On the game: “That was a good football team we beat. The coaches put together a good game plan for us. Everybody on offense, everybody on the team did their job. They didn’t try to do too much. We beat a really good football team.”

Did you have an advantage having faced this team already this season? “It is always better to be able to see a team twice. Having said that they beat me the first time. That’s a good football team. They have a great chance to win the Super Bowl. We are happy we played together as a team. Our coaches coached great and we got a big win.”

Where does this game rank in your career? “This about the most fun as I’ve had on the football field. You go through practice and all that stuff but your teammates don’t really know you until you get in that huddle. That’s a special time for me, inside the huddle. I kind of turn into [another] person. I think everybody took it well. We had a lot of fun and battled together.”

Before scoring the touchdown, was it frustrating having only field goals on previous trips to the Red Zone? “We just kept on pressing. We kept on pushing and kept on fighting. Obviously, when you are playing an offense on the other side, which is so prolific, you want to come away with touchdowns. We talked about it all week. They did a good job on their goal-line defense and we couldn’t punch it in. It’s a team win. We kicked field goals and special teams played outstanding and we made enough plays on offense.”

Did it help to be named the starter early in the week? “Yes, not only for me but for all my teammates too. No matter what, the quarterback has to lead the team through the week of practice and lead them into the game. I always try to be the most prepared guy on the field and go out a play well for my team.”

What did they ask you to do in the game? “I thought our tight ends showed up. I don’t know if [Coach] expected them to catch that many passes but they were open and did a great job. They made some big plays. [Leonard] Pope made a couple of really big plays for us. Anthony [Becht] on the naked we ran to get the touchdown was a huge play. I think everybody stepped up. It was a total team win. It wasn’t just one guy. It wasn’t just one coach. It was everybody fighting together for a win.”

How do you deal with moving around and the uncertainty of the future? “We play Oakland next week. That’s the only thing that you think about. We had so much to think about this week. We played a great team in the Packers and now we will go play a big rival in the Oakland Raiders and try to go get a win.”

Was this the most excited you have ever seen a locker room? “I’ve played in a Super Bowl so it’s hard to say. All teams are different, with different personalities and that’s the tough thing coming into a team late in the season; you haven’t had training camp, you haven’t had all those grueling practices to get to know the guys. They haven’t had those practices to get to know me so it was a crash course on the field. I thought everybody gelled together and played hard for each other and got the big win.”

What’s the key to keeping the ball for 36 minutes? “I think that was the key to the game. We talked about it all week. I thought we did a great job of having success on first down. We ran a bunch of second-and-three, second-and-four plays. We could throw play action, we could run the ball, we could take shots and we did them all. I thought Bill [Muir] called a great game, was aggressive and gave us a great chance to have success.”