Kellen Clemens - 9/17 Player Transcript

On the loss to Baltimore?
There were no surprises. We had some opportunities. We weren?t as effective in the first half as we would have like to (have been). We came back in the second half made some plays and battled back. I was proud of the way we battled back and competed all the way to end.

On the offense?s improvement in the fourth quarter?
As the game was winding down, it was a two possession game and we had to go no huddle and try to increase the amount of snaps we could get in a limited amount of time. We upped the tempo a little bit and fortunately it played to our advantage.

On his first NFL start?
It was a learning process through 60 minutes. I started out making some simple errors early on, whether that was jitters or the lack of experience. As the game progressed I was able to calm down, see things more clearly and the game slowed down. I was really excited and really happy with the way that we battled down the stretch. It says a lot about this ballclub and gives us some confidence going forward.

On adjusting to the speed of the game?
It was faster. It was a lot faster. Regular season is faster than preseason. Preseason is faster than practice. It was an adjustment that I needed to make in the first half. As I got in there and took more snaps, things slowed down.

On preparing for Miami?
The one thing that is clear and Coach Mangini said it in his press conference after the game is that Chad (Pennington) is the starter. If Chad is able to go, Chad is the starter. That puts me as the backup. What I will do is prepare the best that I can to be able to play. If it?s me who ends up getting the opportunity then I will try to be as ready as I can. If Chad is ready to go, I?m sure he will go and he?s obviously a great player.

On discussions he had with Pennington during Sunday?s game?
We visited about some of the things that he saw from the sidelines. He has a very unique perspective because he has been in there and he had the opportunity to see a lot of things from the sideline on Sunday. We just talked about some of the things that he saw. He was awesome. He is a great teammate to be as supportive of me as he was on Sunday. It?s just unfortunate that we weren?t able to come out on top.

On Ray Lewis? game sealing interception?
Baltimore dropped quite a few guys into coverage. When you get down into that part of the field where you are knocking on the door, they are not going to back up a lot. It was a tight window. I put just about everything that I had into it and Justin (McCareins) made a great effort to get to it but the ball was a little bit high. Ray Lewis, like he was most of the game, was all over the field and made a great play. A one handed catch in the back of the endzone that is tough to take.