Justin Simmons: Sean Payton brought 'a lot of grit' to the Denver Broncos | PSNFF | NFL on NBC

Oh, that's the birthday, your 30th has a game like this, made some key plays down the stretch too. He also has some key plays down the stretch. They put him in Hackinson and he was coming up big time. It's good to see you to appreciate it. There he is. Mr. Dun, how we are doing well, not as well as you guys, sorry to keep you waiting, oh no, hey, you had to celebrate a little there a little bit, how about this victory? What's going on? How will this victory be described? It was one of those games where it was back and forth and you were just waiting for a touchdown offensively.

What was this game like from your perspective? He was brave, he was brave. I think we knew coming into this game, Minnesota plays. really good football, they play hard, they play smart and uh for us to hit adversity the way we did, it looked like it didn't look good defensively offensively, I mean they had that fake uh special teams play you , but man, when adversity hit. I think it says a lot about our team the way we fought and found a way to win the game. Tell me about this defense. You gave up 70 points in Miami, but no one gave up.

Nobody questioned anything. You believe in your defense. coordinator, right? Yes, yes, sir, I mean at the beginning of the season and we weren't playing anywhere near the level we were capable of and VJ took us into the defensive room and we had to look in the mirror and see something. really difficult movie and you know to be where we needed to be we had to have that talk and it was really good and all the people I talked to before the game said that there were no changes in the scheme, or in what we were doing, or in how we're doing it and playing our hearts out for each other and I mean, you know, man, they play when all 11 do their job and do it at a high level.

Good things happen, you find the football you're into. Great places you're making the quarterback maybe see things he's not supposed to see and that's it, that's really all it's been and we just gotta keep that ball rolling, you got your running mate back and Kareem Jackson , it seemed like he was on a mission to set that physical tone, how nice it is to have him there with you, man, it's just that he erases so many things that you know at a glance from viewers that you wouldn't even know and he means a lot. to this defenseman and I think that first series set the tone, you know he's out there again, a nice clean hit and uh the communication when he's out there is a lot cleaner so it's really good to have him back man.

He makes us a lot better, most people don't know that, but I knew you had two pass breakups against TJ Hackinson and you took it personally. I noticed the way you moved, the way you disguised yourself, putting yourself in the position they were in. He wanted to come up with a big play. I had to know that TJ. TJ is a great player. He was making plays, most of the game and then at crunch time we knew they were, we knew they were going to go with him and um. I mean, at the end of the day, football is a one-on-one game when you're one-on-one and, uh, I was able to make a couple plays there at the end on your birthday, too, man, uh, happy birthday to you.

Not yet, maybe tomorrow when I wake up, you know what happens once you hit 30, they start saying oh, maybe Justin lost because of things or something, a little bit of excuses, huh, that's why that room, That's why that fourth trimester I had. To come up with some plays, our guys were playing hard. I didn't want to disappoint him. Hey, I watched the game tonight. I can guarantee that he hasn't missed a step. How about Russ? Because Russ gets the ball. At the end of the fourth quarter we've seen this, you go back to the days in Seattle, what goes through your mind as you watch them march down the field, yeah, I'm thinking, hey, man, they're going down.

They are going to score there, we are going to have to play great two-minute defense to win the game, finish the story and we saw that we saw that in Buffalo, obviously we saw that today and defensively we are already talking about that. what we're going to get how we have to attack this, we have to play smart, we had full confidence in the offensive man and Courland's What A Catch, didn't we? He went up and got that thing too, didn't he do it every time? I think he leaves the league now eight receiving uh Red Zone receiving touchdowns um man, I can't, I can't speak, I can't speak enough for those guys the way they fought through adversity on offense talking about leading the league, you guys probably leading the league in conclusions over the last month here what was the change what has happened what has caused you to do that yes, it is actually the 11 of us playing clean and intelligent football and knowing that in order to win games we must We will have to take the ball away , we're going to have to set up our offense on a short field, give them more possessions, take possessions away from the offense, but ultimately, like you said before, Tony, it had nothing to do with planning it.

It had nothing to do with the trades, no X's and O's, this is a player, you start looking at him. on the tape and you say: where the hell did this guy do another work? Then he did another play tonight. What do I mean? What is it like to be around him and how much are you talking about his life? Man, he, he, he has to do it. being one of the best young kids in the game, the guy that comes in, is willing to learn and asks questions, is getting involved, knows how important it is for him to be in the Run game, how important it is for him to fall in the passing game and I think for him, the most important thing is that he sees that he does everything right on almost every play and that the ball finds him and that's what I mean, you know, when all 11 of us are doing the right thing, the ball will do it.

Find you, man, you just gotta keep believing in it, so he gotta follow you 'cause I know you do all the right things, bro, hey, man, you know, he, he, I mean, he's got a great group around him, man, Kareem Pat. Uh, Fabian, dear. I just got, we just got a whole group of pros and veterans and, um, I'm so proud of him, man, because he's reaping the benefits of doing things the right way and our whole defense is, and we just have to keep it up. . It wasn't always pretty tonight we just gotta keep this ball rolling the wins are pretty right yeah they always get confused when you guys win it's never really pretty they talk they make up for it that's right one and five four win streak to get to five past five what was the atmosphere in that room you just walked into, man I was, I was there celebrating, I had Jordan as part of our PR staff, man, come grab me and I'll tell him, man, get off of me, man.

Let me, you know, just celebrating with the team, um, so I like it one more time, I'm sorry to keep you waiting, man, but the locker room was electric, we were glamorizing everyone, coaches, players, those fans walk away and they're talking. Happy birthday, we love you Justin, I mean they really appreciate and respect what you do, how does that make you feel? Look at that man, he's in the rain, that's what it's all about, you know, I think, I think in the game of football we get so caught up. in wins and losses and as we should, it's our job, it's our livelihood, um, but I think it has an internal impact outside of the game, right, and you're talking about faith and I have my faith and my great respect. and I want to make sure that everything I do represents Jesus the right way and that means it means the fans and taking care of them, you know, signing and doing all the little things, man, I learned that from so many veterans. in our league and do things the right way and that means a lot and the fans have been through a lot and it's about time we find ways to win games to get them back to the playoffs well where can this team? go now, uh, this second half of the season, tell me, yeah, man, this team will take it one week at a time.

I don't want to let you know that I'm not going to jump up and make promises, we just have to do it and I. I think I think that's the number one thing that we've done really well, obviously, you know, when one and five started a lot of outside noise coming in and you can feel the walls crumbling a little bit and then once you get a couple of wins in a row now everyone talks about, you know, playoff percentages and that we can play with the best and we can beat the best. What has Shawn Payton

brought

to this locker room?

Oh, a lot of courage, a lot of courage, a lot of details, a lot of execution in the details and um. I think that shows when the decisive moment arrives, talking about a two-minute ball, because I mean, you know, the offense advances capable of making a play in one minute. I think you know there are 5 seconds left on the clock, their offense has just the ball. Detailed defense, you know, trying to protect the sideline, making him burn timeouts when we needed to keep everything up front, just did a good job of helping us set up the detailed football.

You have a small birthday celebration coming up. I hope you did. some kind of birthday cake or something, I hope Sean has something in the locker room for me, fingers crossed, hey, good to see you, thanks guys, man to man. God bless you.