COACH TOM COUGHLINQ: Hakeem Nicks was able to practice today?
A: Yes.
Q: Chris Snee is out again?
A: Yes
Q: How's Snee looking? Any chance for playing Sunday?
A: He gets a little better every day. We'll have to see. It will be deep in the week before we know.
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OC KEVIN GILBRIDE
Q: With 13 sacks this season, what does Cincinnati do that makes them so effective?
A: They're talented football players. They have great size. I would describe them as power-rushers. They do a tremendous job of displacing you. You have to anchor down; not that they don't have moves and speed, but (they) really do an outstanding job of moving you back and collapsing the pocket and, obviously, they get to the quarterback.
Q: Have you found a solution for the recent troubles?
A: We're working. We're working at it. As you know, it's a continual process. You're tweaking here, tweaking there and hope that you get some things that were not performed at a high enough level, corrected. You look forward, we all are, to playing better this week than we did last week.
Q: Is it just one thing here, one thing there, or is it a bigger problem?
A: it is a couple of things that we need to do better, there's no question about it. We've had chances. We caught them a couple times in quarters coverage last week, and we got two interference calls, but didn't complete it, which should've been huge plays for us. They were still 50-yard movements, but they were potential touchdowns, and we missed two of them. A couple of middle reads that guys should've been clearing out, but they were settling down and there was interference with the other guy coming in. It was a combination of a lot of different things. One play it was this, one play it was that. They're things that we should hopefully get corrected, that shouldn't have happened. When you have chances for big plays, and we were fortunate to have those chances last week, you have to make them.
Q: How much would it hurt to not have Chris Snee this week?
A: He's such an integral part of what we do. Obviously, if you lose him, you lose a good football player, but you also lose a very intelligent football player; a guy who's been an anchor for the group. His strength, mentally and emotionally; he's one of those guys you depend on when things aren't going well. He's just so stable and determined and mentally tough that everybody kind of looks to him as an example. That's a big loss when you lose a guy of that quality.
**READ MORE >>** SAFETY ANTREL ROLLE
Q: AJ Green said your defense has some holes in it.
A: I think every defense has holes in it. If our defense has holes in it, then he shouldn't have a problem exploiting it. The game has to be played on Sunday. The game has to be played on Sunday and we just try and make sure we take our best approach out there come Sunday and go into our bye 7-3.
Q: How do you usually treat comments like that?
A: You don't worry about it. I'm a deep safety. I'm going to play my responsibility and if I get a chance, I'm coming across. He's a great receiver, though. You can't take anything from AJ Green. He's a great receiver and I think definitely the best player on the offensive side of the ball. He makes a number of plays for them and I think his relationship with Dalton is something special. The game has to be played on Sunday and we'll play it.
Q: Do you think if you limit Green, you have a great chance to win?
A: Yeah. He has most of their touches but at the same time I think they have a lot of weapons offensively. Their slot receiver is awesome. I think Gresham at tight end and you have BenJarvus Green-Ellis running the ball so they definitely have a lot of weapons. Limiting AJ Green would definitely help, but they definitely have a lot of weapons.
DE JASON PIERRE-PAUL
Q: What are your thoughts on AJ Green's comments?
A: It is what it is and everybody has their own opinions about our defense and it is what it is. Come Sunday, all we're going to do is play football before our bye week. So we're going to give them the best shot we got and hopefully it falls through.
Q: When you look at your defense from last week, did you identify why you're having some of these problems?A: We weren't tied together. In a situation like that while you're playing football…. It's not basketball. It's not a one-man game. If one person does something wrong, it messes up the whole defense. So basically we've just got to get everybody on the right track and play football. You can't be selfish at all. People on this team were being kind of selfish and did their individual things, but this is football. This is not a one-man game, not a one-man show. So we've just got to go out there and play together.
Q: It was a breakdown here and there?A: Yeah. When you break it down and you watch film, you see we're not all tied together, but that's something that can be corrected and we're doing that this week. This coming Sunday, you're going to see how we play if we play different.
LB CHASE BLACKBURN
Q: Any family coming in for the game?
A: Lots. It's only about an hour and a half from our house, so there will be quite a few people there.
Q: The game got blacked out locally.
A: Even more people have to come to the game.
Q: AJ Green said your team has holes on defense. How do you feel about that?A: There's holes in every defense at some point. It's a matter of finding them and us attacking what we feel like are the weak points. It's basically going to break down depending on the time and situations or there's always something. They can find a weak spot in our defense just like you find a weak spot in any offense. You've just got to exploit it.
