By Scott Salomon
(On changes to team since the bye week) “I think we just stuck to our process. I think a lot of things got blown up, through and through. The outside world had an opinion and what was going on there, and we just stuck to our process and got better from it. Did some things a little differently and got better from a couple things. I think at the end of the day, you saw this team embrace adversity throughout the entire year. Now, it’s hard to say that when you won 16 out of your last 17, but there was adversity. There’s adversity constantly and I think we did a great job of embracing that. We embraced the ups and downs of the season, and getting better from the things that we went through.”
(Thoughts on the first drive and the offensive pass interference) “I try to tell myself before every game that the calls have a way of evening themselves out. Sometimes in the heat of the moment, it’s hard to convince yourself of that, and the calls had a way of evening themselves out. So, mad about that in the first, but again, these guys are making split second decisions and that was an all-star crew out there. They earned the right to be here too, at the Super Bowl, and I thought they did a good job, regardless of what I thought about that one. I wasn’t able to see everything. I’m a little biased and I don’t think it should be called, but he had a better view of it and I’m sure he made the right call there.”
(On his postgame reaction and representing the University of Mount Union) “Again, all glory to God. He gives us the talents to be in these situations and blessed our team with talents. He blessed me with the talents to be able to coach football and the opportunity to be able to coach football, so just gratitude right there. And Mount Union taught me how to win, that’s for sure. So grateful to everybody at Mount Union, Coach [Larry] Kehres, all my teammates there, everyone that helped me develop from there.”
(On how matchups in practice have strengthened the team) “I think that the key to that point is the intensity that we practice at. When you’re practicing at that kind of intensity in training camp, you’re getting those matchups. Q [Quinyon Mitchell] versus A.J. [Brown], and DeVonta [Smith] versus [Darius] Slay and those guys as well, and BG [Brandon Graham] versus Lane [Johnson], and Jordan [Davis] versus Josh Sweat and Nolan [Smith]. So, you have no choice but to get better and this is the greatest team sport there is. Iron sharpens iron. I’ve been saying it a lot today and throughout the whole year that you cannot be great without the greatness of others. That applies to coaches. That applies player to player. I mean, look at the special here. Saquon [Barkley] has been a special player his entire career, but he was able to make history this year with the things that he did because of the special talents of the guys up front. This is the ultimate team game and it takes selflessness. Jalen [Hurts] said one time, ‘Just because we’re not winning a certain way, or the way people perceive that we should win, doesn’t mean we can’t.’ Today we needed the efforts of everyone. Long story short, you can’t be great without the greatness of others.”
(On Jalen Hurts’ growth since last Super Bowl and throughout the season) “He just keeps getting better. He knows how to win. He does a great job of being able to block out all the outside noise. I find it funny when they’re like, ‘Jalen’s good cause he’s got a good team around him.’ That’s football. You cannot be great without the greatness of others. Jalen cannot do it by himself. He needs A.J., he needs that offensive line, he needs Saquon, and vice versa. The reason Saquon had a special year is, not only the offensive line, but the attention that Jalen commands for the run game. Jalen’s special and the criticism just blows my mind because I think he’s so special, and he’s won so many games and works his butt off. He just continues to get better and can block out everything, focus on the task at hand of getting better and put himself in the position to win each week. He does a great job of that and he had an unbelievable game today when we needed him to. We knew how good of a coach and how good of a defense we were playing today, and when you sell out to stop one thing, another thing opens. Jalen was able to take advantage of that today, and him and this team are world champs forever.”
(On locker room mood at halftime) “We made sure that everyone was resting at first, but one of the things we talked about, be ready for anything. Be ready for different and exotic things. Things to make them try to get back into the game, but one thing that we really focused on and studied a bunch was the way that they can get back into this game. Us going three-and-out on offense, having sacks, having penalties, turning the ball over, and for explosive plays to happen on offense. I just thought we did a great job of handling that. We truly were playing it like this is the second game, zero-zero. If we win this one, we’re going to win this game. The guys were focused and locked in. It really was evident of the entire two weeks. When we won the NFC championship game in 2022, there was so much joy and I don’t want to say there isn’t joy. This year it was just like, ‘Let’s go. We’ve got to go finish the job now,’ and I think it was the same attitude at halftime of just locking in and staying focused. Let’s go finish the job, and that’s what we did.”
More Sports News
(On response after starting the season 2-2) “We had great OTAs and training camp. We were developing as a team and just because the outside world tells you to feel a certain way, doesn’t mean that we were feeling that way. We knew we had a special team. We knew we had a group of guys that could do special things, but it was going to take day-in and day-out work. It was just putting your head down and working and saying, ‘How are we going to put ourselves in the best position to win that Cleveland game.’ It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, how are we going to get to 6-2.’ It was ‘How are we going to win this game.’ Then, it was going to be, ‘How do we win the next game.’ It’s boring, but it’s truly just trying to get a little bit better each day. But that’s the thing that you’ll remember, is the daily grind of emptying the tank every week to try to win each week. We just doubled down on the things we knew to be true. We knew we had special players, we knew we had special coaches, we knew we had a special front office and special people in the building and our goal was to do it together and stick together and go.”
