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Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher
(Opening statement)
“We talked about starting fast and we needed to do that, you know, coming off the bye week. If you get your focus on the start, then you have a tendency to avoid the timing issues that often times happens. So that’s what our focus was. We couldn’t have started off better with the big plays – (WR) Tavon’s (Austin) big play and then specials team again and forcing the turnover and then coming back and getting the fumble and then going up 14 (points). They just played from behind for the rest of the game. They had a great plan from a protection standpoint. We had difficulty getting to him because of play-action and bumping our ends and things like that. But when it counted most (DE Robert Quinn) Rob made his play, which is good to see. Run game – you know, what can you say? (RB) Zac (Stacy) off to a great start. He got dinged, we went to (RB) Benny (Cunningham) and Benny got 100 yards, something plus or something. Credit goes to the big guys up front and the tight ends, and the receivers, and of course the backs, so it’s good to see the run game continue. Overall, big win for us. We’re in the division now, back in the division.”
(On managing the game with a limited number of active players in the secondary considering the injuries)
“We finished the game with four. We had four and so (S) Rodney (McLeod) went to corner and then we had (S Darian Stewart) ‘Stew’ and (S Matt Giordano) ‘Gio’ at safety and ‘Jenks’ was the other corner with base in the last drive when Rodney made the interception. They’ll come back. I think (S) T.J., (McDonald) first day back, on the surface, probably wasn’t his best effort just because he’s a little rusty, but it was great to get him back. I’m sure he’ll be much better next week. We had to make a tough decision this week, which created an opportunity for (CB) Brandon McGee to start at nickelback with respect to (CB) Cortland Finnegan and I’ll give you the history. In the 49er game, Cortland suffered what was described as an orbital fracture right below his eye. We did numerous tests and Cort elected to play with it and was hoping that his issue would clear up and it did not. So he went and got a second opinion during the bye week and was advised to him that he not play anymore, that he seek immediate treatment and/or there may be a corrective procedure they can do. Cort played through it. He wanted to be a part of this, but his injury became prohibitive for him. He has a chance for a full recovery. There’s no surgery that’s been scheduled as of yet, and so we placed him on injured reserve.”
(On if Finnegan experienced blurred vision as a result of his injury)
“Yes, he was struggling with some peripheral vision issues.”
(On how WR Tavon Austin’s 65-yard rush speaks to his athletic ability)
“Yeah, he’s a tremendous athlete. His stop-and-start ability is impressive. You know, we’ve had that in for a while and we pushed it up on the calling list today. Big play for us.”
(On the Rams goal line defense and stopping the Bears on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line.)
“Yeah, (LB) Jo-Lonn (Dunbar) made a great play. He sniffed it out. He knew he had a chance to, we call it the ‘run-thru’ and he made it, and made a big play on fourth-and-goal. It was a huge momentum play for us because we went down and got a field goal. That was a big turnaround for us. Guys played hard up front. (Bears RB) Matt Forté is an outstanding back as you can see. I don’t know how many missed tackles we had, but that’s an area we need to work to improve on, on defense.”
(On the number of penalties and amount of time that came off the clock on Chicago’s fourth-quarter goal line series)
“At that point, we were running time off the clock. That was the primary thing, is try to keep them out of the end zone. You know, I was frustrated with the penalty that was called – the roughing the passer penalty – I was a little frustrated with that. I didn’t think that was appropriate. Like we say often times, they’re going to officiate on the side of player safety. We get that and sometimes we’re not always going to agree with it.”
(On the offense responding from the roughing the passer penalty called on DT Michael Brockers)
“Well the offense was, I think, a little visibly upset at the penalty and they decided to take into their own hands, which was great.”
(On how proud he is of the team for maintaining the lead the entire game)
“They just kept playing. We came in at halftime with the lead and we said we’re going to need to extend it. We challenged them late in the week and even as early as before the kickoff about these 2- to 3-yard carries in the first quarter should turn into 8- and 10-yard carries in the fourth, and so if we could stay with the run game, that’s what we expected to happen and we did.”
Rams QB Kellen Clemens
(On if TE Jared Cook told Clemens that he loved him in the huddle)
"Well, the huddle's kind of like Vegas, what happens there stays there."
(On how he would describe the win)
"I tell you what, it starts with the offensive line up front. You run for 261 (yards) - it was more than that until we had to take some knees. Great job, great job by those guys. Great job by the coaches of scheming it up. Then, obviously (RB) Zac (Stacy) did good. And then, when Benny (Cunningham) came in, stepped up for us in a big way. It was good to see."
(On the play that WR Tavon Austin ran 65 yards for a touchdown)
"I think, obviously, Tavon is finding his niche here. We're doing a good job, as a coaching staff, of finding ways to get him the ball. He's a very unique talent, got great speed, got great vision. It's a great job by him making plays. Then obviously, it was blocked very well. I think (TE) Lance (Kendricks) and maybe it was (WRs Brian) Quick or (Chris) Givens or something out there on the outside. A great job really as a unit on that."
(On what he was saying in the huddle after a penalty and a Chicago score to shrink the lead to six points)
"Again, it goes back to the offensive line. That's a veteran group. So, we knew...'Hey, let's just go down. Let's get points. Take it one play at a time.' And, they did a great job, ran the ball well on the last drive. Benny, obviously, makes the great run and we go in to get six. Then, it was good to get two points on the conversion. (RB) Isaiah Pead is guy that we're still working to get involved and for him to come in - he didn't get a rep at that play all week - and for him to come in, he knew exactly what to do. He made a great play and got us an extra two points we needed."
(On the resiliency of the team after the penalties and injuries of the game)
"I think that we're starting to believe, which is what you need. As a whole, we're starting to believe. We're coming off a big win at Indianapolis. I was proud of the guys. There's no letdown. We didn't come out flat coming off a bye week. A lot of times that happens. I think, again, that goes back to the veterans on this team, the offensive line, a lot of guys on the defense leading this group and making sure we're heading in the right direction."
(On what he is doing right)
"I'm just grateful for the opportunity. I really am. I'm in there with a great group of guys. Receivers are making plays. Jared Cook had some big plays for us again today. Then, obviously again, it goes back to the offensive line. They're giving me a lot of time, and then, we're running the heck out of the ball. I'm really humbled just to be here and trying to enjoy the moment."
(On how Cunningham did carrying the load after Stacy left the game with an injury)
"He's a great back. He really is. He's a great back and he works hard. I was excited to see him get an opportunity and make the most of it."
(On what the feeling was like in the locker room after the win)
"This is what it's all about. That's why we play the game, for the atmosphere in here really before you guys get in here, no offense. That's why we play. We're a close-knit team. We don't have any of the egos. We don't have any issues like that. That's why you play it."
(On what the atmosphere in the locker room is like after Sunday's win)
"That kind of goes back to the Vegas analogy. It's just a lot of high-fives, a lot of hugs. We put in a lot of work. We've gone through some stuff. Obviously, you lose your starting quarterback, that's tough. So, I think the guys really appreciate the wins at this point and hopefully we can keep it going."
Rams DT Michael Brockers
(On the roughing the passer call on the goal line)
“I pride myself on playing within the rule, and within the whistle. Like I said before, I felt it was a bang-bang play for the refs to catch. The caught me with roughing the passer, and I can’t blame him. You can’t catch things like that. It is what it is, and we won.”
(On the team playing well after losing games)
“I think we were just putting the games together. We lost a close one to Seattle. We lost close to the Titans. I think it was about time for this team to step up and kick the young stuff to the curb and understand that this team is a great team. Everybody is good in this league and we just have to make those plays.”
Rams RB Benny Cunningham
(On if he had fun today)
“Most definitely. To get the opportunity to compete at this level and really get a lot of playing time – a great feeling to be productive and help the team.”
(On always having to be prepared in the NFL)
“Always. You never know when your number could be called. You’re always one snap away and that’s kind of how I try to prepare myself.”
(On the key to resurgence being a productive run game)
“Yeah, the O-line has done an excellent job these past weeks opening the holes, being physical. The practice squad guys have done an excellent job preparing those guys with a lot of hard, brutal padded practices, and I feel like it’s kind of paying off and showing in the games.”
(On if he was champing at the bit to get his opportunity)
“Most definitely. Kind of watching and you always want to get the opportunity. I just felt like if I kept preparing myself like a starter, I wouldn’t have to get ready because I would already be ready. Once again, the O-line just did an excellent job. They just opened it up in this game.”
(On if he is happy with the complete team effort the past two weeks)
“Most definitely. If y’all could just see how the O-line works in practice, y’all would have a better understanding of how the game’s going to go. Coach pushes us, the running backs coach, Coach Ben (Sirmans), he really challenges us to take over the games. We’re a young group, so we do our best to be productive, and I’m glad and proud that I can come out and help the offense.”
Rams DE Robert Quinn
(On the defense being close to so many sacks)
“Yeah it’s satisfying to be close all game and don’t come up with one. The win was the main thing so I’m definitely happy we’re continuing on our winning roll, and we’ll prepare for next week against (The) San Fran(cisco 49ers).”
(On the fight during the game)
“I have no idea what happened. Me and my team mates were going over to check on (DE) Will(iam Hayes) because there was a lot of guys around him. I was just helping my teammate, making sure nothing crazy happened. How it started, I have no idea but we’ve got to have our teammates’ backs.”
(On being close on sacks before finally getting one)
“It’s frustrating. You’ve just got to keep chipping away. You’re going to eventually catch a break, and I happened to catch one then. (Got the) forced fumble, sack, touchdown, all that good stuff. That’s tough to do. The main part is we got a great victory over a great team, and hopefully we can finish strong the rest of this year.”
Rams TE Jared Cook
(On the team’s back to back wins)
“It’s just been a push by everybody on this team just getting the job done. (DE) Will Hayes has been encouraging us the past three weeks that we kind of needed to change some stuff up and work harder, so that’s what we’ve been doing.”
(On QB Kellen Clemens’ play and ability to move the ball consistently)
“Kellen’s a great quarterback. We’ve always had confidence in Kellen. He communicates well. He really leads this offense to do great things and he can make plays with his feet, so he’s been doing a tremendous job of just getting us down the field and putting us in great positions where we can just keep the chains moving.”
(On WR Tavon Austin’s big play ability and explosiveness)
“It’s huge. With his speed and his quickness he can make things happen that a lot of other guys can’t, and for ‘Schotty’ (Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) to use that to our ability to help us out, it’s huge.”
Rams WR Tavon Austin
(On his first touchdown)
“The coaches called a great play. It was a reverse and I came back around with it. I had two key blocks out there, Chris (Givens) and A.P. (WR Austin Pettis) and I let my speed handle the rest.”
(On if he feels more confident and if the game is slowing down for him)
“Definitely slowing down. I’ve been put in great situations so far and I’m glad I took advantage of them and I hope they keep coming. Hopefully I’ll keep taking advantage of them.”
(On the team overall)
“We’re definitely always a great team we just couldn’t put it all together. It’s definitely coming together for us now and sooner or later we’ll definitely be a great team.”
(On the transition to QB Kellen Clemens)
“I mean both of them are the same. It’s kind of just having opportunities and taking advantage of them. I’m just glad that he’s doing well and all of us surrounding him just try to keep making plays for him.”
(On the big stops by the defense)
“We’ve got a great defense. Those stops definitely burnt up a lot of the clock. We got the ball back and marched down the field and we got a great score.”
(On his touchdown play)
“It definitely was put in for me to try to get the ball in my hand a little bit. I just came around right and took it back around the same way I motioned from. Had some great key blocks out there and I’m glad to make a play.”
(On if the play was put in this week)
“Yeah it was put in this week. Probably early in the week…Tuesday.”
(On if there is a name for the play)
“No it’s just end around right. I just go in and take it from there.”
Rams DE Chris Long
(On the team’s play)
“We created a turnover and scored on defense today when it counted. Run the football, don’t turn the ball over, forced some turnovers. That’s usually the formula for success. We usually play well on the road and today we kind of played well at a neutral site. Nothing against our fans, their fans travel well. I hope they have a good trip home.”
(On the team being on a roll)
“I wouldn’t call it a roll yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a big divisional game this weekend. We’ve put (up) two good results in a row. We’ve played well some games and lost. It’s gratifying to play well and win.”
(On the fight between the teams)
“It’s tough. One of your best friends (Rams DE William Hayes) and your brother (Bears OL Kyle Long). Like I said, during the game, yeah you think about it, but it’s not the first time I’ve restrained him. I think both of those big strong guys probably needed to be restrained there. They’re two of the strongest people I know. I’m just glad everybody got out of there OK, it’s just a heated game.”
(On if he was helping his brother by pulling him away from the fight)
“If pulling him out of the pile and yoking him up is helping him … I’m trying to get him off of my teammate just like any other situation that would arise. I don’t want us to get a flag, and one way to defuse that situation is to get everybody out of there. He happened to be the body that I saw.”
(On the goal line stands)
“The goal line stands were great, including the one at the end where it should have been a goal-line stand. That was a tremendous goal-line stand. We stopped them like four times. We all know what that call looked like.”
(On having his father, Howie Long, at the game to see him and his brother)
“It was really special for us. We won’t get another opportunity like that, so it’s special.”
Chicago Bears Head Coach Marc Trestman
(On the Game)
“Congratulations to Jeff (Fisher) and the Rams, they played a heck of a game today. They got off to a fast start and we didn’t. Just a little bit of what I told them in the locker room is that you win as a team and you lose as a team. Today we lost as a team. We lost in all three phases of football. We didn’t play well enough to win. I didn’t get specific with them. We will look at the tape tomorrow, make the corrections and continue to move on. I also told our team that they have tremendous back bone and resiliency; they fought the whole way through. The effort was outstanding in all three phases. Part of the things that really hurt us today, number one was our slow start on defense. That first drive happened fast and we knew things would happen fast. We knew they would be ready for us after two weeks. We talked about that and we didn’t get it down. We had the fumble and the touchdown offensively, that really hurt us, too get down 14-0, but our guys didn’t flinch, they kept fighting. We didn’t stop the run today; we still had to many penalties in all three phases. That really hurt us, field position, kicking game, offensively and defensively the penalties really hurt us. You can go grow them, and every one of them strongly affected the football game. We didn’t get that done. We weren’t able to score fast enough when we got into the red zone. We had the fourth and one stop and we were going to go for it on fourth down. This was a bit of a track meet out there today and I know that those three points seem like a lot, but I am very confident that it was the right thing to do. In the long run we were hoping that if the offense didn’t make it that the defense would make the stop and we would be in three point range again. We had to play for points today because the nature of the game and the pace of the game was frantic out there. Their team speed showed up and we hung in there with our team speed, particularly on the offensive side of the ball by moving the football around and making plays. I will just leave it at that. I left it with the guys that we know where we stand in our division after this game. It is an opportunity to learn from it and tomorrow when they show up to work there will be a lot of teams in our division, two primary teams us and Detroit, that are going to have to deal with adversity. Our guys are ready to handle it, embrace it, and go back to work. We have to put it behind us and move forward. It is a fluid season, there is so much that could happen, not just with Detroit but within our division and this league. We have to take the emotion out of it, and it is hard to do right now after a loss, but we will go ahead and get them in in the morning, get their weights in and we will make the corrections and move forward in game planning. We will work on Week 12, that is what we will do.”
(On knowing that Detroit lost, how big of an opportunity a win today would have been)
“You have asked a question that you know the answer to. Obviously, it would have been a tremendous opportunity to take the lead by wins, that didn’t happen. I think that we have a strong enough team to face it, we know that we have work to do. There is no doubt about it. Our guys are up for it. We have a strong hungry football team that is passionate about playing the game, practicing the game and winning. I expect that we are going to get over it, and we are going to get over it quickly. By Wednesday they will be back at it and ready to work.”
(On noticing anything pregame that would indicate that the team was not mentally ready)
“Not at all. When you say team, that is a little harsh because we had a player make a dynamic play and took it for a touchdown and we put the ball on the ground. If one guy does it we all do it, I recognize that. Our guys were ready to play today. I think they were ready and I think that showed up over the course of the game. At the end of the day, to have those type of penalties hurts you tremendously and it wasn’t the pre-snap penalties that we had to control today, because we did a good job on both sides of the ball, but we played a fast team and things came up in all three phases. The penalties had a lot to do with real estate and field position, obviously, and starts for the offense.”
(On playing it safe and running the ball at the end of the first half)
“That is a great question. They had two time outs left, we are trying to run the ball and get the clock down and prevent the punt. We were trying to avoid the punt as much as anything, to give them an extra opportunity to make a play. That was a clear decision of do we take an aggressive approach. If we would have been coming out on defense at the break, I would have thought about it a little differently. But knowing that we were going to get the football in 12 minutes, but we didn’t get it done there either. We had two runs and the second was a tackle for a loss and then we kicked out a short screen which is really like a run, then we got a tip ball and a lot happened after that. We didn’t knock the time off the clock that we wanted to and our defense did a good job of making the stop and holding them without a field goal at the end of the half.”
(On the play before the fourth and one)
“I didn’t see much, I just saw that the throw was a little under thrown. I think we had a clear area there to score there but we didn’t execute the play. I won’t really know until tomorrow as to why that happened, but we didn’t execute the play.”
(On not being able to score from the Red Zone)
“You have to credit to the Rams, they did a heck of a job. Certainly we have to look at our goal line offense, which is a very difficult thing to practice. We spend a lot of time walking through it, but you can’t get those types of reps. We didn’t get it done today; I give credit to the Rams. We kept fighting. We still got in, but it cost us three minutes off the clock which really hurt our time of possession. We are sitting there at 35 plus minutes but it is pretty meaningless because of those three minutes we spent on the one-yard line. A lot of that was penalty laden and everything else, but we didn’t score fast enough.”
(On the team’s run defense)
“Right now we haven’t done a good job of consistently stopping the run. We have to try and find a way to do a better job. I know that you may not see that happening in practice. I think the guys are in the right place but we didn’t get it done. I am not going to go into the technical aspect of it, but I do know this, I think we are putting in the time and the effort and we just have to continue to work at it. I know we will. We have to do a better job next week.”
(On the emotional day for G Kyle Long)
“I looked over at him once and got a hold of him and he seemed to have quieted himself down. I wasn’t going to add anything to it. I think I will be able talk more about it tomorrow because I really couldn’t see everything that happened. I saw Kyle lose his temper but I don’t know why and I was on the other side of the field so I didn’t really get a view of it.”
(On what makes DE Robert Quinn a matchup nightmare)
“We only had two sacks to my recollection. We had one late hit. Our guys did a good job, I thought (T) Jermon Bushrod did a good job. We were able to throw the ball pretty effectively and when the pocket collapsed QB Josh McCown did a good job of moving around. It is just the overall package, he has size, he has speed, he has strength and he is very difficult to manage and I thought overall that Bushrod did a heck of a job against him today. We gave him help when we could and we tried to mix up the screens and move some people around and throw the ball quickly, but he is an outstanding player.”
Bears QB Josh McCown
(On if he feels comfortable out there after playing a few games as the starter now)
“Yeah, I do. To be clear, I’m the backup and I’m just playing right now. Part of the backup’s job is to feel comfortable when he has to play, so I definitely feel comfortable. Again, I say it all the time, how could you not with the guys that I get to walk in the huddle with and get to play with? With our offense and what we’re doing, it’s fun to get to work in and it’s a privilege to get to work in, so I feel comfortable, yeah.”
(On the struggles in the redzone)
“I’ll have to look at the tape to be able to give you a better answer, but just thinking back on it, I can’t speak for anybody else, but I just know I want to be better down there. So my intention is to look at the tape and see how I can improve and get better
(Opening statement)
“We talked about starting fast and we needed to do that, you know, coming off the bye week. If you get your focus on the start, then you have a tendency to avoid the timing issues that often times happens. So that’s what our focus was. We couldn’t have started off better with the big plays – (WR) Tavon’s (Austin) big play and then specials team again and forcing the turnover and then coming back and getting the fumble and then going up 14 (points). They just played from behind for the rest of the game. They had a great plan from a protection standpoint. We had difficulty getting to him because of play-action and bumping our ends and things like that. But when it counted most (DE Robert Quinn) Rob made his play, which is good to see. Run game – you know, what can you say? (RB) Zac (Stacy) off to a great start. He got dinged, we went to (RB) Benny (Cunningham) and Benny got 100 yards, something plus or something. Credit goes to the big guys up front and the tight ends, and the receivers, and of course the backs, so it’s good to see the run game continue. Overall, big win for us. We’re in the division now, back in the division.”
(On managing the game with a limited number of active players in the secondary considering the injuries)
“We finished the game with four. We had four and so (S) Rodney (McLeod) went to corner and then we had (S Darian Stewart) ‘Stew’ and (S Matt Giordano) ‘Gio’ at safety and ‘Jenks’ was the other corner with base in the last drive when Rodney made the interception. They’ll come back. I think (S) T.J., (McDonald) first day back, on the surface, probably wasn’t his best effort just because he’s a little rusty, but it was great to get him back. I’m sure he’ll be much better next week. We had to make a tough decision this week, which created an opportunity for (CB) Brandon McGee to start at nickelback with respect to (CB) Cortland Finnegan and I’ll give you the history. In the 49er game, Cortland suffered what was described as an orbital fracture right below his eye. We did numerous tests and Cort elected to play with it and was hoping that his issue would clear up and it did not. So he went and got a second opinion during the bye week and was advised to him that he not play anymore, that he seek immediate treatment and/or there may be a corrective procedure they can do. Cort played through it. He wanted to be a part of this, but his injury became prohibitive for him. He has a chance for a full recovery. There’s no surgery that’s been scheduled as of yet, and so we placed him on injured reserve.”
(On if Finnegan experienced blurred vision as a result of his injury)
“Yes, he was struggling with some peripheral vision issues.”
(On how WR Tavon Austin’s 65-yard rush speaks to his athletic ability)
“Yeah, he’s a tremendous athlete. His stop-and-start ability is impressive. You know, we’ve had that in for a while and we pushed it up on the calling list today. Big play for us.”
(On the Rams goal line defense and stopping the Bears on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line.)
“Yeah, (LB) Jo-Lonn (Dunbar) made a great play. He sniffed it out. He knew he had a chance to, we call it the ‘run-thru’ and he made it, and made a big play on fourth-and-goal. It was a huge momentum play for us because we went down and got a field goal. That was a big turnaround for us. Guys played hard up front. (Bears RB) Matt Forté is an outstanding back as you can see. I don’t know how many missed tackles we had, but that’s an area we need to work to improve on, on defense.”
(On the number of penalties and amount of time that came off the clock on Chicago’s fourth-quarter goal line series)
“At that point, we were running time off the clock. That was the primary thing, is try to keep them out of the end zone. You know, I was frustrated with the penalty that was called – the roughing the passer penalty – I was a little frustrated with that. I didn’t think that was appropriate. Like we say often times, they’re going to officiate on the side of player safety. We get that and sometimes we’re not always going to agree with it.”
(On the offense responding from the roughing the passer penalty called on DT Michael Brockers)
“Well the offense was, I think, a little visibly upset at the penalty and they decided to take into their own hands, which was great.”
(On how proud he is of the team for maintaining the lead the entire game)
“They just kept playing. We came in at halftime with the lead and we said we’re going to need to extend it. We challenged them late in the week and even as early as before the kickoff about these 2- to 3-yard carries in the first quarter should turn into 8- and 10-yard carries in the fourth, and so if we could stay with the run game, that’s what we expected to happen and we did.”
Rams QB Kellen Clemens
(On if TE Jared Cook told Clemens that he loved him in the huddle)
"Well, the huddle's kind of like Vegas, what happens there stays there."
(On how he would describe the win)
"I tell you what, it starts with the offensive line up front. You run for 261 (yards) - it was more than that until we had to take some knees. Great job, great job by those guys. Great job by the coaches of scheming it up. Then, obviously (RB) Zac (Stacy) did good. And then, when Benny (Cunningham) came in, stepped up for us in a big way. It was good to see."
(On the play that WR Tavon Austin ran 65 yards for a touchdown)
"I think, obviously, Tavon is finding his niche here. We're doing a good job, as a coaching staff, of finding ways to get him the ball. He's a very unique talent, got great speed, got great vision. It's a great job by him making plays. Then obviously, it was blocked very well. I think (TE) Lance (Kendricks) and maybe it was (WRs Brian) Quick or (Chris) Givens or something out there on the outside. A great job really as a unit on that."
(On what he was saying in the huddle after a penalty and a Chicago score to shrink the lead to six points)
"Again, it goes back to the offensive line. That's a veteran group. So, we knew...'Hey, let's just go down. Let's get points. Take it one play at a time.' And, they did a great job, ran the ball well on the last drive. Benny, obviously, makes the great run and we go in to get six. Then, it was good to get two points on the conversion. (RB) Isaiah Pead is guy that we're still working to get involved and for him to come in - he didn't get a rep at that play all week - and for him to come in, he knew exactly what to do. He made a great play and got us an extra two points we needed."
(On the resiliency of the team after the penalties and injuries of the game)
"I think that we're starting to believe, which is what you need. As a whole, we're starting to believe. We're coming off a big win at Indianapolis. I was proud of the guys. There's no letdown. We didn't come out flat coming off a bye week. A lot of times that happens. I think, again, that goes back to the veterans on this team, the offensive line, a lot of guys on the defense leading this group and making sure we're heading in the right direction."
(On what he is doing right)
"I'm just grateful for the opportunity. I really am. I'm in there with a great group of guys. Receivers are making plays. Jared Cook had some big plays for us again today. Then, obviously again, it goes back to the offensive line. They're giving me a lot of time, and then, we're running the heck out of the ball. I'm really humbled just to be here and trying to enjoy the moment."
(On how Cunningham did carrying the load after Stacy left the game with an injury)
"He's a great back. He really is. He's a great back and he works hard. I was excited to see him get an opportunity and make the most of it."
(On what the feeling was like in the locker room after the win)
"This is what it's all about. That's why we play the game, for the atmosphere in here really before you guys get in here, no offense. That's why we play. We're a close-knit team. We don't have any of the egos. We don't have any issues like that. That's why you play it."
(On what the atmosphere in the locker room is like after Sunday's win)
"That kind of goes back to the Vegas analogy. It's just a lot of high-fives, a lot of hugs. We put in a lot of work. We've gone through some stuff. Obviously, you lose your starting quarterback, that's tough. So, I think the guys really appreciate the wins at this point and hopefully we can keep it going."
Rams DT Michael Brockers
(On the roughing the passer call on the goal line)
“I pride myself on playing within the rule, and within the whistle. Like I said before, I felt it was a bang-bang play for the refs to catch. The caught me with roughing the passer, and I can’t blame him. You can’t catch things like that. It is what it is, and we won.”
(On the team playing well after losing games)
“I think we were just putting the games together. We lost a close one to Seattle. We lost close to the Titans. I think it was about time for this team to step up and kick the young stuff to the curb and understand that this team is a great team. Everybody is good in this league and we just have to make those plays.”
Rams RB Benny Cunningham
(On if he had fun today)
“Most definitely. To get the opportunity to compete at this level and really get a lot of playing time – a great feeling to be productive and help the team.”
(On always having to be prepared in the NFL)
“Always. You never know when your number could be called. You’re always one snap away and that’s kind of how I try to prepare myself.”
(On the key to resurgence being a productive run game)
“Yeah, the O-line has done an excellent job these past weeks opening the holes, being physical. The practice squad guys have done an excellent job preparing those guys with a lot of hard, brutal padded practices, and I feel like it’s kind of paying off and showing in the games.”
(On if he was champing at the bit to get his opportunity)
“Most definitely. Kind of watching and you always want to get the opportunity. I just felt like if I kept preparing myself like a starter, I wouldn’t have to get ready because I would already be ready. Once again, the O-line just did an excellent job. They just opened it up in this game.”
(On if he is happy with the complete team effort the past two weeks)
“Most definitely. If y’all could just see how the O-line works in practice, y’all would have a better understanding of how the game’s going to go. Coach pushes us, the running backs coach, Coach Ben (Sirmans), he really challenges us to take over the games. We’re a young group, so we do our best to be productive, and I’m glad and proud that I can come out and help the offense.”
Rams DE Robert Quinn
(On the defense being close to so many sacks)
“Yeah it’s satisfying to be close all game and don’t come up with one. The win was the main thing so I’m definitely happy we’re continuing on our winning roll, and we’ll prepare for next week against (The) San Fran(cisco 49ers).”
(On the fight during the game)
“I have no idea what happened. Me and my team mates were going over to check on (DE) Will(iam Hayes) because there was a lot of guys around him. I was just helping my teammate, making sure nothing crazy happened. How it started, I have no idea but we’ve got to have our teammates’ backs.”
(On being close on sacks before finally getting one)
“It’s frustrating. You’ve just got to keep chipping away. You’re going to eventually catch a break, and I happened to catch one then. (Got the) forced fumble, sack, touchdown, all that good stuff. That’s tough to do. The main part is we got a great victory over a great team, and hopefully we can finish strong the rest of this year.”
Rams TE Jared Cook
(On the team’s back to back wins)
“It’s just been a push by everybody on this team just getting the job done. (DE) Will Hayes has been encouraging us the past three weeks that we kind of needed to change some stuff up and work harder, so that’s what we’ve been doing.”
(On QB Kellen Clemens’ play and ability to move the ball consistently)
“Kellen’s a great quarterback. We’ve always had confidence in Kellen. He communicates well. He really leads this offense to do great things and he can make plays with his feet, so he’s been doing a tremendous job of just getting us down the field and putting us in great positions where we can just keep the chains moving.”
(On WR Tavon Austin’s big play ability and explosiveness)
“It’s huge. With his speed and his quickness he can make things happen that a lot of other guys can’t, and for ‘Schotty’ (Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) to use that to our ability to help us out, it’s huge.”
Rams WR Tavon Austin
(On his first touchdown)
“The coaches called a great play. It was a reverse and I came back around with it. I had two key blocks out there, Chris (Givens) and A.P. (WR Austin Pettis) and I let my speed handle the rest.”
(On if he feels more confident and if the game is slowing down for him)
“Definitely slowing down. I’ve been put in great situations so far and I’m glad I took advantage of them and I hope they keep coming. Hopefully I’ll keep taking advantage of them.”
(On the team overall)
“We’re definitely always a great team we just couldn’t put it all together. It’s definitely coming together for us now and sooner or later we’ll definitely be a great team.”
(On the transition to QB Kellen Clemens)
“I mean both of them are the same. It’s kind of just having opportunities and taking advantage of them. I’m just glad that he’s doing well and all of us surrounding him just try to keep making plays for him.”
(On the big stops by the defense)
“We’ve got a great defense. Those stops definitely burnt up a lot of the clock. We got the ball back and marched down the field and we got a great score.”
(On his touchdown play)
“It definitely was put in for me to try to get the ball in my hand a little bit. I just came around right and took it back around the same way I motioned from. Had some great key blocks out there and I’m glad to make a play.”
(On if the play was put in this week)
“Yeah it was put in this week. Probably early in the week…Tuesday.”
(On if there is a name for the play)
“No it’s just end around right. I just go in and take it from there.”
Rams DE Chris Long
(On the team’s play)
“We created a turnover and scored on defense today when it counted. Run the football, don’t turn the ball over, forced some turnovers. That’s usually the formula for success. We usually play well on the road and today we kind of played well at a neutral site. Nothing against our fans, their fans travel well. I hope they have a good trip home.”
(On the team being on a roll)
“I wouldn’t call it a roll yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a big divisional game this weekend. We’ve put (up) two good results in a row. We’ve played well some games and lost. It’s gratifying to play well and win.”
(On the fight between the teams)
“It’s tough. One of your best friends (Rams DE William Hayes) and your brother (Bears OL Kyle Long). Like I said, during the game, yeah you think about it, but it’s not the first time I’ve restrained him. I think both of those big strong guys probably needed to be restrained there. They’re two of the strongest people I know. I’m just glad everybody got out of there OK, it’s just a heated game.”
(On if he was helping his brother by pulling him away from the fight)
“If pulling him out of the pile and yoking him up is helping him … I’m trying to get him off of my teammate just like any other situation that would arise. I don’t want us to get a flag, and one way to defuse that situation is to get everybody out of there. He happened to be the body that I saw.”
(On the goal line stands)
“The goal line stands were great, including the one at the end where it should have been a goal-line stand. That was a tremendous goal-line stand. We stopped them like four times. We all know what that call looked like.”
(On having his father, Howie Long, at the game to see him and his brother)
“It was really special for us. We won’t get another opportunity like that, so it’s special.”
Chicago Bears Head Coach Marc Trestman
(On the Game)
“Congratulations to Jeff (Fisher) and the Rams, they played a heck of a game today. They got off to a fast start and we didn’t. Just a little bit of what I told them in the locker room is that you win as a team and you lose as a team. Today we lost as a team. We lost in all three phases of football. We didn’t play well enough to win. I didn’t get specific with them. We will look at the tape tomorrow, make the corrections and continue to move on. I also told our team that they have tremendous back bone and resiliency; they fought the whole way through. The effort was outstanding in all three phases. Part of the things that really hurt us today, number one was our slow start on defense. That first drive happened fast and we knew things would happen fast. We knew they would be ready for us after two weeks. We talked about that and we didn’t get it down. We had the fumble and the touchdown offensively, that really hurt us, too get down 14-0, but our guys didn’t flinch, they kept fighting. We didn’t stop the run today; we still had to many penalties in all three phases. That really hurt us, field position, kicking game, offensively and defensively the penalties really hurt us. You can go grow them, and every one of them strongly affected the football game. We didn’t get that done. We weren’t able to score fast enough when we got into the red zone. We had the fourth and one stop and we were going to go for it on fourth down. This was a bit of a track meet out there today and I know that those three points seem like a lot, but I am very confident that it was the right thing to do. In the long run we were hoping that if the offense didn’t make it that the defense would make the stop and we would be in three point range again. We had to play for points today because the nature of the game and the pace of the game was frantic out there. Their team speed showed up and we hung in there with our team speed, particularly on the offensive side of the ball by moving the football around and making plays. I will just leave it at that. I left it with the guys that we know where we stand in our division after this game. It is an opportunity to learn from it and tomorrow when they show up to work there will be a lot of teams in our division, two primary teams us and Detroit, that are going to have to deal with adversity. Our guys are ready to handle it, embrace it, and go back to work. We have to put it behind us and move forward. It is a fluid season, there is so much that could happen, not just with Detroit but within our division and this league. We have to take the emotion out of it, and it is hard to do right now after a loss, but we will go ahead and get them in in the morning, get their weights in and we will make the corrections and move forward in game planning. We will work on Week 12, that is what we will do.”
(On knowing that Detroit lost, how big of an opportunity a win today would have been)
“You have asked a question that you know the answer to. Obviously, it would have been a tremendous opportunity to take the lead by wins, that didn’t happen. I think that we have a strong enough team to face it, we know that we have work to do. There is no doubt about it. Our guys are up for it. We have a strong hungry football team that is passionate about playing the game, practicing the game and winning. I expect that we are going to get over it, and we are going to get over it quickly. By Wednesday they will be back at it and ready to work.”
(On noticing anything pregame that would indicate that the team was not mentally ready)
“Not at all. When you say team, that is a little harsh because we had a player make a dynamic play and took it for a touchdown and we put the ball on the ground. If one guy does it we all do it, I recognize that. Our guys were ready to play today. I think they were ready and I think that showed up over the course of the game. At the end of the day, to have those type of penalties hurts you tremendously and it wasn’t the pre-snap penalties that we had to control today, because we did a good job on both sides of the ball, but we played a fast team and things came up in all three phases. The penalties had a lot to do with real estate and field position, obviously, and starts for the offense.”
(On playing it safe and running the ball at the end of the first half)
“That is a great question. They had two time outs left, we are trying to run the ball and get the clock down and prevent the punt. We were trying to avoid the punt as much as anything, to give them an extra opportunity to make a play. That was a clear decision of do we take an aggressive approach. If we would have been coming out on defense at the break, I would have thought about it a little differently. But knowing that we were going to get the football in 12 minutes, but we didn’t get it done there either. We had two runs and the second was a tackle for a loss and then we kicked out a short screen which is really like a run, then we got a tip ball and a lot happened after that. We didn’t knock the time off the clock that we wanted to and our defense did a good job of making the stop and holding them without a field goal at the end of the half.”
(On the play before the fourth and one)
“I didn’t see much, I just saw that the throw was a little under thrown. I think we had a clear area there to score there but we didn’t execute the play. I won’t really know until tomorrow as to why that happened, but we didn’t execute the play.”
(On not being able to score from the Red Zone)
“You have to credit to the Rams, they did a heck of a job. Certainly we have to look at our goal line offense, which is a very difficult thing to practice. We spend a lot of time walking through it, but you can’t get those types of reps. We didn’t get it done today; I give credit to the Rams. We kept fighting. We still got in, but it cost us three minutes off the clock which really hurt our time of possession. We are sitting there at 35 plus minutes but it is pretty meaningless because of those three minutes we spent on the one-yard line. A lot of that was penalty laden and everything else, but we didn’t score fast enough.”
(On the team’s run defense)
“Right now we haven’t done a good job of consistently stopping the run. We have to try and find a way to do a better job. I know that you may not see that happening in practice. I think the guys are in the right place but we didn’t get it done. I am not going to go into the technical aspect of it, but I do know this, I think we are putting in the time and the effort and we just have to continue to work at it. I know we will. We have to do a better job next week.”
(On the emotional day for G Kyle Long)
“I looked over at him once and got a hold of him and he seemed to have quieted himself down. I wasn’t going to add anything to it. I think I will be able talk more about it tomorrow because I really couldn’t see everything that happened. I saw Kyle lose his temper but I don’t know why and I was on the other side of the field so I didn’t really get a view of it.”
(On what makes DE Robert Quinn a matchup nightmare)
“We only had two sacks to my recollection. We had one late hit. Our guys did a good job, I thought (T) Jermon Bushrod did a good job. We were able to throw the ball pretty effectively and when the pocket collapsed QB Josh McCown did a good job of moving around. It is just the overall package, he has size, he has speed, he has strength and he is very difficult to manage and I thought overall that Bushrod did a heck of a job against him today. We gave him help when we could and we tried to mix up the screens and move some people around and throw the ball quickly, but he is an outstanding player.”
Bears QB Josh McCown
(On if he feels comfortable out there after playing a few games as the starter now)
“Yeah, I do. To be clear, I’m the backup and I’m just playing right now. Part of the backup’s job is to feel comfortable when he has to play, so I definitely feel comfortable. Again, I say it all the time, how could you not with the guys that I get to walk in the huddle with and get to play with? With our offense and what we’re doing, it’s fun to get to work in and it’s a privilege to get to work in, so I feel comfortable, yeah.”
(On the struggles in the redzone)
“I’ll have to look at the tape to be able to give you a better answer, but just thinking back on it, I can’t speak for anybody else, but I just know I want to be better down there. So my intention is to look at the tape and see how I can improve and get better
