On whether he knew that Saints RB Mike Bell would be such a big part of their running game: "He's an NFL player that runs extremely hard and you'd expect nothing but that from the New Orleans Saints. Any running back that they put on the field, whether it's [RB] Reggie Bush, [RB] Pierre Thomas – they have three or four quality running backs right there."
On whether the Saints having three or four quality running backs adds to his preparation for the game: "Yeah, it keeps me up at night, I know that."
On what he thinks Jim Johnson would have said to him after the game last Sunday: "He probably would have slapped me on the back and said, 'Good job, now let's see what you can do next week.'"
On what his blitzing philosophy will be this week: "We want to be aggressive, and that's who we are as a defense, that's who we are as an organization and that won't change. That doesn't mean we have to blitz every play. Again, we'll have a calculated aggressiveness on every play and try and put our players in a position to execute and make football plays."
On how Saints QB Drew Brees has a three-step drop that makes it hard for the defensive line to get to him: "It's a timing-oriented offense. We have to affect the timing in the passing game, and yet we can't overlook the quality of the running game, as you mentioned earlier in here. We have to stop the run first; going down there in 2006 we didn't do a good job of that. It all starts with their running game and it all starts up front."
On what Brees does best: "You're talking about one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League and I don't know if there is one thing that he does best. He has quite a few strengths. Right at the top of the list I would say that he manages the game, number one; he gets them in and out of the huddle – and the tempo of the football game, and so that puts stress on the defense and we have to be ready for that."
On whether it is difficult for the linemen and the linebackers to have to make sure to stay on their run keys and not get taken by surprise: "Sure, any time that you have a multi-dimensional offense that not only runs the ball but throws the football off play action, those players and linebackers and second and third level players, [defensive backs] have to be aware of where their eyes are and what their feet are doing on the snap."
On how you go about practicing that: "It comes down to fundamentals and knowing what it takes to execute your job at your position. We call it skill isolation and in order to execute your job at the level we need you to execute at."
On whether the Saints use TE Jeremy Shockey the same way the Giants used him: "He's a very effective football player. The way he played that first week does remind me of the Jeremy Shockey we saw in New York for years with [Saints head] Coach [Sean] Payton [when he was the offensive coordinator for the Giants]. That's certainly a considerable threat that we have to deal with."
On whether there is a certain way to blitz Brees: "He does a great job, that's one of his strengths that we talked about earlier here, what I had in mind. You hit the nail on the head, he has great feet in the pocket and he does a tremendous job of keeping his eyes down the field to find receivers. So, we have to find a way to affect that and then have tight coverage at the same time."
On how much fun it was for him to implement his wrinkles into the defense last week: "The fun part was, as a football coach, to see the players execute and then have fun out there. You take a tremendous amount of pride, and I took joy in watching our players have fun out there and play aggressive, emotional, intense football. That, to me, is what coaching and teaching is all about."
On the depth the Saints have at wide receiver, and whether there is one receiver in particular that makes him nervous: "The whole offense makes me nervous. More specifically, to answer your question, they do a great job of spreading the ball around to numerous different receivers. Not to discredit any one receiver or two receivers that they have, but he throws the ball to a spot and whatever body in that black and gold jersey is standing there, at that particular time, in that situation is on the money, and his accuracy is unbelievable."
On whether he feels like WR Marques Colston is the same type of receiver as Plaxico Burress: "You could put him in the same category as Plaxico or [WR Larry] Fitzgerald from the Cardinals. The tool-set and the skill-set is similar."
On how he brings his players and the defense back to reality after such a great defensive performance against Carolina last week: "It's important that we are a different defense in week two than we were in week one. The defense in week one will not be good enough to beat the crowd that we will face this week. We have to be a changed defense, a defense that has improved from week one to week two. What I'm getting at here, is that there is a developmental aspect to the overall process here, that we continue to develop fundamentally, scheme-wise and personnel-wise. We have some young players, that they continue to develop on and off the field."
On the big plays the linebackers made last week against Carolina, and whether he thinks it's important that that carries over into the New Orleans game: "Big plays are part of any good defense and it's important again that we put our offense in a position to score; that means turnovers. Any time you have six or seven turnovers, whatever we had, you give your offense a chance to score, and at the end of the day, as I mentioned last week, that's what we are here to do."
On whether he knows exactly how to use LBs Omar Gaither and Chris Gocong because he was the linebackers coach when they first got to Philadelphia: "Our staff does a great job. [Linebackers coach] Bill Shuey, you mentioned the linebacker group, and right on down the line, [defensive line coach] Rory Segrest, the defensive line, and DB coaches do a tremendous job. Those guys deserve the credit. They put the players in a position to execute the scheme and the players made the plays."
On whether there is a different intensity among the defense this week knowing that the offense might be without QB Donovan McNabb: "From a team aspect and a team approach, the way we approach things here at the Eagles, is whoever is on the field, we support one another. What we worry about as a defense is how we are going to perform. If you start worrying about the other side of the ball, then you get your tail kicked on your side of the ball and we don't want to hold up our end of the deal here."
On whether using the cornerbacks in a more aggressive way puts more stress on the safeties: "We try and be aggressive wherever we can. You mentioned press, that's certainly one way to affect the timing. That at times can put pressure on the safeties, yes, depending on the scheme and the situation."
On how he thinks the safeties graded out against Carolina: "They did a nice job. You're talking about an older, experienced player, and a leader of the football team in [S] Quintin Mikell, and then a younger player, as I mentioned earlier, in [FS] Macho Harris, who I thought did a nice job for his first start. Again, going back to it's important that not only he, but all of us, coaches included, continue to develop and improve on a week-to-week basis."
On how he rotated the defensive line against Carolina, and whether that is something that he will continue to do: "We want fresh bodies in whatever position that might be. That's part of the equation, the formula for success on a weekly basis."
