Q. Give us your overall impressions. I know you haven't seen the film.
I've seen the film. Got that done just now. Have everything in this steel trap right now. Well, we started really poorly. We had a really hard time. The official got us five times that we assessed penalties, other ones they let us go. Miserable looking first quarter. We kind of hung in the game as far as trying to win the game. We didn't run the ball very well in the first half. We didn't do very much of anything very well. But we stayed close. It was the opportunity for us to face that up and then come on back and see what you can do in the second half to finish the game. It was a marvelous second half for our guys as a team. We did so many cool things that we weren't able to do. We ran the ball better. We protected the quarterback better. The quarterbacks made their throws, guys made their catches and gave us a chance to win the football game on the last play of the game. That's kind of all we can hope for. Bud Grant taught me that a long time ago. So winds up being a tie. Too bad. I thought Treven (Ma'ae) had two huge plays in the game. The big sack, but also he blocked a kick. Said he never blocked a kick in his life. Welcome to the NFL. Cam (Miller) and Shed (Shedrick Jackson) with his touchdown catch, gorgeous play. Our ability to keep coming back, keep coming back. The sidelines were electric. The guys understood what we were talking about. It just takes one play at the end if you can get it done. We got a chance to feel that. The most important thing that is we take that forward, that we know we ain't never done, it ain't ever over. We're going to keep hanging until we get a chance to win the game.
Q. Any update on Alex (Cappa)?
He is fine. He's had an ankle that's bothered him. He just wrenched it a bit and came back. He played after that. He's okay.
Q. (On the run defense)...
We made some really glaring errors. We made errors. Couple times when we were pressuring, we just didn't hit stuff clean enough. But as the game went on, we played way better. I thought they did a nice job running the football. I thought that was a really obvious part of their game. In the end we need to do better.
Q. Cam Miller gets in there for the first time, a couple scoring drives. Getting thrown into the fire the way he did, your thoughts?
We knew he would get the chance in the fourth quarter to do this. He did a terrific job. I'm so proud of him for hanging in there through all the situations. If you remember, it was almost like the mock game. Almost like that game. He kind of did the same thing there, too. Really credit to him, the guys that made the catches.
Q. 22 rookies on the field tonight. Is it good to get a lot of those guys (some playing time)...
It's hard to assess how valuable that is. Guys playing in their first NFL game, a nice crowd, all of that. Silent count the whole game for the offense. We hung together on the sidelines. Everybody kept fighting. You could feel the surge of the comeback. You could feel it occurring. That's really important for those guys to understand it. I feel kind of used to it, but it doesn't mean I don't enjoy it, man. That's as good as it gets right there.
Q. How does it feel to be back here from a different perspective?
I'm sorry to tell you it wasn't like something that was obvious. It's a football game. I've been fighting wars for other people my whole life, coaching. I mean, I was with my team and we were battling. It was cool to be here. I loved it here. I've always loved the whole experience that we had here all those years together and all of that. I don't forget that. I don't disrespect that one bit. But it didn't translate to something crazy to me. It was just an opportunity to play in a great setting. Thanks to the league for putting us in this game. When they figured it out, it was a good idea. A good one to look forward to. I thought we handled it all right.
Q. Was it weird at all at any moment?
No. There was a couple times when guys made plays. I'm looking at the screen in the end zone. I thought that was our guys making the play. That did happen a couple times (smiling).
Q. It's rare a defensive lineman gets called for two holding penalties on the same drive. Did you get any explanation?
I did. I didn't like it. It wasn't that the official didn't give him a warning, then he did it, he did it again. I wish he would have warned him a couple times, we would have got him out of the game, whatever we needed to do, told me about it. I got nothing. Those are big penalties in the game, really big penalties. Giving your opponent free yards, first downs, stuff like that. If you do that, it's really hard to win.