NEW ORLEANS SAINTS COACH SEAN PAYTON

"Obviously I'm excited to get the win. Anytime you can do that against a team that we felt was pretty good coming in just looking at them in a lot of different areas. It wasn't always pretty or clean but I thought we play good with a lot of energy and effort. We had some guys fill in; obviously a new long snapper and some other guys filled in and played a significant amount of time when they haven't been playing as much.  I was pleased. We will be on a short week now so we are really going to have get past this game and on to the next one."

(On holding Reggie Bush out) "His pregame workout was good and yet I just felt like what I didn't want to do was err on the side of bringing him because you want to bring him up and then get only seven plays. A perfect example is this; Ladell Betts and one point is down and Chris Ivory is down and we were down to Julius Jones there in the last few minutes. What can't happen is a player comes back, and I'm optimistic this week I think there is a great chance, he was close in the workout, but if a player comes up and then can't finish you end up with one less player. It's not like college so those are tough calls. Both he (Reggie Bush) and Patrick (Robinson) worked out and did well."

(On if the short week with Thursday's game played into decision to hold Reggie Bush out) "That really wasn't part of the consideration. I think it was strictly 'are they ready to play today?' And that's the decision with nothing to do with us having another game right behind it."

(On three-game win streak) "It's good to be playing with some momentum. We felt like this is a good team we were playing. They came off an impressive win last week against Arizona. We have a lot of game we have to work our way through. This short week will be Dallas. I don't think me we have to call it anything other than we've won our third game in a row and now we get on to out next challenge, which is a short week with a game on Thursday."

(On if this is the best the offense has looked) "We'll look at the tape. The second half we got sloppy, had a couple penalties and just weren't able to close as we would like. I was pleased with our balance, the ability to run the football. I thought we blocked very well for Drew (Brees) in regards to our protection. Our third down numbers were very strong and I knew that was going to be important. But we had some opportunities with a couple turnovers where we just felt like we could have put that game away a little earlier and yet it's a game with mistakes and we'll make those corrections. Overall, there are a lot of positives."

(On Jason Kyle) "Obviously when we are working out long snappers on Saturday we are caught off guard. He had an MRI done in the middle of the week and there was enough of an injury where the experts had recommended he not play anymore this season. That decision was made on Friday. He had practiced and we had gone through the bye week. I'm still going through myself the time frame of how we arrive on a Saturday workout with three guys in the building that I've never met or seen before and one is going to long snap in this game. It's not a situation you want to be in. We put him on IR on Saturday and signed the new long snapper that afternoon."

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS PLAYERS

QB #9 Drew Brees

(On if more points should have been scored based on the offensive production) "I felt like both offenses moved the ball pretty well. I felt like our guys did great defensively by holding them to field goals and getting a couple of those big turnovers in the second half to gives us great field position. The thing that disappoints me is that we get over 500 yards of total offense and we get down inside their 10 yard line on three occasions and get away with zero points. We had the two interceptions and the missed field goal. Those are obviously frustrating. We are not where we want to be in red zone efficiency. We need to keep working at it."

(On if they took advantage of Seattle's susceptibility to big plays) "Yes, they stayed pretty true to form for the most part. They play a lot more man-to-man coverage than most teams. As you can see, we were able to take advantage of that and we matched up pretty well against them. The big plays were perfect today and we were also able to run the ball effectively. You really have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line for doing a great job."

DT #92 Remi Ayodele

(On the defense holding them to field goals) "We knew what we had to do out there today. We had to stop the run first and stop them from throwing the ball around. They did a pretty good job, but we found a way not to let them in when they were in the red zone."

(On getting turnovers today) "We were happy to get the two turnovers today. We did a good job of getting after the ball. We they get down there we want to not let them in and have them settle for field goals."

S #41 Roman Harper

(On holding Seattle to field goals) "It was huge. Our offense scored touchdown twice and then we only gave up a pair of field goals after their scores, so that's an eight-point swing in our favor. It's always good when you can hold a team to a field goal in the red zone. We gave up some big plays, but we were able to hold them. Our defense has been really good in the red zone all year long."

WR #12 Marques Colston

(On the offense clicking recently) "We just have made a concerted effort to get better every day in practice. I think you are just starting to see that show up on the field on Sundays."

(On his performance today) "It definitely feels good to have a breakout game. That's what our offense does. It could be anybody's big day. Today, it was just my turn."

WR #17 Robert Meachem

(On the offense efficiency lately) "I think that in the beginning of the year all you hear about is the Super Bowl champions trying to defend their title. You just put a little bit more pressure on yourself than you have to. Now, we are just going out there, enjoying the moment and having fun. "

(On the defensive coverage keeping him in front) "They are doing that. Sometimes, you see the safeties playing 30 yards deep. It's just something that I have to adjust to. Coach Payton is going to come with a good game plan on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and we will be implementing it on Sundays."

LB #58 Scott Shanle

(On keeping Seattle to field goals) "We talk about that every week. We obviously don't want to give up any big plays. We always talk about when they get down there that we have to force them to field goals. Earlier in the game, we gave up some big plays. Then, our goal was to hold them to a field goal and we were able to do it."

(On his experience with playing on a short week) "I have done it a couple of times. It is tough mentally because your body isn't going to feel like it does Sunday to Sunday. You have to get your bumps and bruises taken care of. You have to do anything that you possibly can to get your body physically ready for Thursday.

"On a normal week you are practicing on Wednesday and Thursday, now we will be on a plane Wednesday with a game on Thursday. You just have to get healed up as much as you can."

Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll

Opening comments: "This was a very difficult game. We played against a team that showed the way. Credit the Saints, their offense, and Drew Brees. They did what they're so famous for. They threw the heck out of the football. They played a great football game on offense. We couldn't slow them down the way that we needed to. We weren't able to eliminate the easy opportunities for them. There were a couple of key penalties in this game that kind of game them a second shot at us, and it was just too much, as good as they are."

On Drew Brees and the Saints third down conversion rate: "I was really impressed with Drew. The throws and the ability to move and to find guys (was impressive). Ultimately, this was a third down game for us. It was a game where we gave them a bunch of third down conversions. I don't know what it was. It was about 80%. It's just so hard to get off of the field and gain any kind of momentum. I just thought they were really impressive."

On the way the Seahawks played: "I really like the way that we fought in this game. They got out early and we hung (with them). (We) looked for opportunities to try to get back in. The mentality of our guys was really obvious to me. We called on them at halftime to battle. All the way through the fourth quarter, they were fighting. That's a good thing that we're going to take home with us when we get back. I feel like we played against a really good team and gave them too many opportunities. We weren't able to get them off of the field when we had to."

On Matt Hasselbeck's progression: "Matt has thrown the ball just great the last couple of weeks. The pass protection gave him that chance. We come out of it with some positives"

On injuries today: "It was a concussion (for Marcus Trufant). To what degree, we don't know. Mike (Williams) has a sprained foot of some sort. We're going to figure that out."

On if he thought the game would be a shootout: "We thought we could throw the football. Matt…came through and showed that."

On Chris Ivory: "Ivory was really tough. We had seen him on film and we had seen him run like that. We thought that maybe there wasn't anything unique about that…I thought he was really good. I thought that he was a freaking stud out there. Our guys were laying down and doing everything they could to hit him and knock him to the ground. He kept making plays and getting out, particularly in the first quarter. I was really impressed with him. He was the difference…We knew that Drew was going to throw the ball well. We thought we would be able to get them out of their running game. He was the factor. Even on the short yardage when we stopped him back there two or three times, he just kept going and making extra yards. Right now, I was really impressed with him. And, obviously, our tackling wasn't good."

SEATTLE  SEAHAWKS

Locker Room Quotes

36 LAWYER MILLOY (safety): "One thing you can't do against a good offense team playing well like the Saints is allow them to convert on third downs. Brees was terrific today and we are going to have to review the film and figure out what went wrong."

"They just kept drives alive and made all of the third downs. If we stop them on third down we win the ball game. Our team, it seems like every week one side is playing better than the other, and we have to find someway to make sure we put it all together for 60 minutes."

33 LEON WASHINGTON (running back): "I think that we didn't seize any opportunities out there today. We've got a lot of good players on this team who can step up and make plays and you saw that out there today. I am proud of the way we hung in there, but they (saints) had too much firepower today."

"We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times today with the penalties. We have to find a way to stop that and not defeat ourselves. When we play smart football we win games, and we just didn't do that today."

8 MATT HASSELBACK (quarter back): "I feel we can take one thing away from this game, and that is improvement. Obviously we are not there yet. We have a lot of work to do, but I like the direction we are headed in."

"We were focused on each drive and made some plays out there. But its really tough when you are playing against a great player like Drew Brees. And obviously he was real hot today and when a guy like that is making plays and throwing touchdowns like he did and keeping drives alive, well, its really hard to win. Their offense was light out today, and obviously they had better stuff than we did."