"I just finished telling the guys I'm proud of them and I thought we fought through some tough breaks. I told them statistically I thought we did all the things we talked about to win this game. Rushing yards, third downs, there were a number of things; we held them to (196) yards. We had some tough breaks – we fumbled a punt, we score a touchdown on an interception and it ends up being a touchback, the turnover (in the third quarter). I just thought they hung in there and deserved to win that game I thought. I was pleased how we ran the ball; I was pleased defensively how we stopped the run. We thought that would be an important statistic in this game so we looked closely at how we wanted to play and aside from those change of possession and those turnovers, and those were significant, but I thought this was an important win. It was a good team we played; that was a really good game. They are a real good team and we respect them and it was a good, hard-fought win."

(on Garrett Hartley rebounding from previous misses)

"Absolutely, it's good to see. Like I said during the week, there is a lot of white noise that we don't pay attention to and just keep focusing. I love the way he responded … Last week it was the offensive line and (Mark) Ingram and this week it's Hartley. I loved to see that."

(on battles up front)

"I thought we won the line of scrimmage. That is not always easy, especially against this team, it is a physical team. I thought we ran the ball very well and I thought we defended their rush very well and I think that ended up being a pretty important statistic and pretty important key to the game."

(on if this was like a playoff game)

"We're going to play bigger games than this, it's just beating a good football team. We are going to see a lot of good football teams here down the stretch. We're respectful. They were the best in the conference a year ago and a team that is tough and does a lot of things well. They are well coached and very talented."

(on the defense's conditioning having spent a lot of time on the field)

"There was a stretch where we got them off the field and then we had the punt turnover so we were back on the field. There were a couple of those possessions from a snap standpoint that were difficult, but I thought from a conditioning standpoint they handled it well. There is that physical wear and tear, but I thought we stepped up (and) did a lot of good things."