Head Coach Andy Reid
Opening Remarks: "Reggie Brown did not play with an inflammation of his Achilles. Hardy (Frantz) came out with an ankle sprain. Quintin (Mikell) came out with a slight stinger and then went back in. I saw some good things. But we put a lot of emphasis on scoring in the red zone. We need to do a better job there. Two, from a defensive standpoint, you can't have long drives like that to start the game. We have plenty of work to do. Too many penalties and we need to do a better job on special teams. There were a lot of good things that went along with it. We had a chance to see a couple players that we need to look at. Everybody had a chance to play, which is a good thing."
How did RB Lorenzo Booker and WR DeSean Jackson do in the return game? "I thought they did OK. I have to see how we blocked up front. It looked like DeSean was close, so did Lorenzo. They both looked like they had a little zip to them."
Are you concerned with the way your defense gave up that opening touchdown?"It's not the end of the world. I'm not saying that. They have a little different blocking scheme than what we do. We didn't work on it much. I think we'll be OK when we work on it. They were bouncing the ball quite a bit on us. That's not something our defense has seen. We don't do a lot of that. I think it's good for them to learn from."
How did QB Donovan McNabb play? "I thought he was solid. I thought he played really well. I liked the poise. There were so many good things that I saw, and a couple bad ones, but Donovan was a plus."
Why did you keep RB Brian Westbrook from playing? "He had to get his contract done. It was done, he just had to review it and look through it one more time. He'll be out there for the next one."
How happy are you that (Westbrook's contract) is taken care of? "I think it was great. You read the statement. I thought it was a great job on both sides of getting it done. He's such a good football player. It's great for the city of Philadelphia to have him around."
Do you expect to have WR Reggie Brown back at practice? "I do. He just has a sore Achilles. I didn't want to push the issue there."
Will CB Asante Samuel practice? "We'll see."
Where is Shawn Andrews? "He's going to come in. He had another meeting today. I haven't had a chance to talk to him, but I think he'll be in soon."
QB Donovan McNabb
On how he felt out there tonight: "I felt pretty good. First of all, we were able to get things going in the passing game. We were able to establish the run game early, which kind of softened up the defense. You're talking about one of the best defenses in the league here, even though they were missing some of their players. We were able to get things going the way we were able to in practice. This is something that we can watch the film and grow on. There were a lot of positive things happening today."
On being able to score a TD on the second drive: "We had an opportunity on the first drive, but made a couple of mistakes. We got close but not good enough. It was also good, like you said, to get there on the second drive. That's something we have to do consistently. We obviously know that last year that was our Achilles heel a little bit. The one positive thing out of that whole deal is sustaining drives, keeping the chains moving, eating up some clock, picking up some yards, and when we get down there being able to capitalize and cap it off with a touchdown."
On how good the offense can be: "It can be great if we continue to stay healthy and continue to progress. Consistency is the main thing we have to focus on. Having all our guys healthy and being full-steam ahead, we can do some great things. Seeing what we were able to do at the end of last year. We have to put it together and put it together all the time and things will work out well."
On RB Brian Westbrook signing a new contract: "I'm happy that it got taken care of early. Now we can just focus on football. There are other issues we have to focus on, and I'm sure they will take care of themselves. When you play well, you get rewarded like that and good things will happen."
CB Sheldon Brown On how important it was on the second drive to force the offense to go three-and-out: "From a defensive standpoint, it's hard to understand what the offense is trying to do to you. We understood they were trying to run the ball and we were able to get a big stop on that second series."
On whether he felt like the defense was able to accomplish what they wanted to: "Last year, a thing we struggled with was not forcing them to go three-and-out on the opening series. We struggled on that part today, but we were able to pick it up on the next two series and force them to go three-and-out."
On how good the defense can be this season: "As good as we want it to be. I don't think talent is the issue; it's about everybody mentally preparing themselves to go on a run and not be denied. Playing together and playing mentally sound football."
WR DeSean Jackson How excited were you when you first got out on the field? "It was awesome. Just the environment, it was great. It's a big opportunity to come to the NFL and play with a great team like this."
First play, a decoy play – they put you in motion. Talk about that play, and how they're already using some trick plays with you. "Just a fake reverse, trying to catch the defense off guard a little bit. Whatever I can do to help this team be successful, that's what I'm going to do."
Everybody was waiting for you to get that first hit. What was it like to finally get that sort of punishment out there? "It felt good. It's football, man, that's what I play. Nothing different – just get out there and keep making the same plays."
RB Lorenzo Booker Did you feel like you were trying to do too much on those first few plays? "Oh yeah – that's the fact. Whenever you're anxious and you want to make a play, you still have to remain calm. That's something that I was able to do all camp, but you get out there in a preseason game and everybody's pumped up, you kind of forget that. A few slips. It happens in the beginning. I'd rather it happen now than in the regular season. That's what the preseason is for, to work out the kinks."
Did you feel there's some anxiety on the offense? "No, not at all. The offensive side felt very comfortable. I can think of a couple of plays that I could have done better on, but that's what this is for, to go out there and work on some of the small things before our opener. I don't feel like there were any major mistakes, which is the bottom line. You have to walk away feeling good about that, knowing that there wasn't something where you just blew it."
Compare tonight to the first game of your rookie season. "It's not even close. I was more amped (tonight) because I know I can play in the NFL now. I've started a game in the NFL now. I've played against Ray Lewis and everybody, so I know that I can do it. Knowing that I can play against those guys, it makes you really want to show people what you're made of."
SS Quintin Mikell What adjustments did you make for the second drive? "We didn't make any real adjustments. We just talked and said, 'Everybody calm down and play our game.' We came out there and we did that. I just think we were really excited when we first came out there, and over-thinking things, which kind of happens when you haven't been playing in a game situation in a while. We've been hitting each other all day, and we're just excited to hit somebody else."
How did the fact that you'll play this team again (on September 21 in Philadelphia) affect your game planning? "I think we wanted to come out fast and play physical. I think we just over-thought it a little bit. We didn't really do a whole lot. We kind of kept it vanilla. We didn't show too much. We'll see what happens in a month."
