Head Coach Brian Daboll

Q: How's (tackle) Tyre (Phillips)? What's the official diagnosis with that?

A: It's a quad, so he'll have surgery here soon.

Q: Like a torn quad, I take it.

A: Yeah, yep. Quad tendon.

Q: I was hoping you could shed some light on something, there's probably 1,000 different fan theories as to this. Why do you think the offense has been so much more aggressive, and by that I mean downfield shots taken, with both (quarterback) Tommy (DeVito), who I think you said has a 'let it rip mentality', and (quarterback) Tyrod (Taylor) than it was with (quarterback) Daniel (Jones)?

A: I'll just talk about last game because it's the one we just played. I thought that Tyrod saw some things relative to things opening up and let it go and made the right decisions. Every game is different but he's done that the last couple of games for us, which in turn helps. You skip some third downs and usually it gives you points. Had one taken back on a penalty but those are always helpful to get into the endzone.

Q: But the season long numbers, I get that you want to talk about the last game, my point is the season long numbers show aggressiveness. Metrics, whatever, show that those two quarterbacks are throwing downfield more. Is that because Daniel is more likely to run? Does that contribute to the different offensive lines? Like I said, there's about 1,000 theories and I want to clear it up for people from your explanation.

A: We'll look into that once we're done with the season. We'll finish up with this game, get ready for next game and look at all those things when the season is over.

Q: But it's safe to say that you want your offense to be able to push the offense downfield the way you guys have of late, right?

A: Hey, big plays help.

Q: Just to get back to that right tackle spot, how did you think (tackle) Matt (Peart) did when he came in?

A: I thought he did good for not having played for a while. Came in and acquitted himself. Obviously, some plays that we'd like to have back but did a nice job filling in for us.

Q: What made that punt return work?

A: We got some good blocks on their gunners and then (wide receiver) Gunner (Olszewski) got into that mix, did a great job of really securing the football. Two hands on it, spun out of it and kind of reset where he was going, and we had a whole wall in front of him, but it starts with blocking the gunners and the ball security because he got into that mix and spun out and had a good finish.

Q: He kind of joked, he said he didn't realize how long of a return it was. He said he probably shouldn't have returned that one. What did you think at the time?

A: That's a attaboy.

Q: I'm wondering how do handle players' futures during the season? Is it something that comes up in conversation, I know you talk to your players a lot. Obviously, it's something that they think about. Is it something you talk about with them and how do you sort of handle that?

A: Give me an example.

Q: (Running back) Saquon (Barkley) is in the last year of his deal again. That's obviously something he thinks about –

A: I gotcha, I just wanted to make sure. Yeah, we focus on the opponent we are playing, doing as well as we can do, that's the stuff that we're focused on as a coaching staff and the players. The business side of things, they'll take care of themselves, but during the season we're just locked into our opponent, doing what we need to do, practicing, preparing. That's where all our focus is.

Q: And in regards to the offense, the big plays, from a macro perspective like when you sit down in the offseason, try to envision what your offense is, do you envision it as a big play offense? Do you want to throw the ball down the field a lot or how do you kind of look at that?

A: Yeah, we'll talk about all that once we get to the offseason. Every year is different. So, you know we will get up, finish this game up and get back on to the Eagles.

Q: As a guy who's been a position coach and a coordinator and now a head coach, how much rope do you feel you give your coordinators? And how much do you lean on them? You have to obviously lean on them a lot, but what do you feel that interaction should be like?

A: They do a good job of leading their staffs. Communication and then you have to call the game. That's pretty much the way it is.

Q: You have called games and probably been overruled and vetoed before, are you sensitive to that or do you say no, no that's my job. I got to do that whenever it's necessary.

A: Yeah, look every call is my responsibility.

Q: Do you feel that way, offense and defense, ultimately?

A: Yeah, every call. Every call. But I have trust in those guys. They prepare hard, they work hard as a staff. So, I have trust in those guys.

Q: Is that a teaching/learning moment kind of thing yesterday with (offensive coordinator) Mike (Kafka) and the second down play, the draw play?

A: Yeah, look, I'd like to have that one back. So, like I said yesterday not much to add to it. I'd like to have that one back.

Q: One of the things I don't know if you were asked about this year, or at least I don't recall you were, was the play of the gunners on special teams. It looks like from last year to this year the gunner play has been a lot better. Can you just talk about the job that they have done and am I correct when I say that it's been better this year?

A: Yeah, (cornerback) Nick McCloud is really one of the better gunners. Physical. Now we had to replace him because he was playing a lot of defense, but I think (cornerback) Darnay (Holmes) has really stepped up and done a nice job and forced a lot of fair catches and when they are singled up, we expect them to win and when they get viced and doubled, that's tough sledding and we expect them to still go down there and do a good job of trying to force fair catches or make good plays for us.

Q: When you have guys like that who can make plays for you and they're at the end of their contract, does that factor into whether or not they're part of the plans long term?

A: All those discussions take place at the end of the season. So, that's not for another week.

Q: (Cornerback) Adoree' (Jackson) had that missed tackle on the long catch-and-run, but when you watched back through the game, were you satisfied with his physicality play-to-play?

A: Yeah, I'd say, look, there's a lot of plays we all wish we had back, really at every spot. Made some nice plays, created a turnover, but certainly we can all do a little bit better.

Q: You have to obviously make really quick calls on those two challenges. Who is advising you when to throw the flag and when not?

A: I talked about this a lot last year. Whether it's time management, whether it's rules, (Offensive Assistant/Game Manager) Cade (Knox) and (Director of Football Data and Innovation) Ty (Siam) do a great job. Very well prepared, very well thought out. We meet a lot during the week. Sometimes you've got to make a split-second decision if you think you see it on the ground, but I usually rely on those guys to get to see what they see on the replay. You've just got to be quick to throw it. They were up there fast on the one, so we just let that one go. We used two early on in the game. If you use two, you get one back if you get both of them right. So, we were fortunate to have another one. Didn't need it, but those were two big ones. One was on fourth down.Those guys do a good job really with a lot of things I would say within our program. Two of those guys who—two Ivy Leaguers. They do a nice job.

Q: At least with the players I spoke to postgame, they all were very disappointed or seemed very disappointed about the loss, about not getting it done, not beating the Rams and that kind of thing. Do you talk to your team when it's out of it about those characteristics, about still playing hard and giving effort as if you were competing for a playoff?

A: First, you have to understand, they're professionals. So, everybody has a job to do in this league. You try to do it as good as you can do it, try to prepare, take a lot of pride in your work, put a lot of time into it. They put a lot of time into their body, into their studying, they study in groups. This is a group of guys that have worked really hard. We haven't got the results that we want, but the competitive stamina, we certainly talk about competing and finishing and being good teammates. Those are all important characteristics for our program. Again, not the results that we've wanted this season, but try to finish strong on a good note against a good team that we just played last week. But certainly you talk about competition and resiliency and toughness and finish, accountability, all those types of things.

Q: Did (safety) Dane Belton in particular impress you yesterday given the circumstance with which he was in a prime role?

A: Yeah. I know he had the turnovers, but the one play that I was really impressed with is the play that they broke out for the long gain on the hitch route and his chase, to run down there and to finish, he showed some good long speed. Again, running to the ball when you think a guy might score, I just thought the effort he had on that play was indicative of what the young man is about.