Injury Report: "(G) Max (Jean-Gilles) has a shoulder sprain, and he was able to finish the game. All of these guys should be okay by game time with the exception of (G) Shawn (Andrews). We don't know on Shawn yet. (CB) Lito Sheppard had a hamstring strain. (T) Tra Thomas had a foot strain. Again, Lito didn't finish the game. Tra did. (WR) Reggie (Brown) has a groin strain. (S) J.R. (Reed) has the ankle sprain and the hamstring strain. He is getting better. Then, (RB) Brian (Westbrook) is making progress with the fractured ribs. Then, Shawn Andrews is seeing a specialist today in California, Dr. (Robert) Watkins, the person who saw Tra. We've had him see a few different specialists, so this is his fourth specialist. I'm talking about back specialists, the fourth back specialist. But we want to make sure we get a clear read on this thing and see if we can find a solution. Other than that, (WR) Kevin Curtis is making progress and should be ready. Like I said, most of these guys, I don't know about Shawn yet, but most of these guys should be ready once we get back off the bye and ready for Atlanta."
Opening Remarks: "I mentioned yesterday after the game that I was amazed at the fan support there. I shouldn't say amazed, but there were a tremendous amount of fans there and they were loud. Loud, loud. It almost seemed like it was a 50-50 go out there with their fans and our fans. I thought our fans did a great job. Finding a way to win, obviously, we struggled with that a little bit. There was a point, I thought, in the third quarter where we had an interception and their offense was driving the football on us and they came out and scored on the first series, I thought very easily the team could have just folded. They didn't do that. They reached down, which I think that is an important ingredient that you need, an intangible that you need to get things turned around and headed in the right direction. From that standpoint, I thought this was a significant part of the game and also a significant game in general for us. I think it's important that we establish a little bit more consistency on both sides on the football and on the special teams. Try and eliminate some of the highs and the lows here. You'd rather, obviously, have more highs than the lows, but you have to find a way to keep yourself more consistent and stay away from the lows that we've had. I think doing a better job in the red zone offensively is a factor. We have to be more consistent on the defensive side with stopping the run. I will say it was quite a duel between the players there obviously, but also, (Niners offensive coordinator Mike) Martz and (defensive coordinator) Jim (Johnson). Jim made a few changes down the stretch and that paid off for us. I thought the defense did a nice job for us in the fourth quarter. Then, yesterday I mentioned (RB Correll) Buck(halter) stepping in, but really all those guys have stepped up. We're down a couple of receivers, and (WR) Hank Baskett had some big catches and (WR) Greg Lewis and (WR) Jason Avant. (WR) DeSean (Jackson) continues to improve, so I thought that was a plus. Max has done a nice job of filling in for Shawn and really has gotten better every week and more comfortable in there every week. And then, defensively, (DE Juqua Parker) J.P.'s interception there at the end, I would have loved to have told him to down it at the one, but he was on a roll. Those guys don't get to touch the ball much but it was a heck of job by him, it was a great call by Jim. J.P. playing in space, he showed his athletic ability and speed on that play, and that's a compliment to him. It was good to get (K) David (Akers) some field goals. I thought he did a good job there."
On why he thinks the Eagles are experiencing such extreme highs and lows this year: "You work through those. You have to do that. Things happen in a game. You're always going to have highs and lows in every football game. At least 90 percent of the games that you play in, it's probably greater than that, you're not going to win by two touchdowns or more. With that, you're going to have the highs and the lows in the game that you have to maintain a consistency through. And in this league you see teams getting on a roll and putting back-to-back games together and their confidence grows and those types of things. And normally, with that, the lows get reduced. But every game is going to happen. You just have to work through them, and right now, we have too many, and we have to get better at it."On whether he feels there is new life in this team going into the bye week with the win yesterday and the Washington and Dallas losses: "That's the name of this league right now. There is so much parity in this league. There are people that are in a position where they have to predict games; they are being paid to predict games, not in this building but in (the media's) profession and some other professions that are paid to do that thing. I'll tell you that's a tough job. That's a tough job in this league now-a-days because on any given Sunday, man, anybody can get anybody, and you have got to be right. Where before you could have a series or two that weren't very good, now you have a series or two that aren't very good and you're going to pay for it. On either side of the football you have to be sharp. Does it help that the other groups didn't win? Well, it does. I don't get into that too much, but I know it didn't hurt. The most important thing is that we stay focused on what we are doing and keep ourselves right and get ourselves better."
On whether he feels there is new life in this team going into the bye week with the win yesterday and the Washington and Dallas losses: "That's the name of this league right now. There is so much parity in this league. There are people that are in a position where they have to predict games; they are being paid to predict games, not in this building but in (the media's) profession and some other professions that are paid to do that thing. I'll tell you that's a tough job. That's a tough job in this league now-a-days because on any given Sunday, man, anybody can get anybody, and you have got to be right. Where before you could have a series or two that weren't very good, now you have a series or two that aren't very good and you're going to pay for it. On either side of the football you have to be sharp. Does it help that the other groups didn't win? Well, it does. I don't get into that too much, but I know it didn't hurt. The most important thing is that we stay focused on what we are doing and keep ourselves right and get ourselves better."
On why Buckhalter isn't as involved as much when Westbrook is around: "The backs will always tell you that they need to get themselves into a rhythm. I guess that's one reason, but we rotated them before. I probably haven't done a good enough job with that with Buck. Buck's obviously a good football player. We could probably do that a little bit more."
On whether it will be a challenge for him with a few of the injured players returning: "Yeah, you can't dress them all. I can't tell you who the ones who haven't done that yet, but I'll sit down here this week and get that figured out. That won't be easy, no."
On what RB Correll Buckhalter brings to the team: "Yeah, and you know his personality. You've been around the guy. He brings a great spirit to the team, and he's a good person and a lot of fun to be around. Then he goes out and he's tough. And every time that he has an opportunity to start he gets close or above 100 yards, so as long as we feed him the ball. He's a good player."
On Cowboys QB Tony Romo's finger injury: "That's not a good thing. That's not a good thing for Tony. My feeling is, when we play a team, I want them 100 percent and ready to roll. I don't want any excuses after you get after them. That's my approach, so I don't like to see anyone get banged up, but it'll be a tough thing for them. Any time that you have a change, regardless of who, you better have somebody that can step up in there and fill his shoes. He's playing good football right now."
* On how the league balances parity and whether he thinks it's a good thing:*
"I do. I think it gives every city an opportunity to win, and I think that's important. I think that's what (former NFL) commissioner Paul Tagliabue wanted when we started with the salary cap and the free agency and that whole deal. That, I think, is a plus. You shouldn't have the teams that live in obscurity for a long period of time, you should give everybody an equal opportunity, and that can be a plus for the league."
On how important it is to have character on a football team given Cowboys WR Terrell Owens' recent behavior: "I don't know what happened. I didn't see that. I will answer the question. I'm not going to bring T.O. into it, but I'll answer the question. We understand here how fragile a team can be and it is a team. This is a team sport, and if you bring people in that disrupt things, you realize exactly how fragile things are and you have to be careful with that. Again, I'm not bringing T.O. into it because I haven't seen this thing, I've heard about it but I haven't seen it. I don't know exactly what happened, but I will say in general, to maintain a football team you have to be aware of that, especially in a leadership position."
* On whether it's important to have character when the team faces adversity:*
"You want to have everybody kind of pulling the rope in the same direction, and this league is a tug-of-war. It's going to go backwards and forward, and you have to make sure that everybody is digging in when things aren't going the right direction and pulling hard."
* On why he thinks the team has had second half lulls in scoring and what he thinks changed in yesterday's 23-point fourth-quarter performance:*
"You've got to maintain the football. When you have opportunities offensively, and we had them, we had an interception in there, but when you have opportunities offensively you have to keep drives together. At halftime you have to make sure you are dialing up the right things, you put down the right things, and make any adjustments that you need to make. Then two, your defensive, in our case our defense has to work to get off the field a little quicker. But it works hand in hand. Both of them work together on that. And it doesn't matter the field position. If you're dealt poor field position then you dig yourself out offensively. If you're dealt poor field position defensively you buckle down and you stop them. Both groups have to work hand in hand on that."
* On how he would characterize his situation of being 3-3 going into the bye week:*
"I'm glad that we were able to pull this one off. I think there were some things that weren't real pretty, but I also think there were some things that you can see a little bit of the character of the football team. I thought they handled themselves right during it. Like I mentioned, when we had a chance to fold, we didn't do that. Our guys kind of rallied and you get that feeling more on the sideline than you would watching it on TV or in the stands, you kind of feel that thing take place and see it. You've got to have that ingredient. Then, again I'm not big on injuries, but it would be nice to get everyone out there playing again. I think that can help you a little bit, but we have a lot of work to do. As coaches, we'll go back this week and evaluate what we consider the problems and try to get it straightened out so we can put the players in a good position. (We'll) bring the players back here Monday and we'll be able to share things with them that we found, and they'll get an extra day of practice in there."
* On whether he will be less inclined to have Akers attempt field goals from 45-plus yards for the remainder of the season:*
"I think it depends on the wind and that condition. David will work through this. I really thought he hit the ball, now who knows where it ends up going, but I sure thought he hit the ball well on the one that was blocked. I thought his approach and everything, that's where I kind of focus my eyes, is on the snap and the execution of the hold and then the kick, I just thought that whole operation handled, I mean I thought he drilled it. The way it came off his foot, the height of the ball was perfect. Obviously, we had the penetration in the A-gap and that kind of nulled it, but I think his leg strength is there. I think as long as he keeps kicking, it's like a jumper shooter keeps shooting and the batter keeps swinging. I think good things will happen as we get into the next part of the season here."
* On whether they are looking at acquiring any players before tomorrow's trade deadline:*
"We'll see. (General manager) Tom (Heckert) and I are going through all that. Number one, I can't get into anything, and two, I'm not going to do that. But we are keeping our eyes open on some things, and we'll see how it works out. In years past, not a lot happens at this time. There's a lot of talk and usually not a lot of action, but we'll see. We're looking and communicating on a couple of things."
* On how DE Juqua Parker has been able to get to where he is now considering he didn't have a job a few years ago:*
"We know he had great athletic ability. Really the guy that kind of led us in that direction was (Tennessee Titans DE Jevon Kearse). He and Jevon were friends, and Tom (Heckert) was interested in, at that time J.T. (Juqua Thomas), and we asked Jevon about a couple of things that there were question marks on and Jevon thought that he would be a good fit here. So we brought him in and just kind of gave him basically a tryout and it worked out for him. He has a great attitude, very unselfish, very, very team oriented, and you know that you are going to get an honest down out of him every snap. He's going to give you everything that he has. He plays very hungry. He's a little bit older now, but he plays very hungry, and he still has the athletic ability."
* On whether he's worried about Parker tailing off a bit in the last four to six games of the season:*
"Well, we've been rotating those guys a little bit. It was good to get (DE) Victor (Abiamiri) kind of in the mix yesterday. (DE) Chris Clemons got into the mix yesterday. (DE) Darren Howard got more snaps. We were able to give him a blow, and we've been doing that over the last few weeks. Now, hopefully that carries over to the second half and allows him to be as fresh as he is now."
* On whether QB Donovan McNabb looks to get more people involved when WR Reggie Brown is not in the game or whether that's just a coincidence:*
"I probably think it's coincidence. I don't think he looks any more for Reggie then for the other guys. Right now he's doing a pretty good job of spreading things around. It probably comes more down to play calls than anything."
* On whether Andrews' back has improved at all:*
"He's still hurting. He's not making a lot of progress, no."
* On whether there is a possibility that Andrews might be out for the rest of the year:*
"I don't know. We'll see what this guy here says. He's worked on Tra and other big guys and we'll just see how it works out. (Head athletic trainer) Rick (Burkholder) and I are going to try and exhaust every means to see what the problem is."
* On whether the first three specialists had any answers for him:*
"Well, they did, it just wasn't getting better like we kind of anticipated. I wouldn't put that one, that's the way this thing works, I'm not putting it on the doctors. I'm not criticizing the doctors on that; we'll take another look here."**
On whether he has more confidence in the fade route with its success yesterday:**
"It's good against certain people and certain teams. You have to look at what the coverages are. It's not something that you do every week, but there are certain defenses that you can do it against and other ones where it's not going to work."
* On whether he left the team with any message:*
"I always leave them with a little something. We'll leave it at that."
