*October 17, 2005 *
* *
St. LouisRams vs. Indianapolis
* *
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (general comments on game) St. Louis Rams vs. Indianapolis Colts Post-Game
"You have to be able to win in a lot of different ways and today was a test. It was a struggle. I told the guys in the locker room I was really proud of them for keeping their poise. That's what we had to do today. We played I thought a little bit too hyped up early in the game. We did some things that haven't been characteristic of us this year. We fumbled a kickoff return. We gave up a couple of big plays on defense. We are jumping off-sides and just dropping balls. These are things you just can't do against a real good explosive team. We got down 17-0 but we didn't panic on the sidelines. I thought that was a tribute to our veteran leadership. Our assistant coaches kept everybody focused. Once we started playing the way we could, things turned around for us obviously. Cato June's interception, we made some big plays, changed some momentum."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on the defensive play) St. Louis Rams vs. Indianapolis Colts Post-Game
"It was too much like last year. We gave up some big plays, we got the turnovers, we got the momentum, but we didn't play as sharp as we needed to. This is a team that can make a big play quick. They can score from anywhere on the field. We didn't play with the sharpness we needed to early on. But when we got the momentum going and got the crowd back into it, we played much better in the second, third and the beginning of the fourth quarter. I think playing on Monday night our defense realized this was going to be a big test. We still have a lot of young guys playing. We just needed to calm down. Once we did that we were a little bit better."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on Marvin Harrison and Peyton Manning's record) St. Louis Rams vs. Indianapolis Colts Post-Game
"Those guys deserve everything they get. They have been in the same system for over seven years now and that part has really helped them. But they work at it and they are very professional all the way around. You couldn't coach two players that you could want this to happen more. They deserve every accolade because they're professionals on and off the field. They are gentleman and work very hard."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on the 86th touchdown ball) Colts vs. Rams
"I just kind of went over there to congratulate him and (Marvin) kind of gave the ball to me and I sort of gave it back to him. He gave it to me and I said no, so we decided we're going to split it somehow."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on being down 17-0 early) Colts vs. Rams
"That's the NFL. Like Coach Dungy said, I think that's one of best things we've done since Coach Dungy has been here is stay poised and there's no panic and you just try to have a talk with yourself to be efficient and treat the game like it's 0-0, and that's what we did and got things turned aro
