QB C.J. Beathard Postgame Press Conference

On what the win means to him:

“It means more than I can really put into words. Everything that I’ve been through the last year and it being the year anniversary of my brother passing, it’s just one of those things you can’t really put into words other than it’s just God. You can’t write a script any [better]. I couldn’t have hand-picked it to go the way it did, so I just put my faith in God. I kind of knew going into it – I think the guys, just feeling the vibe of the locker room, the vibe at practice. Guys just going out there with nothing to lose, really inspiring each other. It was really awesome this week.”

On what the feeling in the huddle was late in the fourth quarter:

“It’s funny, I haven’t been in a huddle in a game where we were up with under two minutes left and about ready to get another field goal, so it was pretty light. But we knew it wasn’t over yet. It was one of those things that I knew we left it a little too close for comfort, so we couldn’t joke around too much at that point, but it was fun. Every run I felt like was a gash. We were just getting after them, so it didn’t matter what we called or what we did. We knew we were going to go out there and execute and it would be a positive play for us.”

On why he cut his hair:

“I hadn’t gotten it cut since my brother passed. He always liked the long hair, so I just kind of kept it going really for him as little as that is. But it’s been a year now, so I can cut it. That’s really my thoughts behind that whole thing.”

On his leadership during practice this week:

“I just felt it this week in general as an offense, as a defense. Just the way guys came out to practice this week, with everything that we’ve been through. With it being Christmas, it was a weird week practice wise, a bunch of stuff was moved around. A lot of guys were sitting in hotel rooms by themselves during Christmas and not with their families. I just credit all these guys on how they came out here today. They inspire me more than anything. It’s just awesome. Guys like George (Kittle), we’re out of the playoffs, he doesn’t necessarily have to come back. But the fact that he was fighting to come back and wanted to come back and all week was like, ‘I can’t wait to be out there with you. We’ve been together for nine years.’ So it was pretty cool.”

On what “King” means to him and what he was wearing:

“It’s got a lot of meaning for me. First and foremost, the King is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There’s a lot of irony with me because my brother’s middle name was King, so he was Clayton King Beathard – that was his full name. My other brother Tucker dedicated his album to Clay and it was called ‘The King’ and just the irony of our King here on earth is Jesus Christ and all that that means. Clay’s pastor in New York actually got this for me and it dropped me to tears when I saw it. It was really cool.”