On the challenges he faces having such a young defensive secondary:"Well, you know, I think the challenges are obvious. Anytime you have a young player that, number one hasn't played or played very much, you worry about execution, you worry about just that they're able to maintain their composure in a game, and to this point we've done a good job with that. And I think the credit goes to the players. They've done a good job at working hard at preparing themselves, and the coaches the same, and it goes back to just putting in the time and preparing our players and the players putting themselves in a position where they can be prepared and have success. So we've done a good job so far with that."
On where S Kurt Coleman has made his biggest strides as a player this season: "With Kurt, we're talking about a very instinctive football player. And I know a lot of people focus on the seventh round draft pick, so on and so forth, but that's not what we focus on. I mean he's a good football player and he's made plays for this defense this year and I'm sure on special teams the same thing could be said. So it's just a process where he needs to continue to get experience. And there's going to be bumps in the road, not only for him but for some of those other young guys, and there have been bumps in the road, but they stay aggressive, they take the right approach and have the right attitude, and in the end that will pay off for us."
On why the defense was so successful in the fourth quarter against the Giants: "Well, I wouldn't say not only just the fourth quarter, but really we played a good first quarter; gave up that one touchdown on a move there, but good third quarter and good fourth quarter. Really we had a second quarter that wasn't very good at all and we're working to get that fixed. You know, I would just say this, we came out and we played aggressive. We played aggressive and you know, when you're down by as much as we were, what was impressive to me was that we came back that first series of the third quarter and stopped them on third-and-one at midfield. And a lot of guys could have packed it in right there, especially the way professional sports is, it seems anymore. But I was proud of our guys for the way they stepped up right there. That was a big stop."
On whether he is concerned with the athleticism of Vikings QB Joe Webb playing in a game where Webb has nothing to lose: "Absolutely dangerous. And we faced quarterbacks like that in the past; you know, Cleveland several years ago. And whenever you face, or could face, a quarterback like that with the run/pass ability, like (QB) Michael Vick has, that's a dangerous combination. So we have to make sure that we stay disciplined, yet aggressive in our approach, there."
On whether he has watched film from Webb when he was in college at the University of Alabama-Birmingham: "I have not. But there's been enough tape of him from an exposure standpoint in the preseason, played a significant amount at San Francisco and had I think it was about a 65-yard touchdown run there. So he's dangerous, and I mean, you watch the game Monday night (versus Chicago), I know from a production standpoint points weren't necessarily put on the board or an abundant amount of points, but he moved the football. He moved the football on the Bears defense."
On whether CB Dimitri Patterson's rough first half against the Giants was a product of the Giants taking advantage of his over-aggressive style of play: "No, look, he just had a game where he'd like to have a couple of those plays back. And, you know that's, when you play the corner position it's easy to see those, outside looking in. But I'd like to have a couple of those plays back, too, myself. What's important in my mind and for Dimitri is that when that third quarter and fourth quarter rolled around he was right there. And we gambled, we rolled the dice a couple times where I gave him no help and he was right with it against what I consider a Pro Bowl-caliber receiver in (Hakeem) Nicks. So he'll get right back on the horse this week and prepare like he's prepared. And that's the life of a corner in this league; you're going to have good plays, you're going to have bad plays, and when you have bad plays when you play out on that island everybody sees them."
On whether giving up the most passing touchdowns in Eagles franchise history has to do with youth in the secondary, lack of pass pressure, or a combination of both: "Well, there's a lot that goes into it and you mentioned two of the factors, there, a young defense, a young secondary, and then pass rush, you can always have more pass rush. But I'll just say this, with those points have come turnovers and it's hard to have both. Is that what we're shooting for? Absolutely, we are. But with those turnovers we give the ball back to our offense and we've been a factor and one of the reasons why we're 10-4. Now, am I happy about those points? Absolutely not. Some of those points are coming in the red zone, in addition to the big plays, so we have to get that corrected and we're working hard at that. So that's a big goal of ours coming down the stretch here."
On whether he is confident he has the guys to do that:"Absolutely, absolutely, and I know one thing, they're going to work hard. And we're going to continue to put a good product on the field and get turnovers and put the offense in a position to score, our offense in a position to score."
On whether LB Jamar Chaney's performance was as good as his 16 tackles suggested: "He did a good job; another rookie we're talking about starting his first game on a big stage and you know the thing I wanted to see, number one, was he could get us in and out of the huddle, which sounds simple, but to those of you that are out there at practice every day that's not as simple as it sounds. So he handled the game from that standpoint, and then played physical football when it called to get downhill and he got downhill. And then, I would say the biggest thing from a big picture standpoint that I saw from a linebacker position is that he was instinctive and he scraped and found the football; that's why he had 16 tackles. It's hard to find linebackers anymore that can naturally scrape and find the football and he showed that ability last Sunday."
On whether LB Stewart Bradley will get his job back when he returns from injury: "It's Stewart's job."
On LB Moise Fokou's improvement from last year to this year:"He's more experienced this year, and I think Moise would tell you the same thing, he's more comfortable with that experience. He's a guy that didn't play a lot of football leading up to his college career, so there's a lot that he hasn't seen prior to joining us last year. But (he's) another guy that works hard and the continuity we've had especially with (LB) Ernie (Sims) and him in the lineup now has helped."
On the next safety in the rotation: "It will be (S) Colt (Anderson). Yeah, it will be Colt."
