Head coach Chip Kelly delivers gems every week during his press conferences. Here are the best quotes from the week leading up to tonight's showdown with the Saints ...
Going against a team that's won a Super Bowl a few years ago, you have a lot of rookies to the playoffs, do you buy into anything about inexperience versus experience?
COACH KELLY: "Depends on who wins, right? If we lose, we were inexperienced. If we win, then there will be another story. We are concerned with how do we prepare to play a really good Saints team and that's all we can really be concerned with."
The crowd, obviously it was a big factor in the last two home games for you, how much do you need it to be a factor on Saturday?
COACH KELLY: "They have been great, every game we have been in the Linc. We just didn't execute well on the first four and we played really well in the last four. But just the memories that you kind of think back and listen to them, the 'We want Dallas' chants in the Chicago game or just how loud they were in the Detroit game in the snow. And there were a couple times that I don't think we could see the crowd because of how hard it was snowing down there.
"But they have been unbelievable and I think it's the fact that we got a chance to win the division and get to come and play a game back at home is huge for us and we are excited about playing at the Linc. We know it's going to be rocking on Saturday."
The Saints are viewed as almost like two different teams on the road and home, they are 8-0 at home and 3-5 on the road. How do you look at that?
COACH KELLY: "Tampa Bay didn't win a game in cold weather until they came in here and did it, so we are not going to get really caught up in that one, I can tell you that."
Big-picture perspective, how did this team get from 3-5 to 10-6?
COACH KELLY: "I think they stuck together as a group and one of the things we talk about, really, the only thing we talk about is we are mentally and physically tough and we don't make excuses and we work hard and they stuck to that. When you're 3 5 and you have a plan, there's times when you are 3-5 and you can start to question the plan and these guys didn't question the plan."
Did it seem they have some sort of quality it doesn't happen that often in the NFL?
COACH KELLY: "It was evident to me on April 1 when I got here with these guys and got a chance to be with them for the first day that they were kind of the mindset, whatever it takes, what do you want us to do and where do we got to be and how are we going to do it, and I think that's a credit to them and I think that's why we are where we are, because they are the ones that play. They are the ones that go out there every single day. They are the ones that train. They are the ones that have done everything as a staff that we have asked them to do and the results are everything that they put into, and that's the great thing about this game is that you can't fake football. You get out of it exactly what you put into it and these guys put in an unbelievable effort and it's paying off for them on the field."
