SUPER BOWL XLIV - COLTS HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL - Ingles

HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL

(on how the interception will have a bearing on Peyton Manning’s legacy) “I don’t think it will have any bearing on his legacy. He’s a great player and it never comes down to just one single play in the game. There were a lot of different things that happened in that game that could have put us in a different position. He’s still a great player, an outstanding performer, a great competitor and that doesn’t diminish it at all.”

(on how disappointing it was not to reach the level of New England or Pittsburgh with recent multiple Super Bowl wins) “I think that anytime you fall short of your goal -- and your goal is to win it all -- you’re a bit disappointed. It doesn’t put us in a position of multiple championships in this period of time, but that’s what 2010 is for. We have to look forward to that now.”

(on Joseph Addai’s performance) “Joseph ran the ball well. I’m not certain what his numbers were, but I know we ran it for about 6.5 (yards per rush) at the half and he had some pretty good runs in the second half as well. We just didn’t have enough possessions to make a difference in those situations. But I thought he played hard and he was effective.”

(on starting in a shotgun and then making a switch) “It depends on what we see. We make adjustments from time to time. That’s one we made -- it’s not the first time we ever did that.”

(on how the onside kick changed the complexion of the game) “Don’t discount the fact that it was a heck of a football team we just played. And every weakness that you have, they find a way of exploiting it. They did a good job spreading the ball around, (Reggie) Bush did a great job out of the backfield, kind of isolating him a couple of times on our linebackers and just overall I think they played extremely well.”

(on whether they anticipated the onside kick) “We had a shot at it to recover it. We just didn’t get it done. It’s one of those things, one of those bang-bang plays and a big massive pile and it looked like he had it initially in the pile. But when it was all said and done, they felt someone else had possession.”

(on Colts RB Joseph Addai’s performance) “I think Joseph ran the ball well. I’m not certain what his numbers were. I know we were averaging about 6.5 at the half. And I know he had some good runs in the second half as well. We just didn’t have enough time of possession to make a difference in those situations. But I thought he played hard. He was effective.”

(on starting the offense in shot gun and then switching) “It kind of depends on what we see often times and then our offensive scheme, there are adjustments that we make from time to time. That’s one that we use often.”

(on Colts DE Dwight Freeney getting his ankle re-taped during halftime) “You know everybody at that particular time… Halftime was 28 minutes. Most guys got re-taped.”

(on his thinking on the 51-yard field goal attempt and why he was confident in Colts K Matt Stover) “Because he’s been excellent. There is no reason to believe that he wouldn’t make. He’s a quality place kicker and he just happened to miss one.”

(on Saints QB Drew Brees) “(Colts QB) Peyton Manning is the best quarterback in the National Football League, along with our guy (Drew Brees). I had to hook up and come down here with (Brees). He is a major influence why I came here, to get the opportunity to play with a quarterback that could correct mistakes when I make mistakes on defense. It’s been a great year for me. I’ve had to change my personality a little bit to fit the style of the offense. I’ve been coaching for a long time and had to win games 10-9, 13-10, 15-14. Here, you don’t have to worry about making a mistake because you’ve got a quarterback and an offense and a head coach that will be aggressive and go back and get back into a ballgame. It was fun to have that offensive and defensive flux back and forth. We were able to work together and it was a good team win.”

(on CB Tracy Porter’s interception return for a touchdown) “I want our guys to make plays. I don’t want to coach robots. Guys who are afraid to jump routes, guys who are afraid to make plays don’t last very long in the National Football League. You have to believe what you see, and when you see it, go get it. If you make the wrong decision, that’s why they hired me – I’ll help you the next time make a better decision. Please don’t be afraid of making a fast decision. My whole life I’ve been trying to speed up people’s decisions, get people to play faster, get people to play nastier, get people to play tougher and more aggressive. Once you get a guy that will do that, please don’t slow him down. I said when I started my first day here, ‘All your life, you’ve probably played for a coach that maybe restricted your decisions. You will not have anybody slow you down. You will not have anybody tell you you can’t be aggressive. What will happen is if you aren’t aggressive and you don’t play fast, you probably won’t end up playing for us. You’re going to have to go someplace else in the League.’ There’s a good football team here that (Head Coach) Sean Payton and Mickey Loomis cultivated and built, and I was able to just come in and help out a little bit.”

(on winning the Super Bowl) “This is kind of a redemption that makes me feel a lot better about (coming a yard short in the Super Bowl with the Tennessee Titans). I’m really happy for the people of New Orleans. They adopted me. When I came into town in January, I tried to tell them that I wasn’t a savior. There was a good team here. I’m very happy for the Who Dat nation. I’m very happy for the Benson family to finally get a world championship. It’s pretty special to be along for the ride. I’m really appreciative that they invited me into the family to be along for this ride.”

(on this being the first game this season the Colts lost when trying to win with all starters) “No, you know anytime you lose the last game of the season it’s difficult. Particularly on this stage, in this particular game, it’s a bitter pill to swallow.”

(on what the game meant to the city of New Orleans and if there is any joy in the loss) “Let me put it this way: we certainly admire what the team has done and we certainly understand the tough time that the city is going through in that region, the Gulf Coast region. But obviously we’re still disappointed in the fact that we lost today. The goal and aim is to win. But we certainly feel that they’re an excellent team and certainly deserving of the championship.”

(on how proud he is of his team) “Obviously these guys can hold their heads up. They fought all season long. They performed well all season long. So we’ll just use this disappointment as fuel for next year. And as soon as we get over it, we’ll look and try to mold this team and see if we can get back here next year.”

(on what if anything changed in the second quarter) “Well the second quarter, we didn’t have the ball hardly at all. I think we had about six plays in the second quarter. They did a real nice job moving the ball on us. They spread it around. They did a great job attacking our defense. We missed a few tackles here, but I think you’ve got to give a lot of credit to them. They performed extremely well. They made us miss. And Drew Brees certainly performed well also.”

(on how effective Dwight Freeney was) “We wouldn’t have put him out there if we didn’t think he could do his job. Obviously he might not have been quite 100%, but I think there were times in there you could see he was effective. We wanted to kind of keep him in there to keep some movement. He didn’t want to sit around much because of the fact that that’s when he gets stiff.”