*CHICAGO BEARS VS. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS POST-GAME QUOTES 9/7/08 *
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HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (general comments) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"We certainly haven't had one like that in a long time, where we got that soundly out played. It's disappointing, disappointing to have opening night go like that. I give the Bears all the credit. They played well. They played very hard, did the things you have to do to win and didn't do things that cause you to lose. They out played us for four quarters and the score was indicative of how the game went. What we have to do is make sure we come back to work tomorrow and improve and have a lot better performance next week. But there is not a whole lot we can do about this week. It's disappointing to us and we've got to rebound."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on the Bears' play) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"They've done it in the Super Bowl. We saw them on a lot of tape last year. They did it in the pre-season. We moved the ball effectively at times, didn't finish our drives in the red zone. In the first half, we gave them some big plays on defense, some easy scores, obviously. They had the long touchdown run and then a fumble return touchdown and got 14 points pretty easily. Then they converted on third down. They did a good job of keeping it third and three, third and four, third and five and picking those first downs up. They just did a good job."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on Matt Forte) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"I thought he ran well. He did what we've seen on tape. He ran down hill. We didn't come up with what we needed, obviously. I think he had 100 yards at halftime and the one long run. But he ran well. Not much different than what we've seen on tape."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on C-Jamey Richard's play) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"I thought Jamey played well in there. We didn't have much leakage in the middle. It was not a game of (QB) Peyton (Manning) not practicing or playing in the pre-season or (C) Jeff (Saturday) being out. They just out played us in every phase."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on QB-Peyton Manning) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"I thought he played okay. We didn't hit some that we normally hit. It was just, again, all the way around, special teams, field position, we had a couple of turnovers at safety, nine points that we gave up on offense, seven points on a long run and field position on special teams. All in all we didn't play well enough to win."
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QB-PEYTON MANNING (on how he felt) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"I felt okay. I don't really have a percentage of how I felt, but I really felt okay during the game physically. It kind of went about like I thought. I knew it would take me a little time to get into a rhythm after not playing. I felt like I was starting to get into it at the start of the second half. I felt we sort of were getting the timing of things, had a little rhythm going there, a good drive. The second half – with the safety and the turnover, fumble for a touchdown and the turnover on downs – that sort of took any rhythm we had offensively away. So it was disappointing. I thought we had little bit of something going there at the beginning of the half with the touchdown. Our defense did a good job of really holding them. I felt like the offense gave them their last three scores – the safety, the touchdown and the turnover on downs."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on the Bears' defense) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"I think it was like a lot of first games for me. The first game – whether you played in the preseason or not – you always have some excitement. Watching the other quarterbacks today the play is always a little changed in the first game. It always takes a couple of series to get into a groove. I was really trying to be smart with the ball, protecting the ball and trying to get some completions, get into a groove. Like I said I felt like we were kind of doing that towards the end of the first half and beginning of the second half. What the Bears did is what they usually do to win, they created turnovers. That is something we thrive on not doing. When you turnover three times against a team like the Bears it's a credit to them for creating those and our fault for giving those."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on the loss) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"It is sickening is what it feels like. It's a really disappointing feeling to lose a game. First game in a new stadium, fifteenth game in an old stadium, it is really disappointing to lose. So we have to go to work. Obviously there are some things we need to work on. Offensively we have to protect the ball better. You can't turn the ball over in this league and win. We saw that with most of the games today. You were watching teams that were turning it over, most of them were not winning. That is something we need to do a better job of."
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RB-DOMINIC RHODES (on the reasons for the loss) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"It doesn't matter whether it was the first game or not. It was their first game too. I think there was maybe a little rust, maybe we didn't concentrate; it could be a whole lot of things. I know for a fact that we didn't play our best ball. We didn't do what we were supposed to do and that's execute and play Colts' ball. It just didn't happen tonight."
RB-DOMINIC RHODES (on the running game and injuries to the OL) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"We always expect to go out and run the football. I believe that if you're on any team and you're in this league, you have to expect that whatever you do at your position, you have to be dominant. Today, we just didn't do that. We just need to go back to practice, work hard and get better for next week. If a starter goes down then the next guy is the starter. Everybody is an NFL player. You have to step in. That's what we do here. If one guy goes down, the next guy steps up. As of right now, those are the starters out there and we have to get it done."
WR-ANTHONY GONZALEZ (on the Colts' performance) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"It was pretty obvious we got outplayed. When you make a lot of mistakes and you don't do what you're supposed to do, you lose the ball game. They played their scheme, we played ours and they were the better team tonight."
WR-ANTHONY GONZALEZ (on if the Bears surprised the Colts) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"It's the National Football League. Every team you play is going to be good. I'm too young to worry about who's better than anybody else. I'm surprised we didn't execute better. They're getting paid in that locker room, too."
DB-BOB SANDERS (on the Colts' performance) *Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
*"We said in the beginning coming into this game that it was going to be all about execution and who was going to make less mistakes and they did tonight. We have to give them a lot of credit for it."
DB-BOB SANDERS (on the loss being a setback for the Colts) *Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
*"Setback, we have a long season. It's still early. We have to strap it up, come back, prepare and be critical of ourselves and look at our mistakes and come back next week and be strong. We have to look at our mistakes, mental errors and big plays that we gave up and not causing any turnovers. Going into every game you want to get turnovers and not turnover the ball. Those are the things we'll look at."
LB-GARY BRACKETT (on if he is surprised by the loss) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"A little bit, just because we usually start a little faster than this. You have to take your hat off to Chicago. They came in with a great game plan and they got the job done."
LB-GARY BRACKETT (on how the team comes back from an early loss) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"We fought through adversity last year. We lost a couple of years ago to New England in the opener. You just bounce back. It's still a long season. We're not out of the playoffs right now, and we're not in the playoffs, so we have to come back right."
LB-GARY BRACKETT (on what the team takes from the game) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"We just have to get better. We'll watch the film, see where we made our mistakes and get them ironed out for next week."
LB-GARY BRACKETT (on if the first regular-season game in Lucas Oil Stadium was a distraction) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"No excuses. They did a good job. They came out here with a game plan that they executed. Next week is going to be a challenge for us to go to Minnesota and get those guys stopped."
DE-DWIGHT FREENEY (on what went wrong) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"Just turnovers and big plays. It's the NFL. You can't have that happen and expect to win. But, my hat goes off to the Bears. They played great. They had a great game plan coming into the game and they stuck to it."
DE-DWIGHT FREENEY (on the team not normally losing in September) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"I know. We're used to going 4-0, 5-0, whatever it is, but it's the first quarter of the season. You have to learn from whatever happened and we're going to do that."
DE-DWIGHT FREENEY (on if there was any difference in noise from the RCA Dome to Lucas Oil Stadium) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"It was loud. If the roof was closed, it may have been a little bit louder, but it was loud. The fans did a great job of supporting us."
DT-RAHEEM BROCK (on the game) *Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
*"They just outplayed us today. We missed a lot of tackles and missed some assignments. They just had a good game plan and they executed it. Basically I think we beat ourselves today. They did a good job of executing and we just didn't execute on our side."
DT-RAHEEM BROCK (on the Colts' enthusiasm prior to the game) Bears vs. Colts Post-Game Quotes 9/7/08
"Everybody was excited to play in the stadium in our first regular season game of the year, but it doesn't matter, we still have to go out and execute our assignments and play our game."
