past so that helps with the guys that are running them. I felt pretty good and got a bunch of mental reps this week and really felt like I was prepared and that obviously is huge so that is something you don't have to worry about the physical part. Obviously it helped that I got to practice on Friday so I think that helped a lot with my confidence and just feeling good about letting it rip and trusting the guys.
How do you feel about your escape ability?
I think just knowing when is the time and place to do it. Ball security is important. Something I'm always working on is in the pocket. You can kind of get loose and something that's just something that you work on every week, you know, when you move it around, that's important because guys are going for the ball. So that's something where I feel like I've taken a step in the right direction and then just knowing the time and place to extend plays, you know, are we in field goal range or are we tied and its third down from the 15 and I can kind of extend the play and give us a shot because if I – you know worst case scenario get a sack, we are still in field range. But it's different if we are on the 30 or 32-yard line. You've got to be smart and that's something that we talk about during the week. Like what's the plan in certain situations and they do a great job talking to me in my headset on something that we have dialed in and just the guys up front and our relationship just being able to feel the pocket when the edge collapses. Cam (Robinson) and Jawaan (Taylor) did a nice job of blocking some folks down and gave me a lane outside so all that stuff I think is just knowing the time and place when you can take a little bit more of a chance.
Does it feel like you were in a groove?
Yea, I mean, it felt like good. I felt like we had a good plan and we're taking advantage of the stuff they were giving us, I make sure of that. And just guys making plays, you know, making great, great catches, great fuels for whatever it zone covers, you know, whatever wants to be with us and all of us just be on the same page. And today, a prime example of just trusting my guys to make plays and them making them for us and that's what the game comes down to. And we talked about it against Baltimore after that game is just it's players, not plays. You have to have trust in them and just the chemistry that we have is really growing so it's cool to be a part of.
What is the vibe of the team with so much in front of you?
There is something to say for that. Putting yourself in a position, obviously it is kind of two-fold, you look at the year we have had and we've let a lot of games slip that where right there we could have had. So that even puts you in a different position but still the game that we have been able to win down the stretch, to be able to put ourselves in a position to play meaningful games in December and January, that's where you want to be, you know? That's not a good feeling when you are sitting here like last year. The games matter because you are playing for pride and you got a lot of pride in that room and guys work their butts off to win games, but at the end of the day you don't have a shot to make the playoffs. That's not a good feeling. I am just proud of this group and how we have been able to bounce back week to week no matter what happens. A prime example of that is today so it was great.
