**
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- **Needless to say, Head Coach John Fox was happy with Thursday night's 49-27, season-opening win against the Baltimore Ravens.
Not only did the effort from players across the roster stand out, the team made it through the game without any major injuries.
"Nothing was serious," Fox said in his injury update.
He pointed to "very good games" from linebacker Shaun Phillips (2.5 sacks) and cornerback Chris Harris (one interception) as positives, along with quarterback Peyton Manning's "unbelievable night."
"We were just trying to score as many points as possible, kind of pedal to the metal," Fox said. "When the dust settled he had seven touchdown passes."
That's not to say there were no mistakes. There were. But the team was already watching tape of the victory when Fox met the media Friday afternoon, and the lessons will only serve to better the squad as it prepares to travel in Week 2 to take on the New York Giants.
"We'll have a lot of learning potential off that tape," he said.
Below are more of Fox's observations from the win that started the Broncos' season 1-0.
On what he thinks of Manning's performance after watching it again:
"The guy is a Hall-of-Fame quarterback. It's phenomenal. I mentioned last night what he did a year ago, everybody asks me to compare. We're starting from where we left off, not from where we started a year ago so there's no comparison to where he is, where we are as an offense at the beginning of last year. We started to play some good teams in the first quarter of that season and I think we were 1-3, maybe 2-3, I don't remember exactly. We didn't set the world on the fire to start the season but luckily we adjusted and we improved. And hopefully we'll have the same mindset as we trod through this season."
On how Offensive Coordinator Adam Gase performed in his first regular-season game calling plays:
"He did tremendous, as I have told you all along. He's been on the staff since I got here, he's been on the staff since before I got here and you spend 18 hours a day with these guys, six out of seven days of the week – you get to know them. He was a very integral part of what we did two years ago, what we did ago. A lot like Julius Thomas, we've been watching him for some time. It wasn't surprising that he did well and I'd say the same thing about Adam Gase."
On how teams will prepare for tight end Julius Thomas:
"It's just tough to say. This game is about matchups and everybody is different. Our schedule is the same, we play the game but the matchups are different every week – it changes. I was asked earlier how are you going to keep all these guys happy? Well, they're happy when they win and I don't think they care. They are very unselfish guys. If they elected, play a lot of split safety defense, that opens up some lanes for that position. Peyton is pretty good at taking what you give him and he found Julius on a number of occasions last night."
On wide receiver Eric Decker's two-catch game:
"Eric's a heck of a player. He's earned that. As I've said many times, if you haven't been beat or you haven't dropped the ball then you haven't played. None of these guys are perfect and we don't expect that. You strive for that and Eric is that kind of competitor. I know he wanted it but it's a team game and the people around him made plays. He'll get better, we have extremely great confidence in Eric and I don't have any doubts that he'll bounce back."
On linebacker Danny Trevathan's near pick-six that resulted in a touchback:
"I think it's fair to say I'd be shocked if he ever made that mistake again in his career."
On safety Rahim Moore's mindset in the locker room after the win:
"It was great spirits. Everybody was excited to play again and whether it's Julius Thomas or Rahim Moore, that stays with you. It motivates you throughout your offseason. I thought he handled it great and he's grown as a player. He was a young guy in his rookie year, he improved probably as much as anybody on our football team a year ago. The issue is that (the play against the Ravens in last season's playoffs) is what everybody remembers. I think he handled and responded to that as well as anybody possibly could."
On whether it is a relief for the Broncos to put the Ravens game behind them:
"I got asked that by my wife last night and I don't think it really even mattered. Obviously, it was kind of unique that we opened the season with the team that beat us, but no matter who beat us and how it happened, for eight months, you had to deal with that. I really don't think that who we opened up with was the hugest part. It was the fact that we got to start again. We had to wait eight months. You'd have to ask some of the players. I think that was probably as big a deal as anything, just getting to play again in a meaningful game and get started on a new season. Especially with how disappointing the last season was."
