Head Coach Chan Gailey
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
On if RB C.J. Spiller will practice today:
No, he is not going to practice today but we are hoping we will get him maybe a few reps by the end of the week. Do not know. We will see.
On RB Fred Jackson's status:
He will practice today and we will see how much he can do. We will see where is after practice. Really, post-practice and tomorrow morning will be the key on that after he goes through some football stuff today.
On the defense being built to beat the Patriots:
If you want to win the division, it has been proven lately that you have to beat them. So yeah, everything you do is to win the division first and the way you do it is by beating them. To say it was completely thought like that, no I cannot say that. But you have to win the division. You have to beat them.
On if releasing P Brian Moorman was due to him having a conflict with a coach:
I do not know if we would go that far. We all talked about it and we made the decision. It ultimately falls on me, but we made the decision that it was what we needed to do at this time.
On if it was a tough decision because of everything Moorman brings to the table:
Yeah, you think about all of that stuff. You do. It is never easy. None of those decisions are easy. We all know what a great guy Brian and his wife are and for the community. It is never easy. I do not like that part of the job.
On why Moorman was released:
We were hoping to get more consistency and we were not able to get it. He had a great preseason; he just was not able to get it back.
On who will hold field goals and for extra points:
Shawn (Powell) will practice there. Tyler (Thigpen) will practice there. We will see as it goes. Eventually Shawn will do it as soon as he gets some experience.
On DE Mark Anderson becoming a player who can play the run and the pass:
It is funny, other people expected him to be a one-way player and I do not think I ever expected that. I thought he could play the run from what we saw and played against. I thought he could play the run. He has done a good job of coming in, learning the entire system and understanding how he fits in the run game. He has played physical out there.
On the value of LB Bryan Scott:
He has (helped). Probably the best thing that has happened to Bryan, and I give Dave (Wannstedt) and Bob Sanders a lot of credit, they have given him one job. Go be a nickel linebacker. Not try to be safety, not try to be a back-and-forth kind of guy. He has one job, go be a nickel linebacker and he has done an excellent job of learning that and learning how to play that responsibility run and pass. We were bouncing him around last year and it was not fair to him almost. He has taken to this extremely well and done a great job.
On the Ravens doing a good job of rushing the passer vs. New England last week:
That was two weeks in a row to be honest with you. Arizona did a good job rushing the passer, too. I think there is a common denominator there that if you can get some pressure on the passer in this ball game, you up your chances of slowing them down and getting the ball back.
On Patriots QB Tom Brady not throwing the ball deep very much:
The thing about it is we all know he can and we all know he has done it before. That is why you have to always be on your guard. You cannot just say everybody squat at 10 yards. They will never throw it down there because they will, so you have to guard against it. It is always in the back of your mind, but you understand what they are trying to do with the football-that is get it underneath. Hopefully we can take care of both scenarios—not let them get it deep and have some pressure and tight coverage underneath. That is what you have to have. You have to have some tight pressure underneath on those receivers.
On being encouraged by the progress of the run defense:
We have made dramatic improvements in our run defense. That is going to allow you, if you can play run defense and play third downs, you give yourself a great chance to be successful. I think we have improved in both areas quite a bit. We started bad. The first game was bad on third-downs. After that, we have played pretty well.
On if that improvement is attributed to personnel or scheme:
Yes. All of the above.
On how much the run defense opens up things later in the game:
If you can stop the run and make a team one-dimensional, you have really helped yourself defensively. Then they get discouraged, too. When they are discouraged, they do not run it as well. I do not care who you are. It is a win-win when you can stop the run.
On WR Stevie Johnson still producing but not over-celebrating:
You want a guy to enjoy playing. I do not ever want to take away somebody's joy, but you have to think about the team. You have to give the guy credit. He understands exactly what he needs to do. He has not let his play go down and yet he understands for the team he has to handle some things differently. It does not surprise me that it happened. It maybe surprised a lot of people, it did not surprise me.
On if either of last year's games against the Patriots carry into this season:
I do not think so. History you learn from, but it is not a predictor of the future. Every year is a new year and they are a totally different defense than they have been since I can remember. Forever. They are totally different and playing better, to be honest with you. They are vanilla and they are playing hard. Getting after it. You do not see all the elaborate schemes you used to see. They are playing well. I think they are fourth (in the AFC) against the run. They are playing extremely well.
On having a comment about the replacement officials impacting the end of games:
No, the biggest thing if you get a big enough lead then it will not come down to a call. Go get big leads and it will not be an issue.
On if the play at the end of the Green Bay-Seattle game reminded him of S Da'Norris Searcy's play against Oakland last season:
I thought about it. I did. I thought about it and then let it go. I cannot control that.
On if Moorman's relationship with Special Teams Coordinator Bruce DeHaven was a factor in his release:
Not that I know of.
