On preparing to play against Redskins head coach Jim Zorn: "You have to go back to where he has coached. We went through this season, of course, the preseason and the four games, but we also looked a little bit at stuff from Seattle and where he has coached. Mainly, it looks like this is his personality. Mostly it seems like it's what he wants to do in the last eight games."
On Redskins QB Jason Campbell: "I think he has improved just by experience. I think what they've done too with Washington is they've cut down, it seems like, on a lot of the motion. He sees things; he has a lot of confidence, of course. It's just experience. He's not throwing the ball into trouble. He will throw the ball away. He will scramble a little bit; he won't scramble as much as he did in the past. It seems like he's seeing things a lot better, from the type of offense they have but also from experience."
On Redskins WR Santana Moss moving from flanker to split end: "He will play that X receiver, weakside receiver, or strong-side receiver. I'm sure, at times, they're trying to beat certain coverages in that. That's why they do it. There is no question about it, he is their go-to guy right now. He'll be in the slot sometimes, he'll be outside. He's all over the field."
On whether the linebackers have the freedom to blitz when they are lined up in the gaps: "(I don't know about) freedom. We have certain things off of that. Every week is a little bit different. There are certain blitzes we have off of that. Sometimes we are coming out of it, sometimes we might be blitzing. It's just one of our packages, that's all. It just happened to be in our package in the last couple of games."
On whether they have always used that strategy: "We have always done that."
On whether DT Dan Klecko has given him more than he expected: "There is no question about it. He has done some good things in nickel for us. He has gotten some pressure on the quarterback, he's a high-effort guy. I'm glad we have him. He's playing well."
On whether other teams are targeting the linebackers in coverage: "I think it was one play. They had the right play—it was a great throw and a great catch and we didn't do a great job in coverage. I don't think they're doing that. I think that just happened to be one of the plays they have run. We've seen it before, we just didn't do a good job in coverage, I thought."
On the play against Dallas when Cowboys RB Marion Barber scored a touchdown against LB Stewart Bradley: "That's part of football. A guy is swinging out and sometimes you just have to make sure you get good leverage with it. I don't think they're attacking the linebackers."
On the defense not allowing a touchdown in the past three home games and whether it is a mindset: "I hope it's a mindset this Sunday. On the road, we have given up most of the long pass plays. That's what is a little disturbing – the long touchdown passes. We have to correct that fast."
On shutting teams down in the second half: "Every game is different. In the Bears game, you know what happened. All of a sudden, they came out on fire and we couldn't slow them down. We adjusted a little bit, but that doesn't happen every game. I know it has happened twice and in the two games it didn't happen, we shut them down. In the two games (it did happen), we gave up some scores. Sometimes we have to adjust. We adjusted a little bit in our coverage in the second half, but nothing erratic. We just played a little better in the second half."
On how CB Lito Sheppard has handled his role so far: "I think it's still tough on Lito. You'd have to ask Lito. That's tough. He wants to play more, he just wants to play more. I think he'll probably play a lot more this week with the type of personnel grouping they have. It's tough on him."
On whether he will use Sheppard in the slot against Santana Moss: "No."
On whether he will use CB Sheldon Brown in the slot against Moss: "Yes."
On whether there is more urgency in a division game: "I hope so. This is a conference game. It's a home game, a conference game. I hope so. You would think so."
On facing good tight ends, including Redskins TE Chris Cooley: "We're facing some good tight ends. (Cowboys TE Jason) Witten, of course, is one of the better ones. Cooley is right up there, also. He's not quite as big, but this is a guy we've got to do a good job on. He has hurt people. He has hurt us, at times, in the past. We have to keep him under control. He is one of the good tight ends in the league. In this conference, especially, we have some of the better tight ends in the conference, we all know that."
On whether the Redskins are using Cooley differently: "No, not really."
On Redskins RB Clinton Portis and his performance against Dallas last week: "When you get things like that, when you get big runs, sometimes guys get over-aggressive and get out of their gap. A couple of times, they overplayed it and got out of their gaps. All of a sudden, he cut it back because he's a good back. He has good vision, he saw the cutback lane, he got it and hit a big play."
On Bears RB Matt Forte's first-down run in the fourth quarter at Chicago: "Forte, on that one play, the run play, we just missed the tackle. It's as simple as that."
On why he plans to use Sheldon Brown against Moss in the slot: "That's gameplan stuff, I don't want to talk about that."
