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Quotes: Robert Griffin III (9.3.14)

Quarterback Robert Griffin III

On preparing for a game between two first-year coaches:

"You just know you're going to get their best shot. It's the first game of the season. They're going to come out there trying to right their ship. We want to right our ship, and we're both going to play hard for our coach. They've got a very good defense – very good players on that defense – and we'll have our hands full, but that's why it's the NFL. We like that challenge and we want to go out there and get it."

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On Houston's front seven:

"They've got great players all over the board, whether it's Brooks Reed, J.J. Watt, [Jadeveon] Clowney, [Jared] Crick, [Jerrell] Powe – all these guys do a good job rushing the passer, playing well in the run game, so like I said, we know we've got our hands full but, once again, we're ready for the challenge."

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On his expectations for himself:

"Execute the game plan. We've come in here for these past couple of days putting together a game plan, coaches are working really hard on that, and they expect us to go out and execute it – so that's our job. That's my job to make sure that we go out and put points on the board and be ready for anything that they throw at us."

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On his growth since last season:

"Like I said, we've got a new offense going into this thing, so that growth has been great. To be able to get through that and make sure everybody is on the right page – getting from reads and progressions to just getting us into the right plays and out of bad plays – all that stuff comes with being a quarterback. Being in this new system, it's good to have gone through the whole offseason in it and getting ready to go into game day."

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On Texans defensive end J.J. Watt:

"You've got to know where he's at – he's a phenomenal player. He just got paid, and if you watch the film, he definitely deserves it. Like I said, he's a great player – him, Brian Cushing, [Jadeveon] Clowney, Johnathan Joseph – all these guys can ball out. I know [D.J.] Swearinger the safety, as well. I could name the whole defense, but like I said, they've got good players. We're excited for the challenge to go into Houston and get a win."

On adjusting the offense during the offseason:

"It just comes down to executing the game plan – knowing what Coach wants to do, knowing what plays we need to get in for certain looks – that just comes with playing quarterback. Having two years of experience in the league definitely helps. It helps you see the field, helps you know the situations and how defenses are going to try to play, and just the overall scheme of the league and how they try to attack offenses so we can go out there and attack them."

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On Head Coach Jay Gruden saying Griffin III needs to learn not everyone is going to love him:

"You understand that, and I know where Jay is coming from when he says those kind of things, but I've learned that not everybody is going to like you and that's just the nature of the business – that's the nature of human beings. There are people in this room that don't like me. You've just got to move on from that kind of stuff, and I think Jay being here has helped me grow, helped me grow as a person, my family has helped me grow as a person – and that's what you want to see every single day, every single year. You want to continue to grow, be a better husband, be a better father some day for myself and be a better football player. Those things come with the territory, and trust me, I'm not worried about anybody liking me."

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On the running game:

"You've got to run the ball, and I think that's the key to success any time. We know that if we want to do what we want to do, we have to be able to run the ball effectively. We have one of the best run blocking offensive lines in the league – very athletic guys that can get to the next level – so we're definitely going to try to do that. Of course, everybody is going to try to stop the run. Those are two staples of offense and defense: run the ball and stop the run, so it will be a challenge, but I think we're up for it."

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On game planning with the offense:

"We just want to go out and execute our game plan. The coaches put hours and hours of film work in, and they expect us to go out there and execute it. We're a representation of them, and I know they're working hard for us, so we're going to work hard for them. We had a great walkthrough earlier and we're about to go out to practice after this."

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On what he needs to prove to himself:

"Nothing. I do this for my teammates. I do this for my family, for this organization. We don't have anything to prove to anybody else out there. All we have to do is go out and be the team that we know that we can be. I guess if you want to say that we have a lot to prove to ourselves within this building, then it's about all of us going out there and being successful. Like I said many times this whole offseason, they go as I go. If I play well, we play well. If I don't play well, we don't play well. I understand that, they understand that and I'm going to do my best and I promise I'll play well for them."

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On Texans linebacker Jadeveon Clowney:

"You don't need to watch much film on Clowney to see what he can do. He's a phenomenal athlete, a big, strong, fast guy that's a special pass rusher. We've seen the clips of him in college, we've seen a little bit of him in the pros, and he's looked phenomenal. We'll be prepared for him as well, but like I said, other teams are going to have great players, you just have got to be able to game plan around them and know how to attack them."

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On how Week 1 of his third season differs from Week 1of his rookie season:

"You always have butterflies, and you're always high on emotions when you go out there. You always want to go out there and feel excited about the game of football. It's a beautiful game, so if I think that changed – for me or anybody in that locker room – from your first season to now, then you shouldn't be playing. So we're excited, obviously, if you're a 12-year vet or a three-year player, you're going to have a little bit more experience and know what to expect come that first game. Week 1, everyone is going to be flying around. It's like the Super Bowl for everybody. Everyone wants to get out there and play for real and play four quarters and win a game. That's what we plan to do, but yeah, I'll be excited and ready to go, just like the rest of our guys."

On if he now knows what to expect from the NFL in his third season:

"You don't know what to expect. But you didn't know what to expect when you're a rookie coming out, and being a three-year player now, I know what to expect out there on the field. At the same time, you want to continue to grow. The second you stop changing and adapting to the game is the second you're not living anymore. That's not a quote from me, that's a quote from [Baylor] Coach Art Briles – congratulations, Baylor, by the way."



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On if he expects week-to-week growth in a new scheme:

"Yeah, you want to. You want to keep growing every week, making plays off of the plays that you've already made. That's what we did a great job of our first year. So, coming into this new scheme, I don't know, maybe people don't know what to expect from us, what we're going to put out there on the field, but we plan on putting great things on the tape and being able to adapt week-by-week to get better."

On scrutiny and how ready he is for Week 1:

"Our job is to ignore the noise, to stay focused on what we have to. When I say we fixed what we needed to fix on offense, that's for us. We fix that in practice. We go out there every day and we know, 'Hey, if we don't put together something or put something on tape that we don't like to see, we have got to clean that up.' And we've done a good job of that and hopefully it presents itself on game day, but that's for us, that's not to prove anybody else wrong or right. That's just for us to go out and be successful."

On building trust on the field:

"It comes with time, but you have to trust your guys out there and we've got a lot of talented playmakers out there on the field and it's my job to trust them out there, to know what they're doing, to know where we need to go with the ball, and I think we've gotten better at that over the course of the entire offseason and even through the preseason and training camp. We look forward to continuing to develop that trust and develop that chemistry, you would say, throughout the season, but we're not going out there thinking, 'Man, we don't have any chemistry, or man, we're not on time.' We're trying to make plays and we plan to do it."

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