On DE Trent Cole's blocked field goal at New York: "That was a great, athletic play by Trent. We had seen San Francisco block a kick earlier in the season against those guys using the exact same rush. We just felt like their guards played really low inside. We had that as one of our changeups going into the game there. Like I said, it was just great execution by Trent and a great, athletic move on his part."
On whether he told Cole to hurdle the guard: "Yeah, we didn't feel like we would be able to get much penetration there initially just because of the leverage that those guards play with. They play so low and they stay down so well. It was one of the things we had planned going in and then we were trying to balance it up and be able to push from that point. It all comes down to execution and a lot of it has to do with Trent."
On whether any other players on the team can make a play like that: "We've got a few guys. Trent's already a guy that we use inside and he's great at getting the job done. We just let him go with it."
On the first Eagles field goal blocked by New York and whether it was a low kick: "It was. It was a combination of things there. Obviously, we've got some new guys in there; there's a little bit of a learning curve for them. Having to kick the ball into the wind didn't help. The trajectory of the ball was a little bit low, but it had to be in order to get it there. All components came together to make for a poor kick. They ended up doing a nice job of getting a little penetration there and getting their hand in the right spot."
On whether he's had to compensate for C/G Nick Cole's and LB Akeem Jordan's moves to starting roles: "Nick was our up-back in the wedge there and we put (DT) Trevor (Laws) in his spot. Trevor's doing a nice job out there as well, but we've had Nick there for the last couple of years. Akeem's still trying to fill in, in a couple roles. We still have him on kickoff and we still have him on punt, but a lot of that depends on how many reps we're going to have to take on those phases. We've got a good, solid backup in there for him, in case he needs a blow on things. We're going to try to leave him in there, if possible."
On plays like Trent Cole's blocked field goal, and what type of example that sets for the rest of the team: "I just think it shows that everybody's got a role on special teams. Everybody throughout the team here, everybody's taking a lot of pride in what they're doing on special teams this year and it shows. We've got guys stepping up and making plays. It's great to have that leadership and it's great to have guys stepping in from different areas."
On Cleveland KR Josh Cribbs: "Josh is a very dangerous returner. He's a guy that, even if you get guys in the right spot, it becomes a matter of getting him on the ground. He's a big-time tackle-breaker and he's got some great strength and great vision to find the soft-point of the coverage. This is going to be a great challenge for us there, but the biggest thing with him is just broken tackles. You see a lot of his big returns are guys in the right spot, but just can't get him down."
On whether Cribbs is one of the biggest returners in the league:"I think he's around 215 or so and that has a lot to do with it. He's just a strong, down-hill, physical runner, but, at the same time, I think part of it is his vision as well; just finding the soft-point in the coverage, knowing where to be and running through there and trusting his blocking is going to be there. We're going to have to get hats to the ball and make sure that we're solid bringing our feet on the tackle."
On whether Cleveland special teams coordinator Ted Daisher has a similar scheme to the Eagles, having worked as the Eagles special teams quality control coach from 2004-05: "There are a lot of things that are comparable. Every coach kind of picks and chooses his own things, in terms of what he goes with. As you can see, he's obviously got his little variations there, but a lot of the base schemes are the same."
On the Eagles having three field goals blocked this season and whether personnel is the problem: "We've looked at some different options this week, moving some guys around on things and just trying to become more solid inside there. A lot of it, as we said, had to do with the kick situations as well. The first one, we did give up some penetration and it was a little bit of a low kick and the second one there, as I looked at it on the sideline, I didn't think there was any way that it was blocked just because of how far away the corner was. But, with the wind coming across so hard from left to right, we had to start the ball off so far left and that gave them an opportunity to get a hand on it. Should it not have been windy that day, I don't believe he would have been able to get to it if we had been able to start the ball on a normal path. The main thing that we have to do, on our part, is just make sure that we make those corrections. It's unacceptable to have anybody touching kicks and that sort of thing. We've got to make sure that we're solid there and we're definitely going to get that fixed this week."
On WR/PR DeSean Jackson's return average in the past few games and whether teams are starting to punt away from him: "We've faced some really good punters here the last couple weeks. (Giants P) Jeff Feagles had not given up very many returns coming into the game. We did get a couple opportunities for him to get the ball in his hands there, but, at the same time, Jeff hangs the ball up and gets some good hang-time on things, so there weren't really a lot of opportunities. I thought DeSean did a really good job in terms of just fielding the ball and saving the yardage, in terms of letting it hit and bounce and that sort of thing. He's doing a good job, he just hasn't had any really returnable balls here the last couple weeks and, hopefully, we can get some here in these next three games."
On how important it was to see K David Akers hit the 51-yard field goal at New York: "Again, it all comes down to that individual kick. We've got a lot of confidence in Dave. Every time we send him out there, we expect him to make the kick and, when we sent him out there for that one, obviously, we thought he would be able to make it and hit it through the uprights, which he did. From a confidence standpoint, I think Dave's a confidence kicker even prior to that kick. He missed a couple earlier in the season, but has been pretty steady over the last few weeks. It was good to get him back in that situation and let him hit that long field goal, for sure."
On whether the team is using any new players on the field goal protection unit: "There are a couple different guys who we're rotating in there to take a look at."
