Featuring postgame quotes from the following:

Head Coach Mike Macdonald

MIKE MACDONALD: Well, that happened fast. Good to see everybody. Yeah, it was great win. Started just like we wanted it to start. Drew it up that way. Just wanted some adversity there. Yeah, also going to clean all that stuff up in the first half. Tell you what, on the sideline with our crew, the guys were poised. Nobody batted an eye. Knew what we needed to do to win the game, stuck to the plan, made some adjustments, and just kept playing. It's a long game. These games go 60 minutes down to the wire. Proud of our guys and the effort and the attitude, togetherness. I thought they played really, really hard, so I'm proud of the guys. There are a lot of things that obviously we're going to want to attack over the next week getting ready for New England, and we'll do that. Hopefully we will make a huge jump from Game 1 to Game 2.

Q. You mentioned the adjustments. What did you think about what Ryan Grubb did with the run game opening the second half?

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, how they're playing their fronts, made a couple adjustments on some of the schemes they were running. I thought the O-line played well in the second half. Ken (Walker III) in particular really runs so hard. So yeah, they did a great job.

Q. How encouraging was just the way the guys on defense were running around?

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, it's great. Their spirit, we're really poised. That's what we asked for in Game 1. You know, any time anything happens it's like, hey, let's go. We're in the dark place. We're right where we're meant to be. A.D. (Aden Durde) had a great message to the guys and I though he hit it spot on. That's what he talked about. Whatever the circumstance is, that's perfect for the Seahawks and the guys. They're bought in. They did a great job.

Q. Mike, sometimes tackling can be a little bit of an issue in game one because there is so little in the preseason and camp. What did you think about the way you guys did tackle?

MIKE MACDONALD: Well I thought there was some really good open field tackles. I think we can adjust some things to eliminate some of that space without getting into too much detail. Overall I thought we tackled well. I thought we missed and they got some squirrely yards there. When you run to the ball you can take shots, and if you take good angles and like guys shouldn't be getting out on your defense. Again, the effort is the biggest thing, and then I'm sure there will be some things we want to look at and try to make some adjustments moving forward. I thought the guys tackled pretty well.

Q. It was a struggle for the O-line in the first half to see them even things out and find some footing to open the running game up like it did, how good was that to see?

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, it's great. We knew they could do that. Didn't expect the game to start the way it did, but it did. You got to keep moving forward. We got great guys on the O-line. First game, moving around, adjusting to a different style of defense. Definitely not how we wanted to start even though how I start the whole presser here. We'll be better moving forward.

Q. For you, first game out here, how was it?

MIKE MACDONALD: Shoot, it was awesome. Electric. The fans were incredible. I mean, they were loud. They were going no huddle on third down, so our communication I thought for the most part was great. What an awesome atmosphere. It was something special I'll tell you that. That was really, really cool. The guys were really excited. Just told everybody, the amount that's gone into getting us ready, you're looking at six months now of foot on the gas preparation trying to get everything together; takes the whole building, the whole organization, all the fans. So just really proud of our team for getting one win.

Q. Sounds like Geno gave you a game ball afterwards. What did that mean to you?

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, it was awesome. You know, I accept it on behalf of everybody. It's special. Obviously our first win. It hasn't hit me -- it's like hit me and it's cool, but probably hasn't hit me yet. So maybe in a silent moment it'll come. It was special, man. I love our guys. They're bought in. They've done everything we asked them to do. Thought Geno played a heck of a game just sticking in it and executing the game plan and playing on time. One win, awesome, but we need to go do it again next week.

Q. What changes did the offensive staff make to the run game at halftime?

MIKE MACDONALD: Frankly, I was in the defense at that time. We knew we wanted to put more emphasis on the run game, but some of the game plan stuff we had to make some adjustments on without getting into like the telling everybody what we're thinking. But those guys, credit to those guys. Understood what we had to do, made the adjustments, and emphasis more in the run game. Give it to K9 (Kenneth Walker III), let him do his thing. That's how we're going to have to operate. If we're going to be successful, teams are going to take things away, and you need to be able to move and shake in game to be able to move the ball on the ground.

Q. Is it safe to say getting Walker outside in space was the key to that?

MIKE MACDONALD: I don't think so. I mean, they play with pretty good edges, pretty wide edges. Some was like the slide and cup type stuff, a little bit gap scheme, hit more like lineback C gap. Some of the runs seemed like we were going to.

Q. They leaned on Bo Nix quite a bit. I think 40 plus throws in his first NFL game. Did you have an idea that's what they were going to do?

MIKE MACDONALD: You know, the game played out like that, so they probably ended up throwing it more than they wanted to with the way the second half went. He's a good player. He's going to be a really good quarterback in this league. He's going to have a great career. It's tough to get him on the ground, so those are some things we'll look at defensively.

Q. Defensive pressure, your front line kept constant pressure the whole game. How important was that?

MIKE MACDONALD: It's tough. When you're rotating guys throughout the game, you're playing eight or nine guys up front, the chemistry that comes with calling the games and executing the pass rush plan is underratedly difficult. Those guys deserve some credit. Felt like, again, Bo is a tough guy to get on the ground, but you can't get frustrated. Keep rushing, keep taking the ball away, in terms of timing taking the air out of some of the routes so those guys can get home. I'm sure we'll watch the tape and say, oh, shoot, there was an opportunity where we could have executed the game, should've executed the coverage better, and now here come the sack numbers. Not sure what we ended up with, but felt like we left a couple on the table.

Q. What happed with George Fant?

MIKE MACDONALD: A little bit of a knee. Not sure what's going on. We'll figure that out.

Q. You mentioned the adversity aspect, not starting the game the way you wanted to. What kind of a statement is it for your defense that two times they had the ball inside the 20 yard line to start a possession and they only got a field goal?

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, red zone defense. If they get down there, it's not good no matter how you slice it. It's a certain mentality you have to have in the red zone. Execution, things happen faster. Like I said, for our whole football team including the defense, nobody batted an eye and stayed poised and did our thing down there. We got to keep the red zone defense rolling.

Q. You guys ended up backed up on short fields a few different times.

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, obviously those are things we have to clean up moving forward and make some adjustments in that area of the field.

Q. How surprised were you when Marshawn Lynch came up behind you mid-game?

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, never had a former player talk to me mid-game. It's pretty cool. I was like, we have another three quarters to play. It's awesome. He's one of my favorite players of all-time. He's incredible. Yeah, funny. Came up right behind me. I found myself talking to him as they were taking the field. I was like, oh, shoot, I need to call on first down.

Q. What did he say?

MIKE MACDONALD: He was talking about our defense.

Q. Is that your first in-game neck rub?

MIKE MACDONALD: Is that what he did? I guess I blacked out.

Q. Ken Walker, sounds like he's okay?

MIKE MACDONALD: We think so. Yeah, got a little muscle thing. We'll see. Figure it out moving forward. Optimistic.

Q. How good is this wide receiver corps? You mentioned you got a chance to see Lockett firsthand. How good are they?

MIKE MACDONALD: I don't want to put rankings on how good we are. I mean, a lot of great receiving corps throughout the league, but I'll put our guys up against anybody. I mean, you got to have faith in your guys. These guys been working together since day one we showed up. You can go all the way down to Jake Bobo and Dareke Young. Those guys go in there, we got faith in them to go handle business.

Q. You said Tyler got the closer ball. Different themed game balls?

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah just leave it open. In order to win in the NFL you got to close games out. You're welcome to do that on offense as much as you want. Definitely a point of emphasis on how we're going to win football games. It's just blatantly obvious that he deserved that ball. Happy for him. He earned it.

Q. Was there a particular moment that it dawned on you, I'm coaching my first NFL game?

MIKE MACDONALD: You know me. I'm not going to lie, just looking around the stadium seeing everybody, you're like, man, this is pretty rad, pretty awesome. Just trying to stay focused in the moment, but it was an incredible atmosphere. Lived up to all the hype. Got to keep it rocking and keep them on silent cadence.

Q. The two picks, they were different but yet seemed they were team picks in terms of the players concentrating on whatever scheme you had, breaking on the ball.

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah. I mean, shoutout to Leslie Frazier. Has been doing ball drills with Riq Woolen shoot, since April. What an incredible play. He had that guy man to man and ran all the way across the field on a movement pass. I don't know if you guys can find another play like that ever. That's really hard to do. He's one of the few people on this planet that can make that play. Shoutout to him. Julian's play, I mean, it was an incredible play by Julian, but it's team defense. It's rushing coverage working together, communication, pre-snap alerts, being in the right spot, and attacking the ball when he throws it to you. Great play, but it was a great team play.

Q. On the Riq one you mentioned, he's done something similar to that several times in his career...

MIKE MACDONALD: He dropped the one in the first preseason game. It was different coverage but it was dang near the same play. So I know he wanted another crack at that one. Pretty cool he got that shot.

Q. You said you were with the defense more at halftime. Did you have a general message to the whole team?

MIKE MACDONALD: I said it on the TV thing. Hey, like let's go run the ball. We've got a lot of football to play. Let's stay poised. We're right where we want to be. We didn't get here the way we wanted to, but there is a lot of football to be played. I forgot what I said verbatim. Guys were awesome, locked in and ready to go. Defense knew that was a big series, big three-and-out. They went backwards at the first series of the third quarter, which was huge. Gave our offense some good field position.

Q. How do you see Geno handle the adversity of the tough start?

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, he embodies the whole team. We're going to go as Geno goes. Kept telling him to hang in there. I didn't need to tell him anything. He was right on it staying positive. On we went. Yeah, he's leading the charge.

Q. What did you think of the wheels?

MIKE MACDONALD: Not going to lie, I didn't know he had it in him, but I'm glad he does. It's pretty cool. Great play.

Q. Dee Williams, did you want to see him make fair catches in situations like that?

MIKE MACDONALD: A lot of those decisions we felt like the were the right decisions in those decisions based on where he thought he was at least. We're going to visit what the philosophy is in those situations, but we're happy with the decision making. Just got to catch the ball. We got faith in Dee. Going to do a great job for us.

QB Geno Smith

Q. How you feeling after that one, Geno?

GENO SMITH: I feel like obviously a great win. Great to get our first win of the season in front of our home crowd. Thought the crowd was just electric all day. They were rocking. Didn't start out great, not the way we wanted to start a football game; very ugly. I thought we stayed poised throughout. Really proud of the guys and how the communication was on the sideline. Everyone was picking each other up. No one was getting down on themselves. Then obviously the defense played a tremendous game. Kept us in it all game. We found our rhythm and found a way.

Q. To what do you attribute the ugly start?

GENO SMITH: Shoot, man, interception on the first drive; can't have that. That's the worst way to start a game, with a turnover. Giving them possession after they obviously deferred the kickoff. Just having penalties, too many self-inflicted wounds, too many setbacks that didn't allow us to go out and execute. Those things we have to get better and clean up, and I suspect we will.

Q. What did you think of the adjustments Coach Grubb made going into the second half, especially with the run game to take some pressure off the pass game?

GENO SMITH: Yeah, I thought Grubb did a tremendous job staying disciplined and with the run game. Obviously when you start out the way we started off the first quarter and the first half, you know, a lot of the coordinators would say, hey, let's just pass it. I thought Grubb trusted the O-line. I thought the O-line did a great job settling down and really took over the game. K9, Ken Walker, was a beast today. Really set the tone for us. Zach got in there and did his thing. Once the run game opened up it allowed us to then get into some of our tempo stuff and pass the ball. Then you start to see our offense really come alive.

Q. What was Grubb's demeanor between plays and series?

GENO SMITH: Same as always. That's what I love about him. Same guy every day no matter the situation, no matter what's going on. He's got that same calming tone and calm demeanor. That's something we love about him. Really rubs off on all the coaches and down to the players. I think that's a big part of why we were able to find our you are groove later in the second half.

Q. On the touchdown run, were you looking to go down and just show themselves and just kept running?

GENO SMITH: No, I kind of saw the guy in my peripheral, left side, so I gave him a little move. Felt the corner coming from the right. Thought about hurdling him and I was like, Nah, that ain't the move. I kind of just got in there, got the touchdown, and that was good to give us a spark.

Q. You always tell us you can run and you don't do it a lot. Was that fun to show it off a little bit?

GENO SMITH: Yeah, I felt like, shoot, I was running like the wind out there. I've been saying I've been getting faster and I felt like it out there on the field today, so that was cool.

Q. How would you describe the level of trust you have with Tyler when you know he's going to get one-on-one coverage?

GENO SMITH: Man, Tyler Lockett, again, one of my best friends and one of the best players in this game. He's so clutch. Just think about all the catches he's made in clutch situations. Time and time again, week after week, he's the guy who is going to show up. I was talking to Grubb about that this week. Wait until you see Lockett on game day. It's a completely different player. He is out there getting in fights with D-linemen and doing all those things. That big time third down catch really sealed the game for us, that last one. That's who he is and that's why we love him. We are going to continue to rely on him and he's always going to show up in those moments.

Q. The amount of time he missed, didn't play in the preseason, just goes out there, leading receiver, big clutch third down catch. What does that tell you about his game?

GENO SMITH: That's who he is. Big time players make big time plays in big games. I remember hearing that when I was a kid. Tyler Lockett is the epitome of that. Any time there is a play to be made he's going to play the game.

Q. Obviously it was a different offense the second half. What was the message you were trying to give to everybody to keep everybody together?

GENO SMITH: Just stay poised, stay calm. If we don't shoot ourselves in the foot, if we don't beat ourselves, we'll get rolling. That first half we gave them two safeties and a field goal off a turnover, so that's seven points. The defense was playing tremendous. Felt like if we just settled down, played our game, we would come out on top. There was no panic in the locker room. I thought everyone was poised. I thought, like I said, the demeanor of the guys was great throughout. It allowed us to go back into that second half and get things rolling.

Q. On the touchdown to Zach Charbonnet, can you walk us through what you saw there? Looked like you were able to get Alex Singleton to be baited a little bit when you stepped up in the pocket there.

GENO SMITH: Yeah, we got up there, went on a quick count. We had them in a personnel that we like, so we went on a quick count. We had a great play call on. The corner back who maybe should have peeled off actually chased the guy inside, so the D-end tried to peel with him and then Singleton tried to go with him. So I just tried to no-look him a little bit and I saw Zach get behind him, so I was able to get him the ball. I thought Grubb called a great play. Everyone did their jobs and helped us out right there.

Q. Fun to celebrate that one with Mike Macdonald in the locker room?

GENO SMITH: Yeah, that was fun. Coach has been great. Just great for him to get that first win. I think he's done a tremendous job with this team. Obviously we got a lot of room for improvement, but so far so good.

Q. What did you say to him when you presented the game ball to him?

GENO SMITH: Man, I couldn't say anything. The whole locker room was just shouting. Everyone was so happy for him. He was holding the ball up. I mean, that was such a cool moment just for Coach to get that first win. I know that was important for him.

Q. The last time you played the Broncos here was the start of 2022. How do you think you have grown as a leader and a player?

GENO SMITH: Hopefully my teammates can speak for that, but personally, I just feel like I have taken the approach to get better every single day. Taken that approach in my leadership, faith walking, as well as all the football stuff. Hopefully for the guys they can attest to that and say I've grown. Just trying get better every single day. Really just stuck in that mindset.

SS K'Von Wallace

(On their caliber of defense) "We're trying to be the best in the world. To be the best in the world, you have to get the ball back to the offense. You have to get stops on third down and on fourth down, you have to close them off."

(On the play where he forced the fumble) "It's so crazy because I literally had the ball on my mind all day. I just kept telling myself, the power on manifestation is real. I just kept telling myself that I have to get the ball out. I have to find a way to get the offense the ball back and I felt like that was the play for me to make, and I went out there and made it."

(On if they knew they'd be tough to beat if they rallied to the ball and tackled today) "Absolutely, absolutely. We just do our job and play our caliber of defense, go out and run and hit and making sure we know what to do as far as the gameplan and executing the gameplan that Mike [Macdonald] had for us. I felt like we did everything we had to do to come out victorious. The offense was very rattled. We had a couple delays, a couple of miscommunications on their side of the ball and I felt like it was based off of the 12s, the fans, being so loud. Also, the gameplan that Mike Macdonald had for us to go out there and execute.

(On if he had faith in the offense to turn it on in the second half) "Absolutely. You see it at practice every day, day in and day out like we do. The fact that they can move the ball on us speaks for how high powered of an offense that we have. Once we eliminate all the mistakes on all three phases of the football, we're going to be dangerous."

T Charles Cross

(On getting first downs by running the ball in the second half and if that helped them get going) "I definitely think that helped us get in a groove. Moving the ball, getting first downs and staying on track."

(On if he knew the defense would be able to hold the Broncos down to keep them in the game) "The defense did a great job. They did a great job the whole game, especially in the first half to hold Denver to a limited amount of points. They played great ball."

(On getting a win with new coaches and how important that is) "I think it's really important. Everyone just stays together as one. It's a team game and you just have to be as one."

(On the two safeties and overcoming them) "Football brings a lot of adversity and when you have adversity in front of you, you just have to go through. You have to go through it, there's no way around it."

RB Kenneth Walker III

(On making adjustments) "Everybody was locked in. We were poised, everything doesn't go as planned, as you saw in the first half. After those adjustments, I felt like we just played as a team better."

(On what Mike Macdonald said at halftime) "He was chill. The defense was really playing great all game, so they went over the adjustments, and we came together. We talked about things we needed to work on. He was calm, no yelling or nothing. He said we got to go out there and get it."

(On whether there was an emphasis on running in the second half) "Oh, definitely. We talked about it. O-line knew, too, and they had a great blocks and made it easier for me. O-Line, tight ends, wide receivers, they made my job easier."

(On how it felt to get the touchdown) "It felt great. It always feels good to get a touchdown and everybody is screaming."

(On whether he thought that Geno Smith had the kind of speed he showed) "Yeah, yeah, definitely. He just don't scramble a lot, but he's got that speed for sure."

(On his leap into the end zone, was he worried he may have jumped to soon) "Nope. I was confident."

(On whether he talked to Marshawn Lynch today) "Yeah, definitely. Pregame, I went to talk to him. He came, and he didn't see my head at first, and then when he saw, he started laughing. I cut my hair off. Yeah, I talked to him. It's always great to see the guys that played before me, here. I talked to [Doug] Baldwin as well."

(On watching the Seattle defense today) "It was great. I see them every day, in practice. I see what coach Mike is doing, and it's great to be able to come see them do it against another team."

(On how much advantage he feels he has when he is running outside) "My goal is really to just make a positive impact on the team, whatever way I could. But definitely, if I can get to the outside, I'm definitely going to the outside."

(On what changed after halftime) "Adjustments. That's pretty much it, just the adjustments we made."

(On what was Geno Smith's message to the offense after the first series) "He was just saying stay poised. Stay together as a team. We got in the huddle, we talked it over, everybody was calm."

(On his abdominal issue late in the game) "I'm good. Hell yeah."

G Laken Tomlinson

(On how the offense settled into the game) "I mean, you know, I'm so proud of the guys man. Battling through everything that happened in the first half. Everyone kept their composure. I'm so proud of Geno (Smith), man. Really brought the offense together. Brought us together on the sidelines and gave us a message and kept motivating guys, and in that second half we were rolling man, we were rolling."

(On the adjustments made to open up the run game) "We know what we have in this locker room. We just have to go out there and execute. We showed that; we showed that in the second half. If we can execute like that, we can go out and play high-level football."

(On how the offense overcame the two safeties) "I'm so proud of the guys, man, for keeping our composure. Going out there - going into the next play mentality. Everything that happened, happened in that first half; coming out like that in the second half just shows what kind of team we are."

LB Tyrel Dodson

(On the communication on the defensive side of the ball) "It went beautifully, man. Lumen (Field) was loud. Actually, before the game, I was in my room last night doing charades of all the (hand) signals and stuff like that. It worked out perfectly. Me, Julian (Love), Ray (Rayshawn Jenkins), Lil' Spoon (Devon Witherspoon), Riq (Woolen), K'Von (Wallace), we're all on the same page. It's beautiful when you have good communication."

(On how much more he is in command of the defense than he was previously) "I just got to be consistent everyday. With different calls, I got to come up with different (hand) signals and stuff like that. I feel very confident of my ability to lead. I feel very confident in my ability to also follow. Every good leader is also a good follower. I'm excited to keep stacking these wins."

(On his connection with Jerome Baker and what it was like being out there with him today) "Man, it was a blessing. He actually coached me up during the game. He's been doing this for so long, I actually learned a couple things from him today. Jerome's (Baker) 'even-steven' today. He's very loud and aggressive, (the) opposite of off the field. I love Jerome. Some people see me as the leader in the linebacker room and the defense, but he's my leader. I'm blessed to have him and I can't wait to keep stacking these wins with him."

TE AJ Barner

(On the Kenneth Walker III touchdown run) "Honestly, the way we schemed it up with the shifts and motions pre-snap and then K9 (Kenneth Walker III) just did his job. It really just takes all that we got and just finishing our blocks too."

(On if the offense in the first and second quarter had jitters) "I just felt like we needed to settle in. We found a couple bad breaks with the field position and everything. Week one, so yeah there's jitters a little bit."

(On what he learned today about what the offense can do) "I think when we're clicking and firing all cylinders, then nobody can stop us. We just got to be on top of our stuff."

CB Tre Brown

(On how the game went) "Man, we knew it was going to be a grinding type of game. The Broncos played a hell of a game as well. Give credit to them over there, but we knew we had to keep punching back. We knew it was going to be a long game."

(On seeing different personnel groupings) "Yeah. I mean, they didn't really do a lot of things on film. They threw a lot of different things at us, but give credit to our guys on the defense. We came out there and played for whatever."

(On how many times Devon Witherspoon came to the bench and talked about missed opportunities he should have had) "He knows. He didn't really say much because he knew and we knew."

(On the Broncos lack of offensive production in the third quarter) "I'd say both. The offense did their thing and we did our thing on our side of the field. That's it man, we just go out there fighting"

TE Brady Russell

(On his game day outfit and his elk t-shirt) "It's the opening weekend of elk season, baby."

(On his custom cowboy hat and where he got it) "Tight End U (University). They made them for us."

(On the message from the coaches coming out of halftime) "It was kind of like we played as atrociously as we could, but we were still in the fight. In terms of offense anyways. I don't know what was said on the defensive side. It was just 'Wake up, it's a four-quarter game.'"

CB Devon Witherspoon

(On the effort from the defense as a whole) "We just swarmed to the ball. We stayed collected as a defense. We faced some challenges early, we had to go back out there, quick turnarounds. We stayed poised, we stayed communicating out there, and we just played football. Defense, shout out to my dogs. It took all 11, and we (are) all collective with it."

(On what it was like communicating as a defense with the crowd noise) "Well you couldn't hear anybody. Hand signals were a big thing today, and I feel like we got that done on tape. Shout out to the boys for communicating."

(On if the Broncos leaned on Bo Nix a lot in his first NFL game) "Definitely. I think he is very underrated with his feet because that boy can run. He played a great game."

(On how he rates how the defense performed today) "I think we did pretty well. We'll go and check the stats, and then let's see what we did. But we got a lot of stuff on film that we got to clean up."

RB Zach Charbonnet

(On what got it going in the second half) "I just think in the first half we had a lot of penalties. A lot of bad mistakes but I give credit to our guys, came in at the half, no one flinched. Geno (Smith) gave a great speech about picking it up from there. I think we got stuff rolling from there."

(On Geno Smith's demeanor at halftime) "No one flinched. Still had a ton of confidence we were in the game so we weren't going to let that effect us and our goal was so come out in the second half and just play 10 times better and that's what we did."

(On Kenneth Walker III in the second half) "He was definitely electric. I've got to give a lot of credit to him and the Os-line up front. Kenneth (Walker) is a playmaker and that's what he did. He brought sparks to the offense in the second half, him and Geno (Smith), both of those runs that they had. Definitely a lot of credit to those two guys."

WR Tyler Lockett

(On trailing only Steve Largent in receiving yards in franchise history) "I give God all the glory. I think it was crazy because last year, I saw I was (about) five yards away. And you're kind of just wondering, like, 'Am I still going to be on the team, or they're going to move on from me?' I was just thankful that they even kept me on the team. And, just being able to get to 8,000 yards is a blessing because not too many people even play this game for a long time. And I definitely give God all the glory and just really thankful for everything he's done for me thus far in my life."

(On if he knew the ball was coming to him on the last play) "There was a chance that ball was going to come to me just based on the play that (Ryan) Grubb set up. But I don't think I would have been able even to try to catch that ball if it wasn't for DK (Metcalf). DK was the one setting the match, and I had to be able to set my guy up so that DK (Metcalf) could kind of get in the way. But if he didn't get in the way to slow him down a little bit, it would have been tough to catch that ball."

S Julian Love

(On the defense getting put in some tough spots, and still limiting the Broncos points) "It's huge. I think it's just a mindset. When that happened, there is so much energy and swagger as we were taking the field, we were excited for that challenge, it felt like. I think that's the mindset you want to have (in) Week 1. Ready to play. Folks wanted to stay on the field all day I felt like today on defense. That's what that was."

(On his interception) "It was a fringe area. They had two verticals, kind of in the same area. I was flowing over, saw the ball released. A jump ball, trying to get my feet in. I wish I would have got into the end zone a little bit or got a decent return going. But, yeah, just ball in the air, just trying to come down with it."

(On whether the defense thought that Denver would be emphasizing short passes today) "We had a good plan. AD (Aden Durde), our DB coaches obviously, and Mike (Macdonald) had a good plan, and we executed it. Play top-down and tackle when they check it down. He's a good quarterback, he's very talented, obviously, Bo (Nix) is, but it's Lumen (Field), a first game, first start, he's a rookie quarterback, he's going to get the ball out quick. That's why you see a lot of checkdowns today, and a lot of great tackling, I felt like, by us. Then, they tried to test the waters a few times, deep, and I think we defended well. That was kind of the makeup of how we wanted to play this game."

(On the importance of guys rallying to the ball and making tackles) "That's how we wanted to go into this game and wanted to make it. I said it earlier this week, this was an us vs. us game. Play top down, play sound, communicate. You saw a lot of sloppy football around the league in Week 1, that's just the nature of it. Try to play as clean as we can on defense. Try not to blow anything, break anything free, in the secondary, and just play ball."

(On the importance of Devon Witherspoon's positioning on Love's interception) "Yeah, he played with great depth on that, too. He was on his man, and he saw the ball sailing a little bit, and he just was happy, he said, to turn around and see me right there with him. There were a few guys in the same area, and he played his job perfectly. Yeah, good play."

(On whether he had ever forced a fumble and made an interception on the same possession.) "Oh, was that same possession? No, I probably haven't. That was a bad bounce, it bounced right to the guy. Same thing, every time somebody hurdles, that ball is naturally going to come out, so just try to be quick and make a punch. That's a good stat."

(On the play of the defensive backfield today) "I told you guys months ago that I am excited about this room. Selfishly the safety room, but DBs in general. I told the guys that we are the tip of the spear. The energy of this team goes with us. We have to stay consistent, stay locked in, and have guys look to us as a beacon of playing Seahawks football. K'Von (Wallace), his production rate is probably sky high with the forced fumble there, whenever he was coming in. And Ray (Rayshawn Jenkins) played a great game too. He was just flying around. That's just swagger, that's energy, that's who we want to be."

(On the importance of the daily punch out drill in practice) "When you have that repetition of punching the ball out in practice, every day, every week, you look for opportunities. For me, that was falling back on my training. Shout out to coach CP (Chris Partridge), all the guys, AD (Aden Durde), we rep it, because we want to envision making plays when it comes time."

(On the interception by Riq Woolen) "If you're in man (coverage), and you're an outside corner, and buddy runs a shallow over, that's tough. He has the leverage on you, he knows where he's going, and you're kind of playing catch up. On that play, I was breaking on the ball, my eyes got big. Out of nowhere, Riq is there and makes the play. That's special. You ask any defensive back in the league, that's a one-on-one play. That's what he needs to bring to the table for us. He has pure speed, he's probably the fastest DB in the league. To trail on that play and make a pick, it's huge. I love Riq and love the way he's been approaching each day."

(On comparing to last year's Week 1, aside from winning vs. losing) "I don't know, I would say our energy and our mindset is pretty clean. I think we expect to come into this game, no matter what happens, is to continue playing the game. We did get depleted, I remember last year in Week 1, we just kind of got depleted of energy, of swag, of who we are. We didn't do that today. Obviously, with a slow first half start, it could have been easy for that to happen again. But, everybody was fired up in that locker room, and knew what the deal was. That was to come out in the second half and do what we do and be us."

(On the gang tackling today) "That's conditioning. You try to rep it in practice as much as you can. Get around the ball. Mike's whole mantra for our team is '12 is one'. You want to feel like there are 12 guys on the field on defense. All those checkdowns, all those little tackle plays, it helps when your brother is coming next to you. You make just tackles. That's just a mindset. That's just a swagger about us."

(On getting coach Macdonald his first NFL win) "It's good. Obviously, everybody is gassing it up and wants him to blush a little bit, because we are excited for his first win. But, he quickly diverted it and made it all about us, our first win. That's just kind of the guy he is. Of course, all of us, I'm sure there will be a few bottles of wine or something on his desk, maybe a cigar or two, for his first win. We're happy for him, it's his first win as a head coach. It's a huge accomplishment. Now, we just stack. We stack wins."

TE Noah Fant

(On the emphasis on running the ball in the second half) "We were running the ball in the first half, but it was just a different scheme. We tried to find what worked against their defense, and we were able to find some ground there and get K9 (Kenneth Walker III) some good runs. So, it worked out well."

(On Geno Smith's touchdown) "It was great. Anytime we can get the ball in the end zone is a great thing. So, it was a great thing that we had points there."

CB Riq Woolen

(On his interception today after an unsuccessful pick-off attempt in the preseason) "Honestly, it felt nice, just because I was teasing people on the sideline because they (were) like, "Oh, he should have caught the ball," like it's preseason. But I was just like, "When it counts, I'm going to get it." So today, I just was locked in. When the play came my way, I just took advantage and I got an interception today."

(On what happened in his interception) "I love when people run over-routes, so he ran an over-route and I'm just fast, I just chased it down, and the ball was in the air, I caught it, and that was it."

(On the difficulty of the interception) "I'm hard on myself, and I worked so hard this offseason to the point where those plays should be mine. They (Mike Macdonald and Julian Love) said not too many people can make those plays. Well, I feel like I should be making those plays, because I feel like I'm a different person from everybody else. So, it was just a great play and I'm happy we won today."