Brian Westbrook told me after the game that I looked so much better than I had earlier in the season. He said "You're a lot more patient." I understand the blocking schemes a lot better, so I feel like I gained a lot being able to go out there and play on Thursday night.
Donovan McNabb was hungrier than I had seen up to this point. To me, that's saying a lot because the guy comes to work every day. He comes to work ready to go every day. For him to be even hungrier, it was a little bit surprising to me. I don't think it was so much because he got benched. I think it was because he knew our backs were against the wall. And the fact of the matter is he's the driver. We're all passengers. He did exactly what Andy said he needed to do. He stepped his game up. Andy and the other coaches stepped their game up and obviously we're following him, so we had no other choice.
Everybody was clicking on Thursday. I really feel like that's the first time all season that all three phases of the game played well on the same day.
People don't understand what Brian Westbrook goes through during the week. He's like what Steve McNair used to be; no practice and then come out and give you everything he's got. Of course, everybody in the stands is saying "What a wonderful performance." But it means so much to us because we see everything he has to go through just to be able to suit up.
We know what we're capable of as an offense. Again, it's a lack of execution and a lack of focus. We're lucky to be able to say that we can only beat ourselves. If we come ready to play like we practice every week, it's going to be tough for anybody to beat us. But that's the difficult thing about the NFL. There are 16 games and you have to stay focused for each one of them regardless of the record of the opponent. I think that's probably the biggest thing we've learned up until this point. We have to take everything more serious, whether it's a 30-minute meeting or a two-hour practice, everything needs to be taken serious so we can come out and play like we did the other night.
