Los Angeles - 20, Seattle - 10
Q. Matthew, is there anything that Cooper Kupp does that surprises you at this point?
MATTHEW STAFFORD: No. I mean, he's a great player. He's having a fantastic season. He's such a huge part of what we do as a team.
You know, not only on offense, he's back there catching a bunch of punts for us on special teams. Does a great job leading that group.
And, you know, I'm just happy that I get the chance to play with a guy like that. I know a lot of guys on our team feel the same way.
You know, it's -- we all take a hand in his success. And that's really fun to -- you know, we're just proud of him. Just proud of him watching him do his thing.
Q. To get a win like this, with so many distractions earlier with COVID and to come back from behind and stay in this 10 and 4 race, what's that mean for you?
MATTHEW STAFFORD: That was big. You know, we really moved the ball well on offense tonight. We just stalled out -- or I turned the ball over on a terrible throw.
You know, kind of moved the ball past the 50 a bunch of, it felt like. You know, a couple too many three and outs here and there. There's no question about that. Put ourselves in some third-and-longs. We ended up overcoming some of them. But not exactly where we want to put ourselves.
But our defense played outstanding. You know, they just battled all night. Kept us in it early, gave us chances.
You know, gave up the one touchdown in the second half. I felt it was a great for us to come back and answer. And, man, they were shut down.
And our best players doing the best -- making the best plays. That's what it always boils down to. It's great watching those guys do their thing.
Tonight was a total team win. It's not always going to be pretty. They were playing really, really deep to short on us as an offense, trying to make us check it down and go, you know, 10 or 15 play drives. We were able to git over the top a couple time.
But it was kind of just one of those ones that you had to slug out. And those wins are big, especially in December. That's kind of how they happen. And just happy we got it.
Q. You guys had 29 guys on -- players on the COVID list. Is it hard to imagine how you were going to do this?
MATTHEW STAFFORD: I got a lot of trust in the guys that were still available at that point. There were sometimes during the week where it was just every day it felt like half of our team was getting added to the list.
I got to give our training staff a bunch of credit for doing a great job of handling that. Guys on our team that we asked to step up and play significant roles tonight did a great job.
You know, hopefully we get some of those guys back. But at the same time, I just really want those guys to feel good and feel healthy.
So, as soon as we get them back, we'll keep it moving. But just proud of the way we battled through some adversity, you know, led by our head coach.
He did a fantastic job of kind of leading the way all week, even keeled and ready to go, solution oriented, and figure some stuff out. So it was great.
Q. On the interception, you said that was a bad throw. That wasn't a miscommunication?
MATTHEW STAFFORD: Yeah, no, it was a bad throw. Yep, those happen.
Q. Going back to Cooper a little bit. What is it that makes him different than -- obviously, you've played with a lot of guys. What separates him from --
MATTHEW STAFFORD: Every receiver is different, you know? I think Cooper does a great job of understanding what the defense is doing. He's as smart of a guy I've played with at that position.
And then he's got a ton of skills. He's 6'2, 205 pounds or whatever he is, 210 pounds. He's got better long speed than people give him credit for. Catches everything. You know, just kind of what you want in a receiver.
He does a little bit of everything really well. And, you know, just turns out turns into a really great player.
Q. (Question concerning a prior asked of Cooper Kupp.) He said, You know, Matthew is a really special player, that's my analysis of that play. Can you take us through that and what went into that play and how you executed?
MATTHEW STAFFORD: A whole lot of trust. You know, I know that. I've spent a lot of time with him, a lot of hours, you know, watching tape, talking ball, and watching him run routes and throw it to him.
You got to trust that one. You got to cut it loose early and cut it loose to a spot that I think only he's going to be able to get to. It ended up being a good spot and then he caught it and scored.
I didn't get to see a lot of it. I was laying down for some of it. But, you know, it was -- those guys upfront battled their ass off tonight. I thought Bobby did a great job of stepping in and playing on super short notice. And, you know, gave me enough time to get that one off.
Great call by Sean. I just trusted Cooper to get to his spot. I was able to put it in there and he made a great catch and scored with it.
Q. Have you ever thrown that in practice? Do you know he's going to be there so you can do that in the game?
MATTHEW STAFFORD: Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the only way those things happen. You know, certain times in a game, you feel like you need to make a play and that was kind of a time where we had some momentum.
You know, we were moving the ball great. We had stalled out in that area a few times too many in that game. And I wanted to make a play.
The hook -- the hook player got a ton of depth. You know, I mean, I'm throwing that ball, whatever it was, 20, 25 yards down the field, and the hook player is almost making the play on us.
So they were doing that all night trying to keep us from getting behind them. But I just felt like I could put it in a spot. I trusted Cooper to get in there. He went in there and made a nice catch and kind of walked in the end zone.
But, you know, sometimes you got to sit back there, trust one, and put it to a good spot and trust your guy's going to make a good play. And he did.
Q. Matthew, you talked about the sack. I mean, obviously, you don't want to get sacked. On those plays, is it because receivers are covered or do you just have to protect the ball in that situation? Or what is it?
MATTHEW STAFFORD: I'm going to have to go back and look at them. You know, a combination of a few things. There were a couple that I wish I would have gotten the ball out. Especially when we were in field goal range a couple times. I wish I would have at least dirted a couple.
But, I mean, that's tough to analyze at the moment. You know, maybe there's a guy standing open that I could have gotten it to.
But where my eyes were at the time of those sacks, you know, I got to do a better job of getting it out and knowing the situation a little bit better and making sure that we come away on some of those drives with points.
But this is a team game. But, you know, at my position, I can make it a little bit better and get the ball out of my hands.
Q. How much pain or whatever you suffer on these sacks or how much do you --
MATTHEW STAFFORD: Oh, I'm good.
Q. You're good?
MATTHEW STAFFORD: Yep. I feel fine. Appreciate you.
Q. Matthew, I asked Sean this same question. But over these last three weeks, putting together successful plans despite dealing in escalation, some adverse circumstances, he talked a little bit about how he had learned about himself and the group. But what have you learned?
MATTHEW STAFFORD: Yeah, I mean, the guy is -- he's ultra-resilient. You know, he's really smart and confident in himself. And he should be.
You know, he's got, you know, a great mind and a great ability to connect with people. And like I said, I mean, this whole week was led by him.
You know, and some of that is vulnerability, too, right? Hey, guys, I don't know what the answer is, I don't know what the answer is going to be tomorrow because we just don't know.
There were a lot of unknowns this week. And, you know, that resonates with us in the locker room, right?
Somebody who is real doesn't say, I got all the answers on a Wednesday when however many guys hit the COVID list, right?
We don't know. We're just going to play this thing day by day, here's what we can control and we go from there.
And, you know, that's something, as a player, you love from a coach. You just sit there and go, Perfect, that's what we're all thinking. I'm glad you're thinking the same thing from us.
Hey, let's build this plan for this game as we -- as it kind of comes into focus as who we're going to have. You know, and he did a fantastic job of that.
I know he had a lot on his play this week. I feel like our assistant coaches did a great job of helping him out in some of that, too, right?
I mean, he's dealing with all sorts of things; moving parts, personnel, all that kind of stuff. And, you know, some of our guys did a great job of bringing things to him as part of the plan.
And, you know, he puts his own little touch on all that and we go out there and play a game. And just happy to be playing for a guy like that. You know, I got a lot of trust in him and have a bunch of fun playing and working with him.
Q. This time in December and after the week you guys had, talk about that mental toughness. Do you feel you've learned something new from the group, you know, having to overcome the things you guys did with the way you executed? And what will that mean going forward?
MATTHEW STAFFORD: Yeah, I don't know if I learned anything new just because I felt like I knew that about our group already, you know?
Had a tough couple games a month ago, four or five weeks ago, that really galvanized us as a group. Understanding that the NFL season is going to have ebbs and flows, and we just got figure out a way to fix it. And we did that.
And, you know, you got to prove it every single week. But I'm proud of the mental toughness, physical toughness that our guys showed.
You know, we got a game on a super short week coming up. We're going to have to do it again against a team that's playing really good football. We got to go to their place.
I've played there a bunch of times in my career. It's a tough place to play. And so, you know, we'll have a big challenge on our plates next week. Excited to get this one under our belt and move on.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports