Redskins
Head Coach Jim Zorn
On the execution of the
offensive line:
“I think that is where teams
fall, when they get the quarterback hit. Sometimes you like to
think that the scheme took you out of the play and you look and there
are answers and some of those answers are getting beat in a one-on-one
situation where you have your guy and he beats you, you didn’t block
him. Even on defense, you have your pass rush, you didn’t beat
your guy, he blocked you. Those are the things that up front,
on both lines, that happen. Not all the time, we had our shots.
We had a couple of shots. The frustrating this is to see things
happening well down the field, but not having enough time to get the
play thrown or executed. Those are the frustrating things.
They magnify when the result is like today, or a loss. They are
just magnified. They are glaring because there are a handful of them,
but they are glaring and that is what is very frustrating having to
live with today.”
On if the technique of the
offensive line needs to be addressed:
“I heard Buges (Joe Bugel),
even last night on the sideline, saying ‘you cannot duck your head.’
As an offensive lineman if you are going to pass protect, you have to
have your head up and if you lunge and duck your head it gives a guy
that is on the move the ability to beat you. I heard him say that
last night to a couple of guys. It is just that moment that slight moment,
as the ball is snapped, if that happens the play can be over before
it really gets started.”
On if the
quality of the pass rushers has affected the offensive line:
“I think what happens is
when you have the quality of pass rusher [that we have been facing]
you have to be perfect. You have to play with technique for 70
plays, if you have the privilege of having 70 plays. You have
to play that play just like it is a perfect play for you.”
On why the team is unable
to score:
“I don’t think it has to
do with the creativeness of trying to get people unlocked down the field.
It has more with to do, on offense, it takes all 11 guys doing things
right so you can get it to that one guy you are trying to be real creative
with or create a mismatch or get him into an area that you have cleaned
out. I would say that as we work through that, you see this thing
that is going to develop and then we scramble because we didn’t have
time or a guy gets jammed at the line of scrimmage, doesn’t get off,
he has to get off the press or he has to actually accelerate down the
field so the play is ruined because he is so late getting down the field
we can’t get the ball to him. Those are the things that happen.
When the players see it, it is not like the light goes on, because we
have been working at it, but they can actually see. As they continue
to improve, improve, improve I am optimistic about us getting better
as we play faster. We are hitting on some cylinders, but we are
not hitting on all of them, that is for sure.”
On the technique of the
offensive line:
“What it is, as a guy moves
so quick, and he may have three or four moves, if you lunge at that
one move, he has the counter to it. It is a bit of a sparring
match, if you will. I just think that the line, they will get
fooled every one in a while. We do have a quarterback that can
avoid a sack. We do have a quarterback that can avoid that type
of immediate free guy as well. That happened in the game when
we get the ball off, but it is not going to happen all the time.
I really believe this, that most teams have that frustration of getting
a QB sack or getting a QB pressure. That is going to happen during
a game. I don’t think you can block them every single time, but when
we do have the chance, we have to hit what we throw as well and we have
to complete the passes.”
“I will give you a couple
of thoughts. When we took the shot down the field with Santana
(Moss) after they scored, that would have put us on the nine-yard line.
That was a deep pass. Santana went up for it. It was a volatile
situation. Had he come down with it that was a huge play.
We did get protection. It was executed well. It was thrown
well. He had to go to heroics to make that catch and we didn’t
get it. That was one of those handful of plays that you wish could
have gone the other way. Those kinds of plays happen as well.
It just makes for a hard day today when you point your fingers at that
handful of plays.”
On if the hits on quarterback
Jason Campbell affect his play:
“I try to prepare our quarterbacks.
I always tell them this, you are going to get hit at least seven times
this game and they are going to be tremendous hits and you have to get
back up because quarterbacks get hit. I don’t want them to go
into any game thinking this is going to be hunky-dory and it is going
to be a walk in the park. It never is. I try to give them that
mental picture. Then, this is what happens. When they do
get hit and they don’t know where it came from, what I try to do is
give them the correct information, here is what happened. It may
be simply, this guy got beat, he whiffed. I think that helps the
QB to know that it is not the scheme. Some quarterbacks if they
get hit, they didn’t make the right protection call or they didn’t
make the adjustment properly, they didn’t see the hot situation and
that kind of blows their minds a little bit. It gives them a lack
of confidence to think, well I’m not doing my job, but if you can
tell them what happened it gives them a chance to say, okay we’re
going to get that taken care of because he is not going to whiff twice.
We have to help that guy who just whiffed. As long as the quarterback
knows that we can take care of it and we are going to take care of it,
I think it keeps him playing well. It keeps him playing with some
confidence.”
On if quarterback Jason
Campbell handled the pressure well:
“I was very pleased with
that. There was a couple times in there where he felt it was going
to break down or he felt he was getting pressure and it wasn’t even
the wrong color jersey. It was our guy getting pushed back.
As the quarterback is looking down the field and then you feel this
presence it makes you want to move, even though it is your guy holding
their guy off. It is still an effective way to pass rush, even
if you are getting blocked.”
On what went through his
mind as he was about to get hit:
“There are several things.
One, if you can see them coming, I always felt like they couldn’t
touch me if I saw them coming. I will say this, when you couldn’t
see them coming, you hit the ground so fast it didn’t really hurt,
you just wondered why you were on the ground because you didn’t see
it, so there were times like that as well. The main thing is if
you sense it coming and you know you can’t get out of the way it is
all about ball security. It is about taking the sack, falling
correctly, securing the ball and just letting the coach dial up the
next play or letting us punt if it was a third down situation.
That is all you can do as a QB. That is part of maintaining your poise,
not trying something silly where you are getting hit and you want to
get rid of the ball and you throw it up and it gets picked or something
like that.”
Redskins
Cornerback Fred Smoot
On if the team is down on
itself:
“This is a veteran team that
has been around the block a couple of times. We aren’t going
to throw it in until it is time to throw it in. We are just going
to keep moving and have a grown attitude about the thing and get ready
to put in some work. Do what we have to do today, show up back
at work and get ready for Seattle.”
On why the defense could
not get pressure on Dallas quarterback Tony Romo:
“Romo, he is very slippery.
He is a pocket player. He is great. He always can make time
for himself. He is not an easy guy to rush. It is nothing
that I can just point at the d-line and say you didn’t pressure enough.
Tony can get out there and he makes his own time. He always seems
to make a couple of throws. He made his own time. He made
the throws and that is when we have to step in on the back end and make
those plays.”
On being 6-4:
“What we have to do now is
just win. Point blank. We have six games to go. Let’s
just win and let everything else play itself out.”
Redskins
Fullback Mike Sellers
On his touchdown play:
“We practiced it during the
week, but I didn’t think it would be called. I was happy it
was. None of that really matters when you lose a game.”
On what happened to the
offense last night:
“I don’t know what to tell
you. We dropped some balls. We missed a lot. Jason
(Campbell) got hit quite a few times. When everybody is not on
the same page, stuff like that is going to happen. We are not
that good right now to have those types of mistakes.”
Redskins
Guard Randy Thomas
On being 6-4:
“It would have been nice
to be 8-2 at this point, but the reality is we are 6-4 and we have been
in this position before where we need wins. Basically, for the
most part, it is the same team that is here through all those stretches.
There is pressure. We have Seattle next and their offense is coming
up with (Matt) Hasselbeck back in there. Every week is a challenge.
We have to try play better and try to score more points.”
On the offensive line:
“Recently it hasn’t been
good at all for us. We just have to pinpoint things and get it
done. It is as simple as that. We have to win those one-on-one
battles. You can have ten good plays and one bad and it can hurt
the whole game. We just have to eliminate that one mistake.”
Redskins
Wide Receiver Santana Moss
On how the team reacts to
a tough loss:
“All you can do is take it
for what it is that night and then move on the next day. It is
a loss and we know that, we understand that. You are going to be bitter
about it a little bit the day after, but it really doesn’t matter
because it is over. You have to move on. You have to think
ahead.”
On how the Cowboys were
able to keep him from making a big play:
“We had one big attempt downfield,
so you can’t say how were they able to stop us from making big plays.
We took one shot. You have to take shots to really make big plays
and that is plain and simple. I feel like you have to have opportunities
to make big plays and if we didn’t have the opportunity then we didn’t
have it. (Terence) Newman did a great job. He is a great
corner. I told you that before. There were times when we
probably had a chance, but we didn’t get the chance, we didn’t get
the ball off or something. There were various things that we didn’t
do well to give ourselves a chance to really be successful. That
is where it all starts, is with us.”
On being 6-4:
“That is football.
It goes up and down. All you have to do is hang in there and keep
fighting. You can’t just sit there and say it is always going
to be peaches and cream. We go through ups, we go through downs.
You have to take that into consideration and just know that there will
be a brighter day. That is all you can look at.”
On what aspect of the offense
he is most concerned with right now:
“There is no aspect. I am
not really concerned. I think we just need to go out there and
do what we do and do what we do in practice regardless of the situation.
Regardless of where we are at, just do what we do and we won’t have
a lot of these problems. When you aren’t scoring then you aren’t
giving yourself a chance to win games. I don’t care how good
your defense plays, you’re not giving yourself a chance. You’re
not even giving those guys a chance for playing the way they have been
playing, so you have to score points and that is all you have to do.”
Redskins
Tight End Chris Cooley
On
what aspect of the offense he is most concerned with right now:
“I don’t know. I
think we are all concerned that we are not scoring a lot of points.
I think that is our first concern. I think we are fine.
We have great players, we can make plays, and we just need to do it.
We are still in good shape. It is tough to lose two games at home.
It is tough to not score points two weeks in a row at home. We
are just going to keep working. We are very close. We just
have to erase a few mistakes and finish off drives.”
On being 6-4:
“Well, the two years we made
the playoffs we had to win four and five games in a row to get in, so
we are used to having our backs against the wall. I guess we are
just trying to get in that position right now. We are not there
yet. Six and four is fine. We have to go to Seattle and
we have to get a win.”
On how the offense turned
so fast:
“It’s not like we are getting
blown out here. It was a close football game last night.
Dallas did a good job of driving at the end of the game. I think
we felt confidence into the fourth quarter that we were moving the ball.
We didn’t capitalize, but I think we were all excited that we could
get the ball and have a shot at it. So to say that everything
has turned, it’s not that. We are four points away from a win.
We are a good football team.”
Redskins
Cornerback DeAngelo Hall
On the NFC East being so
close:
“We were trying to catch
the Giants and that is still our motive. We are still trying to
catch those guys. We are not out of this thing. We just have to
fight and crawl a little bit tougher and get back in it.”
On his interception:
“It is all about winning
the game. It is not about interceptions, touchdowns, how many
points you give up, it is about just coming up with a W and we didn’t
do that. The interception did feel good, but at the same time,
I came here to win.”
Redskins
Center Casey Rabach
On the protection issues
of the offensive line:
“I think it is big.
I know what this offensive line is capable of. I know what we
have done in the past. To be where we are at, as far as protecting
Jason (Campbell), is definitely a question mark. It is something
that needs to be addressed and something that needs to be taken care
of.”
“It has been a combination
of things at times. I think the three sacks we gave up, I can
speak on the sack I gave up on the first drive, it was bad technique
and give him (Jay Ratliff) credit, he beat me.”
On if the lack of scoring
by the offense is frusturating:
“Yeah it is frustrating,
but you can’t dwell on it too much and then get away from everything
else. Are we capable of scoring more points? Most definitely.
I think we are very talented on offense. We need to be scoring
more points. I can’t say enough about our defense. Week
in and week out they keep us in these games. If they hold an opponent
to 14 points we need to win these games.”
On how disappointing is
it to be a .500 team at home:
“[It is] very [disappointing].
That is where you want to play your best ball. That is where you should
be playing your best ball. It is a friendly environment.
It is very disappointing.”