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Press Conference: Derek Carr Wednesday

Q: How are you feeling?

Carr:"A lot better today. I really wanted to see this morning, I got here early to work out and see how I would feel during that and after that and I felt pretty good. So, felt good at practice today, obviously not 100 percent but it felt good to practice and be out here."

Q: Is your relationship with the line as important as or maybe even more important than it is with the receivers?

Carr:"Absolutely. For me, every relationship is important. Whether it's defense, offensive line, receiver, running backs, it doesn't matter to me, every relationship to me is important, especially as the leader of a football team. You have to have a great relationship with everybody because that whole team has to believe in you, not just those guys. But, with that said, that group right there, you want them to believe in you. They're the ones that are going to fight for you, they're the ones that are going to play hurt for you. They're going to go that extra mile to make sure that you're okay. For me, it's always been about go out and earn it. I wasn't going to talk about it, I was just going to go out there and show them, hey, I can take the hits, all those good things and they responded well to it"

Q: Going back to the time they sat you down and told you that you were going to be the starter, how long ago does that seem?

Carr:"Oh man, you just took me back. It seems like years ago. I definitely feel, especially at this point in the season, a little bit older just from that point to this point. It definitely feels like a long time ago. I remember when Coach Allen sat me down and told me like it was yesterday, but it feels like forever ago." Q: Was there anything that you learned playing in Kansas City in that environment that you can apply this week in Denver?

Carr:"For us, always when you go into the loud stadiums and all those kind of things, like Seattle, Kansas City, Denver, you always want to make sure that you get in and out of the huddle fast. Get the plays in, get the play out so you can get to the line of scrimmage, because as soon as that play clock starts ticking down you'll hear the fans start getting louder and that's how it always works. So, you want to get in and out as fast as you can and really make sure that you're on top of all the hand signals, on top of all those things, that way there's no communication and all those things." Q: Have you noticed an increased respect for your run game in the way the defenses are playing you now?

Carr:"Yeah, absolutely. Teams just can't sit and drop everybody into coverage. That's why you see – especially the San Francisco game is a good one to look at, play action game was big time in that one and that's a big reason, because of the run game. We were able to hit the play actions and take big chunks, so this whole thing correlates, works together." Q: Can taking that run game on the road be the anecdote for the road game ills?

Carr:"Yeah. I mean, we absolutely have to do everything right, but when the run game is going that helps everything. That helps the pass game, that helps the pass rush, that helps so much. I'm confident that we'll be able to go out there and compete and hopefully get that thing going to make sure we're all going." Q: Technically you're still a rookie, but do you feel like one?

Carr:"No, I feel like I haven't been a rookie in a long time. They told me, I guess I had one or two games, but now it's time to grow up. They definitely still treat me like a rookie every now and then, which is rightfully so, but it's all in good fun. I think the rookie thing for [Khalil] Mack, Gabe [Jackson] and I, and TJ [Carrie] and all of us, that was thrown out the door because we had to be called on to play in such a quick time in our career."

Q: The defense the last few weeks has been playing lights out. Do you guys as an offense feed off of that?

Carr:"Oh, it's awesome because as a defense they were just on the field, they're tired, especially if you just went on a long drive. Like I said, this whole game, everything works together and so, that's why I never get too big into the individual stuff because this whole thing was a team deal. For me it's so important to have the defense play well, have the pass game and run game play well all together. The good teams, they do all those. They do all those things and they feed off each other, whether it's a pick, sack-fumble, short field, big punt return, short field, big play on offense, defense is back out there – all those things go together and our defense and run game have been doing great and that's why that's a big part of the reason why we've been able to win some big games here lately."

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