"I already knew what J.J. was about," Jefferson said. "It was just all about showing the world. We knew him, coming from Michigan, being a national champion, we knew he had that dog in him. And really today, seeing his composure and seeing his grit and seeing him lead the team, you know, even when we were down, it goes a long way.
"It juiced us up, honestly, to hear our quarterback have those words and lead us in that type of way," Jefferson added about McCarthy's impromptu encouragement. "It's definitely something that we need. It's not every time you hear J.J. be that type of guy, but today, game day, when the lights are shining, he knows how to come to work and he knows how to have that dog mentality. And he never gave up. That was the big thing about it. He just kept going, play after play, not really thinking on the interception that he had, just all about focusing on the next play."
O'Connell's demeanor over the headset and on the sideline was significant, as well.
"They showed a lot of things that we didn't expect," McCarthy said. "The calm, cool, collected nature that he had just gave me so much confidence to try to filter that into my teammates as much as possible. But, after that running touchdown and seeing how fired up he was, that was really special."