Q. What about the advancement of (Terrell) Thomas this season?
A. He has advanced a bunch. He is playing as good as anybody we have right now. He got a game ball last week. To play the nickel position, that is probably as critical a position as you have in your sub-package, on third down with all the pressures you run from that position and the different coverage techniques he has to execute on the slot receiver, who oftentimes is their best receiver. He has done a fantastic job. He has grown so much. He is going to be a really, really good player. He is playing well right now.
Q. And Dock (Kevin Dockery)?
A. Dock (Kevin Dockery) just came to practice today, well, last couple days actually. So, yeah I would plan on him being able to play this weekend and being able to use him because he is one of the guys that was in the mix from the get-go. He is a veteran corner for us so it's great to get him back and he looked good out there today.
Q. Has (Aaron) Ross had a setback?
A. Not to my knowledge. I don't have any information in regards to that stuff.
Q. It looked like the Eagles brought a lot of pressure to the Chiefs last week. Why did that work so well against them?
A. I wouldn't say it had anything to do with the Chiefs offensive line because they have a quality offensive line. The Eagles really brought full blown pressure a lot, you know what I mean. We would call that like zero pressure with no back end and defenders, not a post player left. That can avalanche anybody's protection because they just have so many guys coming and it's just whether or not you can get the ball off quick enough. Or you elect to protect and keep enough guys and not have as many guys run out on routes and protect. But the Eagles really kind of let it hang out there and they brought you know seven, eight guys oftentimes and only had three guys back just playing the three receivers on the line of scrimmage. I think that is tough for anybody and it's risky to do that. I know at times Kansas City struggled with it. If anything else, they just got outnumbered and risked the coverage and were willing to do it. Obviously at times Kansas City couldn't handle it.
Q. Seeing that, are you encouraged because you guys are a team that can bring pressure when you want to?
A. I wouldn't say we are quite as daring on a down-to-down basis as Philadelphia was willing to be, but sure, we pressure every week anyway. But it's encouraging to see at times they had trouble handling it and some teams do, that is why you do it.
Q. Is the team pretty hungry to get some sacks since the last two games there weren't any?
A. Yes. The thing about it is we don't have any stats but we have knocked the quarterback a lot. The kid got hit a bunch. It doesn't count as sacks but yeah our guys are pretty anxious for that. They take a lot of pride in getting sacks per se but as much as anything we put a lot of pressure on the quarterback. They have felt that pressure, but yeah, they are anxious for sacks.
Q. With the Todd Haley offense what are the things that you need to prepare for as a defensive coordinator?
A. I know when he was in Arizona they loved to play a lot of four wide receivers. Even though they haven't done as much of it, we are prepared for that. You can go a lot of weeks where you don't see four wide receivers because they don't feel that is their best grouping on the field or they don't really have, in their minds, four quality receivers. That is something that we've had to get prepared for because he did that a bunch in Arizona. They will go a whole series just playing four wide receivers; first and second down as well as on third down. That is probably the biggest thing, just getting ready for the four wide receiver personnel grouping.
Q. When you did your offseason study on them you figured Chan Gailey was going to be their offensive coordinator. Did you have to go back and look at Arizona stuff when Haley was made the coordinator or had you done that already?
A. We basically went off of Arizona because we thought that he would be the biggest influence in the offense. We gameplanned off of Arizona and now we are using the film that we have got from this year.
Q. Where do you rate Larry Johnson among backs?
A. Really as good as anybody. I mean he has had fantastic stats. There are times where people play eight-man fronts and they get him corralled up but there are other times where he just rips through their front seven. He is as good a back in my mind that we are going to see. He is a big, powerful guy, still has moves and speed and has plenty of yardage to back up the accolades that he is getting because he has had great stats the last couple of years. He's legit.
Q. Has (Matt) Cassel shaken off some of the rust from missing those three games?
A. I think so, yeah. We know the kind of year he had a year ago. I think he'll be good to go. They got pressured last week and kind of got overwhelmed a little bit by some of the pressure that Philadelphia brought. But he is not going to get rattled.
