On the fact that offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg always gives the media an opening statement in his press conferences: "That's good because I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. A lot of people watch it, so Happy Thanksgiving to all the Philadelphia fans and all the people from everywhere, probably from my hometown too – they get to watch back home. And to you all."
On whether it was fulfilling to see the defense close the game out the way they did in the Giants game: "For our players, but people asked me after the game, 'did you do anything different?' I said, 'No, fundamentals and the hard work.' As you all know and I know, when you work hard you have to be rewarded and that's how you believe. And I think this is a case where we played well and then in the end somebody made a play and we won the game against a good football team. (Giants QB Eli) Manning was playing very well (leading up to that game), I think they had scored 87 points in the fourth quarter throughout the year."
On the contributions he's gotten from the defensive tackles in recent weeks: "I think the first thing that we have to talk about, and I know the d-line won't get mad when I say this, is that you have to understand that when they make a sack, it's not just the defensive tackle or the defensive end making the sack because then what happens the other times when there are sacks not happening? A sack happens when the quarterback has to hold the ball. Then the d-linemen get there. If the quarterback does not have to hold the ball and he throws on five-plant and five-hitch, I don't care who you are, you're not going to get there. And I think that's important that that's understood. Coming from the other side of the ball, I understand that. I think everybody has to understand that when there's a sack, it's a team.
"The tight coverage makes the quarterback hold the ball where he has to hitch two times or three times, you can count it yourself. Then what happens is the good rush teams will get there. Now, there are some teams that can't rush the quarterback that even if you make him hold the ball two hitches or three hitches, they don't get there. That's the difference. But, when you look at a timing offense just like the Patriots and you see him plant-throw, hitch-throw, I don't care what kind of rush you're putting, it's not getting there. So you say, okay what do you have to do? Well, that's where the coverage part comes in. So, it's really three things. It's the rush, it's the coverage by the linebackers and it's the coverage by the secondary.
"I think everybody needs to understand that. Because then what happens when you're not getting there? Why aren't you getting there when you're not making sacks? Well because the quarterback is throwing on plant and hitch. Well then what makes him throw on two hitches and three hitches? Well, the tight coverage does man. And then the good pass rushers on two hitches and three hitches. Our d-line understands that if that quarterback hitches the ball twice, he better get hit or he better get sacked. If he hitches three times he's going down.
"But, on the other hand our defensive linemen are going to rush hard but they know and the secondary knows that if the quarterback plants or he hitches, it's on the back end. They've got to take care of it because I don't care what kind of rush it is, they're not going to get there. And I think that's important to understand."
On whether the credit goes to the linebackers or the secondary then for the increased pass rush from the defensive tackles: "It's all three, right? It's a team, right? And then when you understand the concepts of how it works – because what happens is if it's not understood like that then when you play a team that gets rid of the ball real quick and there's no pass rush, then it's easy. The d-line is like well they're not covering, that's why we can't get there. The ball's gone and we're getting chipped. Then all of a sudden it's the other way around. The coverage is like, well look we have a pass rush.
"Well, here man, what we have is we understand. If the quarterback plants or he hitches, we know that the back end has to take care of it because the rush isn't going to get there. But on the other hand when the d-line knows that if he hitches twice or three times that he better go down, so everyone's accountable man. There's accountability for whose responsibility it is."
On what other teams have done to try and slow down the Patriots tight ends: "Different concepts, people have tried to use zone coverages and there are different types of zone coverages. There are coverages where you drop to spots. There are zone coverages where it's a zone coverage but when a guy goes to that coverage, the defender jumps on him. So, it's almost like a man-match type coverage. And then you've got people that are playing regular man and then there's another type of man, two-man where it's a man underneath and two-deep.
"So there are different variations that people have tried so I think it all goes back again, what we have to do and it's no secret is we have to disrupt the receivers, we have to play to play tight coverage and by doing that it gives our defensive linemen a chance to rush the quarterback. If we don't play tight coverage, if we don't disrupt the receivers then our d-line is not going to have a chance to get to (Patriots QB Tom) Brady."
On how LB Keenan Clayton played in the nickel package last week: "What it is, is that Keenan was doing a good job on special teams. So, what happens is we have some linebackers that are athletic and what he did is he earned some playing time. (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid came up and said, 'Juan, how about Keenan. He's been doing a great job on special teams. Can you use him? Can you come up with a package for him?' I said, 'Yeah, Coach. We can do that. (LB Brian) Rolle is doing a good job, it's a good way to rest B-Rolle a little bit.' But, Keenan earned some playing time by the way he was playing on special teams. Special teams here are very important. There are times here – just like with (LB) Akeem (Jordan) – when you do a good job on special teams, Coach (Reid) will come up and say, 'Juan, this guy's doing a great job on special teams. Is there anything he can do on defense? Because he's earned more playing time.'"
On whether they will use CB Nnamdi Asomugha on Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski at all: "I think there are different kinds of options without me saying what we're going to do. There are different packages that we have. And I think that they know, sometimes Nnamdi will be there, sometimes he won't be there. It could be two guys or one guy or maybe a safety. The thing is they've seen all those things so you're not going to trick anybody. Going back again, it's about us being able to disrupt the receivers, play tight coverage, and challenge their receivers to allow the pass rush to have a chance.
"Because if we don't do that for the pass rush, I don't care who's rushing, he throws it on plant and hitch. So that goes back to what I'm talking about. It's a team sport. The sacks happen because of the d-line, because the back end is playing tight coverage and they make the quarterback hold the ball. But again, when the back end makes the quarterback hold the ball, our d-line is good enough to get there when they're supposed to get there."
On whether the Patriots are a tough team to gameplan for because they throw in new wrinkles each week: "In the NFL, everybody does that. You'd be surprised. What ends up happening, what you have to do with your own self-scout is go see what hurt us. Normally what happens is you prepare for what they do and then you have to prepare to see what plays hurt you because those plays that hurt you are going to show up again. So, you have to take care of those plays. So, that's why you go through their top plays and then you have to be able to take care of the rest."
On the fact that covering tight ends has been an issue for the defense at various points and whether the Patriots will look to exploit that: "I'm sure. I have to do a better job with that, putting our guys in a better position. And the other thing is being able to practice those looks, that was a look that we had never seen before and those are things that happen. Our rules should have covered it, they didn't, and that's my responsibility. I didn't do a good enough job making sure that that rule covered that different package, that different look."
On what makes Brady so difficult to gameplan against: "The thing about him is you can say, 'well everyone knew he was going to be a stud,' but he didn't get drafted like that. So what I think it is, is his heart. We talk about our defense and playing with heart and you see some of our guys go downfield, and that's what type of guy he is. He has a big heart. And you say, 'what does that mean?' It means he's going to get it done. Whatever it is, whatever it takes, whatever play, whatever he has to do, he's going to get it done. That's what we talk about when we talk about heart. That's what kind of individual he is. You can say all these other things but if all these other things were true initially he would have been the first guy picked in the draft. But, what it means is he's got a big heart and he developed all those things and he became what he is now because of what he has inside."
On how willing he is to change up his scheme a little bit when he's playing an offense and a quarterback that are this good: "You know what's surprising that you find out - and I thought that when I first got into the NFL - before you started doing your job, think about what you thought. Man, if I get into here these guys do it this way. And then when you get in you say man, it's not what I thought. Everybody's kind of the same.
"In our package we have everything , you carry everything, you have everything, you have to. You have man concepts, you have zone concepts , combination concepts – you already carry those. So usually when you watch tape, everything that you see other people doing you already have in your package. Now, some of the players are better at certain things than other things and you have to decide whether you can do that. And then again, we all know that you have to be able to handle 83. You've got to be able to handle 87. You've got to be able to handle 81. You've got to be able to handle 39. You've got to be alert for 84 and you better watch out for 85. And with all that being said, you better take care of 42 in the run game. So those are all the things that we're going to take care of."
On whether this will be a unique challenge for CB Joselio Hanson going against Patriots WR Wes Welker: "I think both of them, they both have a lot of heart. Jose, he came up and told us his story. He was an undrafted free agent, got cut and all those kinds of things. So you know what, Jose has heart. I can keep talking about that, but I think when I say that Jose has heart you know what I'm talking about. Wes Welker has heart too, so it's going to be a great challenge for Jose."
On how Hanson played against the Giants: "Jose played well, he did a good job. He's very experienced, he's quick, he's smart, he's tough. He's all those things, a great competitor. He's always been an underdog so you know the way he works. He has a chip on his shoulder. So, he's got heart."
