Q: Ahmad Bradshaw injured the other ankle?
A: Yes, the other ankle.
Q: How will you list him?
A: I don't know, we'll see.
Q: Will he practice?
A: He is not practicing today.
Q: How severe is the injury?
A: It is a sprained ankle. He is walking around with a boot on the other foot.
Q: Have you decided if Antonio Pierce is traveling to Denver?
A: That was brought up yesterday. I'll discuss that with him perhaps when I get a chance.
Q: Did you realize Bradshaw's injury was as serious after the game?
* *A: I don't know that we thought it was – at the beginning, right after the game, we thought he had an ankle sprain. But evidentially it is more severe than that. So he is in a boot.
Q: Will he make the trip?
* *A: We'll see. We'll see how it is.
Q: Regarding Brandon Jacobs, you are confident that he has no after effects with the knee?
A: He felt pretty good yesterday. Yesterday would be a day in which you are not going to feel great, no matter what. But we'll see how they run today.
Q: How did Danny Ware do?
A: He did well.
Q: Looked as if he was very good at pass protection.
A: He was and he also made a real nice play on the run.
Q: If he has to play a lot more, would you be concerned?
A: No.
Q: Did you come up with one main diagnosis for the defense after these last two games?
A: People keep asking me for an answer. I wish I had an answer. If I had an answer, it would be the end of it. We have not been able to stop those consistent pass drives late in the game. Someone asked me, I think yesterday, about whether there was fatigue involved. I don't see that at all. You are talking about 50 degrees at this time of year. I just don't see that. We have given up some pass plays, obviously. We have given up some opportunities. When we could have gotten off the field, we didn't. We had some third and longs that they converted, too. Keep working.
Q: How did Chase Blackburn do in that middle spot?
A: He did okay, he did okay. He has always, when called upon, played well.
Q: Is he your long-term replacement?
A: Jon Goff plays in there as well. He is coming along.
Q: Will you try to accelerate him?
A: Well, we have always tried to accelerate him. He has done a good job on special teams and he will have an opportunity to play at the middle backer position, I'm sure. He will get the practice reps now, too, which is a good thing.
Q: Is Aaron Ross ready to take the next step?
A: Well, I think he played and had an opportunity to play and hopefully he just keeps feeling better about himself and getting stronger and continues to help us in whatever role we decide.
Q: Your impressions of him?
A: He did okay. He has a chance to improve and naturally hasn't really had a whole lot of practice time; hasn't had a whole lot of play time. Really look forward to having that chance and was excited about it. So I see nothing but improvement.
Q: To this point, are you more concerned with the mental or physical preparation aspect of this game?
A: Well it is the fact that you have to – the players have to look at it in a very positive way as well. From the attitude standpoint you have to understand that it is not a normal preparation. A lot of things are being thrown at you. You are not going to have an opportunity to decipher everything on the practice field. There has to be some accumulative effect of the games that we have already played. We will be able to touch on all areas, but we won't be able to practice them full speed. And so it becomes a mental aspect. I think we are in a good frame of mind. I think that is the starting point. And then we are going to have to trust and rely on each other and go play the game without the benefit of having an awful lot of full speed practice reps. We will get some today. But I'll have to chop some of the reps off today that I normally would take.
Q: When you look at Eli's past two games, do you see him starting to get hot?
A: Oh yes, definitely. He has had two outstanding games.
Q: It seems that when he gets hot it doesn't last for just one or two weeks, it carries on. Do you agree with that? What do you attribute that to?
A: Ability. I hope he gets hot and just goes right off the end of the map.
Q: Some other quarterbacks are up and down.
A: Build up that consistency; the confidence, the way people around him respond. What you are always after is that when someone is playing at a high level he lifts those around him to a higher level. That is what this thing is all about.
Q: Do you have any special ways with dealing with the altitude?
A: We did. Without belaboring the point, we did talk briefly about that. I had Ronnie Barnes do the research and just gave it to them real quick. And that is probably the last thing we will do. Some of the things are just common sense – hydration, rest. Limit the caffeine, no alcohol; that kind of stuff.
Q: Will the altitude affect the kicking game?
A: We are hoping it makes it go further.
Q: You've been using those mortar kicks; do you now try to boom them through the end zone?
A: We have a variety of things we try to do to limit these outstanding returners. Certainly Eddie Royal is in that category, no matter whether it is punt return or kick return. So we will have a variety of things that we are going to have to do. We have our plan. But we will warm up and see how that goes, too.
Q: Do you see any major differences in the Broncos when they were on their winning streak as opposed to their losing streak?
* *A: If you look at the tape and then you look at the statistics, you can see some of the things that are taking place, whether it be people running the ball, time of possession, or losing the turnover battle. They are not getting as many first downs. One of the things that stands out to me is that San Diego rushed 43 times and they rushed 17 times. They still rushed for 100 yards. They can be effective that way – from an athletic standpoint. They are still only giving up 18 points a game but they are not scoring that many points.
Q: You have been through a similar experience – going from winning streak then a losing streak. Did that help you at all to prepare for this week?
A: It does. There are some thoughts that we had that we utilized last week. I had rather not share. Denver media would like to know, I think, which I don't know whether there is any magic – there is no magical answer. You have to play your way out of whatever issues you have and it has to be settled on the field. A lot of it is, as I said, your approach.
Q: Are they using Brian Dawkins the way the Eagles used him?
A: Absolutely. He is going to play. Anytime he was wearing that uniform and this came up and people wanted to know what I thought, he'll play – that is what he does. He plays, he inspires, and he rallies his team – that is what he does. He has always done that.
Q: You had talked about getting Clint Sintim more snaps. He was not on the field as much.
A: No, it wasn't anything he did. You would like to be able to do a lot of things. Sometimes you are not able to do much of it, though. Certain personnel combinations – you probably noticed we were substituting other personnel combinations. And it just happened that way in the game. So the match-up that we had planned for certain personnel combinations didn't give us exactly the chance.
