Seahawks 26, Broncos 20
SEAN PAYTON: Coming off the field, one of the things that we felt was important in this game offensively was early down efficiency and I think we really struggled there. It 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 distances we were operating from. You know, it was a game where you felt the momentum shift, you know, 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 and 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, you know, we were short. We didn't score enough. We had some opportunities early, we had 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 then...
SEAN PAYTON: No. I didn't. I thought he seemed calm, poised. I thought that part of it, he was -- I felt like he was very comfortable and ready.
Q. How did you see him handle the adversity he has faced?
SEAN PAYTON: Yeah, look. I think this. I think -- I don't know how many balls we dropped, and so I've said that before, for any quarterback playing, we've got to be more effective running the football. If take away his scrambling yards, I think we're like somewhere 60 yards rushing to their 140, so not nearly good enough.
Q. Did you see that last drive in which he scored a touch down giving him confident moving forward, though?
SEAN PAYTON: I think, listen, I think part of being a young player is he's a fairly confident -- I don't want to say kid, but, yeah, I felt the whole time, he was into it, competing. We just got to be better around him and that's my impressions from just watching it without looking at the tape.
Q. When you look at the run totals, the part of it like you said, you just weren't very good at it? Because you obviously didn't want to --
SEAN PAYTON: Listen. There's always that balance of, man, we're attempting to and then it's hard to keep, and so whether it's base personnel, we're going to look at the tape and we're going to say this and that, but we got to evaluate, us as coaches, we got to evaluate the run plan and why it wasn't as effective as we would like. It's going to be hard to play questionable 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 racked up --
SEAN PAYTON: A lot of tempo. A lot of at the line, maybe shift so they kind of changed from huddle to more tempo and hit us with some gun runs. Looked like some they can with me plays at the line.
Q. Sean, how is Garrett Bolle's ankle, seems like he was trying to get back in it?
SEAN PAYTON: Yeah, I think he's going to be fine. He had an MRI. I think the evaluation was fine. I think he's got a bruise.
Q. I'm just curious if 40 attempts, did you want that coming in?
SEAN PAYTON: No. That's a byproduct, a lot of times you get into the fourth quarter and heck no. No.
Q. Some of the empty and four wide, was that an effort to get Bo any --
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 match-up. 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. Never felt like it was too big or confusing. He was sharp and I thought he actually extended some plays with his feet, and, again, we'll look at the tape, but we have to be better around him.
Q. Did the defense wear down? You weren't --
SEAN PAYTON: Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question. It's a fair question. The time of possession, certainly we would have liked to have had a drive to start the second half. We were three-and-out and then I think we gave up a touch down on that next drive, so the momentum shifted there early in the third quarter, and, yeah, we struggled at that point. Took a while to get it back.
Q. You early settling for a field goal in the red zone. How much can that take the wind out?
SEAN PAYTON: Well, in the back of everyone's mind when that happens -- we had the early turnover, and, you know, we're in a pretty good position. We 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 a run or two runs and it just can't happen.
Q. Sean, two safeties in the first half plus you the muffed punt, I guess frustrating to have those --
SEAN PAYTON: Yeah, 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, and plus eight, you give yourself a chance of possibly returning it. I would say it's not as penalizing maybe as in the past because you have hang time and all of that but it is what it is. But, yeah, the muffed punt, the interception, we got to be better and I 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, I have 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 --
SEAN PAYTON: Yeah, I think it's very difficult. And generally if you're playing good offense, you're making -- a lot times you're making first downs on first or second down, so there's like a CFL number we look at like. How are you doing on first and second down converting first downs and obviously, that would have been minute today my guess.
Q. Coach, fourth and one on your own 39. Did you think about going for it there? Why did you ultimately decide to not?
SEAN PAYTON: Yeah, look. Time-wise I thought we had plenty of time, but, yeah, I did think about it.
Q. How did you think you did sort of predicting what a first year staff was going to do?
SEAN PAYTON: Same say that again.
Q. I'm just wondering how well you did predicting what they might do.
SEAN PAYTON: I think it was -- we didn't get as much man-to-man on defense. We got a little more fire zone coverage. I think offensively in the second half they got some into some no-huddle shift in motion package plays that we didn't play as well. Yeah, but we got the base run like we thought, the nickle like we thought. Yeah. And, again, it's -- there is that difference in personnel here than maybe Woody had and certainly Mike's smart enough to take an try to do the things that suit this team.
Q. You have a lot of experience evaluating quarterbacks. Sometimes you can be really critical. Seems like with Bo, maybe you're 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 believe this. We have to -- at one point in the game I came to the bench and talked to the receivers and said look, let's go, you know? 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