The only one to report here is Jason Avant. He has a knee sprain. We'll see how he does here in the next couple of days. All in all it was a heck of a football game. Two good football teams playing each other. Knock down, drag out, NFC East style. We obviously have a lot of things we can work on this week, but I'll tell you what, I'll take this one. It's great to be back in the NFC Championship Game. We'll enjoy this one for a little bit, then we've got to get our mind set for Arizona, who just did a heck of a job against Carolina yesterday. They're a tremendous football team. We go out to their place this time. They came to our place last time. We'll prepare ourselves.
Question: What are you most proud of today, and the last couple weeks, the last month?
Response: I'm proud of the guys. They played. We trusted each other, believed, and I couldn't be happier for them. The coaches put together a great game plan. The players executed like crazy. They never wavered one bit. That's tough to find in this league. These guys haven't wavered, they haven't questioned each other. If someone was down, they rallied around him to pick him up and we played. From a coach's standpoint, that's all you can ask for.
Q: You don't hear (Brodrick) Bunk(ley) or (Mike) Patterson's name a lot, but are they the key to your run defense, especially on 3rd and 4th downs?
RE: I've said before, that's where it starts. They both got game balls last week. It starts with those two. I don't mention Trevor (Laws) enough; he's in that rotation. You're talking about a rookie in there, doing what he's doing. The middle of that defense, that's where it starts and it goes from there.
Q: Do you think it's your defense that gives you a chance if you had to point to one thing?
RE: People say every once in a while that I like to throw the ball around, and coach on the offensive side. I know that you win games on defense and mashing the football. If you don't play good defense, you're going to struggle. I'm partial, but I've got the best defensive coordinator in the National Football League. The guys believe in him and the things he does. He's kept it fresh for them. For being almost 100 years old, he's kept it fresh. If you noticed today, he's up in the box. The poor guy's up in the box. He's got the back aching a little bit, so he called it from up there. Coach Paterno, it's a good example.
Q: I know that you guys want two more wins, but where does the satisfaction level rank for you?
RE: It's the NFC East, so you play a good football team three times, twice at their place and to be able to come out on top, against a great coaching staff. Nobody does a better job than Tom Coughlin. He does a great job with this group. He's gone through some ups and downs this year.
Q: What kind of read did you have on your guys this morning and how were you personally feeling?
RE: Well all week they've been out of their minds, so I wasn't worried about them coming in and playing hard.
Q: Those two 4th downs where they went for it late, what did you see out of your defense?
RE: I thought it was a great job by our defense. It was hard to see much because it looked like a mosh pit in there but we got penetration.
Q: Did you think that drive at the end of the first half got Donovan into a rhythm for the second half?
RE: You're right, and I can do a better job there of getting him into it. He's one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League.
