Postgame quotes from the following:
(On how impressed he was with the play of Teddy Bridgewater…) "Teddy played well, obviously. You guys saw it. Some of his good plays were hard quarterback plays, where he had to manipulate the pocket, step up, step laterally, wait for something to come open late. I thought he did really well. He was helped by the fourth-down conversions, but one of those fourth downs was because we dropped a pass on third down that would have been an easy conversion. So I thought he played very well."
(On if his corner route to Saubert was one of the best stress throws he has seen this summer…) "Yeah, it was a great throw. We've seen him do it in practice, and obviously it was a good catch, good route by Saubert. I thought Teddy played extremely well."
(On if he is any closer to making a decision on a starting quarterback…) "I am. Because the calendar's closing in on us."
(On if he knows when that might be…) No. It won't be tomorrow. The earliest it would be would be early next week, or we'll let it go another week. Because these guys, both of them, Drew and Teddy, have done well, as you guys have seen, and they've made it a hard decision. So we'll give it thorough thought. We've been discussing it, with the coaches, with George, all along and we'll continue to do that."
(On if he has enough information to make a decision right now…) "We might. We might. I want to take a look at the tape some more.
(On how he felt Drew Lock played…) "I think Drew, we had some protection breakdowns when he got in there. I want to see all his plays with a remote in my hand and take a good look at it rather than what I saw on the field at the time."
(On if the flip pass to Seth Williams rather than scrambling showed his maturity…) "Yeah. Good vision, you know? I couldn't tell because it was on the other sideline, I couldn't tell if he could have ran for the first or not. You guys probably had a better look at it than I did. That was very good improvisation on his part."
(On if in the regular season do you go for it on fourth-and-five at the 40…) "We'll soon find out. Of the three of them, two were very realistic. It could happen in any game. One of them might have been a stretch. But again, if your offense is doing . . . you have confidence . . . you know, last year, statistically on third-and-two and -three, which is like fourth down, you know we weren't very good at it, so it doesn't warm your heart, or my heart, to be going for it. If I have confidence, we'll do it."
(On if his confidence in his quarterbacks has grown since the start of camp…) "Definitely. Like I said, both of these guys have done well. We can play and win with either one of these guys, and that's a good thing."
(On if Bradley Chubb is ready to play in Week 1…) "Yeah, I think Bradley's made a move here in the last seven to 10 days, and I think he's confident and ready to go."
(On the play of Jonathan Cooper…) "He's made improvement the whole way. The more he plays the better he'll be. You know, we're expecting him to be a rotational guy for us behind Bradley and Von, and hopefully he did some good in the special team because we're going to need him there. But everything you do builds confidence. Once you do it and experience it is worth a whole lot more than anybody talking to you about it."
(On no turnovers…) "If you're plus three, the percentages of you winning go way up. And I think we were penalty-free, too, which is very important."
(On Dalton Risner's touchdown…) "I think I was the only guy on the sideline that saw actually what happened. We had one of those in Green Bay in '19, where he grabbed the runner and pulled him into the end zone, which really is illegal. What he did there is not illegal. I don't know if we want to recommend that, though."
(On what deficiencies he saw in special teams…) "The coverage units in particular. They had a nice kickoff return there on us. They had another one that didn't go quite as far, and obviously the deflected punt Is, as good as we were playing, those are things that can ruin a game for you."
(On what makes Bridgewater effective…) "He's got good quarterback awareness and instincts. I think it's shown in the way he can move within a pocket and buy time that way. There's two types of elusive quarterbacks—one's that run around, and there's the other ones that manipulate the pocket to buy time. The best of that in the past 20 years has been Tom Brady, and he's got a little of that in him, as far as manipulating the pocket."
(On how he thinks he bounced back after a rough start…) I think it was a good bounce back. Just going out there and making the best out of every play that we had. There's obviously things that we need to work on, but overall I think tonight's performance in general as a team, it's trending in a positive way. It's fun to be a part of. There were some things there that we'd like to fix, but overall I think it was good.
(On the flip pass completion and if he thought about scrambling…) It's one of those last-second decisions that you have to make. Seth [Williams] got open enough to where I felt like I could fling it to him. It was just trying to make a play, trying to get us going, trying to get a chunk for us and get us rolling. That was enough to get us down there.
(On what's going through his mind after Teddy Bridgewater played well to start the game…) There's always the human nature of comparison, but you have to just take it play by play. And obviously the first play was upsetting and then that next drive we had to get things going. I was glad that I got a two-minute deal in a game rather than just at practice and to go down there and get points like we did. Teddy did a good job and it was just about me going out there and making the best out of each play that I got.
(On the two minute drill and if it was good to get that experience in a game…) It was, it was good. Being able to show that I can manage that situation in a quick amount of time that we had to get down there and get some points, being able to take care of the ball, check it down if I needed to, throw it out if I needed to, it was a good thing to be able to put on tape and go back and watch.
(Opening statement…) It was great getting another win. With a young football team and the youth that we have on offense especially, it feels good to let them see what it's like to win in this league and enjoy that feeling. It's great coming to Seattle. You turn around and see behind our bench a sea of orange jerseys. That was exciting to see how well our fans travel here and the support that we had out here in Seattle. It was great just going out there and competing today. Guys were flying around and making plays. Talking about Justin Simmons changing the game early. If we can just keep that momentum heading into this last preseason game heading into the regular season, I think we have ourselves a team that can do some good things.
(On if he made a statement in terms of winning the quarterback job…) No, I was just out there doing my job. My job is to move the chains and get my unit into the endzone. The offensive line did a great job of protecting tonight. Everything starts with those guys. They never get the credit that they deserve. They open holes in the run game and protect in the pass game. They communicate well. You talk about the crowd for a preseason game, they're pretty loud here in Seattle and our guys did a good job. We didn't really have any pre-snap procedure penalties or anything like that. Honestly I was just doing my job. Get the ball to our guys, let them make plays and you can see what can happen when they get the ball in space.
(On his conversion on fourth and five…) It's just one of those deals where you have a clock in your head and you can sense the pocket. I always tell the tackles that I like when you guys just force the defensive ends to do a certain thing and let me step up in the pocket, creating a lane to where I can escape or just give myself more time to pass the ball and push the ball down the field. Jerry [Jeudy] did a great job of winning his route versus man coverage. Offensive line did a great job of protecting and we were able to convert.
(On what kind of step forward he took tonight versus the previous preseason game against Minnesota…) Honestly it was just one of those deals tonight where I just wanted to get my unit to the end zone. That's been my message throughout training camp. My mentor, my great mentor, he always tells me just get your unit to the end zone. No matter how you do it, just get them in the end zone. That's my mindset every time I step on the field. How can I keep this unit that's out here with me competing and battling every play to the end zone? Because that's the most exciting feeling when you score a touchdown. You see a guy like Dalton [Risner] take the ball from the running back, score a touchdown and he's celebrating. That energy is contagious.
(On how it felt to get out there and be part of the defense that played well…) It felt good. Just to see everybody back in full form and just get out there with each other and feel that infectious energy with the crowd, seeing another team lined up against you, it was fun. Just to get back at it, it felt like football again instead of going against your teammates every day. We were all excited about it and like you said, we just made the most of our opportunities.
(On what kind of corner he felt like he turned in practice this week…) I feel like I just got a little more confident in my ankle and everything that I had going on this offseason. Kind of got out of my head and just started playing football. I feel like that helped me out a lot. Just have to keep going forward and keep improving each week. I know this is my fourth year, but I still have things that I need to improve on. That's my main focus is to just do that now.
(On what he felt after he recorded a sack tonight...) I kind of saw that it was a play-action run and I wanted to come inside real quick and I kind of stumbled at first and I saw him holding the ball so I went and kept fighting and fighting and got there. It felt good just because like I said, going through the surgery and the stuff this offseason, just to get back into that full form, it just feels good to get my hands around the quarterback and start the streak off.
(On if he thought he'd be getting a couple of sacks in a preseason game after what he went through this summer…) I'm never going to say that I doubted myself. I knew what I was capable of. I didn't know that the journey to get here would be so hard. But at the end of the day, I have confidence in myself and I just want to go out there and play the best that I can.
(On if he feels like he's done enough to earn the fourth outside linebacker spot…) I can't speak on that. That's up to the coaches obviously. I just want to go out there and show them that whatever they ask me to do, whatever it is, I'm willing to do it and give 110% effort every single time on every single rep.
(On what he's learned from Bradley Chubb and Von Miller…) I've learned a lot from them. They've been great mentors to me. Any question I have, they come with a great answer. Whether it's coaching me up on my stance, whether it's coaching me up on some pass rush. And with Malik Reed too, all three of those guys I look up to as big brothers. I'm just trying to gather as much information as I can from all of them to make myself better.
(On the strip sack play…) It was crazy. I felt like I could beat him on the edge. The tackle, number 78, was a great tackle. I felt like I could keep pushing that edge and I knew that number 10, the quarterback, likes to scramble to the right so I kept working that edge and low and behold, you keep working your hands and never give up and keep pushing and you're going to get there. I saw that on [Bradley] Chubb's sack too. That's kind of my process right there.
The Seattle Seahawks take on the Denver Broncos in their second preseason game of the 2021 season at Lumen Field.This album will be updated throughout the game. Game action photos are presented by Washington's Lottery.
Seattle Seahawks running back Alex Collins, left, rushes against Denver Broncos linebacker Malik Reed during the second half of an NFL preseason football game Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Alex McGough looks to pass against the Denver Broncos during the first half of an NFL preseason football game Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)
