Skip to main content
Philadelphia Eagles
Advertising

Philadelphia Eagles News

Head Coach Andy Reid

Injury Report: "There are just three guys to mention. (LB) Chris Gocong with a quad contusion, hamstring strain, we'll see how he does. It's a day-to-day situation. (DE) Victor Abiamiri has a knee strain. He's trying to get himself back; I don't know how long this thing will take here. Again, we're taking it day-by-day. He has done some exercise on it; we'll see how he does this next week. (WR) Kevin Curtis had knee surgery and we'll see how that goes. He'll be out most likely this week. (DE) Chris (Clemons) is okay. The rest of the guys should practice come Wednesday. (RB Brian Westbrook) should be back Wednesday."

Opening Remarks: "I've said this after losses; I'll say it after a win: they're never as good as you think, never as bad as you think. We have plenty of things we can work on after this win to get ourselves better. Again, it was an NFC East opponent and any game that you can win in the National Football League is a good win and in particular versus the NFC East opponents. I thought our coordinators put together good game plans both offensively, defensively and special teams wise.

"(Offensive coordinator) Marty (Mornhinweg), (defensive coordinator) Sean (McDermott) and (special teams coordinator) Ted (Daisher), they spend a lot of time doing what they do along with the other coaches and they deserve the credit on this, along with the attitude that the players came out with and the way they executed. I think that was a great combination of good coaching and good playing yesterday. Fast start, we always strive to have fast starts on all three phases of our game. I thought yesterday we were able to do that. Defensively, I thought the d-line played very physical against what I consider a very good offensive line. It was two heavy weight punchers punching each other and I thought our guys held their own and did a really nice job there. I thought the linebackers played downhill in the run game and they did a nice job in the pass game. They had their hands full. When you are tackling a 6-4, 260-pound running back (Giants RB Brandon Jacobs), that's quite a load right there and I thought the guys did a nice job with it. Secondary-wise, we were able to get our hands on the football. We had a couple of interceptions there, but also the knockdowns that we had, I thought the guys back there challenged their receivers.

"Offensively, I thought the o-line was solid in both phases, in their pass-blocking and run-blocking. (QB) Donovan (McNabb) I thought was very accurate yesterday. I mentioned that we had forgotten that he had broken ribs there. Those are healed up and I think as the weeks go on here, you'll just see him constantly improve. I thought he had great command of the offense. He had a couple of checks in there, one of which was the first touchdown where he switched the play from one side to the other side and did a nice job with all of his checks that he made, but that one in particular. Wide receivers caught the ball well and then I thought they blocked well down the field.

"It's the second week in a row that you've seen our rookie (WR Jeremy Maclin) downfield leading runners into the end zone or making big blocks downfield. (RB LeSean) McCoy I thought ran hard. I thought he was patient to the line of scrimmage and then had some acceleration through the line scrimmage. I thought he did a good job on his blitz pickups that he was asked to do. (FB Leonard) Weaver showed his versatility, something that we probably need to use and allow him to show a little bit more. He ran the ball well. (TE Brent) Celek just continues to play very well, making plays everywhere that he's asked to make plays both in the run game and pass game. He's making the tough catches in practice. I guess it was all summed up with that last grab where it was third-and-12 in the fourth quarter and you try to run the clock out and keep the chains moving and he had a nice physical catch. I think he caught it at about five and was able to break a couple of tackles and get the first down. He's having an impressive year right now.

"Special teams-wise, (K) David (Akers) and (P) Sav (Rocca) I thought did a nice job kicking the ball. You take the one (missed extra point) out of there and you take the one kickoff out of there and I thought it was a good day. (CB Ellis) Hobbs I thought did a nice job with the returns and the guys that were blocking for him I thought did a nice job. Ted had a good game plan for these guys really in all phases, and he did a nice job coordinating that thing."

On whether Westbrook has tried to exercise: "He did exercise. He's going to exercise again today. He felt good during the exercise that he did this past weekend here. One of the days he woke up with a slight headache, Saturday morning. It wasn't anything that was to worry too much about. He's feeling pretty good and we'll just see how he does here the closer we get to Wednesday."

On the types of things that he wants Westbrook to do when he first gets back on the field: "He's not going to do contact which is not unusual for what we do as a team out there. We'll just see how he feels. He'll go through a normal practice if he can do it."

On whether they're being more cautious with Westbrook because of how well his replacements played:"We're going to be that way anyway. We're going to make sure that he's okay to perform. We're not going to do anything to put him in jeopardy there."

On whether offensive line's success yesterday can be attributed to having G/T Todd Herremans back and G/T Stacy Andrews playing more: "Yeah and I wouldn't slight (G/C) Nick (Cole) because Nick played over half the game too. It's a good group and I felt that way before (G) Max (Jean-Gilles') shoulder was bothering him. I think it helps having Todd back and Stacy is improving, I think more of it is just that he's more comfortable with his leg now. It's a good situation right there."

On whether McNabb's accuracy can be attributed to the fact that he didn't get hit very much:"I would say that. He had a couple in there where they blitzed and he had to escape a bit and make a throw and I thought he did a nice job there with his accuracy."

On whether he thinks Stacy Andrews will be able to play a full game: "We'll see. I don't mind rotating the guys, as long as they're all playing well. I'm okay with that. To have Nick out there, that doesn't bother me. Stacy is doing a good job, that's a good thing to have."

On how he decides who plays on the offensive line when: "You just give them a couple series apiece and let them play."

On whether he'd seen Maclin block well in college: "I don't remember it quite as well as I do right now. I think he's even more aggressive now then he was at the college level. Normally he was the one with the ball in college as opposed to having to block."

On whether he's referring to the block Maclin had on Weaver's touchdown run:"That and last week on (WR) DeSean (Jackson's) end around."

On whether blocking downfield is something you teach receivers or if it is innate: "You coach it. We've been lucky enough here to have receivers that are willing to do that. There are some places where I think guys are a little shy about doing that. Guys here don't mind mixing it up. DeSean being as small as he is, he doesn't mind getting in there and mixing it up a bit. That's a good thing. You teach it, but at the same time the guys have to go out and do it."

On the amount of two-deep coverage they have been seeing from opponents:"We've seen a little bit of two-deep"

On whether they are able to make plays against two-deep coverage because of the playmakers on offense: "I would say that and then Marty is doing a heck of a job calling the plays and being able to gauge when the different coverages are coming. Teams roll their coverages so you are not seeing one thing every play there. You have to do your homework and understand the situation and know when to call the play at the right time. We have things by design for every coverage, whether they work or not is another thing. You have shots for most of the different coverages that you are playing."

On whether Celek has been more impressive than he anticipated and whether he thinks his play is similar to that of Cowboys TE Jason Witten: "They are similar. They are both very physical players and they both make tough catches. I had a chance to coach Witten in the Pro Bowl this past year. I have a lot of respect for him. He is a good player. He has great attitude like Brent does so there are some similarities there. To answer the first part of your question, I really just think Brent is doing what he did in college. He was a tough guy to bring down. He had good yards after the catch in college. He has natural core strength and he seemed to break a lot of tackles in college."

On whether Celek is defended differently now than when he first came into the league: "We were rotating him with (former Eagles TE) L.J. (Smith) then and they're two different players. L.J. is a good football player too. L.J. is just a different style. Brent is a little more physical in the catch area than what L.J. was. I don't want to slight L.J. because he is a phenomenal athlete and did some great things down the field for us."

On CB Asante Samuel getting more interceptions this season: "I think he is more familiar, more comfortable, he understands what we're doing much better and can just relax. Remember last year he had his hands on a lot of balls but he dropped a few there early. I think he was pushing and pressing a little bit there. I think the more you are in the defense, the more you just relax and let things happen."

On his challenge in yesterday's game: "We thought it was a forward lateral. The guys in the box, they clarified that. I had a halfway decent angle of seeing it from the field. It was a fairly close call."

On T Jason Peters' play and whether he is still adjusting to the offense: "You mentioned the holding and sometimes those can go either way. Again, he'll tell you that he needs to do a better job on that one. The one particular one when (DE) Osi (Umenyiora) got around him, Donovan had to drift back on that and to the side and those are the ones where you would hope he would step up on. He didn't have a chance to step up. Osi got a good jump on (Peters) at the same time he was doing a nice job just riding him past what the drop was going to be, which you have to do against this crew or they get back with the inside move, in particular Osi. That one I don't give a 100 percent to him on that. He's doing okay. He'll just keep getting better the more he does it. He's working through all of the vertical set stuff and snap counts and all of that stuff so it's all coming together for him. He'll be fine."

On him saying yesterday that S Sean Jones would have started even if S Macho Harris hadn't been hurt: "It really would have been determined by the personnel groups and we were messing with Sean with certain personnel groups and Macho with other personnel groups, and we're still going to do that and (S) Quintin Demps also. You'll see all of them play depending on what personnel group they put out. By the time you asked me that yesterday I knew what personnel group would be, so that's why Sean was starting."

On whether Jones, Harris, and Demps all bring different skills to the safety position: "They all have strengths. We try to do that with all of our players, put them in the best situations we can. That's how that's worked out there over the last couple of weeks. We've been doing this the last couple of weeks here with Sean, working him in in certain situations."

On the importance of having won their first two division games: "I don't even know about that. I haven't even looked at that to be honest with you. I'm already into Dallas, by the time I'm sitting here talking I'm deep into Dallas. I don't even care about those last two games right now. You have to take care of business every week. It's good that we won the games, yes, and I'm happy for the guys, they played hard and aggressive and the coaches did a nice job. We can't worry about those games right now."

On what has seen from the Cowboys:"I think they're playing aggressive. I think their offensive line and defensive line are playing very physical football. They're giving (Cowboys QB) Tony (Romo) time to get back there and throw and then they match it with a good running game. Defensively, they're flying around. (Cowboys head coach) Wade (Phillips) has taken over. They're blitzing from all over the place. They have a whole variety of different blitzes. They're utilizing everybody there."

On whether he thought that starting Harris would light a fire under Jones and Demps or if they knew that he was planning to rotate the safeties: "They knew it was open competition, that's what they knew. And then, if they all did well we'd find a way to get them in the game. I don't know if it lit a fire under Sean. Sean has played a long time first of all and he has come in with a great attitude from the beginning."

On having a successful screen-passing game: "We did. We were off by a hair on that last one right there in the 4-minute drill, dog gone it. That was a close one. That one could have been even better than the first one."

On who decided to change the side that Weaver made his touchdown run on: "Donovan changed that. He just flopped it over and went the other direction. At the line of scrimmage he did that."

On Weaver playing more in Westbrook's absence: "Marty wanted to work him in a little bit more. We remember what kind of job he did when he was with Seattle last year. He was really their primary ball carrier when it was all said and done and was very effective. He's a big guy that plays physical and obviously is a gifted runner, so Marty wanted to get him in on a few plays."

On LB Jeremiah Trotter's play: "He played a couple of snaps. Trot's done a good job. He's doing a good job. He has a limited role, but he is into it and I think he feels very glad to be here and we're glad to have him here."

On Trotter almost getting RB Ahmad Bradshaw on his touchdown run: "He did a nice job on that one. It was close."

This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be missing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an issue.

LATEST VIDEOS

Advertising