Injury Report: "(G) Shawn Andrews has another doctor's appointment today, and we'll just see if he gets okayed to travel here, but he is doing a little bit better. (LS) Jon Dorenbos has an AC sprain. He won't practice today but should be back tomorrow. Then, (QB) Donovan (McNabb) was excused this morning for personal reasons, and whether he's back or not for practice, we'll just see. We'll see how things go there."
Opening Remarks: "We look forward to the opportunity of playing the Cincinnati Bengals. We understand that that record means nothing. They have a lot of talent. They have a great head football coach and assistant coaches. They are coming off a big win against Jacksonville along with a bye week, so I think when you put on the film it's very obvious to see that they've got a lot of good football players there, and we have to prepare ourselves the proper way and go through the process this week, and I know our guys will do that."
On whether there is any realistic chance that Andrews might play again this year or whether they might consider putting him on the Injured Reserve list: "We'll just see. Right now we're okay without that spot with him doing what he's doing right now, and we'll just see what time does here for him."
On whether anyone has been in constant contact with Andrews while he's in California: "We don't have anybody out there watching over him. He's a grown man, so he's been very responsible on keeping himself in good shape, and he's having to rehab doing that so I'm not worried about that. As far as staying in contact, yeah, there are several of us that are staying in contact with him. To answer that part of the question, that's a yes."
On whether the doctors have been giving him feedback on Andrews' recovery: "Yes. We've been in communication with the doctors."
On whether the feedback is encouraging: "Well, they said he is doing okay. He's doing okay. He's on track. The doctor will tell you that everyone is different, so you just have to kind of play it by ear and see how he does, and time will tell on him."
On whether there was anything specific that caused the delay in him returning to Philadelphia: "He had a little bit of bleeding back there, I guess, is what they described it as. It wasn't anything significant that was a problem. They just wanted to make sure that they could get everything settled down. There weren't any difficulties, no."
On whether there are any concerns about Andrews' mental state: "No. We try and stay in touch with him, obviously, and then, his agent lives right there, so he's had somebody with him close by at all times kind of giving me feedback on him. His agent happened to play for me, and so on, so I have a good relationship with him. Then, he has a doctor in town here that he can talk to when and if he needs to do that."
On whether his recovery is taking longer than expected: "No, it's really not, no. It's not."
On whether Andrews is doing okay emotionally: "Yeah. He's doing well. He hasn't had any problems there, it's just a matter of getting the back right. I think that's where his primary focus is right now, just getting himself back."
On how they can get things back on track with the run game: "I mentioned before, it starts with us making sure that we scheme it the right way for the players to execute it. We can do a better job in both areas. It's not one particular person, one particular position. That's not what it is. We just have to tighten it up a little bit, make sure we get it right, and we're going to work on it until we do."
On whether he would consider FB Kyle Eckel to be a true fullback: "I studied him at both fullback and running back, more running back when he came out. He was a c-back in a wishbone which is a lead back there, and he had to do a little bit of each. Now, when he got into the NFL, the film I looked at was fullback film, and I think he can carry the ball if you need him to carry the ball and he can block good enough to be a fullback in this league."
On whether he would like to get a look at him sometime soon: "Well, right now I don't have a reason to other than seeing him learning the offense and seeing him perform in practice. But we're insinuating here that the other guy isn't doing his job, and I'm not saying that. The other guy is doing his job, and he'll be fine there."
On whether anything needs to be changed technique-wise in order to fix the short yardage problems: "That's not the issue right now. It's some other things there that we're dealing with."
On what the issue is: "I'm not going to go into the issue right now, but I appreciate you asking that."
On whether there is a concern about the interior size of some of his guys up front and whether that contributes to the issue they are having with the run game: "No. That's not it."
On how DE Victor Abiamiri is doing: "I'm not sure he's 100 percent but he's doing a good job at the defensive tackle spot. Now, that's been in nickel situations. That hasn't been in first and down situations."
On whether he ever entertained the idea of Bengals WR Chad Johnson wanting to be traded earlier in the year: "He wasn't free. I mean, that's the thing, and I respect (Bengals head coach) Marvin (Lewis) and the league way too much to ever get into something like that. He was always a Cincinnati Bengal. Now, I will say this, he is a heck of a football player, as is (WR T.J.) Houshmandzadeh and a couple of their other wide receivers. They have some great talent there, and our defensive secondary, they are going to work like crazy so they can cover those guys this week."
On what he has seen from Bengals LB Dhani Jones on film: "Dhani is doing a good job. They moved him to middle linebacker. He's playing all downs, so he's a three-down player. He's doing a nice job for them."
On whether McNabb's absence might be more than a one-day thing: "I don't think so. We'll just see how it works out today for him."