Indianapolis 30, San Francisco 18
FRANK REICH: All right just one injury with BoPete Keyes with the hamstring. Great team win. Great team win in all three phases. Great defensive effort causing the four turnovers. Did a great job the whole game.
Just felt the confidence from the guys really throughout. Even the times when we had struggles, right? When you play good teams it's not always going to go smooth on every series. But even when we had struggles in any phase, still felt the confidence in guys making plays at key times.
Obviously offensively Pittman had an unbelievable game. I think we ran the ball fairly well, and then Carson made some plays down the field.
Obviously we had the big one to Pittman, and then I think we had three offensive PIs, right, on deep balls. Those don't count as yards, but those are hidden yards. We talk about that a lot. So that's the advantage you get a quarterback who trusts his receivers. We pushed the ball down the field even in this rain and we make big plays that way.
So offensively I was really happy with how we played there. We don't want to have any turnovers ever, so we will clean that up and get that taken care of.
And then special teams, just the operation. The specialists especially. All three of those guys did an excellent job in these pretty difficult weather conditions.
Q. You talked a couple weeks ago about how you wanted to have another receiver. (No microphone-regarding Pittman/first seven games.)
FRANK REICH: Yeah, he's a big-play guy. He just has a mentality. We talk about it a lot, this mentality he has, the toughness, the play making, how hard he works, how hard he competes.
You want to throw him the ball. Carson has developed a ton of confidence in him. You saw that last week just throwing it up to him. I mean, just throwing it up to him.
Q. In that situation, saw it Monday night against the Ravens, the ball is up in the air, Michael has that belief that he's going to be able to go up and either (indiscernible) take the ball from him?
FRANK REICH: Yeah, well there is no doubt for me. I felt like something about learning a lessen to the Ravens. We had a third and 8 and called a run, and I'm like, I'm not doing that again. I told the guys. I'm not doing that again. I'm calling the pass.
Q. You mentally thought that?
FRANK REICH: No, I literally said that.
Q. (No microphone.)
FRANK REICH: Yeah, I said, I'm calling the pass, I don't care what anybody says. Really comes to trusting your quarterback and receivers. So, I mean, I didn't envision that play being made like that honestly.
I thought it was going to be we were kind of running a little trick play. Not trick play, but a little double move play. They were playing zone and they didn't jump on it like we thought, and Carson just threw it up and gave him a chance and Pitt made an unbelievable play.
Q. How were the conditions?
FRANK REICH: They were pretty bad. It wasn't as windy as I thought it was going to be, but the rain, there were times when each quarterback had a fumbled snap. I was trying to keep us in gun as much as we could because, believe it or not, you're probably better off in gun in these conditions just from taking snaps under center.
But Carson and the skill guys did a good job, but it was difficult conditions.
Q. (Regarding Carson Wentz and Michael Pittman.)
FRANK REICH: There is no doubt, there is no doubt. I can tell when we're in quarterback meetings the things -- the confidence he has in the whole receiver group. I mean, he's got confidence in that whole receiver group, but there is a special chemistry he's made with Pitt. He's making big time plays, so just got to keep riding that horse.
He's playing great right now.
Q. (No microphone.)
FRANK REICH: I thought he did great. Obviously the one fumble early, but just continues to run hard, make big plays, was excellent again tonight.
Q. He has the ability to setup these moments.
FRANK REICH: Yeah.
Q. How rare is that?
FRANK REICH: Yeah, there is a couple times where it looks like we hand it off and it looks like -- ball comes kicking out the other side. So just a credit to how hard he works, trusting the combination blocks that we have, and he's doing a great job.
Q. What was the interpretation on the call?
FRANK REICH: Yeah, they called it right. That was the right call. You know, it was not so much mucked as it was -- and I may not be getting this right, so don't quote me exactly -- but when he kicked --
Q. You're in a press conference.
FRANK REICH: Yeah. You got me on that one two years ago, too. True. Stupid by me.
But when you kick -- if it was accidental kick, apparently it's different than if it's a muff. If I'm getting it right. I checked with our guys up top. That was the right call.
Q. When you look at the receiving core without Parris, do you get a sense that Michael wanted the ball more than normal?
FRANK REICH: I mean, I think he -- you know, what I love about Pitt is he's so stinking competitive. He's got such a beast mentality. That he can dominate versus anybody, but he's a great team player. There was one time after a game where we didn't throw it to him very much and I said something to him the next day, Hey, man, don't worry. We're going to get you the ball more.
His response was just like vintage team player. Coach, I just want to help this team. We got a good room. I'm going to work hard so that you guys want to throw it to me. That's kind of the player he is. He deserves a lot of credit.
Q. (Regarding Xavier.)
FRANK REICH: Yeah, really gave Xavier -- I'm glad you asked that, because Xavier, didn't look like he was going to play. I don't know how he fought through it. He was limping around out there pretty bad. I'm not even sure how he was playing, and comes up with a big interception at the end.
So really credit to him for his toughness and hanging in in a tough moment.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports