Quotes of Note: What the Broncos Said After Loss To Titans

For the second year in a row, 16 points were all it took for victory in a game between the Tennessee Titans and Denver Broncos.

The Titans capped Week 1 of the NFL season with a 16-14 victory over the Broncos on Monday Night Football at Empower Field at Mile High. Denver led 7-0 in the first half and 14-13 in the second but allowed the Titans to answer both times.

Tennessee scored the decisive points on Stephen Gostkowski’s 25-yard field goal with 17 seconds to play, which capped a 12-play, 83-yard drive.

Here is some of what Broncos players and coaches said following their defeat:

• Safety Justin Simmons, on Tennessee’s first touchdown, a 1-yard reception by tight end Jonnu Smith: “It was a great look … and it kind of messed up a couple of our reads. That’s why Smith was open on the seven route. It was a look that we hadn’t seen. So, it was just a great play by them. I think with cleaner eyes and better technique, it’s something that we could have been able to cover a little better. It was just a great play by them, definitely a play that they drew up knowing we would be confused.”

• Jurrell Casey, on playing against the Titans, the team for which he was a five-time Pro Bowler: “First game jitters, I guess. We had a lot of mistakes on our side. It was definitely whatever facing them, attack this game like it was any other game. Tried to come out here and help the team win. We just didn’t make enough big plays to get it done.”

• Quarterback Drew Lock, on the absence of fans: “It was really weird out there (Monday) night. No noise, the timeouts—it was quiet. I wanted to call the play quietly in the huddle because I didn’t know if they could hear us calling plays. It was weird. [Empower Field at] Mile High would have come in big time for us at the end, but what could have been really big for us is executing the four-minute offense.”

• Running back Melvin Gordon, on the performance of Denver’s offense: “You know, we got to score touchdowns and get points. I think our defense played pretty well. They made enough stops. We had plenty of opportunities. You know with the kicker today, having a pretty bad day, but we have to make it count. We have to convert on third downs, and we didn’t do that (Monday).”

• Coach Vic Fangio, on the failed attempt on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 3:17 to play in the first half: “We’re inside the one there to get a touchdown against a good team. I had no second thoughts there. It wasn’t one that I agonized over. We were going to go for that.”

• Gordon on the difference in the game: “Football is tough. You make one too many mistakes it can cost you and (Monday) it cost us.”

• Casey, on facing Derrick Henry, who rushed for 116 yards on 31 carries: “We tried to do our best. At the end of the day we lost, so obviously it wasn’t good enough. The biggest thing is we just got to come back and get ready to rally for next week against the Steelers.”

• Fangio, on not using his timeouts during Tennessee’s final possession: “It was two-fold. One, their field goal kicker obviously [had] been having his problems so I didn’t want to extend the drive where they could get closer. Number two, we would have used a timeout, but we got the running back out of bounds. We would have used a second timeout, but they threw an incompletion which would have given us one when we got the ball back so that was part of the thinking there.”

• Linebacker Alexander Johnson, on the Titans’ game-winning drive: “What was going through my mind was trying to stop them so they wouldn’t be able to get in position to get the kick off so they worked down the field and were able to get in field goal range. The biggest thing was we need to step up as a defense to not let them get down there to get a chance to kick a field goal.”