(opening statement) "Obviously, it was a disappointing and tough loss. I thought our guys competed and fought and did everything they could to try to find a way to win the game. We all could have done better, me included, during different situations in the game. I thought we rebounded well after the first drive. The obvious difference was in the red zone, both ways. That was the difference in the game. So, what do you have?"
(on if he talked to S Ed Reed about the final play) "We haven't had that conversation. He didn't say anything about it. I haven't talked to him about it."
(on his thoughts regarding the final play) "My thoughts on it? I don't have any thoughts right now."
(on the decision to throw the challenge flag in the fourth quarter, but pick it up in the first) "The decision, in the first quarter, to pick it up was a situation where [what] I was challenging – they had ruled differently. So I thought it was good communication. I appreciated the communication on it, and that's what that was. On the second one, I was trying to flip the timeout into a challenge, and they wouldn't let me do it. They were right in not letting me do it. I tried to get too much done in that situation. That was a bad job by me, in that situation."
(on the frustration on having first-and-goal and not being able to score a touchdown) "Well, it made a difference in points. It would have made a difference in what they had to do at the end of the game, as far as coming back and taking the lead again. [It made a difference in] points."
(on possibly putting FB Le'Ron McClain in the goal-line situation) "We talked about different guys at different times. I don't think it would have made a difference who was carrying the ball in that situation, the way it played out."
(on the high snap and missed field goal) "Yes, I think the combination of the snap being a little big high and [K Billy Cundiff] being a little bit fast forced him to [adjust] in front of the ball and try to pull it back, and he couldn't pull it back enough. He needs to slow it down. He should be able to make that, with a high snap like that, but we need to watch the snap down there too."
(on the Ravens defense) "I thought the defense played well. I thought, in the first half, we probably gave up more yards than we wanted to. But you will against Peyton Manning. I would have liked to get one stop in the red zone, at least. But as the game went on, we played really, really well on defense."
(on if there was a miscommunication on the handoff to RB Willis McGahee on the goal-line third-down attempt) "I don't know. We'll have to find out and talk to those guys about that. But it's not something we talked about on the sidelines. I didn't see that [miscommunication]. I was watching the front."
(on the Colts ability to bounce back after three turnovers) "I haven't really given that any thought."
QB Joe Flacco
(on the interception at the end of the game) "It was a bad job going to Ray [Rice] in that situation, but I didn't see the guy. That's a big play right there. We were in field goal range already, and we wanted to convert on third down, but at the same time, we've got to hold on to the ball, and score some points to take the lead. I did a bad job of doing that."
(on if RB Ray Rice was the first option on the interception at the end) "It depends what coverage they're giving. I saw everybody mugged up at the line, and I didn't really think the guy that ended up intercepting it was going to drop out the way he did, but it was a bad job by me. I might have been able to go to Kelley [Washington] on the outside. I kind of rushed to get the ball snapped and just made a bad decision."
(on the emotions of the loss) "It's a game that we thought we could have won. When you come down to the end like that, and you come up short, and it was because I made a dumb play and threw an interception in a tight situation. We'll look back at it, but it's definitely going to be a little frustrating right now."
(on the inability to score in the red zone) "We moved the ball pretty well, and we weren't able to put touchdowns on the board, but we had field goals. If you look back at this game, and we'd have one more field goal, which we probably would have gotten at the end there, then you say, 'Good, we won the game.' Like I said, we'll take a look at it, but we didn't convert on a number of third downs, and they did a good job on the goal line."
(on his goal line quarterback sneak) "I snuck down. I kind of got shoved down. When my arm hit the ground, I looked to see where I was, and I was on the half yard line, so I knew I wasn't in. I thought when he called it, I thought we might get them a little bit and be able to sneak it up in there. They've done a pretty good job on quarterback sneaks and the initial contact. Then after that, you're able to maybe drive for a little bit and get a yard or two, but I got forced down and didn't get in there."
(on his frustration about not getting it in the end zone at the goal line) "We expect to get in there, but at the same time, we came away with a field goal, and we had a chance to go win the game with a couple minutes left, and we didn't do it."
DT Haloti Ngata
(on how his ankle is feeling after returning today) "It's pretty sore, just doing some things I haven't done in a while. I'm just getting back into it and trying to get those muscles back that I haven't used in a while."
(on how the defensive unit played as a whole) "I think we did great. You know, we broke down a couple of times, but we knew we just needed to stick to our game plan and slowly just try to get at Peyton [Manning] and tackle their guys and just try to do what we do. We stayed consistent throughout the whole game and slowed them down when we needed to sometimes."
(on whether they can take some positive out of this game after playing a good Colts team) "Oh, definitely. Just speaking on defense, we know that we can play with the best of them. And we just need to take that, keep the confidence up and take it into next week."
(on how big next week's divisional game against Pittsburgh is) "There are no words that describe how big this game is. It's a rivalry. We don't like them and they don't like us, so we're just going to go out there and hit each other hard in the mouth."
WR Derrick Mason
(on whether it came down to too many FGs and not getting in the end zone) "Yeah. But good thing we have a kicker that can, you know, he made them. But out of those six [FG attempts] we need to score at least seven points out of that. If we score seven points out of that, it might be a different story. So, we need to find a way to score points. We moved the ball effectively down the field, that's not the thing, but you need to find a way to score seven instead of three. Because against Peyton [Manning] it's been proven; if you give him an opportunity to be in the game and win the game at the end, that's what he's going to do. And instead of us scoring three as opposed to seven, we put them in a good position to take the game at the end. And that's what they did."
(on whether the opportunity they had on the goal line hurts to not get a TD) "Yeah, we need to get it in somehow, but you can't put it on one guy. This is an 11-man football game, and to say we didn't punch it in, you can't. You have to look at the whole scope of the thing. So, we had an opportunity at the 2 [yard line], didn't make the best of it, came out with a field goal. But we need to get to a point where we get tired of stuff like that and it can't be a, 'Well, we'll get it next time.' No. Next time is coming to an end pretty soon, and we need to get this stuff straightened out pretty quick. However we need to do it, we need to get this stuff corrected."
(on whether this loss ranks near the top of frustrating losses this season) "Yeah. We put ourselves in a position to win the football game, and we don't win it. And it's the little things. In order to beat a 9-0 team, you have to do the little things. And damn it, we didn't do it, so we came out with a loss."
(on where this team stands now) "We all understand what needs to happen now. We do. You can't get in the playoffs unless you win 10 games or more. And 10 games don't automatically put you in in the AFC. So, we know the road ahead of us. We have to win every game from here on out, point blank. However you cut it, dice it, we need to win every game from here on out. And anyone that thinks that we don't have to win all these games from here on out, they're lying to themselves. So, if you want to call it pressure, then it's pressure. We need to go out and we need to win every single game from here on out."
(on what they need to do to put that winning streak together) "Little things. Doing the little things; that is the only thing that is going to put us on the road to, I guess, recovery. That's going to allow us to get on a string of victories, is to do the little things. To not have some of the things happen in a game that we can control. Some things we can't, but a lot of things that happen on that field, we can control. So, we need to make sure [that] we do what we need to do from here on out to win football games. No more excuses. There can't be any more excuses. We need to win football games. That's what it boils down to."
S Dawan Landry
(on Indianapolis turning over the ball) "We did a good job of trying to make everything look the same to Peyton [Manning] trying to keep him off balance – keep him from getting a read on me and Ed [Reed] and forcing him into bad decisions. We were able to get a couple of picks today. We got a fumble, just made a couple of plays."
(on keeping QB Peyton Manning off-balance) "…Just showing him the same thing every time. We just tried to make everything look the same, that they couldn't get a read on us. Usually, he does a lot of things pre-snap, because if he knows what you're doing, he's going to pick you apart. We just tried to give him the same looks, and hopefully, he couldn't get a read on us today."
(on if he thinks the defense did what they could to help the team win) "I think we did what we could. We gave up two touchdowns but when they got to the red zone, we were able to make them score three points. I think that was a win for us."
(on his interception) "Fabian [Washington] pretty much made the play. I was just in the right place at the right time."
(on if leading the team in interceptions means anything to him) "Not at all. We are just trying to get better and focus on the playoffs right now. We have to grind it out right now."
K Billy Cundiff
(On his first game as a Raven): "Obviously, I will store my miss in my memory bank, but I think right away the first thing I did was try to replace it with what should have gone on. What should have gone on is, I should have slowed down a little bit, make sure the operation was solid and just put the ball down the middle. The closest field goal I had all day, so you'd think that I should have made it. It was fun to go out there and to have a couple long kicks to start out with because I think that's the best way to prove yourself, is by trial by fire. You just have to get comfortable playing on the field. It's been about three weeks since I've been out there, so it's just a chance for me to come break off some rust."
(on what it was like going against Matt Stover): "To be perfectly honest with you, that had no bearing on my preparation whatsoever during the week. I know that was something that the fans had been talking about quite a bit, but for me, I never see this game as, like, a kicker versus kicker match-up. It's never that way. In fact, if you talk to most guys, barring the fact that they may hit a game-winner, you want to see the other guy succeed, and I think that's the fraternity of kickers."
(on a possible shot at the game winning field goal ): "At the end, would I have liked to have had that kick to win the game—of course. If you don't want that kick, you better step off the field, because that's something that every athlete should want."
DE Dwan Edwards
(on today's game) "That's a tough loss [and] it will be tough to swallow, but you've got to move on. You got Pittsburgh [next], and that's a division rival, and you need to try to get the 'W.' That's all we can do."
(on whether this loss is frustrating because they were so close) "Every game we've lost that has been like that I feel like, yeah, it is frustrating, but the only thing you can do is stick together and move forward and try to get better. Correct mistakes. That's all you can do."
(on Coach Mattison having a good plan of attack for QB Peyton Manning) "Yeah. We wanted to get after them and had a pretty good idea of what they were going to try to do to us. And shoot, we got some turnovers, forced some turnovers, and that's really all you can ask [for]."
(on the overall defensive play): "Like most of our games, we lose by that much. We've got to find a way. Somehow in the next few weeks, we've got to find a way to finish these games and win these games and come out with a win, because we're losing a lot of close games, and we've got to find a way to win."
(on the game): "We did some good things, but unfortunately came up short today. You'd like to say we did a pretty good job on defense, but we gave up too many points, obviously. We needed this win so it's definitely disappointing."
C Matt Birk
(on not scoring a touchdown on the 1-yard line) "When you're on the one-yard line and you don't get in, it's just execution. You've got to be more physical, and you've got to surge off front. It hurts when you don't score from the one-yard line. It hurts the team. You've got to get the thing in in that situation."
(on whether he thought the Ravens got some breaks today) "I always think it's our day. We have a great team and a great bunch of guys. We just couldn't get over the hump today. But, a few times, we have. We just have to keep grinding. The great thing about this team is that everybody believes in each other. As much as a loss like that stings, we believe in what we're doing. We're going to keep working how we work and see what happens."
(on the difference in the offense from early in the season) "It's just execution. We're moving the ball in between the 30s. When you get in the red zone, you just have to be that much sharper. Give credit to Indy – they do a good job of defending that, but we have to find a way to put it in the end zone. There's your 'duh' quote of the week."
(on whether the Colts schemed differently on the goal line) "No, they executed, and we didn't. Obviously they made some plays, and we have to find a way to make those plays. It all starts with us up front blocking, and then everybody's got to make plays to get the ball in the end zone."
RB Ray Rice
(on the loss) "It is frustrating, especially when you play a team like this. They're used to scoring 30 points a game. We got their worst today. Peyton Manning threw two interceptions, and they fumbled the ball on the goal line. We have to score on the 1-yard line. When we get in the red zone, we have to put up points. That team should've been playing from behind today. It's football. On the brighter side of things, we actually have the Steelers, and they lost today. But when you get in the red zone, you have to score points. It's not a play call, it's not the coaches, it's a mentality."
(on Colts LB Gary Brackett's interception) "I knew they were double covering me, and I was trying to clear out for an underneath route. I don't know if Joe [Flacco] got pressure or not, but I was double covered, but somebody else had to be open. That's just the moral of the game. [Brackett] – I spoke to him after the game. He knows what kind of back I am out of the backfield, so he felt the need to come out, and if he [didn't], it's a touchdown. It's a good play on his part, of playing football. They ran the same coverage earlier in the game where I was coming across, and we shot through it. [But] this time I got out clean, and that linebacker had to cover me. I could beat him up the seam or across the space, but he was right there to make a good play."
(on Ed Reed's fumble) "Ed tried to make a play. But that play didn't make or break the game. We would've got the ball back. But if we scored the touchdown, we wouldn't be in that predicament. So, I'm sticking with Ed Reed. He played a great defensive game. The guy tried to make a play, regardless of what happened, we were still in the situation to win the game. I don't know how many times I've said that this year, but there's going to come a time when I say that we were in a position to win, and we won. To play a team like this, 9-0, I mean, they played their worst game. If Peyton Manning thinks he played a good game, he's fooling himself. He threw two interceptions, and they fumbled the ball on the goal line. They're used to scoring 30, 35 points a game. That's just a mentality for us – you have to put the ball in the end zone. Their defense is good, they're a good team. They made the plays that counted, we didn't."
TE Todd Heap
(on the frustration of not scoring touchdowns) "That's the most frustrating part. We had a couple of opportunities, and to know we could've changed the outcome of the game and put it in there – that's the most frustrating part."
(on playing the Colts until the end) "The only thing we learned from that, is that we have to go back to work. The door is still open. It's not all the way open, but it's still open. We have to understand that and work like we have that opportunity ahead of us."
(on being 1-2 plays short of a win) "It's been like that for a few weeks now, so we have to really do something where we get out of that rut and where we can come out of it offensively and score points like we had at the beginning of the year."
(on his injury) "I battled through the game. I'm obviously sore. We'll see how it feels tomorrow."
