Injury Report:"(QB) Michael Vick is still recovering from the cartilage injury. He's added a little bit of lifting into the rehab process. He's not throwing yet. We'll just see how he progresses this week; really a day-to-day thing. (QB) Kevin (Kolb) will take all of the reps, obviously, today. (T) Jason Peters has a meniscus tear and will have surgery tomorrow, right here with (head team physician, head orthopedic surgeon Dr. Peter DeLuca), and we'll see how long that takes. All of those are different, but he won't play this week. (RB LeSean) McCoy won't practice today because he was a little bit sore from the game, but you'll probably see him out there tomorrow running around and then (G/T) Todd (Herremans), likewise. Todd had some swelling on his knee and we're going to sit him today and he'll probably be back out there tomorrow. And then (Brodrick Bunkley) has an elbow sprain and it initially looked like he could possibly have to have surgery on it. Dr. Deluca and (orthopedic surgeon) Dr. (James) Andrews got together and talked through it and Dr. Andrews is an elbow specialist, and so they worked through it and said 'let's give him an opportunity to rehab it and then brace it up and get out there and give it a try'. But he won't practice today and we'll take it day to day. I think it will be a stretch for him to make it to this weekend, but we'll see. He's strong in that arm so the symptoms were a big part of this; he didn't have a tremendous amount of pain and he had strength and so the doctors put that into the calculation. He does have swelling in there and they have to get the swelling out and then continue to rehab. Both (WR) Riley (Cooper) and (CB) Asante (Samuel) will practice today. Asante's been cleared. Riley had been cleared before and then had the headache symptoms. So, he was in the walkthrough, did that, and worked out yesterday and so on and it worked out good for him, so we'll just see how he does."
Opening Remarks: "We look forward to the challenge of playing the Atlanta Falcons. Very easily they could be an undefeated football team. They went into overtime with Pittsburgh (Steelers) in the first game and lost that game and they've won the rest of them. And they have a lot of talent on both sides of the football. They're fast on the defensive side, fly around, stunt, blitz, (and) give you the whole gamut of things. And then, from an offensive standpoint they'll get (WR) Michael (Jenkins) back so they'll be fully-loaded there; Pro Bowl type wide receivers, Pro Bowl running back, Pro Bowl quarterback, very solid offensive line, Pro Bowl tight end – future Hall of Fame tight end – so they have a good crew. And then special teams, they're very solid there. Our guys will prepare for a very good football team this week and go through that process."
On whether Peters, Vick and Bunkley are day to day: "Well, Peters is out for sure. Peters is having surgery tomorrow."
On whether he knows how long Peters will be sidelined: "I don't. We'll just see how it goes. They have to get in and take a look at it. But, right now it seems like it will be just a clean out; a surgery on the meniscus."
On whether he knows who will start in Peters place: "(T) King Dunlap."
On whether he anticipates any roster moves this week: "We'll see. We'll see how things go with (Bunkley) and we have (DT Jeff) Owens there that can step up; he'll practice some with the ones and twos, so you'll see him out there. But we'll just see how everything goes here as we go through the week."
On whether DT Trevor Laws will start in place of Bunkley: "Well, both he and (DT Antonio) Dixon will rotate in there."
On Owens knowing the situation about his possible playing time and being called off the practice squad: "Well, we found out late about (Bunkley). So, had Bunkley not been able to go and had the surgery and been out, then we would have brought Owens up and he was aware of that. I mean, he was aware of the situation."
On whether there is any nerve damage in Bunkley's elbow: "Well, the funny bone, the nerve that causes you to have that funny bone there, that was displaced just a bit. It wasn't stretched or torn or anything, it just had moved. So what they do with that is they go off of symptoms. So, as I was explaining, there are guys that have a worse injury to their elbow than what (Bunkley) has and played. There are guys that have had less of an injury to the ligaments and tendons and the nerve there and have had to have surgery, so they come back to the symptoms. And (Bunkley) had strength and he didn't have the pain so with that then they go, 'Okay, we'll proceed. We need to get the swelling out of there and let's proceed and see if we can't rehab it and brace it up and be able to play'."
On whether he has considered moving Herremans to left tackle: "I've looked at it, but that's not what I'm going to do. I have confidence that King will be fine out there."
On his evaluation of Dunlap's play in the game against the 49ers: "He had a couple plays that he would have liked to have back. But the rest of it I thought he did a good job with. And I'm sure he'll tell you the same thing – there are some things that he'll work on this week. It will be good for him to have some practice, here. He didn't have a chance to get out there and practice with the ones, so he'll get in and have that opportunity and see how he does. He's going up against a pretty good player; I mentioned all of these Pro Bowl players, but (DE John) Abraham's a pretty good player too."
On Vick's healing process:"Well, I told you how he made progress last week and that's continued on. He had swelling on the right side, more so than the left where the actual crack was. That swelling has gone down. Right now I can't tell you that he's pain free and I'm not going to tell you that; he still has pain. He started lifting light weight. He hasn't thrown, but he's made big jumps, big strides over the few days."
On whether Kolb's performance on Sunday makes it an easier decision not to rush Vick back from injury: "We don't do that. If a guy was going to be able to play, he could play. It doesn't matter who's in there. We don't force guys out there. You do that and then they get something else hurt, so you're better off just making sure they can take care of themselves and be able to play and not re-injure the same injury that they had. So we try not to put guys out there that would be in danger of getting hurt."
On putting teams away at the end of games: "Listen, probably stay more aggressive, particularly in the third quarter on some of the calls. So, I'd start there. I look at that on both sides of the ball. Then, you've got to secure field position. That becomes very important when you have a lead and you can't give it up on special teams like we did and let them drive on short fields there. We have to take care of that. The two teams now we've seen – Detroit and the 49ers – have had a history. They've done that every week here. You're aware of it more now with the 49ers because they've had a few more games than what we had with Detroit. Now you really have to make sure you stay on top of your 'A' game all the way through the four quarters. It's one thing to say it and it's another thing to do it. We have to do a better job there."
On whether this team needs to learn a killer instinct: "Listen, I really thought one of the pluses was when the guys came out, they were flying around. I thought they did that for four quarters; they flew around. They made a couple plays with the tight end, defensively, and then we stalled a couple times. I don't think that was effort or a killer instinct or any of that. That's not what I was thinking."
On whether he anticipates making a roster move to help the special teams unit: "Well the thing we need to do is – listen, (49ers WR) Ted Ginn is pretty good. It was either the punt return or the kick return. We've got to make sure that we technique this thing upright. It's not as much personnel as it is the fundamentals. We've just got to make sure that we don't lose leverage. At times, when you're directional kicking or punting, you want to head for that ball as opposed to – and in the case of the opening kickoff – maintain an outside leverage when you're on the backside of the directional kick. It wasn't because of, again, effort or anything else. It's probably just the opposite. You're very tempted to cross-face and go after a guy. You can't do it with a guy like that, or he's going to get outside of you. We've got to really discipline ourselves there. We've got some young guys in there playing and they're anxious to make plays. We've got to go back and just make sure we keep repping it and getting them real disciplined in those areas."
On Falcons QB Matt Ryan and the challenges he provides: "He's a very intelligent guy and a very good player. That's normally a good combination there. He has exceptional athletic ability, strong arm, great timing, gets the ball out of his hands and doesn't hold on to the football. He's got good accuracy. He's a Pro Bowl quarterback and that's what he is. He's a caliber player."
On what he saw from Kolb after looking at the game tape from Sunday: "Listen, I thought he did a good job. I told you after the game, I think there were a couple of plays that he'd like to have back. I thought he managed the game well, I thought he saw the field well, he moved around when necessary, made some throws, handled the pressure and the blitz well. You're not going to come out of every game perfect, so there are a couple throws that, hey, from a coach's standpoint and a player's standpoint, you want to make it as perfect as you can. A couple throws there you would like to have back, but I thought the rest of it, he did a pretty good job."
On whether there were any specific areas in Kolb's game that progressed from a week-to-week standpoint that pleased him: "I think it was a matter of getting in and practicing and then having the opportunity to play. I think with most quarterbacks, that's normally the case in particular when we do it. I think most of the teams do it this way where your number one quarterback gets all the reps. That next guy comes in and you're trying to get through the game a little bit, although he did a pretty decent job. We almost were able to pull the one off against Washington with a couple of his plays."
On whether WR DeSean Jackson will remain the starting punt returner: "He will right now, yeah. Look, (CB Jorrick) Calvin – now listen, I'm leaving that statement open. (Jackson) is the number one punt returner, yes, but I say that and there have been games where Calvin's gone in and spotted. I always check with DeSean and I check with (CB Ellis) Hobbs on how they're feeling and if they're tired or whatever it might be. If they have a long series, then I go with Calvin."
On whether he considered using LB Akeem Jordan in nickel packages: "We'll see, we'll see. We try to go through all those different options."
On whether it would be hard to put Vick in if he can't practice tomorrow or Friday: "I'd have to just see. I probably wouldn't go in that direction, but I'd just have to see. If he can't practice throughout the week, then I probably wouldn't do that. We'll see. We'll just see, kind of take it day by day and see what happens."
On LB Stewart Bradley's comments last week about getting his instincts back and on his performance Sunday: "I thought he did a lot better. He used his hands better, so I thought that was the thing that he could really work on. I know he made that comment about instincts. I think some of that is just he wants to step up and knock the dog out of the offensive player; whether it's a lineman, a fullback, tight end. There are times that you can do that, but you have to make sure that you pop your head out and you can see. It's that kind of a shot and the ball carries past you. That's where I think he really did a better job."
