Panthers Coach Ron Rivera
Opening statement:
“This was one of the bigger victories that we have had since I have been here. One of the things that stood out and one of the things that l liked today was the resiliency. One of the things that I told the guys on the sideline was to keep pounding. One of the things that I told Cam was just to take it one at a time. Let’s get one score at a time. Let’s not press it ... We turned the ball over unfortunately and you do that against good football teams, your going to lose. Fortunately enough for us, the defense held and forced field goals. When you forced field goals, you give yourself a chance to win.”
On winning in Seattle:
“It means a lot because these are the defending NFC champs two years in a row and Super Bowl champs two seasons ago. This is a good football team. We were fortunate enough to win. Let’s don’t forget what they went through last year and what they ended up doing. This is a good football team we faced but who knows maybe we will face them again. Hopefully we will get that opportunity.”
On becoming more relevant:
“Well, eventually it's going to be the standard in the NFL. Right now, the standard in the NFL is New England. That’s what everybody is gunning for. So we have to continue just to do our job, take it one at a time. So we have to start getting ready and get focus on Philadelphia.”
On early wake-up call at the team hotel:
“We will let the league and the hotel take care of it. I’m not sure what happened. It happened in the middle of the hotel. I was on one of the top floors. I didn’t have to get up, I was already up. It was 5:30 here, so it was 8:30 back there ... I just kind of laid back down and was reading. Then I got the phone call saying, 'Hey we have the fire alarm down here.' They said most of the guys were up already, so it really didn’t matter. I really don’t think it mattered.”
On being considered one of the best team's in the league:
"I think we’re competing to be one of the best teams. Again, to make any proclamation right now would be foolhardy. I think the thing we have to look at is that we will still have a long way to go. We have 11 games left to play. We have some teams in our division who are playing really well right now, both New Orleans and Atlanta. Tampa is fighting. It’s going to be a tough division. There are no cake walks for us or for anybody in this league.”
Panthers QB Cam Newton
On the game-winning touchdown pass to Greg Olsen:
“It was a panic early on, trying to get out the huddle. But after we get set, it was just Greg being Greg. I don’t want to make this about me. It was a great team win, and an unbelievable catch by Greg. Just an unbelievable game by him, being there when I needed him the most. Before that play, Cotch (Jerricho Cotchery) made a one-handed catch that kept the drive going. Just everybody stepping up to the plate and making plays, and that’s what we’re going to need more of.”
On if people will now stop calling Carolina the worst undefeated team in the league:
“I don’t know. It’s not really about them. It’s really about us, how we execute. If we play games like this, how we played the latter part, it would be hard to beat us.”
On the importance of finishing in the red zone:
“It was extremely good being that on one of those drives I know we didn’t even throw the ball, and if we did, it wasn’t anything significant ... You know, coming into a game like this, mistakes are going to happen. Interceptions, those things are going to happen. It’s how you react afterwards is what makes a big difference. I’m so proud of everybody, as well as the coaching staff, everybody in the front office as well as guys that’s on this team. We could have packed up after they went up by two scores. But we didn’t. We had guys on the sideline talking everybody up and keeping the energy positive. When you get a late touchdown like this in a hostile environment, it just puts everything into perspective on why you play so hard, why you play through injuries, when you look in the huddle and see 10 guys looking back at you, and you can’t let those guys down. When Greg caught that ball, there was so much that was bottled up inside of me, and everybody else was thinking the same thing. It’s a game of resiliency and never giving up.”
On the fire alarm:
“I didn’t budge, I can tell you that. I stayed in my room, man. I didn’t know what time it was. I figured if it was something important, Coach Shula would call me or Coach Dorsey would call me. I’m a hard sleeper. I got pretty good sleep last night.”
Panthers TE Greg Olsen
On being surprised about being wide open on game-winning touchdown:
“Yeah, it doesn’t happen that much at this level. You’re especially not that open against these guys – they cover so much ground and there’s usually bodies around you when you catch the ball. We’ll take it. We thought all week we would have a good look. We had a great gameplan called and we dialed up the right play at the right time.”
On falling short of the goal line a couple times:
"Cam came up to me, I thought he was going to say, 'Awesome job,' but he said, 'Man, you should have had three touchdowns!' I said, 'Man, I was running as fast as I can.'"
On not reaching out for the goal line from the 1-yard line:
“I had visions of getting the ball knocked out. We all saw what happened [against Detroit]. Unless it’s fourth down at the end of the game with no time, it’s just not worth it. With Stewart and our offensive line – I don’t care about touchdowns, I am not going to jeopardize the team to try to get an extra touchdown. I try as hard as I can to protect the ball. If you score, you score. If not, I’m happy to have (Stewart) score.”
Panthers WR Devin Funchess
On Newton targeting him despite drops:
"I feel he has faith in the team, so he's going to feed the ball where it needs to be. I did drop a couple balls today, but he kept coming and I had to make the catch."
"I've got a short-term memory, so it's all behind me. I just talk to myself, hit myself in the helmet and then snap back to it. It's just like basketball. You miss it, you miss it, you miss it and then you get that one and you're good."
Panthers LB Luke Kuechly
On beating the Seahawks in his return to the lineup:
“That was a great team win. Everything we did, we did it as a team. When you’re down, you’ve got to fight as a team; when you’re up, you’ve got to fight as a team. That’s what we did today. That’s who we are as a team – we never give up. And that’s what we did today. We’ve got a great group of guys, and it’s fun to be back, it’s fun to be back out with the guys. It’s a great win for us.”
Panthers LB Thomas Davis
On beating the Seahawks:
“It was a huge opportunity for us to come here and win this game. When things were looking bad, we kept pounding, we kept pounding. That’s what we do – we went out and kept pounding. We continue to believe in each other. [The] defense got a stop when we needed it, [the] offense put up points when we needed it, and special teams made a huge play at the end to pin them deep. We were able to go out there as a defense and make the stop.”
On Shaq Thompson’s tackle on the final kickoff:
“That was a huge play. I believe that play set the tempo for that last drive. Shaq went down, full-speed, and made the play for us – I think that ultimately ended up being the biggest play of the game for us.”
On if the Panthers will continue to be doubted:
“No question, let’s watch. Let’s watch this week and we’ll see. We’ll keep working and trying to find ways to win football games.”
Panthers CB Josh Norman
On why the Panthers were finally able to beat the Seahawks:
"Because we was resilient. We kept pounding. We believed till the end ... Even 5 a.m. wake-up calls out in the rain. That's what's up, that's cool. Even when we were down by 10, 13. That's cool. We kept pounding ... The epitome of keep pounding is this team ... I don't know what else to say. If analysts keep picking us to lose, keep picking us to lose. We appreciate that."
Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll
Opening statement:
“They did a great job to finish the game again. I said the same thing last week, but this is the truth. It’s a fantastic job of them finishing the game, it didn’t have to go that way. I know you guys don’t want to hear it, but we have 6 games we should have won, and we know that. That’s how close they are. Unfortunately, we’re challenged by this so what we do about it is what’s important. It’s not what happened, it’s how we’re going to handle it.“
On what happened on Greg Olsen’s touchdown:
“We made a mistake. We made a mistake on the calls. Guys got confused on the signal. It was unfortunate, obviously, and they get an easy play.”
Seahawks DE Michael Bennett
On what Cam Newton changed to keep the defense from getting him on the last drive:
“On the last drive? We got a sack, we got a sack on that last drive. We hit him three times on that last drive. He just made a good throw a couple times. It wasn’t a clear shot. He got a sack on one, he threw a quick slant on the couple last plays. On that last one, he just threw a deep pass and he was just open.”
On if reporters are making too much of a 2-4 start:
“Yeah, you guys make too much out of everything. The best thing to do is not to read the papers because propaganda and perception is everything, so once people start believing what you guys are saying, then the doubt starts to creep in. That’s something that you can’t do, you have to keep believing and making sure that you’ve got the right mindset. It’s all about your mindset. Once you start believing in the nonsense, you start thinking that you’re like that.”
Seahawks CB Richard Sherman
On what happened on the Panthers’ game-winning touchdown:
“It just was a confusion about what call we were in. There were a couple calls being signaled in that were different. And the game’s at a fast pace so you’ve got to make a decision.”
Seahawks S Earl Thomas
On players playing two different defenses on the touchdown pass:
“Coach Richard said he called LA. Sherm [Richard Sherman] was playing LA, which is true, and I was playing a cover 3. Kam [Chancellor] was playing cover 3 also, the whole backside was playing cover three. But I think Sherm was so close to the sideline he got the correct call. But we didn’t get the job done.”