(Is Wells OK to go?)
Yes, I thought Scott practiced well today. Unless something changes when we go back inside, into the training room, I fully anticipate that he'll go and start.
(Did Dietrich-Smith hurt himself yesterday?)
Dietrich, yeah, he had a tough time yesterday. He fought through practice, and I'm hopeful that he'll be ready to go for Sunday. He's pretty banged up.
(You don't have Jason, so who's your fourth-string center if it comes to that?)
Daryn Colledge. Daryn worked some there yesterday and has always worked through our quarterback-center exchange drills. Daryn has been prepared for that for some time.
(You spent the offseason talking about getting five guys together ... is this getting a little ridiculous?)
Well, ridiculous is probably a little different word, but it's a challenge. I have not as a coordinator, and I can't really probably remember as an assistant coach, have had so much change as far as players missing practice time and the number of starting lineups that you have week in and week out. We felt it was an issue last year and fully was trying to move past that, and this year it's been a challenge even moreso up to this point. You can't control the injury list, and we're just trying to get healthy, but more importantly trying to get ready to play games. We know we've got a big physical game Sunday, so I'm confident that today's practice gave us a chance to hit the continuity that we were trying to get all week.
(Do you still think that's the right approach, to try to set a unit and go with it? If you had known this was going to happen, would you have done anything differently?)
I think it's always the right approach. You look at good offenses, it starts right down the middle, and from that it works itself out on the offensive line. Trust me, I like our quarterback, I like our perimeter players. But if it's not right up front, you're playing different type of football games, and I think that's been evident in some of our games this year. They're fighting through a tough spot as far as trying to get everybody healthy, and then when you're healthy you have the opportunity to get the continuity, and to come with that is the confidence and the execution which leads to a better performance. That's one of the challenges we're working on right now.
(Do you think you're going to play Chillar?)
Yes, I think Brandon will be ready to go, particularly with special teams. He's feeling more and more comfortable with the club.
(Does Tauscher get the start at right tackle, and are you planning a rotation?)
Mark Tauscher will start at right tackle, and we'll see what his endurance level is.
(Do you feel good about that approach because it worked well with Nick coming off the knee?)
You have a philosophy and it's player safety first. Our medical staff, I think they do a very good job, probably too good of a job frankly, at some points. We're always smart with players. It's always a long-term approach, and you have to trust their opinions. Once again, we have medical meetings every day, and I think anybody coming back off of a major injury like that, you have to take that approach. I've seen it work more times than going the other way, that's for sure.
(Did Barbre get hurt in practice on Wednesday?)
He was hurt in practice yesterday. He was rolled up on and has an ankle sprain.
(Could that be a long one?)
It may be. He was in a lot of pain yesterday. The next 48 hours will probably give us a better indication.
(What happened to Green?)
He had a groin strain, also in yesterday's practice. Right there near the end.
(Does Kuhn look comfortable?)
Better today. The brace that he had on Wednesday, he didn't feel like he could do what he needed to do with the brace, so we went with the club, and I know the club today he felt more comfortable than the one yesterday. I think he's reached a comfort level where he'll be ready to go.
(Kapinos has had good practices, and you've talked about him transferring that to the game. How has he been in practice this week?)
His Wednesday's kicks were the best of the year, and that's the facts. His numbers Wednesday were outstanding. He's a young man that is improving, but as we all know the bottom line is Sunday afternoons. He just needs to keep working and apply his work during the week to Sunday. But yeah, he had an outstanding day Wednesday. I haven't seen the numbers today, but I thought he kicked the ball fine today, punted the ball fine.
