On what he"s hoping to see from rookie S Jaiquawn Jarrett on Sunday: "Well you know, what"s happening with him just throughout the year is he"s getting more comfortable with our scheme. (Jarrett) will knock you out so I"m kind of excited (and) I think the Redskins (game) will give him a chance to show his talents. They do a good job running the football and (Jarrett) will knock you out so that"s what I"m looking forward to, him getting a couple of those hits."
On his thoughts about the progression of DE Phillip Hunt this season: "Phillip has really come along, meaning that we have a few players at that position, and really he"s done a good job in practice – we talked about this earlier - going against (T) Todd (Herremans) and (T) Jason (Peters), but he"s showed that he has the ability to be a good pass rusher and he"s done a good job in the run game. He"s not as big as some of the other guys but he"s quick and explosive, tough guy."
On whether he feels the need to prove to people that he belongs as a defensive coordinator in this league: "You know what, I think for all of our player and coaches and for all of us, anytime you step on the field is important, anytime you get on the field – because each side is trying to hurt each other and that"s part of the game, it"s a physical game so it"s important. The preparation has been good for us and we look forward to having a good game. And for us, by winning this game and being able to go in there and beat the Redskins it will give us a 5-1 record in the (NFC) East and that"s important for us right now."
On whether he personally feels the need to prove to people that he belongs as a defensive coordinator in this league: "I just want to see us keep getting better. I think that going through the year we started slowly and that"s not the way we wanted to start. But we"re finishing up where we wanted to finish up and we wanted to be able to do some of the things that we"re doing. You can talk about quarterbacks, but you know (Dallas QB) Tony (Romo) got knocked out, he got knocked out of the game, and he was there the first time we played him. So I think we"re playing at that kind of level (right now) where we talked about being able to stop the run and giving our defensive line a chance to rush. And the way you do that is by playing tight coverage and we played some tight coverage against the Cowboys the other night, you know giving our guys a chance to rush the quarterback. So those are some of the things that looking at tape you see some of the 'Match" or 'Zone" stuff is really 'Man" stuff, it"s 'Match/Zone" stuff. So looking at some of those things have really improved since we started."
On whether he thinks it"s important to keep continuity on the defense: "That"s a loaded question (laughing). The thing is, what"s the saying? You say, really, right now we"re playing the way we expected to play, but the thing that hurts you is we all wish that we could have started like this, but there was a lot of different pieces in place. But we"re playing the way this defense is capable of playing and we"re get better. And what I think will happen is we will add a few wrinkles in this week, again. So I think everybody is starting to understand what we"re doing – the first thing is you have to understand the base stuff first before you can even add anything to it, and we"re starting to be able to add a little something to it every week because everybody"s starting to understand what we"re doing."
On whether he is confident that he will be able to see the project through: "I just worry about we have a big practice this afternoon. They do a good job on third down and short yardage and goal line, and really I"m just worried about…I"m going to go upstairs and start working on the red zone a little bit and then go to practice. (I"m taking it) one day at a time and try to…Philadelphia right? This is where Rocky started and it"s all about hard work and good things happen because that"s what this city believes."
On his thoughts about the play of CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie against Dallas: "You know, I feel good for Dominique. Now you know he was hurt (for a couple games) and before he got hurt he was doing a good job in the Arizona game, was probably his best game as a nickel defensive back. So you know, coming back he did a good job. He was excited about being able to go man-to-man with their guys. And really, Dallas is a very talented team."
On whether he anticipates DE Brandon Graham getting any more snaps this week: "Brandon"s a good football player. And again, we talked about that injury. He"s coming back from that injury. And you will see a lot of Brandon Graham, you know he"s tough, he"s strong minded, and sometimes injuries just take time, (but) probably (head athletic trainer) Rick (Burkholder) knows more than I do about that."
On how Graham has said his knee is fine and whether he"s using his knee as an excuse: "The thing that"s hard, too, is that his knee is fine now, but he hasn"t been able to practice initially. I mean, you take that time, the fundamentals, the technique, all of those things away, (then) all of those other guys are ahead because they"ve had all of that work. And you say, 'God, he"s a first round draft pick." But still there"s some technique that goes into getting up the field, and then reacting to stuff, the pass rush. And those guys are ahead because they"ve been with (defensive line coach Jim) Wash(burn) longer than Brandon has been able to work with him. Once coach Washburn has time to work with Brandon, Brandon will be doing the same thing."
On whether he will ever catch up to the other guys: "Yeah, he"ll catch up. There will be a lot of time in the offseason to work and he"ll do extra work. That"s the kind of kid he is."
On whether DE Trent Cole"s productivity this year was hampered by injuries: "He missed, what was it? Three games. Four games. Because when you watch him on tape you can see that he"s still a terror. And you know, there"s some good football players out there still, too. But Trent like I said before, you have Trent-Cole-and-Jason-Babin percent. I mean, those two guys are unbelievable and really asset the tone for the whole defense the way those guys run around."
On whether Jarrett will be able to play instinctively on Sunday: "I think in the run game he will be more natural and I think in coverage part of it this will be a good week because he"ll get to get all of the reps and everything. But there"s some things, there"s some reads, there"s some coverages – you know we mix and match in coverages. So I think he"ll be better but I think there will be some room to improve for him in the offseason."
On whether S Nate Allen is playing close to 100 percent: "Nate made a play the other day. They ran like a 'Dagger" and he was really playing in 'Halves". And 'Halves" when you play 'Halves" and you"re the safety on that play you"ll probably end up making the tackle on that play. Now if you"re playing 'Quarters", 'Quarters" is different. But he broke on that ball and I looked at it and I said, 'You know what, Nate is ready to go." Nate"s going to be a Pro Bowler one day; his ability is back, you see him doing some of the things cover ability-wise, good kid, smart kid, you know the kind of kid that if you had a daughter you wouldn"t mind him marrying. You know, that"s the kind of, off the field, kid he is."
