Rusell Wilson has spoken up after his team, Denver Broncos’ 12-9 overtime loss on Thursday night. He has played himself, as he thinks he could have done better.
Dropping a statement via the official transcript, he said:
“It’s very simple. At the end of the day, I have to be better. I have to play better. This team, this defense played their butts off tonight. We had some key, good drives [where] we moved the ball. In the red zone, we just didn’t get to capitalize on some of them.
“There were some plays here and there that we can capitalize on…At the end of the day, throwing two interceptions can’t happen. Can’t happen. I let the team down tonight.”
“The good thing is that one thing I know about myself is [that] I’m going to respond. I don’t know any other way. I always believe in myself. I always believe in this team. I believe in what we can do. I believe in what I can do. When you play this game, the one thing you’re going to know is that you’re going to go through adversity.”
“Adversity is a choice, and I’m always going to choose to understand that adversity is just temporary and you’re going to overcome obstacles and battles. We’re all working together. We’re all still together, focused on trying to do whatever it takes. It starts with me, and I’ll make sure that I do that.”
Wilson missed a host of throws Thursday, bringing out the boo-birds from the home fans. The QB went 21-of-39 for 274 yards and two interceptions for a 54.9 passer rating.
He had zero first-half completions of 10-plus yards and finished 2-of-14 for 88 yards and two INTs on passes of 10-plus air yards on the night.
For five weeks now, Wilson is on pace for career lows in completion percentage (59.4), passing TD percentage (2.4), and passer rating (82.8).
The head coach of the Broncos, Coach Nathaniel Hackett has also come under fire. with his decision to take the ball out of his highly-paid QB’s hand. On Thursday, he trusted Wilson to make plays, and the QB came up short.
“I think for us, it’s having these negative plays, backward plays or the interceptions or anything negative. That’s on us. That’s all on us as players. It starts with me,” Wilson said.
“It’s not on coach Hackett. It’s not on anybody else. He’s called some really good plays — we have to make the plays. I have to be able to hit it [throws]. We have to be able to get that first down — whatever it is. It’s disappointing tonight, obviously. We felt like we should have won that game. I felt like I let us down tonight. In this locker room, we believe in what we can do.”
“There’s a lot of season left, there’s a lot of opportunity left, [and] there’s a lot of belief. [With] how great the defense is doing, if we can to turn it around on offense — how quickly we can turn it around on offense. That’s the key. We just have to keep battling and keep believing.”
