On whether he will try to change anything up defensively this week: "Yeah. You do every week. There is no question about it. You always try to give them some different looks, and hopefully they are the right looks. Every game you do some different things especially with your pressure package or maybe a coverage and that, but you always change."
On the fact that opposing teams tight ends have had a lot of yards against them and whether that is something that he will try and change or if that's something that they can give: "No. I'd like to see us do better. We have to do a better job with the tight end. I thought we did a very average job on the tight ends last week; we did a poor job as a matter of fact. It was something we emphasized all week. We knew that we wanted to take away (Redskins WR Santana) Moss and a tight end, but we didn't do a good job at tight end. And sometimes it's a matchup, but the linebackers, a couple of times, did a very poor job and they know it."
On the fact that they have young linebackers and whether they are still learning: "Yeah, I think they are still learning, but it's the emphasis, too, and they got caught up a little bit in some play action stuff and didn't do a good job with the tight ends. We have to do a better job. We will emphasis it every week until we get it down right."
On the defensive line's play against Washington: "I thought, especially the second half, I didn't think we were playing like we have been. We didn't set the edge. Between our ends and our outside backers, we didn't set the edge, and we didn't tackle well. That's the first time you say all year that we didn't tackle well, and I thought they dominated at the line of scrimmage in the second half."
On whether he is worried about the defense's play in the second half: "No, I don't worry about it. I think we had a bad second half, and I think they'll respond. We'll see how they respond. No, I'm not that concerned about it. I just want to make sure that we play hard every week."
On whether he has any theory on why the run defense didn't play well against the Redskins after playing well in the first three games: "When you play good teams, and those were three good teams that we got beat by, but you have to play good every down. They are going to make some plays, but you have to rebound a little bit. Then, you go against good teams, they are going to make some plays, and hopefully you make more plays. And I always tell them that we have to come up with some key plays. We didn't come up with some key stops last Sunday especially in that second half when we had them third-and-long. We didn't come up with the key stops whether it was a big sack, an interception, or just getting off the field, and we keep emphasizing that and we keep talking about it. We're capable of making better plays in there, and we just didn't play well in the second half. I can rationalize a lot of things, but we didn't play well in the second half."
On whether DE Victor Abiamiri will play this week: "I think he'll play this week, yeah."
On whether Abiamiri will play on the edge: "No. If he's going to play, he'll play mainly some tackle because we'll put Klecko at offense, and he'll play more tackle."
On DT Dan Klecko's defensive role: "He'll be an emergency tackle right now."
On why Klecko was moved to offense and whether he will continue to play at all on defense: "I think because Victor came back, I think it's a big plus for us, and that's the reason we were able to do it. He might still play some defense."
On whether Abiamiri is really ready to play: "We're going to find out. We're going to find out Sunday, we'll see. Now, he's not going to play a lot, but he's going to play."
On whether Abiamiri will play defensive end at all: "He'll play some end and tackle. I'm not saying he's strictly a tackle. He'll play some end and tackle."
On whether they are giving up size if Abiamiri plays tackle instead of end: "We've got three tackles that will play most of the time. (DT) Trevor Laws will play a lot more, and then you've got, of course, (DT Mike) Patterson and (DT Brodrick) Bunkley. He'll play more on certain (plays), not quite as much. He might play 10-15 plays."
On whether they are looking for him to show a pass rush: "Yeah. Pass rush."
On whether Abiamiri playing at tackle will affect Bunkley at all: "That won't affect him at all. We just have to get Trevor Laws in there more, that's all."
On how Laws is doing: "I think he's doing well. He's going to play some more. More and more every week it seems like he's getting better."
On Niners QB J.T. O'Sullivan and what problems he presents for the Eagles defense: "Anytime that you have a scrambling quarterback, it's always a problem, first of all. You can have good coverage and all of a sudden, just like last week, the guy takes off on third down, so that's a problem. The biggest thing you have to make sure is that you stay in your pass rush lanes. You have to be very disciplined. He can throw the ball downfield. He has a good arm. He's got some good skilled receivers, and, of course, he has a great running back. He's a good quarterback. We're facing good quarterbacks every week."
On whether he finds it difficult to prepare his guys for a quarterback that they have never played against and whether O'Sullivan presents an element of surprise: "Yeah. I think you'll realize how fast he is because the guy is a pretty good athlete. We've kind of known about him before, and you see sometimes on film, until you see it in person. You don't realize how fast these tight ends are until you see them in person. They can run."
On how much the Niners rely on RB Frank Gore: "I would do the same thing. He's a big part of their offense. He's never off the field. He's a good receiver, he's a good runner, of course, and he's also a good blocker to keep in nickel situations. I'm sure, to me, he's the heart and soul of that offense."
On whether Bunkley became too aggressive in the second half of the game against the Redskins: "No, I don't think so. I think we lost a little bit of our momentum; we didn't just play as well. He's played pretty well all year, I can't criticize one half. He's played pretty well all year. For some reason they got their confidence, we didn't play as aggressive, it's as simple as that. I look at the film, and I say there's nothing, the gaps were fine, we just weren't knocking people back."
