Chiefs-Benglas Postgame Quotes - Players

Oct 14, 2007, 6:45:43 PM

DE JARED ALLEN
On the defense’s performance after Cincinnati’s first drive: “Lately it’s taken the first drive for us to wake up a little bit. That’s three weeks in a row where we gave up a touchdown during the first drive. We’ve got to stop that. We just went out there and said, ‘Listen, we got to keep getting the ball back to our offense. Our offense is moving the ball well.’ It was just one of those things, we were playing well. When you’re playing well like that and playing as a unit, good things happen.”

On going into the locker room at halftime with a lead: “We almost tried to give it back. We gave up 13 points in the second half. It was a good win. We turned the ball over when we needed to and we stopped them when we needed to. But I think we got a little lackadaisical on those last couple of drives, giving up 10 points in the last two drives. The game was pretty much over and that’s when we need to turn it up. They did some things like going to a no-huddle, which we knew they were going to do. They’re a good offense, they’ll score those points. But we’ll go back and clean that up, but overall it’s a great team win.”

On the Chiefs second-half performance: “They did a lot of different things in the second half. They started chipping me in the end. They started to run a lot of quicks, a lot of three-step [drops], they went no-huddle. They kind of shifted away from the run. Hats of to them for making the plays they needed to make. We knew Carson Palmer was a good quarterback and he was going to get rid of the ball quick. They made an offensive tackle change; he came in and did a better job. They switched things up. We were able to weather it and come out and win.”

On facing the Raiders next week: “We’ll watch film next week, it’s Oakland/Chiefs. This is going to be an intense game. This game is going to mean something. In the past few years that hasn’t been the case. We’ve won out there a lot. I’ve never lost out there. I’m ready to go down there and beat the Raiders and come back for the bye week.”

CB PATRICK SURTAIN
On going against Bengals receiver Chad Johnson: “Chad and I are good friends off the field. So I know he’s a competitor and I’m a competitor, both of us want to win and there were no hard feelings. The guy’s a great receiver and I took it as a challenge to go out there and do the best I can and they had a pretty good game.”

On facing Cincinnati’s offense: “We knew that they were going to be coming off a bye week and they were going to come out strong and they did. They took the ball down the field on the opening drive and scored. We got it together as a group collectively on the sidelines and said, ‘Look, we can’t let this happen, we’re a better defense.’ We came out the rest of the game and proved it.”

On the Chief’s defensive line putting pressure on Bengals QB Carson Palmer: “It was a collective effort and Jared (Allen) made a guy get benched. I told him, ‘Make the next guy go to the bench.’ Not only Jared, but also the whole front four with everybody did a terrific job. When we blitzed we got pressure and we held up back there in the secondary. You’re not going to find a better trio than Carson Palmer, Chad (Johnson) and T.J. (Houshmandzadeh). They got some yards and catches, but for the most part we held them down to the fourth quarter.”

LB DONNIE EDWARDS
On Cincinnati’s first drive: “When you look at the 2007 season, every time we go on the field, the first drive we’re always giving up points or a long drive or something. I don’t know what that is. Maybe we’re just starting a little slow, a little flat early on, but once we get going, we start to play a lot better. I don’t know why that is on the first drive of the game.”

On the defense’s performance this week compared to last week: “I don’t know what it was last week, but we couldn’t get off the field. Coach Edwards and Gunther Cunningham stressed third down defense. All day Thursday we were working on third down defense to get off the field. We did a good job with pass rush and pass coverage, because some of those sacks came from the pass coverage from the corners.”

On calming down S Benny Sapp during the first half: “You got to be smart. You can’t be selfish out there. It’s not just you, it’s a team. It’s third down and we’re off the field. You can’t make mistakes like that. You put it behind you and you keep moving on.”

S BERNARD POLLARD
On playing the prevent defense in the fourth quarter: “It’s okay, we were trying to stop them from scoring and we won the game. Now it’s time to come in and iron some things out and get ready for Oakland.”

On being “subdued” when returning to the locker room after today’s victory: “We knew what we had to do today and we went out there and did it. There are a couple of things that we need to fix and we’ll be all right.”

On the play of the Chiefs defensive front four: “Our front four played really well. Jared (Allen) had three or four sacks and Ron (Edwards) had one. I think we had one or two more. I thought our cornerbacks played an excellent game today. Our linebackers played really well and we stopped them. I don’t know how many yards rushing they had but all I want to say is that I’m going to cut my hair, I’m going to shave my face and I’m going out with D-Bowe (Dwayne Bowe).”

G BRIAN WATERS
On Red Zone scoring: “I wish we could score more touchdowns when we get down in the Red Zone. We did decently well. I’m still searching for a four-quarter game. We’ve yet to have one.”

On the Chiefs offensive performance: “I’m glad we were able to win even though we left some points on the field. I think that’s something we can tip our hats about. But against better football teams, we’ll have to do better. When you have an opportunity to crush a team that’s 1-3 and is coming into your house and you get the momentum going you got to put them away. That’s something we’ve got to learn and that’s a position we haven’t been in for the last few years.”