Opening Remarks: "Happy Thanksgiving. That last ballgame was a heck of a fourth-quarter come-from-behind win. I was proud of the guys, especially the younger guys who took that opportunity to make good on it. [RB] LeSean [McCoy] played well, especially down the stretch. I thought, in spurts, we played very well. Really the things that hurt us were the penalties and the fumbles. We fumbled three times and lost two of them, and the one interception broke our rhythm with our drives.
"This ballgame coming up, we are facing an excellent defense. We've already played them once and we play them twice every year. We know them pretty well; they know us pretty well. It's going to be a pretty good challenge. They are ranked highly in virtually every category. They are top 10 in third downs, first in red zone. You can go on and on. In all the situations, they're ranked very highly. They have an excellent defense that starts up front. Their middle linebacker [London Fletcher] is an excellent player. Their secondary has had some guys in and out, as you know. I'm sure they'll be ready for us."
On whether having a close win was more valuable than a blowout: "You never know. I thought there have been some games where it was a tight, physical, close game and our fellows punched one more in to make it a two-score game in the fourth quarter. I think we've been through some of those. You can't go back and play the game and then see what happens, but I think you get a little momentum, a little mojo from those types of things. I think those things are always good, especially with the new and younger guys that we have. I think that's a real positive for them."
On the offense running the no-huddle: "There are several reasons to do something like that. Many things have to occur in your thought process. First of all, [QB] Donovan [McNabb] is very good at the line of scrimmage and always has been. There are multiple other things that I thought would be in our favor by doing that. We've done it many times in the past, so it's a tool that we use on occasion to give us an advantage."
On why they chose to do it in that game: "I don't want to get into too many details on the Bears, but in general you can keep them off balance. If you're facing a blitz team, it's a little harder for them to do the fancy stuff and the crazy stuff on occasion. Teams are getting very good at that and still blitzing, but some of the details are hard for them to get to. There are several other things, as far as matchups and personnel substitutions. We do a good job with that in the no-huddle."
On whether the team benefited from offensive balance against the Bears: "You can be balanced. Every game is different. That one was a tight, close game with a little more balance. It's hard to compare one game to the other because they are so different. The game before, we were down by 14 points early. Game plans are very different, what your opponent is doing in any particular game is different. I think it's hard to compare. I think in a whole season you can compare. We were about 60-40 down the stretch, which is about what we usually are if you're in a reasonable type game."
On the fact that McCoy seems to play better when he goes into the game knowing he's the starter: "Practice is important. I think I've mentioned it multiple times that preparation and hard work, there is no substitution for those two things. If you are getting that preparation and hard work on the field—we always get it off the field—but when you get it on the field, you have a little bit of a better chance of having success in the game."
On whether McNabb can do a better job of getting rid of the ball to avoid sacks: "As you go through sacks, in my history, two thirds of the sacks are normally [on] the quarterback. There is a chance to get the ball out. Only about a third is there absolutely no chance to get the ball out. I thought he did an excellent job of that last year.
"Two of the [sacks in the Bears game] were on screens. We talked about this. Some of those guys are faster than you are now. Back in the day, you could move and groove and make 10 yards. But two of them were on screens so we have to throw them away. I'm not particularly concerned about that, because we know where the issues were so we have that corrected just a bit."
On QB Michael Vick's 34-yard run:"That was good to get it going. Michael is a big threat, so we'll keep doing it."
On what the Redskins did to Dallas' offense last week: "I can't go into the details too much because I do have some thoughts on that particular game. Washington is talented, they are well-coached, they have an excellent scheme. The scheme is not as complicated as others, especially in their base. What happens is that when you do it that way, you are very good at what you do and there are very few mistakes. They get a little bit more confusing and complicated in their nickel alignment and blitzes and coverages.
"They do their job very well on that side of the ball. They have been relatively healthy. I know [DT Albert] Haynesworth and [CB DeAngelo] Hall are a little gimpy right now but we expect them to play. They're talented, they have an excellent scheme, they're well-coached, they do their jobs well and they're fast. [London Fletcher] is a special guy, Haynesworth is a special guy, [DE Andre] Carter has eight sacks. They're doing a heck of a job on defense. You could argue that this is the best defense in the league. They're highly ranked in virtually every statistic."
On having a lot of big plays but not moving the ball much in the second half of the last game against the Redskins:"They're very good. We played an excellent first half, I thought. We were up by quite a few points. I think it was [27-10]. That was my responsibility. I tightened it down just a little bit and tried to shorten the game just a little bit. We didn't do much in the second half, so I would hope we play a little bit better for the whole game."
On whether it was good for McNabb to have a fourth-quarter comeback: "I'm sure it gives him a little mojo, but Donovan has been around and is one of the very best quarterbacks ever to play, really. His winning percentage [is high] and he has done it before. It's good for everybody. I mentioned the young guys because we have quite a few of them playing for us so it was a heck of an experience for them."
On having cohesiveness on the offensive line:"I believe we talked about this in the past few weeks that continuity on the offensive line is highly correlated to winning. So it's a good thing when you have all five guys playing. In the long run, it's a good thing. We're at that point right now where we played five guys last week. The more they play together, the better they'll get. They have a real opportunity to be a really good unit up there by the end of the season."
