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November 13, 2013
Redskins Park
Executive Vice President/Head Coach Mike Shanahan
On the status of guard Maurice Hurt:
“Maurice started practice today and we have three weeks to make a decision. Good first day.”
On if there is an update on the status of defensive end Adam Carriker:
“There is no update. He still can’t go.”
On if wide receiver/returner Nick Williams will return punts vs. Philadelphia:
“Well, we’ll get a chance to evaluate him this week. Nick has done a good job since he’s been here. He’s a hard worker. I think we all know he could return punts, kickoffs, slot receiver – I think he could play X or Z. We’ll evaluate him this week and see where he’s at and make a game-time decision.”
On comparing 3-6 records between this year and last year:
“The only thing I think we can draw on is that our goal is to be 4-6. I think if you do that and you have that type of mindset then you’ve got a chance to take care of business. I think that’s what we did today. We had a good practice today. We know Philly is playing exceptionally well the last couple of games and we had the type of practice that you needed.”
On if he is starting to evaluate players for next season while still working on turning this season around:
“I think I made a comment last year along the same lines that you always see when you have a little adversity how hard people work in practice, how they play in the game, and that’s a constant evaluation, especially when you’re 3-6. You find out which guys are mentally there, which guys practice well, which guys play well, if they give you effort for 60 minutes – it’s all part of the process.”
On if uncertainty in players’ contracts is a distraction or motivating factor:
“If you’re a guy that’s really worried about your contract and not worried about the job that you’re doing you might not have the right guy anyhow. So we’re hoping we have guys that want to go out and give us everything that they have to possibly get that new contract if that’s what their motivation is. So I can’t speak for them but I think anybody that’s in the last year of their contract – some of these players – we understand the reality of what we’re dealing with. They’d like to put the best performance on tape. That gives them more leverage and rightfully so. We’d like our players to make as much money as possible because they work extremely hard for us.”
On if they look at the upcoming Eagles game as a chance to “get back” at the Eagles for the Week 1 loss:
“We want to get back at everybody. We want to win each week. It’s a very important game because this is a division game. I think everybody wants to win the division. I think we all know what the records are. We know this is a very big game for us, especially on the road – an NFC East opponent. We want to play our best. Very important for both of us.”
On if it is difficult for him to not think about the status of his own contract:
“Not at all. I’ve got a contract for next year. I’ve got a contract this year. I’m concerned about our games. I’ve been very lucky – I’ve been in this profession for a long time and your focus is on your job. And I say that with all due sincerity – it’s something I do not think about. Anytime I talk about a contract, if it’s with a player or a coach, it’s always after the season. Once we get started we don’t talk about it because we’ve got to focus on each game and if you don’t focus on the game you take away from what you’re trying to accomplish.”
On if wide receiver Pierre Garçon has played his best football in recent weeks:
“He’s been playing that way since he’s been here. I think everybody else is starting to see from the outside how good of a player he is. The more we get him the ball, the more opportunities he takes advantage of. He’s a very physical wide receiver. I think you saw that a couple catches that he had that he’s not afraid to run over safeties, linebackers. He’s exceptionally strong. When I bragged on him that one game about blocking – and the reason why I did it so much is a lot of people don’t see how physical he is, and he takes that to the next level, or at least a lot of people saw him take it to the next level against Minnesota when he ran with the football. But he’s playing at a very, very, very good level.”
On their use of the up-tempo offense:
“We put it in a little bit, every now and then. We did it on the last drive of the game and it got us down to the four-yard line. We implemented it against Chicago. I think it was a difference in us winning that game. Every game we’ve had some type of tempo offense in there. We’ve probably mixed formations up a little bit more than most people – personnel groups. So we don’t do it all the time, but we try to keep defenses off-balance with doing it.”
On if they have changed their preparations for Philadelphia’s up-tempo offense:
“No, not really because they have been going against us since camp started. We started the first day of training camp. One reason is because we knew we were going against that type of offense. Another reason why we put it in is we had six new starters and we thought the second year would be the time to put it in and get more comfortable with the system.”
On getting the team to play a complete game:
“The key is you’ve got to find a way to win and if we would have got the ball in the end zone there on the four-yard-line – second-and-goal – we’d say, 'Hey everything’s great.’ When you don’t accomplish that, there’s a lot of things involved. You just keep on trying to do the little things the right way and work on the mistakes that you did make and hopefully when the situation occurs again you can finish that game.”
On how helpful it is to have game film on the Eagles as opposed having none in Week 1:
“Well, to be honest with you, except for there’s always a couple of wrinkles everybody puts in, this is what they’ve been doing all the way through the college days so there’s not a lot of surprises. But there’s a lot more film on what they’ve done through all the years in college. They’ve taken that to the NFL. It’s nice to see on film because you’re not surprised like you are in the first game because you’re not sure which direction they’re going to go because they’re not going to use everything in preseason, but once you get to this game during the season, they’ve shown most of their wrinkles and you get to see it on film and different adjustments they’ve made [and] what defenses have done against them to try to keep them off-balance.”
On how much their tempo was a factor in Week 1:
“Like I said, we’ve got it in our system, so I think they’re used to it. There’s a number of teams in the NFL now that are using a no-huddle – maybe not quite the tempo that they’re doing, but sometimes their tempo slows down too. So you have to adjust either way.”
On if he has seen a difference in the Eagles’ offense since Week 1:
“It all depends. It all depends which game. Are you going to talk about their games against Dallas and the Giants or are you going to talk about the last couple of weeks relative to Green Bay and Oakland? Even those four games are completely different, just like a lot of our games are. So they’re going to look at all our games, we’re going to look at all of theirs and try to get a game plan that we think best fits our opportunity to attack them.”
On if he fits players to his system or adapts his system to his players:
“I don’t think you really have much of a choice. Whatever players that you have, you have to adapt a system to those players. Now everybody has a philosophy on what you’d like to do, but you’re not always able to do that. It may be the quarterback, it may be the running back, a receiver, or it could be a linebacker, defensive lineman, a three-man front, a four-man front, taking a look at your secondary. Do you have strong corners? Are you going to play more a two-deep attack? Do you want to put as much pressure on them as compared to one-deep safety and man-to-man coverage or three-deep zone? So a lot has to do with your personnel and a lot has to do with your philosophy and what kind of background you have to implement those things.”
On if it was difficult to adapt his system to accommodate the zone read last season:
“It’s something that we felt gave us the best chance to win, the best chance to be successful. What you do is you kind of adapt your system to what you think your players can do and we’re going to adapt our system every year to what we think [quarterback] Robert [Griffin III] can do and he does best. The one thing that was a little harder this year – we didn’t have an offseason to tinker with some things we normally do. He’s adjusted very quickly and I think he’s gotten better each game and I think everybody can see that as the season has gone on.”
On what Robert Griffin III is doing now that he wasn’t doing last season:
“I’m not going to get into all that. I’ll do that at the end of the season for obvious reasons, but it’s the continual growth. The more reps he gets, the better off he’s going to be and I think people watching can see that he’s more comfortable with himself physically. The more repetition you get I think the more relaxed you feel, the more comfortable you are out on the field, and we see growth.”
On if he knew about Garcon’s physicality before he got to the Redskins:
“You think you know but you don’t know for sure until they actually come into your program. You see how they practice. You see what type of competitive spirit a guy has – if it’s one-on-one in a passing drill, if it’s just doing some run-related drills. But it didn’t take long to figure out he was very competitive.”
On what jumps out about Eagles quarterback Nick Foles’ recent play:
“He’s been very smart with the ball. They’ve had an excellent running game, especially the last game. Their offensive line has been very consistent. They’ve got a lot of depth at their offensive line – two tackles that are outstanding, playing exceptional football right now, as well as their center and their guards. They’ve got some depth there – you can see they’re pretty cohesive. That gives them an opportunity to focus downfield, but I don’t want to take anything away from him because he’s made some great decisions and he’s playing well.”
On what Williams can do to translate his return ability to the NFL and how he will be evaluated:
“First of all, maybe some guys are just returners, some guys you want not only as a returner but as a wide receiver. We’ll see how he catches punts and kickoffs this week when he knows he’s going to be playing on Sunday afternoon. And you get a chance to see guys, when they are activated, how they practice and how they do things and that’s what we’ll try to do is make that evaluation and decide what gives us the best chance to win.”
On how Griffin III has changed since Week 1:
“You guys have been writing about it from Week 1 until now so you guys know as much as I do. You’ve seen the growth, his ability to move around, his speed, his quickness. He’s just feeling better. The more practice reps you get, the more comfortable you’re going to feel with our system and you can see he’s a lot more comfortable now than he was after Week 1.”
Quarterback Robert Griffin III
On how he feels compared to the first Eagles game and how the Eagles will have to prepare for him differently:
“I just feel like everything is clicking for us a little bit better. We are putting up a lot of yards, we are putting up points, but at the end of the day it comes down to winning the football games and that’s what we have to do. So I think everybody sees it on the tape, and it’s not just me, it’s the whole offense. We’re much improved in every phase of the game right now for us, so hopefully they do see that and they come ready to play because we’re going to get everybody’s best shot, we know that.”
On the differences between 3-6 records this season and last season:
“We’re in a similar situation as last year. We just have to go out there and take it one game at a time, one play at a time and let the chips fall where they may – focus on the little things, let the big things fall into place. That’s all you can control. The only thing we can control right now is getting to 4-6 and that’s what we have got to do.”
On how concerned he is with the number of hits he’s taking and how he bounces back from it:
“We don’t want that to happen, I know I don’t want that to happen, the coaches don’t want that to happen, the players around me don’t want that to happen and we just have got to do a better job of that making sure that doesn’t happen. Take it upon myself to get down earlier. I got two good shots there in the game that I can avoid, take it on my part to make sure that doesn’t happen and other things within the pocket – just got to improve there and make sure we keep our quarterback upright. It takes all of us. So yeah, I’ve been hit a bunch the past two games and everyone knows it but we just have to move on and make each game a new game and not really worry about what happened before and improve.”
On if taking hits is reassurance that everything is fine with his knee:
“I don’t know if that has anything to do with my knee. I’ve always been able to take a shot. You have got to build yourself up in the offseason to get ready for those kinds of hits. Big boys play at this level and they’re going to hit you as often as they can and it’s our job to make sure we can limit those hits.”
On if he sees this as a “revenge game” after the loss in Week 1:
“You don’t have revenge games, at least I don’t – I can’t speak for everybody. I don’t look at it that way. It’s nothing to prove from Week 1. It’s, 'We need this game. Our team needs this game.’ It’s not just about me or any personal vendetta you might have. You let God fight those battles and the only battle I have got to fight right now is helping this team get to 4-6 and that’s all that’s on my mind.”
On if being quarterback on a struggling team is more of a burden than he anticipated:
“You take life as it comes. Life’s going to throw you curveballs sometimes. You just have got to figure out which ones to try and hit. Right now, it’s not a burden. It’s a burden if you make it a burden. You’ve got to believe. It only takes one person to believe so you can have success. I always believe in this team. I always believe in these players and so on and so on. That’s what it is for me. It’s not a burden. I understand what comes with being the quarterback of the Washington Redskins. I understand what comes with being a quarterback in the NFL. And yeah, it might be a little harder here because of certain aspects of what goes on around this team. I understand that. I’ve got tough skin… My parents brought me up the right way – military background, discipline and all that stuff – and I’m happy to call them my parents and they’ve done a great job there for me. I have all that inside of me and that’s all it takes. You’ve got to have it inside of you to make it in this world and that’s what I have got to do.”
On the struggle between passing the ball and being a playmaker with his feet:
“I just think if you look at the box scores from the first couple of games and some of the stuff that was said in the offseason, I think it’s really misleading. We came into the season doing the same stuff, planning to do the same stuff that we did last year. We got behind real early in those first two games and had to throw the ball a lot more so it’s not like we came into those games wanting to dropback pass. We wanted to go out there and give the ball to [running back] Alfred [Morris], run our zone read stuff, do the stuff off of it that we like to do and it just didn’t happen that way when you’re down by 21 points right off the bat. It’s not going to work. So I think all that stuff is a little misleading and when it comes to just being a quarterback I have to go out there and roll with Coach – what those coaches call and run it to the best of my ability. The team has to run it to the best of their ability and that’s what we have got to do – that’s what I always try to do. Whatever Coach asks me to do, that’s what I have to do and I’ve got to take it from there.”
On how helpful it was that Head Coach Mike Shanahan and Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan were willing to adapt to his skillset:
“They’ve done a good job incorporating some of the stuff that I did in college into the offense and putting their own spin on it, making it their own. We’ve done a great job with those things but also they’ve just done a good job of taking their own system and being able to run it in different ways. Everyone knew coming out that I was more of a shotgun guy than an under-center guy and I’ve made the transition to under-center but we still do a lot of stuff out of the gun, out of the Pistol. I think that’s where the creativity on their part comes in. They’re able to put in their system and do it with a quarterback in a different way.”
On if he believes players or systems win games:
“Players make plays, coaches coach. That’s what it is.”
On what changes on the road in the second half that has caused some struggles on offense:
“Not anything in particular. I think it’s just situational football. We were on fire on third downs in the first half against Minnesota and in the second half we weren’t on fire. Just like I said, it’s just situations. You get a third-and-16 and you get a sack. You get a third-and-short, you’ve got man coverage, guy is molesting your receiver out there and you don’t get the call, so it’s just situational football things like that that happen and it’s just stuff we have to eliminate. There’s no other way to put it. We have got to go out there and finish games and everybody wants to know what the secret recipe is and it’s just about us going out there and playing.”
On what makes wide receiver Pierre Garçon effective:
“He’s a running back playing receiver. Everybody saw him truck that safety against Minnesota so he does some freakish things. He’s got a really – I say it’s a good attitude, but he’s a tempered guy out there on the field and he plays that way at receiver which you don’t see very often. If you get the ball in his hands, he can do some damage with it.”
On if Garçon’s physicality allows him to be used in different ways because he can break tackles:
“Yeah, he can. He can get you a first down on third-and-long, third-and-14 and you throw him and underneath route and he gets the first down. Just those type of things he’s really good at doing and we’ve got other guys on our team that can do that as well so they can’t just zero in on 'P,’ but he’s done a great job of those things.”
On his skills as a pocket passer and whether or not he can be an elite pocket passer:
“I mean, any quarterback out there knows you have to be able to operate from the pocket and that’s something I feel like I can do, but you can always get better. That’s the great thing about football. Even ask the greats, you know, you can ask [Broncos quarterback] Peyton [Manning] you can ask [Patriots quarterback] Tom Brady, all those guys, you ask them, 'Hey, where can you get better?’ and they’ll tell you where they can get better because you’re never perfect. You’re always striving to be perfect and you’re striving for perfection but nobody was perfect so that’s the great thing about it and I feel like I can be that, and will be that.”
On if he has changed his style over the course of the season:
“I think it’s everything. We’re getting in games early, we’re starting faster, so we’re able to run a lot more of our stuff that we have in our offense and I think that everything together is just working better. We’re doing better on third downs and the pocket passing. We’re doing better on first and second down, getting more yards to make our third downs more manageable. So I think that was me being frustrated. We were down early in some games and it takes that threat away from you. So being in the games, having our defense stop them early, getting us the ball back has helped us. So I just feel like, in that aspect, we’re clicking better on offense. It’s not necessarily just because I’m running, even though to the outside eye it may seem that way.”
On outside pressure and what factors make playing for the Redskins more complicated than other teams:
“Just the big city, bright lights, big media market – those are the things. Our fan base is great. They demand success. They got a taste of it last year and they’re going to want more of that and we’ve got to provide it and we will. I think we will. So I think that those are some of the factors that go into it. It’s not a small town. It’s not a small city team that doesn’t have a big media room like this. It’s part of it and I understand that. Even coming from a small town in high school and a medium-sized town in Waco in Texas, you come, you step up to another level, you’re in the big city, bright lights and you’ve got to perform and that’s what we’re going to do.”
On if he wonders about how the hits he takes will affect his career and future:
“I don’t think about it. I think a lot of people do. It comes down to you’ve got to take it week to week and not really worry about the years down the road. When it comes to those kind of hits, obviously you play the game in a way that you’re competitive. You have the future in mind, but you’re still competitive on that day. The bottom line is I just can’t be taking those amount of hits in any of those games or any games in my career. You don’t want to be hit that much and a lot of the great quarterbacks don’t get hit that much. It’s me, it’s a lot of things that go into that, and you’ve got to get better.”
On if he looks at every alternative option before scrambling:
“A couple of times I scramble out and you scan the field and no one’s open and you have to go. Other times you string it out to the sideline. A lot of times you say, versus man coverage, a lot of times you can run for a little bit more. Versus zone you’ve got to kick back and try to find somebody that’s open. I feel like I’ve done a better job of that. But I can think of two runs in the Minnesota game – one on the goal line, everyone remembers that one, and one in the two-minute drive that I could have avoided. The other hits I did avoid because I’m OK at doing that – getting down and getting out of the way. But I’ve got to do a better job of that and it comes, it’ll come, and we’ve just got to protect.”
On the tone and state of the team:
“I think it’s just 'one at a time.’ It’s a cliché. It’s a huge cliché. But everyone wants to talk about a 7-0 run, you know, win the division. We just know we have to take care of Sunday. That’s it. That’s all we have. That’s all a lot of guys have, and we have a lot of things at stake when it comes to those kind of games and I think guys understand that. Last year we played with that same amount of pressure on us and we performed. I don’t think it’s going to crush anybody. They say pressure breaks pipes and I don’t think it will.”
On if he is wired competitively to repeat the play he made at the goal line against Minnesota:
“I can’t speak now, today, as if I was on the field in Philly. I know what you’re saying. It’s tough, man. You’re a competitor, I’m a competitor… If I’m put in that situation again, I think if I’m in an identical situation, I think yeah, maybe I will slide. I think all those situations are different. I think if I had not slipped, I probably would’ve got in. But once I did slip, it was probably best for me to just get down and avoid that hit.”
Eagles Coach Chip Kelly
On if he has had to make adjustments to his offense since Week 1 and if it has been more or less than he anticipated:
“We haven’t had to adjust it since our first game, so it hasn’t really affected us… We haven’t adjusted it since our first game.”
On package plays and whether it’s the talent or the play call that leads to their success:
“Everything anybody does offensively is always about the players you have and we have good players.”
On what quarterback Nick Foles has done recently to establish himself in the offense:
“Nick did it the first time he came in against the Giants. Came in at the end of the first half against the Giants and then led us to a victory there. Did it against Tampa Bay. So he does a great job, has a great understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish on the offensive side of the ball. He’s a very accurate passer and puts the ball on the open receiver.”
On how the Giants adjusted to the Eagles’ tempo the second time they played:
“There was no difference.”
On the improvements he has seen from Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III since Week 1:
“He seems like he’s a little bit back to his old self. Obviously the first game we played him he was coming off the injury and didn’t really take any live reps from what we understood going into our game and that was really his first live reps. But now that he’s got all those games behind him, I think he’s playing at a high level. Their offense is ranked very, very high in every category – total offense, rushing offense, passing offense, etc. He’s really playing at a high level right now.”
On how the addition of Redskins safety Brandon Meriweather has changed the secondary:
“[It’s a] very physical group. Obviously Brandon is a guy you have to know where he is on every play. Kind of a tone setter back there. So it is a different team than we played in the first game from a secondary standpoint.”
On what makes Redskins running back Alfred Morris so difficult to defend when he’s playing well:
“He’s just really hard to take down one-on-one. He does such a great job of always going forward. He’s got great vision and he’s a very powerful runner.”
Eagles QB Nick Foles
On the progression of the offense:
“We had a span of two weeks earlier where we really didn’t do well, we didn’t score touchdowns. Against Oakland we got things going and I felt good about last week It wasn’t as clean as the Oakland game, but I felt like we were still moving in the right direction. I feel like we just have to continue doing the things we’re good at and improving on the things we’re not doing as well. All in all, I just feel like we’re getting more used to playing with these plays… So hopefully we can just continue that.”
On if the team expected to have the ability to put up huge numbers offensively:
“You really never know what to expect. I mean, this is the NFL so there’s a lot of great talent. There’s a lot of talented teams. We’ve always had confidence in who we are and what we do. That’s never gone away. It’s just the execution part on the field. We just had to make sure – that span of two games where we didn’t do well, we always kept believing in what we were doing we just had to clean up things – you know, maybe it was getting the ball out sooner, going through your progressions, different things like that. Do things that can move the ball down the field and give us opportunities to score and take shots down field or gash teams with the run. It’s still a work in progress. We have got to continue to get better.”
On how he has gotten better since his first start against the Redskins last season:
“My first start against the Redskins there, it was a rough game for sure. They brought a lot at me, just being a rookie and being in that situation I didn’t execute like I wanted to, but you’re going to have games like that in your career that you can’t let it defeat you. You’ve got to learn from the situation. Everybody always talks about facing adversity. That was an adverse situation for me. I went back, looked at film, and just continued – I always believed in myself and know who I am as a player and a person, so I always use that as my strength and just push forward. And from last year to this year, I’m a year older, I’ve played a lot more football since then, and I’ve just got more and more comfortable playing at this level. But with the comfort there’s still going to be a ton of challenges and once teams get more and more film, they’ll bring more and more stuff at us to try to stop it. You always have to be on top of what their scheme is, what they’re going to try to do and just think of different ways they could try to stop us so we can be ready for it.”
On if there’s a difference between getting humbled and losing confidence in tough games:
“Yeah, there is. I think a game like that, if you lose your confidence it’ll defeat you the next week and eventually it’ll stop you from playing football altogether if you can never get your confidence because you can’t play this game without confidence in yourself and what you’re doing. It’s always important to stay humble no matter what you do. That’s how I was raised and that’s what I believe. There’s going to be situations where it’s going to be tough, but stay humble, stay strong – you keep driving forward. That’s how I look at it.”
On how the Redskins defense has improved since Week 1:
“The opening game of the season there are always a lot of nerves that go on. It’s a new season. We had a new scheme. So a lot of new stuff went on and we played well. I know that they came back and they’ve improved every week. They’re professionals. Their coaches are there for a reason; they’re professionals. So they’ve gotten better each and every week and I know that they’re going to study the game plan from when we played them last time and they’re going to be on top of that stuff so we have to make sure that we execute and we see what they’re doing. We just have to be smart with the football and be crisp with everything we do. Football doesn’t change. You just have to stay on top of it week to week depending on who you’re playing, so we just have to study our opponent because they’ve gotten better as the year has gone on.”
On where the Redskins defense is vulnerable:
“I’m not going to really say anything on that because I can’t give them that. That’s something I can continue to study and use that for us. I could tell y’all that after the game. I feel like they’re going to try to bring a lot of stuff. They’re going to study the film of what we’ve done, and they’re going to try to stop us in those situations. That’s something that we’ll find out during the game.”
On working with Eagles Quarterbacks Coach Bill Lazor:
“Bill is a smart guy. I respect that he’s a really hard worker. He makes sure he gives us all the information possible and he strives for perfection. You loving having a coach that goes out there and you see his work ethic. He’s one of the first guys in the building, one of the last to leave. He’s a family person. He’s a perfectionist. He’s a big fundamentals guy. He doesn’t want our fundamentals to slip and we work on that all the time. So he’s a great coach to have.”
On if Lazor has given the players any readings yet:
“Oh, yeah. It’s been a long time, but different quotes and then he’ll point out some quotes on maybe our quarterback tip sheets or different things like that of historical people or people that had a major influence on the world. So you like to see a guy that looks at the world in a big picture like that and strives for perfection and looks at the people who have done it before us and done a great job of it and feed off of what they’ve done.”
On if they think about the struggles at home this season:
“No, I’m excited to play at home. We have previously had a rough time winning at home, but I’m excited to get back at home. I feel like we’ve done a good job on the road, but we really need to win one at home for our fans and I expect them to be out there ready to roll and cheer us on and we’re striving to get them a win at home.”
On if the struggles at home are a case of bad luck:
“No, I don’t think it’s bad luck. I don’t know what it is. I really don’t. I don’t know why it’s fallen like it has but we can’t really try to let it psych us out. I mean, we’re excited to play at home. Where we practiced today is only a couple hundred yards away from where we’ll be playing. The fans on the road have been great. They’ve traveled amazing and they’ve been loud and supportive so I expect them to be ready to roll at home and we need to feed off them.”
On what teams focusing on stopping running back LeSean McCoy opens up for the passing game:
“With a running back like LeSean McCoy and then you have [running back] Bryce Brown, you know, we’ve got to get our run game going and they’re going to try to stop it. If it’s loading the box or bringing a blitz from where they think we’re running – we’ll find out from just continuing to study them or when the game happens what they’re going to try to do – but when they try to do that it’s going to give me an opportunity to throw the ball. So that’s where I need to be accurate, be on time with my throws and be smart with them to try to get them out of stopping the run where we can do all the different things. Execution is the key to this game and if we execute we’ll put ourselves in the position to be successful. It’s a team game so it’s going to take every side of the ball to win this game, but on offense we really just need to execute. The answer for your home question is we just haven’t executed well at home so we just have to get back to the fundamentals and home and execute and we’ll put ourselves in position.”
On deciding how and when to protect himself from taking big hits:
“I think that as a quarterback you don’t really think of it that way. It’s something that I can’t really explain to you. It’s natural. So it’s like a natural instinct. You want to deliver the ball but at the same time when you’re throwing the ball – we’ve all played this game and thrown and taken hits long enough to where our body can adjust to when we’re about to get hit to where, in a way, you can still deliver the ball with great velocity but then at the same time protect yourself. You’re going to take hits. You’re going to have to step into throws on third down or whenever it is and drill one, but that’s part of the game and I don’t know – I just think it’s more a natural thing. Your body is an amazing thing and it can adjust to a lot of different hits.”
Redskins Park
Executive Vice President/Head Coach Mike Shanahan
On the status of guard Maurice Hurt:
“Maurice started practice today and we have three weeks to make a decision. Good first day.”
On if there is an update on the status of defensive end Adam Carriker:
“There is no update. He still can’t go.”
On if wide receiver/returner Nick Williams will return punts vs. Philadelphia:
“Well, we’ll get a chance to evaluate him this week. Nick has done a good job since he’s been here. He’s a hard worker. I think we all know he could return punts, kickoffs, slot receiver – I think he could play X or Z. We’ll evaluate him this week and see where he’s at and make a game-time decision.”
On comparing 3-6 records between this year and last year:
“The only thing I think we can draw on is that our goal is to be 4-6. I think if you do that and you have that type of mindset then you’ve got a chance to take care of business. I think that’s what we did today. We had a good practice today. We know Philly is playing exceptionally well the last couple of games and we had the type of practice that you needed.”
On if he is starting to evaluate players for next season while still working on turning this season around:
“I think I made a comment last year along the same lines that you always see when you have a little adversity how hard people work in practice, how they play in the game, and that’s a constant evaluation, especially when you’re 3-6. You find out which guys are mentally there, which guys practice well, which guys play well, if they give you effort for 60 minutes – it’s all part of the process.”
On if uncertainty in players’ contracts is a distraction or motivating factor:
“If you’re a guy that’s really worried about your contract and not worried about the job that you’re doing you might not have the right guy anyhow. So we’re hoping we have guys that want to go out and give us everything that they have to possibly get that new contract if that’s what their motivation is. So I can’t speak for them but I think anybody that’s in the last year of their contract – some of these players – we understand the reality of what we’re dealing with. They’d like to put the best performance on tape. That gives them more leverage and rightfully so. We’d like our players to make as much money as possible because they work extremely hard for us.”
On if they look at the upcoming Eagles game as a chance to “get back” at the Eagles for the Week 1 loss:
“We want to get back at everybody. We want to win each week. It’s a very important game because this is a division game. I think everybody wants to win the division. I think we all know what the records are. We know this is a very big game for us, especially on the road – an NFC East opponent. We want to play our best. Very important for both of us.”
On if it is difficult for him to not think about the status of his own contract:
“Not at all. I’ve got a contract for next year. I’ve got a contract this year. I’m concerned about our games. I’ve been very lucky – I’ve been in this profession for a long time and your focus is on your job. And I say that with all due sincerity – it’s something I do not think about. Anytime I talk about a contract, if it’s with a player or a coach, it’s always after the season. Once we get started we don’t talk about it because we’ve got to focus on each game and if you don’t focus on the game you take away from what you’re trying to accomplish.”
On if wide receiver Pierre Garçon has played his best football in recent weeks:
“He’s been playing that way since he’s been here. I think everybody else is starting to see from the outside how good of a player he is. The more we get him the ball, the more opportunities he takes advantage of. He’s a very physical wide receiver. I think you saw that a couple catches that he had that he’s not afraid to run over safeties, linebackers. He’s exceptionally strong. When I bragged on him that one game about blocking – and the reason why I did it so much is a lot of people don’t see how physical he is, and he takes that to the next level, or at least a lot of people saw him take it to the next level against Minnesota when he ran with the football. But he’s playing at a very, very, very good level.”
On their use of the up-tempo offense:
“We put it in a little bit, every now and then. We did it on the last drive of the game and it got us down to the four-yard line. We implemented it against Chicago. I think it was a difference in us winning that game. Every game we’ve had some type of tempo offense in there. We’ve probably mixed formations up a little bit more than most people – personnel groups. So we don’t do it all the time, but we try to keep defenses off-balance with doing it.”
On if they have changed their preparations for Philadelphia’s up-tempo offense:
“No, not really because they have been going against us since camp started. We started the first day of training camp. One reason is because we knew we were going against that type of offense. Another reason why we put it in is we had six new starters and we thought the second year would be the time to put it in and get more comfortable with the system.”
On getting the team to play a complete game:
“The key is you’ve got to find a way to win and if we would have got the ball in the end zone there on the four-yard-line – second-and-goal – we’d say, 'Hey everything’s great.’ When you don’t accomplish that, there’s a lot of things involved. You just keep on trying to do the little things the right way and work on the mistakes that you did make and hopefully when the situation occurs again you can finish that game.”
On how helpful it is to have game film on the Eagles as opposed having none in Week 1:
“Well, to be honest with you, except for there’s always a couple of wrinkles everybody puts in, this is what they’ve been doing all the way through the college days so there’s not a lot of surprises. But there’s a lot more film on what they’ve done through all the years in college. They’ve taken that to the NFL. It’s nice to see on film because you’re not surprised like you are in the first game because you’re not sure which direction they’re going to go because they’re not going to use everything in preseason, but once you get to this game during the season, they’ve shown most of their wrinkles and you get to see it on film and different adjustments they’ve made [and] what defenses have done against them to try to keep them off-balance.”
On how much their tempo was a factor in Week 1:
“Like I said, we’ve got it in our system, so I think they’re used to it. There’s a number of teams in the NFL now that are using a no-huddle – maybe not quite the tempo that they’re doing, but sometimes their tempo slows down too. So you have to adjust either way.”
On if he has seen a difference in the Eagles’ offense since Week 1:
“It all depends. It all depends which game. Are you going to talk about their games against Dallas and the Giants or are you going to talk about the last couple of weeks relative to Green Bay and Oakland? Even those four games are completely different, just like a lot of our games are. So they’re going to look at all our games, we’re going to look at all of theirs and try to get a game plan that we think best fits our opportunity to attack them.”
On if he fits players to his system or adapts his system to his players:
“I don’t think you really have much of a choice. Whatever players that you have, you have to adapt a system to those players. Now everybody has a philosophy on what you’d like to do, but you’re not always able to do that. It may be the quarterback, it may be the running back, a receiver, or it could be a linebacker, defensive lineman, a three-man front, a four-man front, taking a look at your secondary. Do you have strong corners? Are you going to play more a two-deep attack? Do you want to put as much pressure on them as compared to one-deep safety and man-to-man coverage or three-deep zone? So a lot has to do with your personnel and a lot has to do with your philosophy and what kind of background you have to implement those things.”
On if it was difficult to adapt his system to accommodate the zone read last season:
“It’s something that we felt gave us the best chance to win, the best chance to be successful. What you do is you kind of adapt your system to what you think your players can do and we’re going to adapt our system every year to what we think [quarterback] Robert [Griffin III] can do and he does best. The one thing that was a little harder this year – we didn’t have an offseason to tinker with some things we normally do. He’s adjusted very quickly and I think he’s gotten better each game and I think everybody can see that as the season has gone on.”
On what Robert Griffin III is doing now that he wasn’t doing last season:
“I’m not going to get into all that. I’ll do that at the end of the season for obvious reasons, but it’s the continual growth. The more reps he gets, the better off he’s going to be and I think people watching can see that he’s more comfortable with himself physically. The more repetition you get I think the more relaxed you feel, the more comfortable you are out on the field, and we see growth.”
On if he knew about Garcon’s physicality before he got to the Redskins:
“You think you know but you don’t know for sure until they actually come into your program. You see how they practice. You see what type of competitive spirit a guy has – if it’s one-on-one in a passing drill, if it’s just doing some run-related drills. But it didn’t take long to figure out he was very competitive.”
On what jumps out about Eagles quarterback Nick Foles’ recent play:
“He’s been very smart with the ball. They’ve had an excellent running game, especially the last game. Their offensive line has been very consistent. They’ve got a lot of depth at their offensive line – two tackles that are outstanding, playing exceptional football right now, as well as their center and their guards. They’ve got some depth there – you can see they’re pretty cohesive. That gives them an opportunity to focus downfield, but I don’t want to take anything away from him because he’s made some great decisions and he’s playing well.”
On what Williams can do to translate his return ability to the NFL and how he will be evaluated:
“First of all, maybe some guys are just returners, some guys you want not only as a returner but as a wide receiver. We’ll see how he catches punts and kickoffs this week when he knows he’s going to be playing on Sunday afternoon. And you get a chance to see guys, when they are activated, how they practice and how they do things and that’s what we’ll try to do is make that evaluation and decide what gives us the best chance to win.”
On how Griffin III has changed since Week 1:
“You guys have been writing about it from Week 1 until now so you guys know as much as I do. You’ve seen the growth, his ability to move around, his speed, his quickness. He’s just feeling better. The more practice reps you get, the more comfortable you’re going to feel with our system and you can see he’s a lot more comfortable now than he was after Week 1.”
Quarterback Robert Griffin III
On how he feels compared to the first Eagles game and how the Eagles will have to prepare for him differently:
“I just feel like everything is clicking for us a little bit better. We are putting up a lot of yards, we are putting up points, but at the end of the day it comes down to winning the football games and that’s what we have to do. So I think everybody sees it on the tape, and it’s not just me, it’s the whole offense. We’re much improved in every phase of the game right now for us, so hopefully they do see that and they come ready to play because we’re going to get everybody’s best shot, we know that.”
On the differences between 3-6 records this season and last season:
“We’re in a similar situation as last year. We just have to go out there and take it one game at a time, one play at a time and let the chips fall where they may – focus on the little things, let the big things fall into place. That’s all you can control. The only thing we can control right now is getting to 4-6 and that’s what we have got to do.”
On how concerned he is with the number of hits he’s taking and how he bounces back from it:
“We don’t want that to happen, I know I don’t want that to happen, the coaches don’t want that to happen, the players around me don’t want that to happen and we just have got to do a better job of that making sure that doesn’t happen. Take it upon myself to get down earlier. I got two good shots there in the game that I can avoid, take it on my part to make sure that doesn’t happen and other things within the pocket – just got to improve there and make sure we keep our quarterback upright. It takes all of us. So yeah, I’ve been hit a bunch the past two games and everyone knows it but we just have to move on and make each game a new game and not really worry about what happened before and improve.”
On if taking hits is reassurance that everything is fine with his knee:
“I don’t know if that has anything to do with my knee. I’ve always been able to take a shot. You have got to build yourself up in the offseason to get ready for those kinds of hits. Big boys play at this level and they’re going to hit you as often as they can and it’s our job to make sure we can limit those hits.”
On if he sees this as a “revenge game” after the loss in Week 1:
“You don’t have revenge games, at least I don’t – I can’t speak for everybody. I don’t look at it that way. It’s nothing to prove from Week 1. It’s, 'We need this game. Our team needs this game.’ It’s not just about me or any personal vendetta you might have. You let God fight those battles and the only battle I have got to fight right now is helping this team get to 4-6 and that’s all that’s on my mind.”
On if being quarterback on a struggling team is more of a burden than he anticipated:
“You take life as it comes. Life’s going to throw you curveballs sometimes. You just have got to figure out which ones to try and hit. Right now, it’s not a burden. It’s a burden if you make it a burden. You’ve got to believe. It only takes one person to believe so you can have success. I always believe in this team. I always believe in these players and so on and so on. That’s what it is for me. It’s not a burden. I understand what comes with being the quarterback of the Washington Redskins. I understand what comes with being a quarterback in the NFL. And yeah, it might be a little harder here because of certain aspects of what goes on around this team. I understand that. I’ve got tough skin… My parents brought me up the right way – military background, discipline and all that stuff – and I’m happy to call them my parents and they’ve done a great job there for me. I have all that inside of me and that’s all it takes. You’ve got to have it inside of you to make it in this world and that’s what I have got to do.”
On the struggle between passing the ball and being a playmaker with his feet:
“I just think if you look at the box scores from the first couple of games and some of the stuff that was said in the offseason, I think it’s really misleading. We came into the season doing the same stuff, planning to do the same stuff that we did last year. We got behind real early in those first two games and had to throw the ball a lot more so it’s not like we came into those games wanting to dropback pass. We wanted to go out there and give the ball to [running back] Alfred [Morris], run our zone read stuff, do the stuff off of it that we like to do and it just didn’t happen that way when you’re down by 21 points right off the bat. It’s not going to work. So I think all that stuff is a little misleading and when it comes to just being a quarterback I have to go out there and roll with Coach – what those coaches call and run it to the best of my ability. The team has to run it to the best of their ability and that’s what we have got to do – that’s what I always try to do. Whatever Coach asks me to do, that’s what I have to do and I’ve got to take it from there.”
On how helpful it was that Head Coach Mike Shanahan and Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan were willing to adapt to his skillset:
“They’ve done a good job incorporating some of the stuff that I did in college into the offense and putting their own spin on it, making it their own. We’ve done a great job with those things but also they’ve just done a good job of taking their own system and being able to run it in different ways. Everyone knew coming out that I was more of a shotgun guy than an under-center guy and I’ve made the transition to under-center but we still do a lot of stuff out of the gun, out of the Pistol. I think that’s where the creativity on their part comes in. They’re able to put in their system and do it with a quarterback in a different way.”
On if he believes players or systems win games:
“Players make plays, coaches coach. That’s what it is.”
On what changes on the road in the second half that has caused some struggles on offense:
“Not anything in particular. I think it’s just situational football. We were on fire on third downs in the first half against Minnesota and in the second half we weren’t on fire. Just like I said, it’s just situations. You get a third-and-16 and you get a sack. You get a third-and-short, you’ve got man coverage, guy is molesting your receiver out there and you don’t get the call, so it’s just situational football things like that that happen and it’s just stuff we have to eliminate. There’s no other way to put it. We have got to go out there and finish games and everybody wants to know what the secret recipe is and it’s just about us going out there and playing.”
On what makes wide receiver Pierre Garçon effective:
“He’s a running back playing receiver. Everybody saw him truck that safety against Minnesota so he does some freakish things. He’s got a really – I say it’s a good attitude, but he’s a tempered guy out there on the field and he plays that way at receiver which you don’t see very often. If you get the ball in his hands, he can do some damage with it.”
On if Garçon’s physicality allows him to be used in different ways because he can break tackles:
“Yeah, he can. He can get you a first down on third-and-long, third-and-14 and you throw him and underneath route and he gets the first down. Just those type of things he’s really good at doing and we’ve got other guys on our team that can do that as well so they can’t just zero in on 'P,’ but he’s done a great job of those things.”
On his skills as a pocket passer and whether or not he can be an elite pocket passer:
“I mean, any quarterback out there knows you have to be able to operate from the pocket and that’s something I feel like I can do, but you can always get better. That’s the great thing about football. Even ask the greats, you know, you can ask [Broncos quarterback] Peyton [Manning] you can ask [Patriots quarterback] Tom Brady, all those guys, you ask them, 'Hey, where can you get better?’ and they’ll tell you where they can get better because you’re never perfect. You’re always striving to be perfect and you’re striving for perfection but nobody was perfect so that’s the great thing about it and I feel like I can be that, and will be that.”
On if he has changed his style over the course of the season:
“I think it’s everything. We’re getting in games early, we’re starting faster, so we’re able to run a lot more of our stuff that we have in our offense and I think that everything together is just working better. We’re doing better on third downs and the pocket passing. We’re doing better on first and second down, getting more yards to make our third downs more manageable. So I think that was me being frustrated. We were down early in some games and it takes that threat away from you. So being in the games, having our defense stop them early, getting us the ball back has helped us. So I just feel like, in that aspect, we’re clicking better on offense. It’s not necessarily just because I’m running, even though to the outside eye it may seem that way.”
On outside pressure and what factors make playing for the Redskins more complicated than other teams:
“Just the big city, bright lights, big media market – those are the things. Our fan base is great. They demand success. They got a taste of it last year and they’re going to want more of that and we’ve got to provide it and we will. I think we will. So I think that those are some of the factors that go into it. It’s not a small town. It’s not a small city team that doesn’t have a big media room like this. It’s part of it and I understand that. Even coming from a small town in high school and a medium-sized town in Waco in Texas, you come, you step up to another level, you’re in the big city, bright lights and you’ve got to perform and that’s what we’re going to do.”
On if he wonders about how the hits he takes will affect his career and future:
“I don’t think about it. I think a lot of people do. It comes down to you’ve got to take it week to week and not really worry about the years down the road. When it comes to those kind of hits, obviously you play the game in a way that you’re competitive. You have the future in mind, but you’re still competitive on that day. The bottom line is I just can’t be taking those amount of hits in any of those games or any games in my career. You don’t want to be hit that much and a lot of the great quarterbacks don’t get hit that much. It’s me, it’s a lot of things that go into that, and you’ve got to get better.”
On if he looks at every alternative option before scrambling:
“A couple of times I scramble out and you scan the field and no one’s open and you have to go. Other times you string it out to the sideline. A lot of times you say, versus man coverage, a lot of times you can run for a little bit more. Versus zone you’ve got to kick back and try to find somebody that’s open. I feel like I’ve done a better job of that. But I can think of two runs in the Minnesota game – one on the goal line, everyone remembers that one, and one in the two-minute drive that I could have avoided. The other hits I did avoid because I’m OK at doing that – getting down and getting out of the way. But I’ve got to do a better job of that and it comes, it’ll come, and we’ve just got to protect.”
On the tone and state of the team:
“I think it’s just 'one at a time.’ It’s a cliché. It’s a huge cliché. But everyone wants to talk about a 7-0 run, you know, win the division. We just know we have to take care of Sunday. That’s it. That’s all we have. That’s all a lot of guys have, and we have a lot of things at stake when it comes to those kind of games and I think guys understand that. Last year we played with that same amount of pressure on us and we performed. I don’t think it’s going to crush anybody. They say pressure breaks pipes and I don’t think it will.”
On if he is wired competitively to repeat the play he made at the goal line against Minnesota:
“I can’t speak now, today, as if I was on the field in Philly. I know what you’re saying. It’s tough, man. You’re a competitor, I’m a competitor… If I’m put in that situation again, I think if I’m in an identical situation, I think yeah, maybe I will slide. I think all those situations are different. I think if I had not slipped, I probably would’ve got in. But once I did slip, it was probably best for me to just get down and avoid that hit.”
Eagles Coach Chip Kelly
On if he has had to make adjustments to his offense since Week 1 and if it has been more or less than he anticipated:
“We haven’t had to adjust it since our first game, so it hasn’t really affected us… We haven’t adjusted it since our first game.”
On package plays and whether it’s the talent or the play call that leads to their success:
“Everything anybody does offensively is always about the players you have and we have good players.”
On what quarterback Nick Foles has done recently to establish himself in the offense:
“Nick did it the first time he came in against the Giants. Came in at the end of the first half against the Giants and then led us to a victory there. Did it against Tampa Bay. So he does a great job, has a great understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish on the offensive side of the ball. He’s a very accurate passer and puts the ball on the open receiver.”
On how the Giants adjusted to the Eagles’ tempo the second time they played:
“There was no difference.”
On the improvements he has seen from Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III since Week 1:
“He seems like he’s a little bit back to his old self. Obviously the first game we played him he was coming off the injury and didn’t really take any live reps from what we understood going into our game and that was really his first live reps. But now that he’s got all those games behind him, I think he’s playing at a high level. Their offense is ranked very, very high in every category – total offense, rushing offense, passing offense, etc. He’s really playing at a high level right now.”
On how the addition of Redskins safety Brandon Meriweather has changed the secondary:
“[It’s a] very physical group. Obviously Brandon is a guy you have to know where he is on every play. Kind of a tone setter back there. So it is a different team than we played in the first game from a secondary standpoint.”
On what makes Redskins running back Alfred Morris so difficult to defend when he’s playing well:
“He’s just really hard to take down one-on-one. He does such a great job of always going forward. He’s got great vision and he’s a very powerful runner.”
Eagles QB Nick Foles
On the progression of the offense:
“We had a span of two weeks earlier where we really didn’t do well, we didn’t score touchdowns. Against Oakland we got things going and I felt good about last week It wasn’t as clean as the Oakland game, but I felt like we were still moving in the right direction. I feel like we just have to continue doing the things we’re good at and improving on the things we’re not doing as well. All in all, I just feel like we’re getting more used to playing with these plays… So hopefully we can just continue that.”
On if the team expected to have the ability to put up huge numbers offensively:
“You really never know what to expect. I mean, this is the NFL so there’s a lot of great talent. There’s a lot of talented teams. We’ve always had confidence in who we are and what we do. That’s never gone away. It’s just the execution part on the field. We just had to make sure – that span of two games where we didn’t do well, we always kept believing in what we were doing we just had to clean up things – you know, maybe it was getting the ball out sooner, going through your progressions, different things like that. Do things that can move the ball down the field and give us opportunities to score and take shots down field or gash teams with the run. It’s still a work in progress. We have got to continue to get better.”
On how he has gotten better since his first start against the Redskins last season:
“My first start against the Redskins there, it was a rough game for sure. They brought a lot at me, just being a rookie and being in that situation I didn’t execute like I wanted to, but you’re going to have games like that in your career that you can’t let it defeat you. You’ve got to learn from the situation. Everybody always talks about facing adversity. That was an adverse situation for me. I went back, looked at film, and just continued – I always believed in myself and know who I am as a player and a person, so I always use that as my strength and just push forward. And from last year to this year, I’m a year older, I’ve played a lot more football since then, and I’ve just got more and more comfortable playing at this level. But with the comfort there’s still going to be a ton of challenges and once teams get more and more film, they’ll bring more and more stuff at us to try to stop it. You always have to be on top of what their scheme is, what they’re going to try to do and just think of different ways they could try to stop us so we can be ready for it.”
On if there’s a difference between getting humbled and losing confidence in tough games:
“Yeah, there is. I think a game like that, if you lose your confidence it’ll defeat you the next week and eventually it’ll stop you from playing football altogether if you can never get your confidence because you can’t play this game without confidence in yourself and what you’re doing. It’s always important to stay humble no matter what you do. That’s how I was raised and that’s what I believe. There’s going to be situations where it’s going to be tough, but stay humble, stay strong – you keep driving forward. That’s how I look at it.”
On how the Redskins defense has improved since Week 1:
“The opening game of the season there are always a lot of nerves that go on. It’s a new season. We had a new scheme. So a lot of new stuff went on and we played well. I know that they came back and they’ve improved every week. They’re professionals. Their coaches are there for a reason; they’re professionals. So they’ve gotten better each and every week and I know that they’re going to study the game plan from when we played them last time and they’re going to be on top of that stuff so we have to make sure that we execute and we see what they’re doing. We just have to be smart with the football and be crisp with everything we do. Football doesn’t change. You just have to stay on top of it week to week depending on who you’re playing, so we just have to study our opponent because they’ve gotten better as the year has gone on.”
On where the Redskins defense is vulnerable:
“I’m not going to really say anything on that because I can’t give them that. That’s something I can continue to study and use that for us. I could tell y’all that after the game. I feel like they’re going to try to bring a lot of stuff. They’re going to study the film of what we’ve done, and they’re going to try to stop us in those situations. That’s something that we’ll find out during the game.”
On working with Eagles Quarterbacks Coach Bill Lazor:
“Bill is a smart guy. I respect that he’s a really hard worker. He makes sure he gives us all the information possible and he strives for perfection. You loving having a coach that goes out there and you see his work ethic. He’s one of the first guys in the building, one of the last to leave. He’s a family person. He’s a perfectionist. He’s a big fundamentals guy. He doesn’t want our fundamentals to slip and we work on that all the time. So he’s a great coach to have.”
On if Lazor has given the players any readings yet:
“Oh, yeah. It’s been a long time, but different quotes and then he’ll point out some quotes on maybe our quarterback tip sheets or different things like that of historical people or people that had a major influence on the world. So you like to see a guy that looks at the world in a big picture like that and strives for perfection and looks at the people who have done it before us and done a great job of it and feed off of what they’ve done.”
On if they think about the struggles at home this season:
“No, I’m excited to play at home. We have previously had a rough time winning at home, but I’m excited to get back at home. I feel like we’ve done a good job on the road, but we really need to win one at home for our fans and I expect them to be out there ready to roll and cheer us on and we’re striving to get them a win at home.”
On if the struggles at home are a case of bad luck:
“No, I don’t think it’s bad luck. I don’t know what it is. I really don’t. I don’t know why it’s fallen like it has but we can’t really try to let it psych us out. I mean, we’re excited to play at home. Where we practiced today is only a couple hundred yards away from where we’ll be playing. The fans on the road have been great. They’ve traveled amazing and they’ve been loud and supportive so I expect them to be ready to roll at home and we need to feed off them.”
On what teams focusing on stopping running back LeSean McCoy opens up for the passing game:
“With a running back like LeSean McCoy and then you have [running back] Bryce Brown, you know, we’ve got to get our run game going and they’re going to try to stop it. If it’s loading the box or bringing a blitz from where they think we’re running – we’ll find out from just continuing to study them or when the game happens what they’re going to try to do – but when they try to do that it’s going to give me an opportunity to throw the ball. So that’s where I need to be accurate, be on time with my throws and be smart with them to try to get them out of stopping the run where we can do all the different things. Execution is the key to this game and if we execute we’ll put ourselves in the position to be successful. It’s a team game so it’s going to take every side of the ball to win this game, but on offense we really just need to execute. The answer for your home question is we just haven’t executed well at home so we just have to get back to the fundamentals and home and execute and we’ll put ourselves in position.”
On deciding how and when to protect himself from taking big hits:
“I think that as a quarterback you don’t really think of it that way. It’s something that I can’t really explain to you. It’s natural. So it’s like a natural instinct. You want to deliver the ball but at the same time when you’re throwing the ball – we’ve all played this game and thrown and taken hits long enough to where our body can adjust to when we’re about to get hit to where, in a way, you can still deliver the ball with great velocity but then at the same time protect yourself. You’re going to take hits. You’re going to have to step into throws on third down or whenever it is and drill one, but that’s part of the game and I don’t know – I just think it’s more a natural thing. Your body is an amazing thing and it can adjust to a lot of different hits.”