Injury Report: "(DE) Victor (Abiamiri) and (WR) Kevin (Curtis) are making progress. Kevin will get a little work this week. He'll probably start off on the scout team doing some things, and we'll see how he feels after that. (G) Shawn Andrews is still working through the back spasms and the pain involved there. We'll just see how he does. That's a day-to-day situation. (FB) Tony Hunt had a concussion. (QB) Donovan McNabb has a chest contusion. He did have his MRI along with (RB) Brian Westbrook who has an ankle strain. Then, (TE) L.J. Smith, I don't have an answer for you right now. He's in the process of being checked."
Opening Remarks: "Again, I thought it was a solid football game, in particular, on the defensive side of the football. I thought our defense flew around. I thought the gameplans for the offense and defense and special teams were very good. There were plenty of accolades to go around. I thought it was a team effort, in particular, like I said, on the defensive side of the football. Anytime that you can sack a quarterback in the National Football League nine times, I think that's a compliment to the effort and to the scheme. At the same time that we're talking about yesterday's game, the coaches quickly have moved on to Chicago. We find ourselves with another tough opponent with a nationally televised game in Chicago against a very tough football team. That gets your attention right back on track very fast after an exciting game last night. I thought our special teams did well in a lot of areas, in particular, (P) Sav Rocca. To say a punter played his heart out, he played his heart out. I thought he did a nice job. He changed the field position, and we were able to maintain that with a good solid defense. I was proud of the offense. They were down a couple of players, and they continued to function. Could we have done better? Absolutely. (There are) a lot of things, like I said, that we can work on, on both sides of the ball and special teams."
On the severity of RB Brian Westbrook's ankle injury: "He was on crutches yesterday, and he's limping around today without the crutches, so I guess that's a positive. We'll see how he does. It's literally a day-to-day situation, and I'm sure it'll be a race to get him ready for Sunday."
On whether the MRI showed any ligament damage: "No. Not torn or damaged, but there is a strain in there, yes."
On whether it's something that can be managed: "Yeah, I think we can manage it. He'll be fine."
On whether he would consider Westbrook's injury to be long-term or short-term: "Literally it's probably day to day. We'll see how he does as we go on. He'll spend a lot of time in the training room getting himself right."
On whether QB Donovan McNabb's injury is something that could affect him in Sunday's game against Chicago: "Do I think he'll be sore this week? Yeah, he's sore today, but I think he'll progressively get better as the week goes on. We'll see how he does."
On what McNabb's MRI showed: "He has a contusion on his upper chest."
On whether RB Correll Buckhalter's level of play yesterday gives him confidence in case Westbrook has to be limited: "Yeah, I thought Buck played very well. He was one of the bright spots, I thought, on the offensive side there."
On whether he is thinking about a roster move with Westbrook and FB Tony Hunt being injured: "No. I think we'll be okay there. I think Tony will be back for sure, and then we'll just see how Brian does here."
On whether he will maintain the level of blitzing they showed in yesterday's game: "We'll do what we need to do and feel is right for each team. We'll see what this team presents and what we can do there."
On whether WR Reggie Brown had any setbacks yesterday: "No, he didn't have any setbacks. I thought it was important just to get him in the game and get him caught up with the speed of the game. He hasn't played much here over the last few weeks, and I thought he did a pretty good job there. He came out healthy, so we'll continue to increase his reps."
On whether he plans on integrating WR Hank Baskett more even with Brown coming back: "Actually, Hank, if you took all the receivers, Hank's had the most reps in the first couple of games there before this game yesterday. One thing that Donovan trusts in Hank is that if that ball is around him, he's going to catch the football. Hank had some tough catches yesterday, and he'll continue to play. If they overload one side, Hank's going to catch a lot of balls. If they favor Hank's side, then we'll go somewhere else, but there were opportunities in his direction yesterday."
On what motivates FS Brian Dawkins: "Whatever people say about his play, they can never say that he's not motivated to play. He plays all out every play. You're going to have games where things don't go quite your way and sometimes it's not always your fault. For instance, if you're supposed to have a double team on a receiver and that double team doesn't get there, it can make you look a little bit foolish, and so, he's never going to stand up to tell you that. He's just going to take it for the team and move on, but I thought he came out and he played a good football game. It wasn't just that one play. He played good solid football and it's important that he continues to do that. He's one of the leaders of that defense and of that football team."
On whether he's frustrated with TE L.J. Smith's play: "I'm not frustrated with it. I'm fine there, so we'll just continue to work him in. We dialed him up a few times yesterday and they ended up doubling him and it allowed other people to be open. He'll get his share. That's how those things go."
On whether G Shawn Andrews' back has improved since last week: "It hasn't improved much, no."
On whether the lack of improvement makes him less optimistic about Andrews playing in Sunday's game against Chicago: "No, we'll see. Backs are crazy things. I'm not very good at predicting those. I don't think anybody is. We'll just see how it goes here."
On whether Andrews may need a more serious treatment: "I don't know. We've had a few people look at him, and we're kind of going with what they tell us and treating it that way. We'll just see how he does here over the next few days."
On how G Max Jean-Gilles played: "Max did okay. Max played a pretty good game."
On whether he thinks the team is showing more determination this season than last year: "I don't know that. It's a good group."
On whether he knew that P Sav Rocca would be so good when they signed him: "He does that end-over-end kick. That's never been the issue. It was consistency with him before. I figured if we could have him hang around a while before he got too old, that he would figure it out. He works very, very hard and it all came together towards the end of last year, and that's quite a compliment to a guy. He never played football, never had a helmet on. He's our holder, our punter. (He) made a few tackles last year. Not bad."
On whether he is concerned with Andrews' mental state: "We've stayed in touch with him. We're worried about him and his back, both (offensive line coach) Juan (Castillo) and I and (head athletic trainer) Rick (Burkholder) and everybody else. We've stayed on top of that, too. He's hanging in there right now. He wants to be out there playing."
On whether this is Andrews' first time with a back injury: "No, he had back problems in high school."
On how C Jamaal Jackson has handled the loss of his brother: "He's handled it very well. The players really rallied around him. He had a decision to make, not this past game but the game before, and he chose to stay up here and play the game. He wanted to stay around his teammates and get that done, and so he did. He was able to go home and be with his family after that and make sure that he took care of business there and check on his mom and family members and his brother's wife and the four kids. I think that helped him out, and then coming back up here, he kind of got thrown back into the fire real quick. I think that keeps his mind off it a little bit, and sometimes in a situation like this, that's not a bad thing. He seemed to be back in the swing. It's pretty tough mentally for someone to be able to do that, but that's the way he is."
On whether he'll approach the Chicago game with a more conservative gameplan because of all the injuries: "Yeah, there was just a point there where we had quite a few guys down, five guys or so down, so I'll gameplan for it this week. Last week I didn't gameplan for that. I looked up and half of the offense was out, and there were just some things that we had to pull back on, but we'll make sure that we take care of that."
On how he gameplans not knowing who is going to play due to injuries: "You have a little bit of a heads up right now. You know the guys who are banged up, so you won't let yourself get in that situation again."
On whether he has a plan A and a plan B: "No. I just work certain things in the gameplan and make sure that the backup guys get a few more reps."
On whether the Steelers running game is similar to what they will face in Chicago: "Their rookie running back (Matt Forte) is really a good football player, and so they have that ability. Their quarterback (Kyle Orton) is very efficient now. He's a smart kid, very efficient and smart with the football. It's going to be a situation - I think what you're getting to is you have to take care of both the run and the pass game. You can't slight one or the other; it's going to get you."
On how CB Asante Samuel has settled into the defense: "I thought that was a beautiful play that he made yesterday. That was about as tough as they get right there and to be able to come down with the football. He's settling in well. Are there things that he can do better and work on? Yeah, there are. He's settled in, and really, the three of those guys are working very well together. They have great communication. I'm saying the three corners; all three have done a nice job."
On when Andrews' back problems started and whether his current injury is similar to past back issues: "High school and college. He had some things that started in high school. Yeah, it's similar."
