OPENING STATEMENT:"Alright, injuries are the same three that I mentioned yesterday; Branden Albert is still working on getting back from a hyperextended knee, Anthony Fasano a concussion and then Justin Houston with the elbow. Day-to-day on all of them. We'll just see how it goes. Really, nothing to mention from this last game as far as the injuries go. I thought it was a good win. Every win you can get in the National Football League is a good win. This one, I thought, all three phases functioned well and that's probably the first time this year that that's really taken place to that extreme. That's a good thing. I would like to give just a mention, Allen Wright, our equipment guy, ended up changing the studs on all the cleats, just before the game. I mean it looked like an assembly line in there, just taking the shorter studs out and putting the longer ones in; I think that was a factor. We were able to function at a high level in bad weather conditions and a field that was, just from the weather, a bit soft and still maintain our speed, balance and moving abilities. Also, the fans, they amaze me that they show up in the places that they do, in the conditions that they do and they stay throughout the duration of the game; the other fans leave, they stay and they bring it. It was impressive. It was good to win the turnover battle. I think turnovers obviously are big. It was good to capitalize on seven points off of turnovers. We were able to keep the penalties down. We only had three penalties in this game which I thought was big. We need to do better in third-down situations offensively. I thought we did a good job defensively, but offensively we were two-for-11, and we need to do a better job there. I thought the coaches and the coordinators had good game plans, offensively, defensively and on special teams. I think it's important, particularly as you go down the stretch here that your offensive line and defensive line produce at a high level. I thought they did that. Obviously, by Tamba (Hali) and Tyson Jackson and then a guy, who probably doesn't get enough credit is (Dontari) Poe, he had another tremendous game. But, the two sacks by Tamba (Hali) and Tyson (Jackson), I thought were big. Then, the offensive line, I thought with as young of a group as we had in there, I thought they played well and they played aggressive. Was everything perfect? No, it wasn't perfect. You don't come out of anything perfect, but they played, I thought, at a very high level. Jamaal (Charles) and Dwayne (Bowe) and Alex (Smith) had good games as did Dexter (McCluster) and Quintin Demps with their returns. I thought those were big plays and defeating to the opponent. One of which happened right after a score by the Redskins; we were able to capitalize on the return. That's tough to overcome. I mentioned the defensive line, but DJ (Derrick Johnson) really had his hands on three balls and ended up intercepting the one. I thought our secondary flew around and made plays, particularly in the run game. They filled in and tackled very, very well, which can get overlooked. Anyways, all in all, it was a good win. We know that we still have a lot of work ahead of us. We're not where we need to be yet. We're headed back in the right direction here. We know we have a big game coming up this week against the Raiders on the road at the Coliseum, out there. We'll get ourselves ready to go here on Wednesday and have a good week of practice to get ourselves ready for the Raiders."
Q: What was your philosophy on when to get Jamaal Charles out of the game? Was it a little late?
REID: "You know, I understand; one nice thing about being a head coach is, you can be questioned either way. It's a crazy deal, but I got it. I just thought that was the right time. We'd been spotting him throughout the game too. We had a good little rotation going with Knile (Davis). Knile, I thought, played well. So, it worked out okay."
Q: As far as if you're in a position where you are going to the playoffs and some outcomes of games don't matter, do you have a philosophy on how much to use certain guys?
REID: "I've done both, gone both ways with that; I have held people from games and at the same time also played people, just depending on what I feel we need to get ourselves ready, if we have that opportunity to continue to play. I've got a couple of different ways that I've done it. We're not there yet. I wasn't thinking about that yet, in this game. I've also been in games where we've been up 21 points and teams have come back and beat us, so, I make sure that I take all that history into account on your first questions. On your second, I've gone both ways with that."
Q: Are all positions equal in that?
REID: "You're only allowed to suit so many guys; really, you want to win every game, that's what you want to do. That's the objective. You work it out, what you think works in whatever situation. They're all different."
Q: Is there more trust in Knile Davis?
REID: "I just think it's a matter of the reps, under his belt, and the production there. He's a young guy that was banged up a little at the college level and we were able to just gradually get him back in the swing of things and get used to the National Football League, with protections in particular. I think everybody's got quite a little bit of trust in him to go out there and do a good job."
Q: What does your 150th victory mean to you? You're only 11 short of Mike Holmgren.
REID: "I didn't realize that, but you don't look at that. That's not some place I go, with the number of wins. To even be considered in the same boat as Mike Holmgren, that's something special. I think he's a Hall of Fame football coach and deserves to be in there. He was a great mentor, but I don't look at it the other way. I haven't sat down and—150, I didn't even know we were at that number. Let's get the next one. We're on that."
Q: Can you sense when your team is taking the opponent's crowd factor out of the game?
REID: "You can sense that. I'm not sure if that's where all of your focus is, but you sense it, more the momentum of the players and the flow of the game there, of what direction it's going. Obviously, if you're in a loud place and it stops being loud, you know good things are happening."
Q: Can you evaluate Donald Stephenson?
REID: "He's gotten better, every chance that he has had to play. You forget that he's a second-year player. You're going to have some ups and downs with him; we understand that, (he's a) young guy. He's talented. He's trying every day to get better, which is important, as I tell you the other young guys are doing. He's a tremendous athlete. You saw him down the field yesterday on Jamaal's run, he led the pack down there. He has a great athletic ability and he can play either side. He can play guard for you, remember we did that a little bit with him at camp and I bet he could do that in games, if you needed that. It's just a matter of him just continuing to play and getting reps under his belt and develop."
Q: How did Eric Fisher play?
REID: "I thought he was very similar to what I just said there about Donald. It was good to get him back in there. I thought he did some nice things. This kind of a game is kind of a lineman's game. You had a little snow and a little ice and you're running the football. You're muddy, that's kind of what linemen dream about is games like that. Both of those two got right in the mud and got after it. They enjoyed it.
Q: Has Eric Fisher's athletic ability shown recently, especially on that screen for Jamaal Charles' touchdown?
REID: "Yeah, the quick screen, he did that well. He's another one, he's a very good athlete. He's long and he can run. The play you're talking was a quick screen to Jamaal for the five or right around that area. He got out there and was able to block a secondary player. You feel comfortable with him getting up on linebackers. You saw all of the backside cut-off blocks, both of those two (Donald Stephenson and Eric Fisher), but we're talking about Fisher. Obviously, the backside cut-off blocks, with the inside technique from the defensive linemen, he's able to make that block the first play of the game and several after that."
Q: Some of the guys in the locker room said that yesterday was a statement game. What are your thoughts about that?
REID: "I think that there are ups and downs in the National Football League, and I think you need to learn how to handle them. You can't get too high for the highs and you can't get too low for the lows. You have to be mentally tough enough to work through it. When you go through a three-game skid, that's not easy in the National Football League, even against good teams, explosive teams. You have to trust yourself. You have to trust the guys around you that you're going to fix the problem, that you're going to come work with a purpose. I thought the guys did that. I didn't feel that they hung their head, any of the three weeks. They felt that we just hang together, we work and we don't hide the problems. It's not just about getting out there Rah-Rah'ing it; it's actually fixing the problem and I thought they did that and kept focus on that and it paid off for them in this game."
Q: When did the team decide to switch to long cleats?
REID: "Actually Allen (Wright) puts on the cleats and goes out and tests the turf. Not that he is Jamaal (Charles), but he gets out there and he moves around a little bit with the cleats on just to get a feel of the surface (and) then he comes back and gets with players and they ended up changing them out, right before the game. I don't remember the exact time. They had the rivets and drills to buzz those things off and put the new ones on. We went with a little longer cleat and I thought it was a factor. I wouldn't mention it, if I didn't think it was a factor."
Q: What's the genius in Dave Toub?
REID: "First of all, he is very intelligent. He has a good feel and respect for blocking and tackling. He was an offensive lineman that not only coached the offensive line, but then moved over and coached the defensive line. He understands that base principle of blocking and tackling, which is very important on special teams. And then, he and Kevin O'Dea are like Batman and Robin; they work very well together. They're both very driven. Players respect them, so they're going to try certain things and the players say 'You know what, I have confidence and I'll try this, let's go.' And they try it and it works. They work very hard at making sure that they fit themselves right in the blocks and put themselves in the right position against some of these good returners we go against."
Q: How important is it that someone else can put pressure on the quarterback, when some of your defensive guys are being double covered?
REID: "Yeah, well you saw that; Tyson (Jackson) had some pressures (and) (Mike) DeVito had some pressures. (Dontari) Poe had some pressures (and) then, Poe is going to be the guy who gets doubled. Ninety percent of the time, if you're in a three-four, he's going to get chipped or banged or the back is going to chip through to go into his route. Then, one of those other two has to pick up their game and work edges and get pressure. This game here, it was Tyson; he did a good job with that, I thought. You're talking about the three-four and what it presents. I mean you're talking about big bodies that we're asking to play in a nimble mode, when you transition from the run game to the pass game and all three of those guys can do that."
Q: Can you talk about Eric Berry?
REID: "He kind of lives by 'if you want some, come get some'; I mean, that's what he lives by. That's how he handles practice; he's out there every day. He doesn't miss practice; he doesn't miss workouts. He's going to challenge every play. That's his mode. He doesn't care if it's practice; he doesn't care if it's a game, that's what he does and guys like that. I think, in a simple package, that's what he's all about."
