Seahawks - 26, Denver - 20
SEAN PAYTON: That led to some longer yardage situations. I didn't feel like we ran the ball particularly well enough, not near consistently enough, and there's more stress obviously that falls on the quarterback.
But our third downs, the numbers aren't going to be great. I haven't seen them yet, but I just know, based on the stances we were operating from.
It was a game where you felt the momentum shift first half, second half, and I just finished telling the team there's not many games where that momentum doesn't swing towards each team. It's pretty common. Then getting it back as quickly as possible is important.
We saw a little bit more tempo from them offensively to get their offense going, and in the end we were short. We didn't score enough. We had some opportunities early. We get the early turnover. We end up settling for a field goal.
So I'm sure there will be a lot we have to coach up after looking at the tape. Any questions?
Q. Did you think Bo was a little jittery early and finally got into it?
SEAN PAYTON: No, I didn't. I thought he seemed calm, poised. I felt like he was very comfortable and ready.
Q. How have you seen him sort of handle the adversity he's faced?
SEAN PAYTON: Look, I think -- I don't know how many balls we dropped. So I've said this before, for any quarterback playing, we've got to be more effective running the football. If you take away his scrambling yards, I think we're somewhere 60 yards rushing to their 140, so not nearly good enough.
Q. Do you see that last drive scoring the touchdown give him some confidence moving forward?
SEAN PAYTON: Listen, I think part of being a young player, he's a fairly confident -- I don't want to say kid, but I felt the whole time he was into it, competing. We've just got to be better around him. That's my impressions from just watching it, without looking at the tape.
Q. When you look at the run totals, is part of it, like you said, you just weren't very good at it?
SEAN PAYTON: Listen, there's always that balance of, man, we're attempting to, and it's hard to keep -- whether it's base personnel, we're going to look at the tape and we're going to see this and that, but we've got to evaluate -- us as coaches, we've got to evaluate the run plan and why it wasn't as effective as we'd like.
It's going to be hard to play quarterback, period, if that's the best we can do running the ball.
Q. What did the Seahawks do in the second half, specifically the third quarter on offense, when they wrapped up the game?
SEAN PAYTON: A lot of tempo, a lot of at the line, maybe shift. So they kind of changed from huddle to mortem Poe and hit us with some gun runs. Looked like some check with me plays at the line.
Q. Sean, how's Garett Bolles' ankle? Seemed like he tried to get back in it?
SEAN PAYTON: He's going to be fine. He had an MRI. I think the evaluation is fine. He has a bruise.
Q. 40 attempts, did you want that coming in?
SEAN PAYTON: No, it's a by-product of a lot of times -- you get into the fourth quarter, and heck no. No.
Q. Sean, were some of the empty four wide --
SEAN PAYTON: There's just oddball looks you're trying to find completions. Sometimes we're in a heavy personnel trying to get a certain matchup. A lot of times, it's something you see defensively that you want to get to.
I thought -- listen, I thought he was into it. I never felt like it was too big or confusing. He was sharp. And I thought he actually extended some plays with his feet.
Again, we'll look at the tape, but we'll have to be better around him.
Q. Did the defense wear down? You weren't as strong in the second half as you were in the first.
SEAN PAYTON: It's a fair question. The time of possession, certainly we would have liked to have a drive to start the second half. We were three and out, and then I think we gave up a touchdown on that next drive. So the momentum shifted there early in the third quarter.
Yeah, we struggled at that point. Took a while to get it back.
Q. The early settling for a field goal a couple times in the red zone, how much can that take the wind out of your sails?
SEAN PAYTON: In the back of everyone's mind when that happens -- like we had the early turnover, and we're in a pretty good position. We've got a good play, the play we want, I think we have a false start. Correct? First down or after, there's a first and goal after, I think, a run or two runs. And it just can't happen.
Q. Sean, you've seen a lot of football. You had two safeties in the first half plus you get the muffed punt. How frustrating is it to have those?
SEAN PAYTON: Not enough came of it. Now, the safeties are the safeties, and the interesting thing with the safeties are that I don't know -- we were able to catch the ball obviously in plus eight -- you know, it gives yourself a chance to possibly returning it. I would say it's not as penalizing as perhaps in the past because you have hang time and all of that, but it is what it is.
Yeah, the muffed punt, the interception, we've got to be better than -- I've got to be better. The thing that was frustrating is the down and distance efficiency for us offensively on first or second down. There were too many third down and eight or more.
Q. Why do you say you have to be better?
SEAN PAYTON: Just, hey, any time we have a plan like that and we don't execute or we don't run the ball as well, then you've got to look at why. That's why.
Q. You had a lot of possessions, but I think seven three and outs. How difficult is it to get into a rhythm when you don't generate that first down?
SEAN PAYTON: I think it's very difficult. Generally if you're playing good offense, you're making -- a lot of times, you're making first downs on first or second down. So there's like a CFL number we look at. How are you doing? How are you doing on first and second down converting first downs?
Obviously, that would have been minute today, my guess.
Q. Coach, fourth and one from your own 39 early in the fourth quarter. Did you think about going for it right there? Why did you ultimately decide not to?
SEAN PAYTON: Look, time-wise, I felt we had plenty of time. But, yeah, I did think about it.
Q. How do you think you did sort of predicting what a first year staff was going to do against you?
SEAN PAYTON: I think it was -- we didn't get as much man-to-man on defense. We had a little bit more fire zone coverage. I think offense in the second half, they got into some no huddle shift and motion, package plays that we didn't play as well.
Yeah, but we got the base front like we thought and the nickel like we thought. Again, it's -- there is that difference in personnel here than maybe Woody had, and certainly Mike's smart enough to take and try to do the things that suit this team.
Q. You have a lot of experience evaluating quarterbacks. Sometimes you can be really critical. It seems like with Bo you're maybe adding the context, first game --
SEAN PAYTON: Listen, like I said, we'll watch the tape, but he gave us a chance. Our protection was average at best. And I just think -- and I believe this -- we have to -- at one point in the game I came to the bench and talked to the receivers and said, let's go. I don't know how many drops we had, but, man, let's help this guy.
So anymore? All right, thanks.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports