(Do you feel OK about everything now injury-wise, especially at receiver?)
Yeah, we feel good. Talking with both Greg and James post-practice, they felt they went through the practice OK, so we'll just forge ahead.
(With all these injuries now, has it made you question the training camp schedule at all?)
I think it was clearly the best way to go, just from the feedback I've gotten from our medical staff. That's really the group I leaned on the most as far as the feedback on how the camp went, during camp, and then post-camp. That's why you play the games. As far as the injuries, they're going to happen. I'm hopeful this is our rough patch that we're having early in the year. You go through stages like this. Once you get into the regular season games, injuries are going to happen. I think that's just a product of what's going on here the last two weeks. We've played two pretty physical football games.
(How guarded do you have to be with Greg and James with those hamstrings? Do you have to limit reps at all?)
That's really what we wanted to eliminate, and that's why we went the route that we did with Greg. Especially being a receiver, hamstring injuries with your perimeter players, it's important to get them back to 100 percent, because if you don't, you're in a continuous pattern that you don't want to be in as far as him up and down. He was chomping at the bit earlier in the week, but we stuck with the program. Pat McKenzie, Ted Thompson and I sat down, and also Pepper Burruss also, just to make sure we're getting these guys back to 100 percent. It looks like it has worked, and when that ball is kicked off Sunday I'm not going to be thinking about hamstring injuries.
(How did Bishop get hurt?)
He sprained his shoulder in the game, and then he really aggravated it yesterday in the blitz drill. That's why he's taken a big step back.
(Have you faced enough 3-4 teams to get the fits right in the run game?)
This is something you plan for as far as when you build the foundation of your system. You know what kind of defenses you're going to be playing long before the schedule comes out, so we feel confident in our ability to take our system in the run game and in the passing game and fit it to any defense. But you really don't play against it a whole lot, and I think we talked a little bit about this Wednesday, I think there's really two types of 3-4 defense, and this particular one we played against with New England and the New York Jets last year. We feel like we've prepared our guys and they're ready to go, and it's like any game, you go in with a plan and you need to have your adjustments ready for whatever course the game takes. And we feel we're prepared for that.
(What's the biggest challenge against a 3-4 versus a 4-3?)
It's really the two-gap scheme and the body types the 3-4 possesses. When you've got 270-pound outside linebackers, you have potential match-up problems, so you have to be aware of that. And it's an anchor defense. It's a two-gap scheme. They're going to two-gap you and bench-press you and that's the type of body types they have at the nose and the ends. It's really built to take away the run and try to get you in a one-dimensional game of passing. But it's just like any defense. It has its strengths, and in my opinion you need to attack it, and also you need to try to create situations, angles, however you want to view it, to give you a better opportunity running the football.
(Are you aware you're the coach of the week?)
Jeff just told me that. It's a credit to our players. I'm happy that they're getting the recognition for what we've accomplished here the first two games and coming off of last year. But we're 2-0. We've got a lot of work to do.
(Is it a feather in your cap?)
A feather in my cap? I don't think so. It may look good on a resume someday or something, but it's a reflection of our football team, and I think that's a positive. That good? Boy, that was easy today. Thanks. I like Fridays.
