DE Brandon Graham
On not having to travel on a short week: "It feels good because we don't have to get ready tomorrow and get on a plane. We can sit back and just get ready for the hotel and just get our minds right, because we've got, really, two days. And on that day of the game, we've still got a whole day to rest, so I'm just trying to get all the rest I can and just be ready."
On whether he has ever played this much football in such a short period of time: "No. Not at all. This is the first time. It's not that bad. You've got to make sure you take care of your body. This is the time when you really start taking care of your body—making sure that you're icing up, and just making sure you can stand strong because it's going to be tough these next couple of weeks."
On whether preparing for this short week was tougher than expected: "Yeah, it's a lot tougher, because, man, right after our game, we've got three days to prepare. I've never heard of that before. It's kind of fun because you always want the game to hurry up, (jokingly) but that was sped up about, at least, 10 times."
TE Clay Harbor
On whether he was thinking too much earlier this season: "I had some butterflies. Every play I was thinking on my way to the line a little bit. When you get the play, you've got to think, you've got to recognize the defense and know exactly what you're doing. Now, I've got that down. I know what I'm doing. I'm confident. You can hear the play, look at the defense and figure out what you've got. When I was playing the first week of the season and the preseason, I'd get the play, I'd be thinking about what I've got, get on the line and finally know what I have, then you look at the defense—you're going to be hesitant. You've got to process it and now it's coming a lot quicker for me and it allows me to play a lot faster."
On how he managed to develop over the course of the season: "Every morning, we have 7:15 (a.m.) meetings, before 8:15 (a.m.) special teams with (tight ends) coach (Tom) Melvin, went over the game plan, the offense, the whole system, and now it's just second nature to me. It's like back in college, you knew the offense so well, that whatever they call you know what it is. I feel like I'm really picking it up now. And my package, especially. I'm only in for 15, 20 plays. I've got that down very well. Now, they have confidence that if something did happen to (TE) Brent (Celek) that I know the whole system and I could take over and play there in that case."
On what he can contribute to the offense if opposing teams keep playing Cover-2 against the Eagles: "We've got a lot of weapons on the field, so whenever there's an opportunity to get out there for me, I take it as a compliment. The coaches trust me to be out there. Especially when you have so many weapons, we have a bunch of great receivers, running backs, tight end. The thing is, when you use two tight ends, you're trying to get a certain matchup. If you like what the defense gives you when you have two tight end sets in a game, you're going to use that a lot. Now, they have confidence that I can maybe be a mismatch on a linebacker, down the middle of the field, or something like that, when you have two tight end sets. It's all based on what the defense gives you, really. Certain looks, if you get two tight ends to the right, two tight ends to the left or you've just got split looks, you look at film and you see 'man, we can really exploit that.' And if they play some certain coverages, where they leave (the tight ends) one-on-one with linebackers, they feel like we can create some mismatch problems."
S Quintin Mikell
On playing on a short week: "I, personally, don't mind it, because it's less about the scheme and, it's more, like I was saying, going back to stuff that we have done since the beginning of training camp. It's more about just playing football and letting us play. I think that's fun, man. It's going to be about just playing ball. Put a hat on a hat, go out there and tackle well, get off blocks, and maybe we will see something that they haven't shown, but I want to play ball, so that's what I look at it as."
S Nate Allen
On whether there is a certain advantage for the offense or the defense given the little amount of preparation: "Not necessarily. I mean, I see where you're coming from. But at the end of the day you can't think of it like that. You just have to know you're prepared and know you're ready to go."
On whether it is hard to let go of a loss so quickly because you need to prepare for the next game: "Yeah, that's tough. But it's also good too because you're playing right away and it gets your mind off the past game. But like you said we're cramming a lot in, you know three or four days of practice into two days, so it just takes a lot of extra time from us."
On how good Texans WR Andre Johnson is and what he does well: "Oh, he's a great receiver. He gets down the field. He's big and physical. You know, he gets corners off of him. And he gets open."
On whether one of his talents is winning jump balls: "Yeah. He's a big receiver and like I said he gets corners off him. You know, a lot of people try to press him and jam him and he can throw you off of him and get open. That's how he gets open so much."
