Injury Report: "(DE) Victor Abiamiri will be out this week. (RG) Shawn Andrews is making improvement; we will just take it day to day. He won't practice today. (WR) Kevin Curtis will practice today. We will see how he does. We'll have him run some scout team things and see how he moves around. (FB) Tony Hunt is getting better. He will not practice today. (QB) Donovan (McNabb) is making improvements and he will not practice. (TE) L.J. Smith is making improvement; he won't practice. Likewise with (RB Brian) Westbrook."
Opening remarks: "We look forward to the challenge of playing the Chicago Bears. We are very aware that their record can be very deceiving. They started off with the Colts and beat the Colts in Indianapolis. Then they went into four minutes into the 4th quarter winning against Carolina. This past week against Tampa, they were ahead by 10 points in the 4th quarter and there was a call that kind of turned that game that could have gone either way. They are a good football team. They came in here last year and they beat us. We are very aware of that. We know that we're going to have to, defensively, take care of the run and pass game. They have a rookie running back, (Matt) Forte, who was a heck of a college player and has just transferred that right over to the pro game here. The quarterback (Kyle Orton), I have a tremendous amount of respect for. He's very intelligent and very smart with the football. We're going to have to be very sharp defensively against them. Offensively, their defense flies around. They are doing some different things this year than they did last year and it has been very effective for them. We have our work cut out offensively, working against them. On special teams with (KR Devin) Hester, he is the best in the business right now. You have to be very disciplined, and at the same time, very aggressive in how you approach your special teams."
On Westbrook's improvements: "He has made really good improvement over the last couple of days. We will see. It will be a race, but we will see how he does here in these next couple of days."
On what he looks for out of Westbrook this week: "It's experience. Not on my side, but on the doctors' side and (head athletic trainer) Rick Burkholder's side. Then, Brian, who has had an ankle or two or three sprains before. They determine that and will continue to do that as we go on here."
On whether he is walking better: "Yes, he is able to walk a little bit better."
On what he knows about L.J. Smith's injury that he didn't know on Monday: "There is no structural damage, which is a good thing, because he did have the surgery back there. There is nothing that needs to be surgically repaired. That's a plus. From there, it's just a matter of his lower back area calming down enough to where he can function. It started to do that over the last couple days here. He is in a lot better shape than he was after the game."
On whether Westbrook's injury is similar to a high-ankle sprain: "He had a high-ankle sprain there before. I'm not saying this year, this was an old high-ankle sprain. When you have those and then you have another ankle sprain, it shows signs of that. Right now the symptoms are leaning less to the high-ankle sprain than it is to the high ankle-sprain."
On how much more motivation the team will have against the Bears this year after what happened last year: "I think they understand, at least the guys who were here, that you have to take care of business, whoever you are playing. We were in a very similar situation this past week against Pittsburgh. We were able to finish the game the right way. If you're in that situation, if you're fortunate enough to be in that situation, then you have to take care of business. It wouldn't change this week."
On whether QB Kevin Kolb's reps will increase during the week when McNabb comes back to practice: "If Donovan can come back, he'll be in there. Right when he's ready to go, he'll go in and take over the reps. Until then, Kevin will take the reps."
On whether he expects McNabb to be ready for the game: "We'll see. We are just taking it day by day here. I'd say that about all these guys, I can't tell you right now."
On how you gameplan when you have so many injured players: "You put together what you think is right for the personnel groups you have. We are fortunate enough to have some backup players who stepped in and did a pretty good job. It was just a matter of them having the reps they needed to play in the game there. They'll get the reps this week and then we will be able to carry on with whoever is there, we will be able to play with them."
On RB Correll Buckhalter: "I'm proud of him. He has battled. For him to look like he's back to full, full speed. Last year I thought he was right about there, especially after the New York game, I felt comfortable that he was completely back. That top-end speed that he once had when he was younger and minus the knee surgeries, I wasn't sure that that would return. It looks like it's back now. I felt that way during training camp. What he did was he dropped some weight and just conditioned like crazy. He is a very hard worker and trains very hard in the offseason."
On how important Andrews is to the offense based on the drop-off when he is out of the lineup: "I wouldn't say that that is directed at (G) Max (Jean-Gilles). Max is a very good football player. I think you're alluding to the run game. That's not why it didn't function as well. Actually, at times it functioned very well on Sunday. Shawn is a great player and there are very few guys at his position who play like he does in the National Football League. At the same time, we are very comfortable with Max in there. We would love to have Shawn back in there going, but if he can't, I think we're very fortunate to have Max, who is a very good offensive lineman also."
On what his plans are for Kevin Curtis this week: "We will see what he can do out here. It's that simple. I just have to see where he is. The rehab, obviously he did well enough to allow him to come back to practice and now we just have to see where his speed and ability to change direction, all the things he needs to play the position, are at."
On whether they plan to use him as a scout team player this week: "He'll do the scout team initially and then we'll see. A little bit like we did with (WR) Reggie (Brown) when he came back."
On Bears LB Brian Urlacher: "I think he's playing (well). All three of those linebackers, really, are playing good football. Brian is a special player. He's very talented."
On whether Bears RB Matt Forte reminds him of anyone: "Initially when I saw him, I thought he reminded me of Dorsey Levens when he was younger. He's a big running back. He's very smooth with great vision and quick feet. He delivers power when he has to deliver power, but he's not that smashing-type back that you would picture with his size. When he needs to deliver a blow, he drops his shoulder on you and does a good job of it."
On the success of the run defense: "We are as good as our last week. We have to make sure we're that good this week. You need to ask me that one after the season. I'm comfortable with what we've done the last three weeks, but right when you get where you're feeling pretty good about it, then you have a problem. I want us to continue to improve and continue to work that part of the game very aggressively. I'm moonwalking you a little bit here, but you have to stay on top of that. There is a big attitude involved in that and a lot of technique. You have to stay on top of it. If you're not, those small seems, running backs will exploit you."
