Broncos - 33, Vikings - 6
COACH ZIMMER: Poor performance today. That's what happens when you give up an 80-yard pass, a long kickoff return. You had three defensive offsides on third downs, interception for a touchdown, a safety for holding in the end zone, three very poor punts. Just really disappointing what the guys have played today.
Q. What was the thinking, Mike, on sitting so many guys today, 31 or something like that?
COACH ZIMMER: Yeah, I thought we had two good days of work this last week with those guys. So we're going to give these other guys some opportunities to see if they can make the club, and proved -- some of them proved us right and some of them proved us wrong.
Q. Is that one of your main disappointments, is that some of those players today are expected to contribute this year and maybe didn't perform up to your expectations?
COACH ZIMMER: A lot of these guys are backup players. And the things they showed today was definitely not good enough. We gave up a fade in the end zone. We're not even close to the guy. The bomb, the two young safeties had a hard time today of knowing who is up and who is back and who is down. The long bomb, they bit on it and Dantzler didn't cover the guy.
Q. You've seen these guys. Do the guys who played today, do you feel they are better than they showed today or they showed weaknesses that you weren't quite looking for?
COACH ZIMMER: I don't know. Some of those same things kind of happened in practice with a lot of the guys that played. I thought Rose did a nice job running the football today. We planned on getting Kene a bunch more reps and he got hurt early in the game. So some of that stuff has been going on. It kind of gets overlooked you're studying the good players.
Q. How serious was that?
COACH ZIMMER: I don't think it's serious.
Q. With Dozier (indiscernible) and getting Wyatt Davis some of those reps, did you just see enough from the penalty, the safety, the hold early on, you wanted to put Davis in early?
COACH ZIMMER: We wanted to get him in early because he's a guy we have to take a good look at. All these backup offensive linemen -- Brandel, so he played a lot today, really all of them.
Q. What are your early impressions of Kellen, how he played?
COACH ZIMMER: He's okay. I didn't like when he tried to shuffle passed the ball to whoever it was on the one third-down play. He used his legs a couple times. He just has to get moving a little bit quicker. And everything is like in slow motion with him. And he's going to have to improve that.
Q. Areas of his mechanics specifically that you want to see him improve on more than just tempo?
COACH ZIMMER: No, not really. You know, there's so many guys with different throwing styles and motions. Teddy's is different than a lot of guys. It is what it is. He throws the ball fine. Does he take a little too much time reading, sometimes? Maybe, but a lot of that is processing. There's a lot of things going on, getting in out of the huddle. The two-minute drill, speeding guys up. So there's a lot of things that need to be, that will happen with experience. And so that's why I left him in the whole game because I can tell he needs playing time.
Q. You said Wednesday he might not play?
COACH ZIMMER: I never said that. I never said that. Somebody said is it possible that he'll play. And I said yes. He was always going to play.
Q. Jake's play?
COACH ZIMMER: It wasn't as good as it has been. Started out, they had the ball on the 2-yard line to start out with. So that wasn't real good either. But the interception for the touchdown was thrown behind the guy. I just didn't feel like he was as sharp as he's been the last maybe week.
Q. How key are these games because guys can obviously look good at a practice and be successful there? But then you go to games and it's a different environment. How important are these games just to see what you saw today from a guy like Jake who if he has to play you know just don't want (indiscernible)?
COACH ZIMMER: It really is important that -- and the funny thing -- I guess not funny but -- the little kid that caught the long touchdown pass, we practiced against him for two days. You'd think those guys would know his speed and what he's done. They went one-on-one against him. And you would think that Jake would have a pretty good idea on Surtain, on how he plays from going against him for a couple of days.
So you can't leave the ball hanging back behind the guy. You should understand the coverages that you're going to get because you just saw them for two days. So that part is disappointing.
Q. I know that mistakes are always frowned upon, but with the third-down penalties on defensive not being (indiscernible) for young guys, is that a bigger frustration?
COACH ZIMMER: Yeah, it is. Maybe some of the young guys are better than some of those guys, so we'll have to find out.
Q. (Indiscernible) a little more from those depth linebackers. What did you see from the (indiscernible) all these?
COACH ZIMMER: Not much, really.
Q. Good to see Cam Smith at least out there after the open-heart surgery. How is his concussion, anything serious at all?
COACH ZIMMER: I don't know. All concussions are pretty serious.
Q. What's the approach from here to try to make sure this doesn't happen again with these guys?
COACH ZIMMER: I think I'm going to scrimmage with these guys that played today.
Q. Have all the guys scrimmage against each other?
COACH ZIMMER: Yep. (Inaudible).
Q. How much do you think starters might play next Saturday against Indianapolis?
COACH ZIMMER: I haven't decided yet.
Q. (Indiscernible) bad day or is that cause for concern. Was Colquitt's day just a bad day or was it cause for concern?
COACH ZIMMER: It's cause for concern.
Q. With Mond was there a concerted effort to limit some of his throws today because of limited time he's had in practice?
COACH ZIMMER: No. I won't get into that.
Q. On Mond, too, you talked about this about three times with his processing being slow, is that the game being too fast for him right now? Are you seeing things that go beyond that?
COACH ZIMMER: No, I don't think the game is too fast for him. I think it's just him picking up the tempo a little bit as far as understanding -- he's kind of a laid-back guy. Doesn't really say a whole bunch. I think he's kind of got to get out of his shell a little bit, too. You gotta do those things.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports