QB-JOEY HARRINGTON(on how he is handling all of the criticism) 11/23/04
"Nobody is going to put more pressure on me than myself. It doesn't take (Head) Coach (Steve Mariucci) giving a few reps to Mike (McMahon) during practice, it didn't take that to let me know that I had to play better. I played extremely well for the first seven weeks of the season and then hit a skid. It was obvious. It's not like I didn't realize it. I was in a slump. I was in a little funk for a couple of weeks where I didn't play well. Like I said, it didn't take (Coach Mariucci) giving Mike some reps for me to know that I had to snap out of that. I'm a very self-motivated person. I knew I had to play better. Maybe giving him some reps gave me some extra motivation. I'm not a confrontational person by nature, I'm not a very aggressive person by nature, but I'm very competitive and if you challenge me to do something, I'm not going to back down from it. Maybe this can be good."
QB-JOEY HARRINGTON(on how long it took him to realize you have to have thick skin to play quarterback in the NFL) 11/23/04
"Personally, it was a little while, because there's kind of a grace period for a rookie quarterback. I got the sense by the nature of the questions when I arrived in Detroitthat they had been losing for a little while. You could just tell, you could tell by the way the media approached you. And it was something completely different than I had ever dealt with before. Once it did hit—like I said, there's kind of a grace period, it didn't happen right away, and it really didn't even happen in that first year. They kind of (said), 'Yeah, you're a rookie, okay.'—once it started to hit last year, it took some adjusting for me. I was used to everybody being very positive, I was used to everybody being very supportive. But, the college atmosphere is a lot different than the NFL. I mean, I've learned that."
QB-JOEY HARRINGTON(on the importance of the running game) 11/23/04
"I'm obviously a huge proponent of running the football well. Every quarterback is. That takes an immeasurable amount of pressure off of your shoulders and makes your job easier. That first half against Minnesota, we ran the football extremely well, and because of that, our passing game benefited. We were able to take some shots down the field, we were able to convert some key third downs by throwing the ball because of the threat of running it. We ran the football extremely well for the first time. Well, I think that's the first time we've had a 100-yard back this season, if I'm not mistaken. It just opened things up in the first half there. A running game is a huge benefit for a quarterback to have, and I believe that we'll continue to run the football the way we did last week."
QB-JOEY HARRINGTON(on QB-Peyton Manning) 11/23/04
"As a quarterback, and as someone who used Peyton as an example in college…I mean, Peyton was a guy who I looked to (and said), 'That's the type of college quarterback I want to be. That's how I want to carry myself, that's how I want to play and prepare for games.' And now, as a peer in the NFL, you're obviously very happy for him. He's earned everything he's gotten up to this point, and you're happy to see his success. It's tough not to catch it with all of the noise that he's making."
QB-JOEY HARRINGTON(on if you have to score more playing against the Colts) 11/23/04
"Well, yeah. That was our thought coming into the last two weeks. You hit a couple of explosive offenses, you have to put some points on the board. We need to play for a full game like we did in the first half last week against Minnesota. This year, when we've won football games, when we've been successful, we've been effective running the football and efficient throwing the football. Very few times have we had big strikes, quick-strike offenses. We've been the type of team that puts together a 15-play drive and takes eight minutes off the clock. When we've won football games, that's they type of ball we've played, and I think we can continue to play that way. We showed that we can do it again. We got in a little funk there for a couple of weeks, but coming out last week, we showed that we're capable of doing it again. And I'd like to see us continue that."
QB-JOEY HARRINGTON(on the Colts defense) 11/23/04
"They're very fast. You look at them, especially up front, and you don't see the big Ted Washingtons and the Grady Jacksons, the big run stoppers in the middle. You don't see those kind of guys. But they're faster than any defense I've seen. They are the type of team that knows what they do well, is very sound in what they do, and it's almost kind of like, 'Here's what we do, we're not going to try to fool you, come and beat us attitude.' There are a lot of teams like Washingtonthat will throw everything in the book at you. Up to this point on the film that we've watched, Indianapolishas not shown that on defense. Now, I wouldn't be surprised, everybody has a few little wrinkles for us, but for the most part, they've been kind of, 'Here's what we have and come and beat us,' kind of attitude."
HEAD COACH STEVE MARIUCCI(on winning on the road and losing at home) 11/23/04
"We've been a little bit of an up-and-down team that way, and one of the things that we needed to accomplish this year was to break that three-year losing streak on the road. We had 24 in a row, and we were able to stop the streak, and even more than that, win in Chicago, Atlanta, and the (New York) Giants. And we've lost a couple of close ones on the road, too, with overtime at Jacksonvilleand another close one again last week to Minnesota. So, we have been playing better on the road. We haven't done that at home like we did last year. We were 5-3 last year here, and we have four of our last six games at home and we have to get that turned around."
HEAD COACH STEVE MARIUCCI(on how QB-Joey Harrington has been playing) 11/23/04
"At one point in the season, he was the third-ranked quarterback in the NFC, and I believe at the time we were 4-2 and we felt that he was making real good progress and developing on schedule in his third year. We've had a few tough losses here and against a couple of real good defenses in Washingtonand Jacksonville, and the statistics were down. You always want the quarterback to be able to make the plays necessary to win, and when we haven't won, then obviously there's been a lot of discussion about the quarterback here, as there always will be in an NFL city."
HEAD COACH STEVE MARIUCCI(on not giving QB-Mike McMahon some snaps last week) 11/23/04
"We talked about that and gave Mike a few more reps in practice than he had been getting. We'll do the same this week. If we need to ever, at any time, go to a relief pitcher, then we could consider doing that. But right now, Joey (Harrington) has played well enough for us to win many games, and we're looking forward to him making more plays so we can win those close games."
