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Transcript: Broncos Coach Josh McDaniels

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November 23, 2009

Q. Update on Kyle Orton and the quarterback situation...

A. We feel good about the prospects for him to have a normal few days here and be ready to go on Thursday.

Q. What do you make of the sideline altercation between two of your players? Is that something you need to address today with the players?

A. We have a lot of emotional players and it's an emotional sport. Yesterday was an emotional game, and we don't look to get into altercations on the sideline, obviously, but that was handled internally. We feel comfortable with that situation going forward.

Q. Is it true that the fumble was caused by a Denver player accidentally?

A. One of our linemen was blocking on the ground and one of his knees actually hit the football as Knowshon (Moreno) was getting close to the goal line. It was just a fluke situation there, but we have to do a better job of securing the ball near the end zone obviously. That was a big play in the game.

Q. There are reports out there that before the game you said something to the Chargers linebackers about "we own you." Is that true?

A. I am not going to comment on that. We moved on to the Giants and our preparations and will leave that for the Chargers.
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Q. In New York we have two teams and one of the coaches, Rex Ryan, is a rookie head coach. He has gone through his learning curve, too, what's it like to take over at a young age and be a head coach. What do you know now that you didn't know before?

A. I think there are a lot of things that you do as a head coach that you are not necessarily aware of or privy to as an assistant. A lot of things that you have to be involved in as far as the decision- making that goes on on a daily basis for the organization. I think the more you do it, the more comfortable you get doing it. Your time is definitely spread very thin over a lot of different type of things that you have to oversee. I am sure Rex is in the same situation, the more he has done it, the more comfortable he has become as a head coach, and I would say the same is true for myself.

Q. What are the difficulties of such a quick turnaround, especially with the team on a four-game losing streak?

A. We are all creatures of habit in this league. Tuesday means something different than Wednesday, and Thursday is different than Friday. So you have to slam a lot of things, a lot of preparation, a lot of film work, a lot of study, and a lot of walk-throughs into a much shorter period of time. The demands on your time obviously are greater in a three-day preparation than it would be in a normal week. Your health of your football team, you don't have as many days to rest and rehabilitate from the physical game that you just played the prior Sunday. I think there are a lot of little things like that, but the good thing is both teams are going through the same thing, and we will be excited to play on Thursday. I think the good thing is for a team in our situation, coming off a tough division game, is obviously we didn't play nearly the way we wanted to and on a four-game losing streak, we are eager to get back on the field and play again. This might be a good time for our team.

Q. From what you saw how much did the ankle affect Kyle Orton while he was in there? How much did it limit you in terms of what you wanted to do? Realistically thinking, how much can it improve if you go light during the week?

A. It didn't really limit us a whole lot. There might have been one or two things that we did not do, but he was actually fairly mobile or as mobile as Kyle can be. Kyle is not an incredibly mobile quarterback to begin with, so there aren't that many things that we would ask him to do on a regular basis anyhow. I thought he moved well once he got into the game. I thought he did a lot of good things yesterday for us and we would expect that the ankle, as normal, would get increasingly better with more rehabilitation and time this week.

Q. Given how Chris Simms has played, what is your level of confidence in him if Kyle can't play?

A. We have to continue to work with all of our players who aren't regular starters. Chris did some good things yesterday, it's just a situation of the game where we determined we were going to change a few things and go in a little bit of a different direction. We were trying to see if we could grab a hold of the momentum of the game, made the switch yesterday and we have confidence in all of our players, and Chris is one of those guys that if he has to go in the game and play, this is the National Football League, we only have so many guys on our roster and we believe in all of them and they are here for a reason.

Q. You coached in New England with Charlie Weis. Are you guys still close and have you had a chance to commiserate with him lately?

A. We don't commiserate, but yes we do talk, and we have had conversations over the course of the season. I don't exactly know the date of the last time we talked but it couldn't have been too long ago. He is a great friend of mine and certainly was a great mentor and somebody that I will be indebted to forever for teaching me a lot about how to coach and how to be an offensive coordinator and those kinds of things at New England. He is someone that I will always be friends with and close to.

Q. How are you coping with the four-game losing streak?

A. It's a tough season; it's a tough season every year. I think you don't go into it expecting to deal with four-game losing streaks, but I don't know if you go into it expecting to have six-game winning streaks, either. We play a good team every week, that's how this league is. It's a harsh league if you don't play and coach as well as you can or as well as the other team on the other side of the ball coaches and plays. You learn a harsh lesson that weekend. We have had a few here in a row that certainly hasn't sat well with our team, myself and our staff. I am eager to get back out there and coach again. The only way to get past these things is to work hard, try to put together a great plan, a great week of preparation and try and go out there and coach and play your best against another good football team.

Q. What is the status on Brian Dawkins?

A. We are going to see how that goes. We have no prognosis on how that is exactly yet in terms of whether he will play on Thursday or not.
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