Injury Report: "[G/T] Todd Herremans is out, but doing well and making progress everyday here. [WR] Kevin Curtis, his knee acted up again here yesterday so I held him out of practice today. We'll just see if we can get it calmed down enough to where he can play. Right now it is pretty tender. Everybody else practiced and is ready to play."
Opening Remarks: "We look forward to the challenge of playing the Buccaneers. We know that their record is no sign of what kind of football team they are. It didn't take the players long to figure that out, you just put on the Washington game and you see aggressive play that they come out on both sides of the football [with]. You've got some young guys that fly and some veteran players that are playing very aggressive. All phases of their game are solid and we know they're looking for their first win and they're going to do everything possible to get that. It's our responsibility to play our best football."
On whether Curtis is listed as questionable: "Yes, questionable."
On whether WR Jeremy Maclin will start Sunday: "Maclin will start."
On whether Maclin would have started over Curtis anyways: "I had him rotating in there, yeah I did. Just until I saw where Kevin was, he was in the starting position there."
On Maclin's progression: "He's worked very hard, that's where it starts. He's a smart kid and so that's helped him. He has some good players around him and good coaches that have helped him progress. He wants to do well; you have to have that ingredient. He's worked hard on the details of route running and studying the defenses that the National Football League presents you."
On whether he thinks Maclin made a big jump in progress during his first start against the Chiefs: "It was a big jump as far as the number of reps he had, but he had been playing well before that when he had an opportunity. I would say he was able to put together a greater number of plays at a higher level than he had before just by having that opportunity to start."
On RB LeSean McCoy's improvement with ball security and quarterback protection: "He's done very well there. Again, that's a tough spot; you have to know a lot of things at that running back spot. He has done well with the protections. Not only knowing the protections, but then fundamentally against the blitz which was a question mark that we had coming in and he answered it during training camp that he was going to handle that the right way and come in with the right mentality on that. He's done that, he's maintained that and done a good job there and picking things up well."
On whether he thinks time is all that is needed for Curtis' knee to heal: "We're looking at that. Our doctors are working on that just to see what we can do to help him get better there."
On whether he is concerned at all that Curtis seems to be getting injured repeatedly: "This is different. I don't think this stems from the sports hernia part of it. I'm not worried about it I just want it get it right and he wants to get it right. There's nobody who likes to play more than him so we're going to try to get him where, we know he has great speed, where he can maintain and utilize that speed."
On QB Donovan McNabb's throwing: "I thought he had the velocity, that's where you'd start, velocity and accuracy, after and injury like that. He showed both of those traits there. I think he's ready to play and he's excited to get back out there and go."
On whether he has an idea of how many snaps LB Jeremiah Trotter will take Sunday: "I don't know. I'm going to get in the game and see how things go, if he can get a couple of plays in there and see where we go from there."
On whether McNabb will wear any protective padding Sunday: "Yeah, most likely a flak jacket."
On whether he would like to coach the Eagles for as long as the organization wants him here: "I haven't put much thought into that. I love the Philadelphia Eagles, but right now I am focused in on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to be very honest with you. I'm not even looking at that other thing."
On whether he would like to coach the Eagles for as long as the organization wants him here: "Honestly, I am focused in on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and I love the Philadelphia Eagles. You can ask me another direction on that for the third time, but that's alright."
On being in the elite company of 100-game winning coaches: "I don't think about that. I think that's very important as a head coach that you don't do that, and players and our coaches, that you stay focused on the job at hand and strive to win football games, do everything possible you can to win football games. All the other stuff takes care of itself, but that's what I'm into."
On whether he feels he won't be able to truly appreciate his accolades and achievements until his career is behind him: "I would probably say yes at this point. I don't look back on those things. I try to look forward and I not get caught up in all that. That's just not the direction that I go."
On whether he looks forward to a time when he is able to reflect on his success: "I appreciate all that too, I guess I would, I don't know that. I'm not good at predicting those things. I'm pretty simple."
On why he thinks his teams have been successful in games coming off the bye week: "I don't think there's any secret formula to it. We go back and we do our self-scout and our evaluation and so on. We've had byes at every level you can imagine, at every stage of the season. I don't see other than the common denominator of what we try to get done. I don't think that's a secret that other teams don't do. I don't think there's any reason for it."
On 3rd down defense being something that is emphasized in meetings: "There are certain things you shoot for. It comes down to focusing in on the execution of what you're doing and then what the other team is doing and make sure that you study that area which we do at every level. To say that we don't do it on first and second down would be wrong and that we put extra emphasis on third down. We do talk more on third down that those are money downs where you get yourself off the field and get the ball back into the offense's hands. I think our defense, we do a really good job of that."
On the success of their 3rd down defense being based on defensive schemes: "That's a very important down in the National Football League obviously. There's a lot of emphasis that goes into it, but the bottom line comes down to the execution and the scheme. Our players know that on that down that we have good stuff there and the coaches do a nice job with that."
