WR DWAYNE BOWE
Describe the TD catch? “It was just a simple go route. As I was running to the line of scrimmage I looked over and I saw Coach Haley and he was like, ‘I need you right here,’ and I was like, ‘I got you coach’. Once I beat him off the line, I squeezed leverage and I looked back and saw the ball in the air and, in my mind, I have to make this play – big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games. This is a big game. I dove for it, caught it, and got up was like thank you, thank you God, because we got it.”

Took awhile to get to you. What were they doing to shut you down? “They just had CB Nnamdi (Asomugha) pressing and they were rolling the safety over to my side. So then we started to go with tighter formations and I started getting a few passes here and there, but you can’t get big-chunk passes on the inside, so we went back out and once Nnamdi was out, I told coach, ‘We need to attack this other guy in his position.’”

How tough was this loss? “Oh man, real tough, especially when you know you have it won. But we let them hang in there from the end of the second quarter by not putting any points up. We have to be disciplined and have to be correct. On that drive there were a few mental errors, a few penalties and we let them hang in there.”

RB LARRY JOHNSON
Seemed to get some flow back today with QB Matt Cassel in the offense. What did he bring to the table today? “Their defense respects him as a player and as a good quarterback. It would be hard for them to want to blitz all crazy because he is smart enough to know where to put the ball if he was blitzed or pressured. As you saw out there, he did a good job scrambling around trying to make plays on his own.”

How frustrating is it to dominate in so many categories but still walk away with a loss? “It is frustrating. For it to go down that way. Our spirits were so high in the last two minutes of the game and then were certainly crushed at the end. You just have to come in to work Monday and understand that we don’t ever want to feel like this again.”

How hard is it to try and stay positive after stuff like this keeps happening? “You just have to look at the positives. It’s a long season, anything can happen, obviously. We never know when our turning point will be, but we’ll turn it around. We’re going to forget about this game and forget about last week’s game also. We’re just waiting for that turning point and as soon as we get that, then everybody will start understanding what it takes to win.”

Does this loss feel different than in the past with the new regime? “I don’t know. Coaches, players, those things change with certain teams. What they are just don’t change. We’re just trying to stay positive right now and you got to go through this time of change until we get to that turning point.”

How did the end of the second quarter go down – not even able to attempt a field goal? Do you know whose responsibility that was? “I really don’t know because I’m not in that situation. It’s a team effort, and we just couldn’t make that happen.”

With so many close losses, does it ever feel like you’re not going to get over the hump? “Of course, everybody wants to feel that way but you have to understand, like I said, this is a long season. This isn’t like last year where those games were happening when we really needed to win, they were late in the season. This season, things are happening early, so we have a chance to clean those mistakes up and come back and make sure things like this don’t happen again.”

CB BRANDON FLOWERS
How much does this loss hurt? “Every loss hurts. This loss kills you. Playing Oakland, thought the game was in your hands, the defense should’ve been off the field. QB JaMarcus Russell led them down, did a great job. Got to just rebound from this loss and go into Philadelphia next week and get a win.”

Did the better team win? “I can’t answer that question right now.”

Did anything change on defense for that last drive? Did you guys change anything, or did they figure something out? “We played that defense the whole game. Like I said, they made plays; you can’t do anything about that. They made plays and we didn’t.”

Did you know from the very beginning that you’d start this game? “Yeah. I prepared to start this week, went through the whole practice this week, told them I wanted to go and they gave me the green light. I missed a couple plays I should have made out there, but you can’t blame anything [for that]. You’re not ever going to be 100 percent in football, ever. You’ve got to play through it. I’ve got to watch film, try and correct what I did wrong and move on.”

Did they do this to you or did you do it to yourselves? “Oakland had a good drive. That’s all I’m going to say. They had a nice drive.”

You had a big play early, setting the tone early? “You always try to come out with a lot of emotion. The fans get behind us, and we play very well with the fans behind us. Try to come out with a lot of energy, that’s all.”

Are you tired of this happening, the losses, especially this type, and ones last year? “You just can’t say, here we go again, it’s the same thing. We get tired of it happening, we’re trying to stop this from happening, but like I said, we just have to move on.”

On only allowing 11 first downs and dominating most statistical categories the whole game: “It hurts. It’s so tough. We felt like we played very well. That’s why it hurts so bad – we played the whole game, and for them to come out in that last drive and put points on the board.”