MIKE DITKA QUOTES Monday, December 9, Soldier Field - Chicago, IL

Transcription

1 MIKE DITKA QUOTES Opening Statement on having his No. 89 jersey retired You don t play the game or coach the game with this in mind, but it s such a great honor. I m really honored that the Bears considered doing this and have done it. It s kind of the icing on the cake. It s the final candle whatever you want to call it. It s been a hell of a run; it really has been. It s been fun and, as I said out there, the greatest fans in the world, I think Chicago has them. On being able to accept this honor in front of the fans of Chicago It means a lot. It s an individual honor. The greatest honor was winning the Super Bowl with my group of players. That was the big honor. This is an individual thing and it s nice that George and Virginia (McCaskey) decided to do this and I think Mr. Halas would approve. On today s weather This is unbearable now. Don t forget now, I m pretty old, but I ve played in cold weather, but this is cold. These guys are warriors to do what they re doing right now. This is cold and the field is starting to get hard right now. On his future I read something a while ago that said, Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift and that s why they call it the present. I want to stick around in the present for a while and try to figure out what the heck is going on and I got a pretty good grip on it and I like it. Whatever the future brings, I hope that I can accept it. I have no regrets about the past. I shouldn t say that. Like (Frank) Sinatra said, Regrets, I ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention. I really have a few, but it s been a good run. On the importance of this to him Like I said, it s the fans. When the fans stop coming, the game s over in every sport. I think our athletes ought to understand that and appreciate that more because they are what makes it. They are the meal ticket. They pay the bills. They pay the salaries by showing up, cheering, booing. They have a right to do that. Sometimes we don t understand that, but they ve got that right. But, they re pretty supportive in this city, and they ve always been. On being stopped by fans on a daily basis Going through airports is pretty interesting. No, it s okay. It s no problem. I think I have an obligation to do those things. You know, I have the restaurants. So, I m in the restaurants and I do it all the time anyways. So, it s okay. It s not a problem. I think when you don t have time for people, you ve got a problem. On his thoughts on Marc Trestman Have you watched the first half? That s a pretty good offense. (Josh McCown) is playing as good as you can imagine. What Marc is doing with this offense is so imaginative and it s so good. It s so talented. He s got great receivers. He s using everybody. He s getting the ball to a bunch of different people. The game of football is special teams, offense and defense. They ve got to play a little better on the defensive side now. I know what they re doing on offense is tremendously impressive but you ve got to get a couple of stops. On reconciling any differences with the Bears organization Well, I never had any, really. That was blown out of proportion. There was some hurt, yeah. But I was never mad at anybody. I understood it. I got it. It s nice to have that all swept under the carpet or whatever you want to say, but that s all gone. I have nothing but admiration and respect for what they re trying to do in the front office and the ownership. I saw Virginia tonight. She looks wonderful. It s just great. I go back with her and Ed in the beginning. I was a 22-year-old kid when I came to Chicago. I met Mr.

2 Halas. I was dazzled by that $12,000-a-year contract. Man, I went out and bought a new car, I had it going. I got a $6,000 signing bonus and went out and bought me a 62 Olds Starfire convertible. That was a cat, man. So, it s been a good run. I don t have anything but fond memories. And, it s ironic that these two teams are playing. I spent 30 years of my career with Dallas and Chicago. Coach (Tom) Landry was the other figure in my life. He resurrected my career as a football player and he gave me an opportunity to coach, which is the reason I ended up coming here to coach. A lot of my respect and obligation go to that organization, especially coach Landry. He was my second man besides coach Halas. I have one regret - that Halas didn t live long enough to see the Super Bowl; he would have loved that. But, we used to talk a lot until 82, when he passed talk about the different players we had and he really got excited. I used to tell him that this player was like this guy, or that player was like that guy from 63, and he really enjoyed that. Again, I want to say one thing. I think great players make great coaches. I had the greatest group of guys in the world. I don t know if that team will ever get the credit it deserves, but it was a pretty dominant team. It was fun to watch them. They had fun playing and we never took it away from them. We could never had done it without Buddy (Ryan). Buddy was the best. Playing that defense, he was innovative. He was way ahead of the game. He knew the difference between come here and sic em. On his popularity today Well, I shave every day. No, I don t know. I have restaurants. I ve been fortunate. I can still do some commercials. I m still on TV. If somebody says, You want to do a hearing aid commercial? I d say, Huh? Sure. I m still having fun with it. I can tell you honestly that the best thing that happens is when you stop taking yourself so damn seriously. And, I don t take myself serious. Now, my golf game is terrible and that s bothering me. On whether he misses these press conferences It was fun. We had fun. I actually have to admit that we had fun in those days. I think anyone that covered those press conferences in those days whether they liked me or didn t like me it was pretty much fun. They could write any kind of article they wanted when they came out of there.

3 MARC TRESTMAN QUOTES 2013 REGULAR SEASON GAME #13 Chicago Bears vs. Dallas Cowboys Opening Statement Sorry to keep you waiting. I know you guys have some deadlines. Let me just start out by saying, I ll tell you a little bit what I told the team. I was really proud of the way we came off a very, very difficult loss last week in Minnesota, on multiple levels. I was very proud of our football team and some of the things they did throughout the week. We had a Christmas party, a holiday party, on Monday night. You don t necessarily want to go to a holiday party after a loss like that but a lot of guys show up. A lot of guys in the organization appreciated that. Could have stayed home and felt sorry for themselves, but they didn t. They could have stayed home and felt sorry for themselves on Tuesday, but a bunch a guys on the team got on a bus to go down south and help some tornado victims. I was very proud of our team for doing that. Not sit around on a day off, feel sorry for ourselves, but go down and help others and then they came back on Thursday; I think it was Wednesday, actually, they went down south; but they came back on Thursday. They had smiles on their faces. They had coaches ready to give them game plans in detail. Nobody flinched. They didn t look around and point fingers. Coaches took accountability for their mistakes, players took accountability for theirs, as we looked at the tape and moved forward. Two great days of practice in the cold, which I think benefitted us tonight and came out with a lot of hard work. As I told the guys, it doesn t guarantee it, but every once in a while on a Monday night you show up and win a game. I was really proud and happy for our team. Relative to the game, the game was up and down. I thought the big change in the game came when our defense made a stop late in the second half; second quarter and then we were able to get Alshon (Jeffrey) the ball late in the half to score. We went down the field in the third quarter, got three points. Our defense made two stops. We were able to stay on the field, move the football and score some points. Really happy the way our defense made those stops in the second half, in a close game. Very excited that our guys stayed on the field offensively and score points. On Josh McCown s play I thought he played an excellent game. We moved the ball. He completed passes. I thought there were a lot of exceptional catches in the game. Not every play works out like you draw it up. The guys ran around, Josh ran around and made some plays. The guys made some big catches, in traffic. If I mention one, I m going to forget others. I think he played an excellent game. I think it all starts with our offensive line. They kept him clean. I thought our protection was very, very good, tonight. There were a number of blitzes that came up in the game. Not only our line, but whether it was Evan, Marty or Matt [Forte] picking up blitzes, they were all effective and enabled Josh to step up in the pocket or get outside the pocket and make a play. On whether he emphasized this as an especially big game I didn t. We put it as we were playing on prime time. The big emphasis this week, we played well on prime time. We can t control what happens on Sunday. All we can do is go out and try to beat the Dallas Cowboys. We kept it as simple as that. We didn t get into all the hypotheticals and all the things that go into winning or losing a game. We knew it was important. You have to win in December. It s important, at least in our situation it certainly is. We have a smart team. The only message this week was we have to get ready to go win a game on Monday night. On Josh s TD run and the hit he took It s all running together, it s a good question. We always say to our quarterbacks we want you to get down. But every once in a while a quarterback has got to do what he s got to do. And that s to find a way into the end zone. It was an excellent run.

4 On whether Jay Cutler remains the starting quarterback There s no change in the plan. We ll see where Jay is this week. He ll have to be released by the doctors. When Jay s ready to play, he ll being playing. On how Jeffery s late second quarter touchdown catch affected the game It was a lot different, I think. As I said, we went into the third quarter, drove down, disappointed we didn t score. I think we got three points there. But then our defense made two stops. Those two stops; those were big, making those because it put our offense positioned again to get back on the field, use the clock and move the football. So it worked hand-in-hand. On what worked well for the defense tonight To go into detail, I think I would be better able to answer that question tomorrow. Certainly, we didn t stop the run as much as we would have liked to. I think we were able to get off the field on third down on those two plays early in the second half. I think that was the big thing. I think it gave our defense some confidence and from then on the game was in-hand, other than that last drive. On Jeffery s TD catch late in the second quarter Any catch like that at the end of a half, in a close game where the team you re playing is moving the football effectively and the score is close, you know is big. Especially, because we were coming out the second half with the ball. We got good field position, our defense gave us good field position. I want to say there might have been a penalty on that play as well. There were a couple of penalties that extended it, I can t remember if that was the one. We got ourselves down the field, got ourselves in range. Decided to take a shot with 17 seconds left and the good thing was I don t know how many players could do it [make that catch], there are a lot of great players in this league. We ve got some big guys. Alshon went up and made a play. Josh at least gave him a ball he could play in bounds. On whether there were any trends on third down tonight As I said in the press conference early in the week, we were 2-of-11 last week and were really disappointed because we had the plays but we didn t execute them. So we went to work this week and made a commitment to not just having the right plays up, but executing them. Some of them we were in exactly the right position and play. And other times you saw Josh run around and make a play. I remember on one third down Brandon [Marshall] made a play on a scramble and so forth. We really made a commitment to do that. Very disappointed last week, because special situations really hurt our football team last week. The only thing you can do you asked the question last week, what you have to do. You have to emphasize, you have to work on it, you have to make it a point of emphasis in practice and that s what we did. On how the team finds itself tied for first place in the division I m not sure what that position is. I m not trying to be I just think we have, and I ve said this from the beginning, we have a tremendous locker room of guys. We have a tremendous locker room of guys who truly have a sense of brotherly love and who work together and don t point fingers and don t worry about what s going on outside the building, come to work every day. They re a joy to coach. I ve said that from the beginning. Through wins and losses I stand by that and, as I said tonight to them, even after a very difficult and disappointing loss last week we found out a lot more about ourselves. That s what this is all about. To find out what we re all about. I ve said it before, we really won t know until the end of the season, but we have an indication of what we re about and what we can be. Tomorrow we ll start on Cleveland. Continue to try to get better as a football team in all phases and put a game plan together that our guys can assimilate and go out and play on Sunday in Cleveland. On how Josh s play impacts Jay s time-table to return It has nothing to do with cautiousness. Taking this very methodically. The doctors understand that. When he s good to go and can have a full week of practice, he ll be our quarterback. On whether he s received any report on Jay since Saturday I have not got any report.

5 BEARS PLAYER QUOTES 2013 REGULAR SEASON GAME #13 Chicago Bears vs. Dallas Cowboys PAGE 1 OF 2 Josh McCown On coming out Hot to play You know that s the way we approach every day. Believe it or not that s the standard we set for ourselves. That s what you want to do. Every offense in the NFL they go out there wanting to score on a good drive and I don t think we are any different. Some nights it comes to you and you are able to execute. You know there s a standard that we are chasing all the time and to play at it and I think we are getting closer to that. On being surprised he played so well You know, for me I don t know if surprise is the right word. You always wonder how it would be if you operate in the right kind of offense with the right kind of players and so on and so forth. With me, it s just about being in the right situation now with these guys, with this offense and with these coaches. And allowing me to play within the system with the guys that are around me. On thinking that this could be his last start For me, it is week to week and obviously I m in practice and I see his (Jay Cutler s) progress and monitor that and you know I understand every week if my number is called I have to be ready to go. So that s how it has been and we re ready for him to get back as quickly as possible; hopefully he is healing up and that will happen soon. For right now, I am serving my team, as I said before, as a back-up quarterback and ready to go. On his rushing touchdown Well, we joked about it on the sideline. I had to scramble against the Rams and tried to go head-up with their linebackers and it didn t go too well. So I thought maybe I could go through the air this time. So I was able to get in the end zone. We have had our issues down there the last two weeks and I just wanted to make sure we scored and that is what it was all about. On the throw to Alshon Jeffery in the endzone It s a play that we have talked about all the time and I just know those guys make plays. You know, I trust Alshon and when you re in that situation in the end of the half, you want to put the ball where your guy can catch it, not to put the ball in jeopardy where the ball can be turned over because you still think you have some points there, at least three, so I was just trying to give him a chance to make a play but not really put the ball in jeopardy so you know my part was relatively easy. His catch was unreal. On making it a hard decision for Trestman to choose a quarterback You know, I don t know about that. The team knows who the starting quarterback is and, like I said before, I know my job as the back-up. I want to play efficient football, winning football and keep us in contingent while the starter is not healthy. As long as Jay (Cutler) is healthy and ready to go I don t think that s any question. I just want to do my part in that and so we ll see what happens moving forward. I don t look at it that way.

6 PAGE 2 OF 2 On being affected by the weather To a degree, other than not being able to feel my toes, that s about it for me. Little windy at times, but we did a good job. We went inside (the Payton Center) on Thursday, but on Friday and Saturday we got outside which was a good choice for us and for me because I was flirting with the glove and trying to throw with it and all those things. When we got outside, I was able to throw without a glove and it gave me a lot of confidence and gave us all a lot of confidence in what we can continue to do to execute our offense and for Monday night. We thought it would be more cold and a bit more windy (however, you say it) but I will leave that to you all. We figured it was pretty cold Friday and Saturday, so if we can go through those practices and we feel good about it, we would be okay tonight and it was a good test for us Friday and Saturday. On not throwing with a glove on his hand Both. Whatever would help. That was my main concern. Sometimes your hands get stiff. You catch that ball and the ball is cold. It s hard. It s not tacky when it s warm. Sometimes the glove gives you an edge. It makes you feel the ball better. As I threw with it, it just didn t give me enough of an edge, enough of an advantage. It s different for everyone. Jordan (Palmer), he loves the gloves. He throws it well. But for me, I never could get acclimated to it. I m glad we spent the time outside. We cycled through a few different gloves trying them. Seeing what would work best. In the end, it was better to go barehanded. On throwing deep balls before the game We typically stretch out, especially with Jay (Cutler), pretty far before the game. That s where I get it from. Jay likes to get farther and farther back. His ball keeps going like this, and mine keeps going like that. That s all that is. It s just something we do with Jay. It gets you ready so you can gauge how far you can throw it if I need to throw it. Is the wind going to be that much of a factor if we throw it downfield. On not being able to do anything to keep his job It s completely reasonable. I m the backup. Jay s our starter. When Jay is healthy, Jay should be the starting quarterback. That s really it. I don t go out here going, You know what, if I do this now I ll be the starter. That s not my mindset. I ve told you guys that. My mindset is to serve this team as the backup quarterback as best I can and play efficient football and winning football in this situation to keep us in contention. So, whenever he takes back over we re in position to make a playoff run.

7 BEARS PLAYER QUOTES 2013 REGULAR SEASON GAME #13 Chicago Bears vs. Dallas Cowboys PAGE 1 OF 2 Earl Bennett, WR On the Bears chances in the division I think we have a pretty good chance. The only thing we can control is to go out each and every game and win. On playing in a game like tonight It s been awhile. It s just the offense continuing to work each and every day. Last week, we didn t get the results we wanted. We came back to practice; guys were focused. We came out in bad weather and made plays. On the effect of the cold weather It was alright. It wasn t that bad to me. Some guys just sucked it up. Pretty much the whole team didn t wear any sleeves. On being part of the offense that is clicking I m always a part of it. I m blocking, or blocking for Alshon (Jeffery), or B(Brandon Marshall), or somebody or running a route to free those guys up. Whether I m doing that or I m catching a touchdown, either way I m a part of it. It s a lot of fun. Once you see it go from the practice field to the game field, it s just unbelievable. We have a lot of guys that can make plays. Once those guys have an opportunity, the sky s the limit. Brandon Marshall, WR On the offense s ability It just shows what we believe in from day one. What we can be on offense and as a team. We re excited about the opportunity tonight on Monday Night Football. We came out and got the job done. On the ability of Alshon Jeffery We all knew what he was capable of doing. I m just thankful I had the facility and environment to take him and put him a healthy environment to grow and really learn about the physical and mental. He s helping us out. He s not just helping me out. He s helping the special teams, defense, the whole organization. He s just special. On the efficiency of the offense It started with our preparation this week. We embraced the elements. We embrace adversity. Got a little help from Detroit, so we had a little more energy. It s a trickle-down effect. It starts with Phil Emery. Then goes to (Marc) Trestman. Then down to our coaches and players. We re coming together at the right time. On the weather conditions It doesn t matter if you re here one day or 10 years. That orange and blue blood, Bear blood, is contagious. That s what it s about. This is Bear football. On the play of Josh McCown He s amazing. We really appreciate his leadership. What he s been doing for us. This guy is a special person on and off the field. On what he expected on the play right before the half A touchdown. We got a touchdown. We didn t know it was going to be so sweet. I just embraced him. Hold him. You re awesome. Me and Earl (Bennett) were on the sideline. Earl brought it up that he (Alshon) had the best deep-ball skill of anybody in the game. Maybe even ever. He s just a freak. On the offense playing well That s what we re capable of doing. We believe in ourselves. The coaches put a great plan together. Offensive line, when you can keep the pocket clean like that, give the quarterback a clean throwing motion, the sky s the limit for us and this offense.

8 PAGE 2 OF 2 Alshon Jeffery, WR On keeping the ball away from his body It s just something I practice all the time. Something we re always taught. It s just a natural instinct to keep the ball away from the defender and have strong hands. On how he developed his strong hands It s just God-given. It s natural instinct to grip the ball tight. You always got to practice keeping the ball away from your body. Just holding it up. On if he thought he d get the pass before halftime Oh yeah. It s the same play we ran against Minnesota. Just throw it up and make a catch.

9 BEARS PLAYER QUOTES 2013 REGULAR SEASON GAME #13 Chicago Bears vs. Dallas Cowboys PAGE 1 OF 2 Jermon Bushrod On the play of Josh McCown He s just getting better every single week he gets an opportunity. We love to see him have success like that, and we re going to do whatever it takes for him to continue to throw that ball around and continue to fight to be as balanced as possible. On the importance of this game after last week s loss We needed this. The way our division was looking, we needed to come out here and needed to win, and we just have to carry it over and take this thing one day at a time and one week at a time. On scoring on eight possessions in a row When you practice and envision your offense working the way it s supposed to, we just went out there and executed it. It just [doesn t] get much better than that. I think I saw up on the board that (McCown) had a rating of 140-something, and I think we had 150 yards rushing. We spread it around. Everyone got touches. It was beautiful. On the touchdown run by McCown A run like that by your quarterback? Him jumping into the end zone and getting flipped around a little bit? Him getting up with a smile on his face? It just gets us going, man. If he can go lay it out there like that, then we have to lay it out there like that. Kyle Long, G On how to find some consistency I don t know, but we ll show up in two days, and we ll practice towards putting it together for next week as well We know what we have offensively. We know the problems that can cause a defense. And, when you have so many weapons everywhere, you can really open it up, and tonight was just one of those nights where everybody had their assignment down, and we were able to execute. That s what it really comes down to. A lot of our plays for zero yards or negative yards come down to one guy. One guy can make or break a play, and I think tonight it was a collective effort special teams, offense, and defense that helped contain the Dallas Cowboys and get out of here with a victory. Tim Jennings, CB On the win None of them are ever easy; this is the NFL. We had a lot of close ones, lost a lot of close ones. This one was huge. Monday night. Primetime. It was a shoot-out at first, going back and forth. The second half, we were able to kind of get off the field and give our offense more chances to put points on the board. On keeping Tony Romo in check Well, first of all, there was just a little in the passing game because they had some good runs. They were still gashing us in the runs, and once we had them in certain situations where they had to pass the ball, the coaches were dialing up some good defenses to put us in the right defense to take away and pressure them a little bit make them force some throws. So, we were able to execute those plays and get them in third and long, and coach put us some good positions to make him feel uncomfortable back there. On being tied for first That just gives us hope, that we can just kind of control what we do to put us back in the race. We re not really worried about anybody else; we ve got to kind of win on out, so we can control our own destiny. It feels good to be back in the hunt, but we still have to take care of business each and every week.

10 PAGE 2 OF 2 Jordan Mills, T On the value of the touchdown catch by Alshon Jeffrey The value was that we knew we were getting the ball back at the end of the first half, and we were looking for the quick score. Whether it was three points or a touchdown, it was great momentum going into halftime. Coming back out, we just wanted to keep it going and keep being explosive keep drives going and keep our defense off the field so they could come back in fresh. On the catch by Jeffrey It was a crazy catch, man. That s two weeks in a row with him making crazy catches like that. He s just a freak of nature. Him and Brandon Marshall and this whole wide receiver tandem is crazy. They work together tremendously. Just to see them exploding like that is great.

11 JASON GARRETT QUOTES 2013 REGULAR SEASON GAME #13 Chicago Bears vs. Dallas Cowboys PAGE 1 OF 2 On his emotions after the game Well, disappointed obviously. We certainly didn t do the things necessary to win this ballgame. They did a very good job moving the ball on our defense consistently throughout the game, mostly in the passing game, and then they got their running game going. We didn t do a very good job really making any stops on defense, on many of the ball plays. They certainly were very good on third downs and keeping the drives alive. They made a number of little plays and a number of big plays. I thought that limited our opportunities on offense. I thought we were doing some good things on offense, but it became one of those ballgames where you have to bat and serve every time, and we weren t able to do that. They made a couple third down stops and went up by another score and then the game got out of hand. I thought our guys did a good job continuing to battle back, we just didn t play well enough against this team tonight. On what gives him hope that he can fix the defense Well, we ve just got to go back to work and fix it. We ve just got to play better. We responded well on a couple of different occasions this year and have played better on defense. We certainly have to do that. We have to play better run defense. We have to find ways to minimize the plays they make in the passing game both the plays that keep drives alive, and also the big plays that account for points. We have to do a better job affecting the passer. We have to do a better job of covering on the back end, and simply make the plays on the ball. On how he can make the defense better There will be a lot of things we ll look at in terms of what we re playing. We ll take a look at who s involved. We have to step back and watch the tape before we make any of the assessments right now, but we ve done that before on a couple of different occasions this year, and we simply have to do it again and have to do a better job. We ve got to play better on defense. On how big the three straight incompletions were before the half It s a team loss. Let me make that abundantly clear. We didn t do enough offensively to win this ballgame. We didn t do enough in the kicking game to win this ballgame. So, we understand that and again when you play a game like this, where you have to match them, you have to match them. And you can t go three and out and give them another opportunity before the half. You have to convert those third downs and keep drives alive. It s as simple as that. On what he saw on the defensive holding that negated the interception It s hard for me to tell. I didn t have a very good view of it, but it looked like it was one of those contested plays that happen a lot in this league. It certainly was a big play at that time in the game. That turnover certainly would have helped us. On if this loss can affect the team these last three games You ve just got to go back to work. You ve got to learn from what happened tonight and make the corrections as coaching staff and as a football team and get ready for the next challenge. It s a short week for us. Green Bay is coming to our place next Sunday and we ve got to get ready for it. On how challenging it was to have three big receivers against his cornerbacks Their receivers were good. They have two really good receivers. They have a big tight end. They ve got a quarterback who does a really good job reading coverage and throwing to the right guy and really giving them chances. It was cold out there tonight. It was windy. I thought he threw the ball very effectively and those guys made a lot of plays. On if DeMarcus Ware is healthy Well, he s coming off that injury. He s been playing, but he s been dealing with that for most of the year. It was just one of those deals where he s got to get himself going and start impacting the game a little more. Sometimes the conditions are tough on a night like this to do that, but we certainly need him down the stretch.

12 PAGE 2 OF 2 On if the weather would have minimized what the receivers were able to do Again, I thought they handled the weather well. I don t know what the weather was to be honest. The field was good. It was cold, but it seemed like everyone handled the ball pretty well. The quarterbacks threw it fairly well. They were accurate, and there weren t a lot of balls dropped or coming out of guys hands. I thought collectively, both sides did a good job with the ball. They certainly were very effective throwing it throughout the game. On if he gave much consideration to going for it on fourth down We thought about it, but we were still right in the middle of the field and still had a long way to go on that. So we ended up going for a fourth down a little bit later, but on that one you start getting into those discussions. When you re putting it altogether, how much time is on the clock, what the score is and what they re doing offensively, but we thought the right move there was to play a little bit of field position and obviously it didn t work out very well for us. On if he knew anything about how Sean Lee is doing Not right now. It was kind of an upper back/neck thing that he was dealing with during the game, so we ll find out a little bit more later tonight. On how Dwayne Harris is doing coming off a hamstring injury Yeah, he felt good before the game. He moved around well, obviously made the big return, but it looked like he tweaked it a little bit again, so we ll just see how he is in a couple days. On if hamstring injuries are becoming more than just an anomaly Well, he had one so he just re-aggravated it. So I don t know if that s necessarily a new injury, but that s something we certainly looked at. It s happened on a few different occasions to guys, and it s really impacted our football team, so we ve really got to make sure we store that away as well. On what his message is to the team after a game like this Well, certainly it was a disappointing loss for everybody and the loss stings. But the worst thing we can do is have a hangover after this loss. It s a short week, so we ve got to somehow someway, when the wheels touch down tonight, we ve got to get back tonight. We ve got to clean up what happened tonight and get ready for Green Bay. The players will be off tomorrow, back in on Wednesday and we ve got to get work. You have to shake this one off. That s the nature of this league. We ve got a short week and a big challenge for us at our place against the Packers on Sunday. On if he worries that his players are losing belief in what they ve been taught by the defensive coaches I don t worry about that. Again, we ve just got to get back to work and I think we ve made adjustments after teams have had good games against us in the past and I think the players understand that, so we re willing to that as a coaching staff. The first thing we do is look at ourselves, what we re doing, how we re teaching it, and what we re asking our players to do. We ll do that again this week and make the necessary corrections and make sure we get back to work. On if he s made or frustrated at the defense s performance Yeah, we didn t play very well on defense. There s no question about that. Again, we need to make the corrections. Whatever emotion you re talking about, we all have them. You re disappointed in a lot of different things, but somehow someway you ve got to get your focus on what we need to right now, and learn from this game as coaches as players, make the necessary adjustments and get ready for the next challenge and that s what the focus has got to be. On how he thought DeMarco performed I thought we ran the ball well. We ran the ball well from the 21 personnel group. We ran it from 12. We ran it from the 22 stop and I thought we were pretty effective at running it, and that was one of the disappointing things about the night is that we were doing a lot of good things offensively to move the ball. I thought we were physical with them, controlling the line of scrimmage. We did that throughout the ballgame and on a couple of occasions we didn t convert the third down to keep those drives alive. That hurt us. But there were certainly some positives to build out of the running game.

13 COWBOYS PLAYERS QUOTES 2013 REGULAR SEASON GAME #13 Chicago Bears vs. Dallas Cowboys PAGE 1 OF 2 Tony Romo, QB On his thoughts after tonight s game They re not good. We got beat pretty solidly. The Bears played well, and it s not going to be a fun tape to watch. On his feelings as the game developed You always go into a game thinking that your defense, special teams, everyone is going to play well. You usually adjust as the game goes on. Usually in environments or conditions like this, very seldom do you have a game like this it s probably the first one I ve been a part of. But I give them credit they moved the ball very well, and did some things that allowed them to score a lot of points. On functioning in the cold weather Obviously it was cold. You stay warm, and you just block it out of your brain. We didn t have a ton of opportunities to do some things, just because of the small amount of possessions we had in the football game. It was just a game that got away from us pretty quickly. On whether they got to the point where they felt the need to score Yes, I think there s no question, as the game got to the third and fourth possession, you could see they were moving the ball. You felt that need. We did a pretty good job. We ran the ball, and we had a game plan coming in and we stuck to it, pretty much throughout the game. We executed a lot of things well, but ultimately, it wasn t good enough and we have to be better. On whether they were very focused on scoring points during the sequence at the end of the first half Yes, I think that s part of it. I think you know they were going to score points today. You have an understanding of that. We had an opportunity to do that [score points], and you need to take that. We had a couple of plays where we had that opportunity, and we didn t get it done. On whether he was thinking they would go for it during the play in the second half when the ball was on the 10-yard line Yeah, I think I can t remember exactly how many points we were down at that point? [Reporter stated 13 points] It was definitely a situation where they thought about it, but we needed to be able to pin that deep and hopefully get the ball right back in that position. I think that was the thinking. But we needed to play a football game we needed to execute at a really high level, and we didn t do it well enough. As a football team today, we didn t play a good football game. On whether it is hard to not get frustrated with the Defense It s a team game. It takes everybody. We have a lot of guys who have done a lot of great individual things at different times. You learn after a while that it takes everybody. It really does. It takes offense, defense and special teams to win in this league, especially on the road. We didn t do as well as we should have in all three phases in this game. On his message to the team going forward We have a short week, and we have to come back. It feels like you have to win out, is what it feels like. It s felt like that for a few weeks the last couple weeks have felt that way. I think it will be the same way going forward. On his performance in tonight s game We just didn t have many opportunities. In the few amount of possessions we had in this game, we tried to execute at a high level. I can think of one throw [I d like to have] back, but the rest of it, we ran the ball really well. We did a lot of good things, but ultimately, it wasn t good enough.

14 PAGE 2 OF 2 On the difficulty in sustaining momentum in the game when the Bears kept scoring You have to be able to block that out and just execute plays and get yourself back in the ballgame. We got too far behind. On whether they were able to execute the game plan tonight Yes, we stuck to it. We did a good job. We ran the ball, we executed on some early third downs, and we took an early lead on the road, which normally gives you a great chance. But it didn t happen. On whether they got deflated from all the Bears offensive scores You try not to get into the emotional side of it. You try not to get caught up in the ups and downs of each play and each drive. We didn t do things well enough, and they beat us. And they beat us soundly. On if it is easier to get beat soundly No. It s not easier. Any time you lose it s not an emotional letdown, but you put so much work into it each week, that it is just frustrating. The more important aspect is what you do afterwards. I think that s something that you have to learn and figure out in your career. You have to be able to let it go and come back next week. Obviously now the next game is going to be the most important one on your schedule and that s where we are at. On whether tonight was his coldest game yet (even in high school in Wisconsin) This was not my coldest game, but it was definitely a cold game. I don t know what the [temperature] was, but it was definitely a cold, cold football game. On his coldest football game ever What was the [temperature] today? [Reporter stated 8 degrees, with minus 7 windchill.] I played in probably a minus 20, minus 25 degree game. That was in college. I figured today wasn t quite that cold, as I could still grip the ball. [Reporter asked if it was at home or on the road?] That was on the road. Actually, no, that one was at home against Eastern Kentucky. But I could be wrong on that. On whether gripping the football was an issue No. For the most part, I felt comfortable. It was windy in spurts. We cut through the wind, and did some things well, like the one throw back that I mentioned earlier. I think we just didn t have the opportunities to do the things we wanted to do. On which throw he was referring to You ll have to figure it out. [Reporter asked if it was the one to Dez Bryant?] Yeah, you re right. He ran a good route, the guy had inside leverage and Dez had him breaking route. As I looked, I didn t think he was going to be able to cross his face. Dez ran a heck of a route to get in there. In the process, I was going to throw it high, so he could go around him high, thinking the defender was inside. He wrapped in there really good. At the last second, I didn t pull it down as much I needed to, and that was disappointing. On the the defense not forcing a punt and allowing the Bears to score right before the half Yeah, it s always hard to win when they are able to do what they did. You have to give them credit. They played a really good football game and came out and attacked us.

15 COWBOYS PLAYERS QUOTES 2013 REGULAR SEASON GAME #13 Chicago Bears vs. Dallas Cowboys Dez Bryant, WR On the performance of the Bears offense in the fourth quarter They did a great job protecting the ball, keeping us off the field and executing plays when they needed to. On how much of a factor the weather was I don t think the weather was too much of a factor. On the frustration of not being able to build on the opening drives Of course, you always want to get going. It is what it is. On how surprised he was on tonight s outcome Shocked. The way we prepared. The way we practiced each and every week. On how much this game took out of him As bad as this hurts, we ve got to stick together. We re still in this thing. This kind of stuff happens each and every week. On if the defense is to blame for tonight s loss It s a team game. We have to score points to help out our D. It s just the way it goes. Sean Lee, LB On how frustrating tonight was as a defensive unit It was horrible. We lost the game. We played terrible. We got dominated. We ve got to figure out something if we want to get into the playoffs. We ve got to play a lot better, starting with myself. On if he s frustrated by the injuries to the team No. We just have to play well. We have to execute better. It s purely on the players executing on the field. On if the team still believes in the system It has everything to do with us executing properly. We can t give up big plays. We give up way too many big plays. We have to get off the field on third down. Basic stuff. Jason Hatcher, DT On what was the difference in the game They schemed us well. They knew what was coming most of the time. It s no excuse, you ve just got to execute better and play better. We got out-played tonight. We ve got to go back Wednesday and get back to work and get ready for Green Bay. On being unable to build momentum on the two-game winning streak It s very frustrating. You want to win out, but sometimes it doesn t happen that way. You just have to keep working, just keep working. We re not out of the hunt and we re not going to give up. That was a very embarrassing game. We got our butts beat. We got outplayed today. It s unacceptable. We just have to get better. On what needs to be done to not let the loss linger You ve got to forget about it. It s a short week. We ve got Green Bay to worry about. We ve got a 24-hour rule. We need to be ready to go Wednesday. It s going to be here before you know it. We ve got to be ready to roll because these next three, we ve got to win. There s a sense of urgency. We ve got to win out. On the Cowboys run defense vs. the Bears I think we did pretty [well] against the run. Once they got up on us, they were able to run the ball. When you have free reign to just run the ball every down, you get some success. It wasn t that we didn t stop the run. We did a great job early, and they were able to make some big plays down the stretch and get up on us. Then they were able to run the ball.