Opening Comments: "Alright, injuries – (S) Nate Allen does have a concussion, we'll just see how he does here in the next couple days. (G) Evan Mathis has turf toe and had an MRI today, so we just have to see how he does. (DE Juqua Parker) actually is getting better with a high ankle sprain, and again, we'll just take that day by day. As I mentioned last night, compliments to the Bears for the job they did, and obviously we've got room to improve here. There are things we need to work on and get better at, as coaches, starting with myself, and as players. The obvious are the turnovers and the penalties, we've got to take care of business there. Whether I agree with the penalties or don't agree with the penalties, there were some that came at crucial situations. In that turnover category I put in the fake punt, which was my responsibility, I made the call. They gave us what we thought they would give us and that was two uncovered players on the outside, and we just came up short on the throw. The last thing is getting off the field on third downs, and staying on the field on crucial third downs, ones that we needed. We had an opportunity, when it was all said and done, to have the ball in our hand at the end of the game with three-plus minutes to go, and we didn't take advantage of that. A touchdown wins the game and we didn't capitalize there like I wanted to."
On whether he thinks the Eagles are a soft team: "No."
On why the team hasn't been able to come back in key parts of the game: "Some of it's penalties, putting ourselves in a bad situation, and other parts are making sure that we get the right plays in to allow the players to execute. It's a team effort."
On what it speaks to that the team keeps losing fourth quarter leads: "That we've got to do a better job in the fourth quarter."
On whether he's seen the necessary anger out of his players following this game, and whether he feels like they're angry at this point with being 3-5: "I think they're disappointed, as the coaches are."
On whether we are beyond the point where you can point to the lack of an offseason and the number of changes that the organization has gone through as the reason why the team is 3-5: "I've never used that, to be honest with you. We're doing what everybody else is doing; it was all fair game for all of the teams. We all had the same situation and so we've got to play better, that's the bottom line."
On whether he is compelled to get CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie playing better or to get CB Joselio Hanson into the game more: "Obviously, we've used Jose a bit in there too, and then on the other hand, with Dominique, he's going to continue to get better, and he's working hard at it. It's a little different when you move from the outside to the inside, and he'll keep working on it."
On whether he thinks Rodgers-Cromartie is playing well: "He's going to keep working on it."
On what needs to be done in practice to get Rodgers-Cromartie comfortable with playing inside: "We'll just keep giving him reps on it."
On why WR DeSean Jackson has only had eight catches over the last three game: "For the deep game, they've done that, they've rolled to him. Last night you saw them bang him around a little bit, from outside and inside, anytime his split was tight, so we need to do a better job of putting him in positions to make plays, and we'll get that done."
On Jackson being targeted eight times and why he hasn't been pulling in those passes: "Well, sometimes he's covered. Sometimes he's covered, and then you go to the next guy."
On whether there is something he can do as a coach to help the team hold a lead or come back, or whether it has to come from the players: "Listen, we can all do better. I'm telling you, we can all do better. We can put guys in different positions to make plays on both sides of the ball and special teams, and we've got to do that."
On why the Eagles receivers could not get open against the 28th ranked pass defense in the league: "Well, we got open a couple times. You don't get as many yards as we do throwing the football by not getting open, but we've just got to do it more consistently and do a better job there. Give credit to the Bears, they had a good game plan against us."
On what happened to the pass rush: "What they did was they held seven people in to protect, just about every play, turned it into a three man game on the outside, and so whether you're blitzing or four-man rushing, it's tough to get there when they're holding all those people in. So, you've got to really make sure that your coverage patterns are taken care of."
On whether that situation called for more blitzing: "Well, (Defensive Coordinator) Juan (Castillo) mixed it, and when you don't blitz, they only have three receivers out, so it allows you to even keep the coverage a little tighter there."
On whether he thinks it is possible that Jackson is playing "safer" because he doesn't have a safety net beyond this season: "I don't think so."
On whether the discussion he had with Rodgers-Cromartie on the sideline affects his standing on the team: "Listen, he was frustrated and upset. It was a matter of just calming down and then finding answers, and that's really what took place. It's an emotional game, that's how this game is played, there's going to be a little emotion involved."
On whether Rodgers-Cromartie was pointing at his teammates: "He wasn't pointing at the teammates."
On whether he wishes his defense played more like the Bears defense: "Well listen, I know we played pretty good defense the last couple games. There are some things that we will take care of here. Again, credit to the Bears."
On how S Jaiquawn Jarrett played: "You know what, he did pretty good. He's got some things he's got to work on there, but I thought for the most part stepping in with a limited amount of reps, I thought he did a pretty good job."
On whether he played DE Brandon Graham as many snaps as he thought going into the game or more than he wanted to: "He played about what we wanted. What we were trying to do was give him three plays at a time, and then just keep track of him on the sideline, see how he was feeling. I think he came out feeling pretty good. He got the wind knocked out of him there at the end, but came out okay."
On how he felt Graham played: "You know what, I thought he did some good things. There's a bit of rust he's got to knock off, but he did some good things."
On whether he was happy with Offensive Coordinator Marty Mornhinweg's play-run ratio in the second half: "Yeah, I was."
On whether the offense is stumped on how to spring a big play against two-deep safeties: "I know you looked at the game, so you saw that they played quite a little bit of single-safety middle, and then mixed in a little bit of two-deep."
On whether he is saying that when the team sees the single-safety middle that's when they should hit on a big play: "You can hit on big plays versus all the coverages; we've just got to make sure we do a better job there."
On whether he sees opposing defenses respecting the run against the Eagles more than they have in the past: "Might be why they played the single-safety a little bit, especially on first down."
On whether he sees any hesitancy on QB Michael Vick's part to take a shot at the big play or whether it is a question of the protection, having time for the play to develop: "I wouldn't say he's hesitant, he wants to make sure he has a clear look at it, and normally if you're taking a vertical shot on a deep safety, than you're going to need a little time to do that, so you've got to work that intermediate game and be good with that. I've got to do a better job of putting him in position to do that, you know, give him more opportunities to do that."
On whether he can explain, from his perspective, how the Eagles got to where they are not at this point in the season: "I've told you, it's the turnovers, it's penalties. I don't feel people are necessarily stopping us, that we're stopping ourselves, and we've got to take care of that. Right now that's what you can control, and so you go to work and make sure that you get that taken care of. And when we do those things, when we don't have the penalties, whether they're right or wrong, whether we agree with them or don't agree with them, or when we have turnovers, when we don't do those things, we're a pretty good football team. In fact, we're a really good football team."
On whether Jackson's fumble on the punt return was an example of a player trying to do too much, and whether he should have just gone out of bounds: "Well, we've said that before and then he's broken some, so, you know, he's going to try to make something happen, and that one didn't work. That was a negative play."
On whether it is safe to say that maybe he took on too much with all of the new pieces and changes that had to be crammed in over a short period of time: "I don't worry about all that, welcome the challenge, right? So I don't worry about all that. I've seen this football team play good football, and we're going to get this thing right and continue to play good football, and that's the approach I'm taking."
On whether he is waiting on Mathis' MRI: "No, MRI is done, we had an MRI today. So he's got slight turf toe, there are a couple little muscles in there that are stretched, but mainly turf toe."
On whether Mathis will practice tomorrow: "I think he'll struggle to practice tomorrow."
On whether there is too much talent on this team to be at 3-5 right now: "Well listen, I know how good we can be, and so as coaches and players we need to make sure that we do this consistently and become more consistent and so that's my responsibility to get it done, and that's the way we'll approach it tomorrow."
On who will play left guard if Mathis wasn't able to practice: "We'll see. I'll talk to (Offensive Line Coach) Howard (Mudd) here today and we'll see how we do. You saw (T) King (Dunlap) (would have) went in last night."
On whether he has been following Arizona Cardinals QB Kevin Kolb this year: "Yeah, I've followed him, I've followed him. He didn't play this past week, but I have followed him throughout. He's doing a good job."
