Mike Holmgren Game Quotations

One of these years, we're going to win a playoff game and take that next step.

He came out of that game pretty sore. Washington is a tough physical defensive football team, and we got banged around a little bit, but both he and Engram practiced today.

I said to him (Alexander) that if I were to put him back in the game and he were to get hurt, I would never speak to him again. I told him that, and he said, 'No, I'm OK. Don't worry.' I'm really glad that we could do that and he could score.

I talked with (defensive coordinator) Ray Rhodes and we both agreed that that was as fine a game executed as we could remember, all around. They were better than good. They were really good. Physical, smart, and they made key plays. They just set their mind to it and did it.

I think that has always stuck with me. I put the ball in the hands of the best player in the world, in a fairly safe pass and I almost lost the game for our team. That stuck with me a long time in that situation.

That was very distasteful to me, to retaliate so to speak like that (against the Vikings). I do believe the commissioner should look into these kind of clauses. We work so hard on trying to gain labor peace and a new collective bargaining agreement and then we as clubs allow agents to get cute and circumvent it. On the playing field there are rules and there are unwritten rules about how the game should be played in the spirit and the fairness of it all. It doesn't make sense to me that we had to lose such a fine football player this way. I was surprised by the ruling.

We have played better than we did tonight. Unfortunately, it's the biggest game of the year.

We are going to approach it just like we have attempted to approach every game we have played this season.

When you look at the two teams, (the Patriots) have been in more situations like this and they are more experienced than we are. They are a very veteran and smart team, and that's our goal, to get there. What I have to do is get our guys to believe they can be there. I believe we're going to be a better football team at the end of the year than we are right now because each game our young guys get better.

They all get about 25 snaps a game and they've been doing a nice job. For big guys inside, I think it's a good way to do it as long as the talent level there is close.

We had a good game plan, and we wanted to come out passing the ball. Matt's not unlike a lot of quarterbacks who hit their first two or three passes and then are off and running.

As I've told the team, ultimately you'll be judged by what happens and where you are at the end of the season. I understand why we are the underdogs, and there's really only one way to handle that. That's not by talking, it's by playing the game and seeing what happens.

Our depth in the secondary, particularly with our nickel back and dime back coming in, was not good last year, ... I'm glad we have Kelly Herndon. One thing about Kelly, he'll battle you. He'll physically play the game with you, and that's what you need, what you want.

This game certainly is bigger. I think playing in this game at this nice facility juices everybody up a little bit, so you might get a little more out of them.

This is a tough pill to swallow. We accomplished a lot this year. While you don't have a great feeling after a game like this, I want them to remember this feeling, so they can build on it.

I've gone into this game as the favorite and as the underdog.

I know they're not OK with it. I wanted them to keep their heads up. There's no need to apologize for anything. We lost the football game and we lost it because of the reasons you lose most games ... mistakes.

He's one of those guys that when you prepare for them, you better have a plan to make it a little more difficult for him. Otherwise, he can take over a game by himself.

It's like, OK, we're playing the game and those guys are upstairs doing whatever they are doing,

I am very pleased to announce that we were able to raise over $190,000 for Northwest Medical Teams tonight for people in the New Orleans area. A football game seems rather trivial when you consider what those folks are going through.