Andy Reid says the Birds are still within strking distance of the playoffs. I beg to differ. He also said that he's going to stay with Donovan McNabb down the stretch. Andy is sticking to his guns and standing by his football team.
Head Coach Andy Reid Press Conference
12/10/07
Injuries:
“[G] Shawn Andrews had his MRI today. He has a sprained MCL so he should be okay. As a matter of fact, he’s feeling pretty good today. [WR] Reggie Brown has some knee swelling, we’ll take that day by day. [RB] Correll Buckhalter had a concussion, I think a pretty significant one. So, we’ll just have to see how he does here this next week. [FS] Brian Dawkins had lower back spasms. [DT] Mike Patterson has an ankle sprain on the opposite ankle from the one he did last time. [TE] L.J. Smith has a couple things. He had two MRI’s, one on his knee and one on his ribs. He had a little bit of cartilage tear in his ribs. It doesn’t seem to be too significant there, tender but not too significant. Then, the knee, we’ve just got to see how that goes as we go through this week. It’s very sore and has limited motion there, but we’ll see how he does. It’s sound structurally. Then, [RB Brian] Westbrook had a knee contusion.”
Opening Remarks:
“Tough game. It’s one of those games that could’ve gone either way in a lot of different areas. It’s my responsibility to make sure it goes the right way, and I didn’t get that done yesterday. I thought the players played with a great effort. It was a very physical game, as you can tell by this sheet here that I just read off with injuries. But, I thought the effort was very good. I think penalties and missed opportunities, maybe a little bit of each, hurt us. You can’t do that in close games and expect to come out on the positive side. The other thing I’ve said before, in wins and losses, there are some good things and there are some bad things. I thought we ran the ball well. I thought, for the most part, we protected the quarterback better. There were a couple blitzes on where we were trying to go down the field, we had to get rid of the ball quicker than what we wanted to. But, I thought overall the guys protected well. Defensively, I really thought our defensive line played with great energy and aggressiveness. Our safeties were all over the place, I thought they played very well. We were able to cause a couple turnovers that were big. Again, those were opportune times that I thought were important. I just thought overall we played very physical on the defensive side. Then, special teams, I think they’re continuing to improve each week. We’ve worked very hard with that. [Special teams coordinator] Rory’s [Segrest] worked very hard with the guys. Players have put a lot of effort in making sure we improve in those areas on special teams. I think we’ve done that.”
On why the team keeps losing in close games:
“Those are the things we are evaluating and we have three games to get things changed around. One of the great things about this is we are still within striking distance. With three games left, as we all know, anything is possible in the National Football League. If we get that answered right there then we can take care of these three games.”
On how much blame they put on personnel:
“It’s my responsibility to do that and it’s my responsibility to make sure that I put the guys in the right position to where we don’t make mistakes and we have a better opportunity to achieve. Those are the things I look. It’s important I get that thing taken care of.”
On why the offense struggles to put points on the board when QB Donovan McNabb is playing:
“It was a good defense, a blitzing defense and that’s the way it was. It’s not all Donovan. Everybody has a little piece of the pie on this thing, I’ve said that before. Starting with me, we can all do a little bit better.”
On whether it was the Giants cover-2 defense or their blitzing that stopped the Eagles offense from scoring:
“They blitzed at times when we had a chance, however you want to look at it. It wasn’t necessarily single-coverage back there, where we were trying to shoot the ball down the field. A couple times they had more than what we could pick up and we had to get rid of the ball faster than what we wanted. They did play a lot of cover-2 though, and some of that was within their fire zone package.”
On whether McNabb should have gotten the ball out quicker:
“Well, he did get the ball out quicker but it didn’t help our down-the-field throws. That’s not his fault on that. That’s just how it worked out.”
On whether McNabb was abnormally cautious yesterday:
“I wouldn’t say abnormally cautious. I look at it the other way and say he’s being smart with the football. Obviously, he’s not throwing the interceptions that could have been devastating yesterday. He tried to get the ball to the quick throws as fast as he could get it to them and go from there.”
On whether there is any reason that the offense seems to score more points when QB A. J. Feeley is playing:
“No, I don’t think so. That’s just the way it worked out. You can play that a couple different ways, I’m not going to get into comparing the two [McNabb and Feeley].”
On why G Todd Herremans did not play in the first series yesterday:
“That’s in-house business that we needed to take care of.”
On whether Herremans business is all taken care of:
“Yeah, it’s all taken care of.”
On whether it will be a hard sell to convince the players that they are still in the playoff hunt even though they are mathematically still alive:
“Do I think the players are frustrated, and the coaches are frustrated? Sure, absolutely. On the other hand, you still have a chance. So, I don’t see where the frustration would overrule your opportunity to achieve this week. I can tell you how I feel, I don’t know about the team yet, but I will. I don’t think that I have a room full of guys that would hang their heads. This seems like a group that plays very hard and very aggressive and for the first week this season had an opportunity to play together. They’ll have another opportunity to go out this week and get even better than what they were last week. I think that’s a pretty positive thing to have going for you with three games left.”
On whether it is unacceptable to play at a low-intensity level if they are eliminated from the playoff mix:
“No, we shouldn’t. We should not do that. That’s not what we do around here.”
On whether they would still give their best effort even if they were not in the playoffs:
“I think that’s the kind of people we have here. Everybody will have played very hard and very aggressive all games, no matter what the outcome is.”
On whether he will play other players on the team if they are not in the playoffs:
“Well, they’re all playing now, or at least they’ve had a chance to play. No, that’s not where I’m at right now.”
On why McNabb is having trouble with the cover-2 defense:
“It wasn’t all cover-2. They did a pretty good job of mixing things in there. They brought a lot of people, particularly on our third-down, where we were very ineffective. They did a pretty good job of mixing things up there.”
On whether OL Nick Cole will play more at left guard:
“We’ll see how it goes down the road here. He did a nice job when he was in there.”
On whether McNabb will be the quarterback for the rest of the season:
“Donovan’s the quarterback right now. Yes.”
