On C Jason Kelce: "Yeah, I just saw Kelce. I have not met with the doctors or trainers, but I saw Kelce in the hallway. He's going to have sports hernia surgery. I don't know how long he'll be out for, but I'll get that when I meet with the doctors and trainers later on this afternoon. But I just saw Jason a couple minutes ago in the hallway."
On whether he thinks his team is too tired after practice, based on CB Cary Williams's comments: "No, and I know we ask our guys to run a lot during practice. I met with Cary a little while ago. He came in on his own today to visit with him. I think he was frustrated, and I understand that. Cary's a competitor, and I have no issues with that."
On whether he thinks his players are buying into his system like they once were: "Yeah, we assess everybody. We assess everybody daily. So they all tell and we monitor every player daily, so it's all done on an individual basis. You'll see some guys that aren't going full on a day, and other guys that are going full. It's all done on an individual basis. We take care of everybody from that standpoint."
On whether age factors into addressing players: "Yeah, we factor everything in. We look at every player as an individual. So what we do with [LB] Trent Cole is different than what we do with [LB] Marcus Smith, what we do with [LB] DeMeco Ryans is different than what you do with [LB] Casey Matthews. Every player on a daily basis with the strength coaches when they get here in the morning, we sit down with every guy, and [ask] where are you, what do you need, what is it? Is it a hamstring? Is it a hip? Is it a shoulder? Everybody is different, and there are a wide variety of ages. You have guys in their 30s, but you have guys fresh out of college. So we're aware of that, and that's how we've always handled it."
On whether the second half success is related to the way the team practices: "I think that's part of it. I think part of it is we haven't gotten off to a great start either. So I think it's a combination of both."
On why Williams said he was frustrated: "I think he's frustrated. Cary's just a competitor, and he always wants to play a perfect game. He always wants to make a perfect play. I think he'll tell you, he just got frustrated.
On whether it bothers him that Williams went to the media with the complaint: "No. You guys are everywhere. It really doesn't, so, that's the world we live in. I told him he can come talk to me. But I think he knows that. I think he also understands in some places you can't talk to the coach. My door is always open. Anybody can come talk to me."
On the production from the running game, whether it was because of the offensive line or the Washington defensive line: "It was kind of both. I think they were a lot closer to the line of scrimmage than a lot of teams that faced us. But obviously if you do that, you open up some things in the passing game. When we got down there at the end, the only starting lineman we had left was [G/T] Todd Herremans who is actually playing another position. Todd ended up out at tackle at the end of the game. You talk about always getting the same guys on the same page and continuity and all those other things, and there are a lot of different people thrown in there. But give Washington credit. They did a really nice job up front. I said that going in. I thought that front seven that they had was going to be a really big test for us, and it was."
On what the team's game plan looked like because of Washington's front seven: "I think we always have a game plan based upon how people play us. So if you're going to try to take one aspect away, hopefully we have enough where we can do something somewhere else, and there are going to be games, and I said it the other day, there are going to be games where the receivers are in the forefront. There are games where the running backs in the forefront. There are going to be games where the tight ends are in the forefront and it's really what you hope and what we do have is we feel we have weapons at each position that if we get into those situations you just can't say and I've been there before, where you say if we take this away or that away, we lose because we don't have another option. I think right now we have other options."
On the team's plan to deal with the injury to Kelce: "I haven't gotten the how long. So that is the biggest thing. I don't know until I talk to [head athletic trainer] Chris [Peduzzi] and [head team physician Dr. Peter] DeLuca exactly how long [C] Jason [Kelce] will be out. So there haven't been any discussions with what we're doing there."
On the level of comfort with offensive lineman Wade Smith at center: "Yeah, Wade's taken some snaps there. He was our third center on Sunday. So he was the next center if we had something with [C] Dave [Molk]. So, again, I don't know anything else besides just running into Jason in the hallway, so I don't have a timetable on anything to be able to say this is our next step in terms of where we're going to go with this."
On the level of concern with the offensive line: "I don't have a level of concern. Just tell us who we've got that is available to play and let's go play."
On what C David Molk has shown him: "He's a competitor. I think he's extremely quick off the ball; he really gets into the defender very quickly. He'll fight you. He's a tough, competitive guy in there and he'll scrap and give you everything he's got. So in the games he's gotten in, whether it be at guard or at center, I think he's really competed when he was out there."
On whether he believes Molk will get better as the year goes along: "Yeah, that's the expectation. I think you're all a byproduct of your experience, so the more chances he gets out there on the field, the better he should be."
On how Molk is in terms of communication on the line: "Molk's good. He's not Jason right now just because he doesn't have the experience in our system. Molk's only been here a year, and Jason was here longer and through the whole system a year. So obviously, Jason's ahead of him from that standpoint. But Molk's a smart football player and understands what's going on out there."
On how Kelce makes the calls on the offensive line: "Every center makes all the calls. That is what our system is built on."
On how communication with Molk was: "We didn't have any issues when Molk got in the game, and our system is driven that way. Our center makes the calls in terms of setting the front and making the directions in terms of where we're going and that's how they're all trained. When the first guy is down, the second guy has to take over."
On Sproles' not carrying the ball after his first-half fumble and if there was a relationship there: "No, not at all. It was just one of those days. We really did not do a good job. We were struggling running the football, so it wasn't one of those things. We threw the ball to him. He had a big catch for us, and back across the middle. So it was never anything where it was, hey, let's take him out because he fumbled the ball and we're not going to let him run it again. No question about it. He made a great move. Popped into secondary. We were moving the ball down the field. Ball got away from his body a little bit. Got hit from behind and put it down on the ground."
On whether Williams was expecting help on DeSean Jackson's 81-yard touchdown: "Yeah, we should have had post safety help on that. But he also said he should have, and at least the way he explained it to me, he also said he should have made the tackle. So he wasn't trying to make excuses that it got into the end zone, but he was expecting we should have a post safety on that play."
On whether the offensive line affects what the offense prepares for going into a game: "Yeah, it's always that. It's a combination of what are we able to do, what do we have the skill set to do and what are we good at, but then how are they defending you? It's always the same. It's a combination of the two. You say, hey, we're going to be a big sweep team this week because both guards are up and do they do a great job pulling and getting to the perimeter. But if both those guards are down and hurt, maybe it changes it and that play doesn't make it into the game plan that week. But in terms of the run-pass and who is open and some of those things, sometimes that depends on are you facing man or are you facing zone? That's where some of that stuff comes in."
On linebacker Mychal Kendricks: "I haven't seen Mychal today. I know he was out last week, and I know it's a muscle, so I don't know how long it's going to be. He tried to do some things last week and obviously didn't get out and wasn't a full participant. Was out every day in practice. So we'll see how it goes this week. It will still be a day to day thing with him."
On running back LeSean McCoy's production this year in the face of extra defensive pressure: "I think it's different how they're playing us this year. We've seen different looks in terms of the three games we've played this year compared to last year. I think LeSean's doing everything possible. Again, if that's how you're going to do it, and we're going to end up with 30 whatever points a game and continue to be productive on the offensive side of the ball, it's ultimately that. But also you're down four linemen that you had that were running in front of them last year too. So I think sometimes when we're running the play, there is a lot better push at the point of attack, and that doesn't have anything to do with the running back from that standpoint. It's kind of what it is right now."
On the difference in the way teams have defended the offense and McCoy: "Some teams we've seen it changes from game to game. In Jacksonville we saw more zone than we ever saw. In the game last week [against Washington] they started off in zone and went to all man. They stayed in base front even though we were usually trying to get nickel personnel in there and 11 [personnel and] they stayed in base front. Lot of people play us more nickel, they decided to play us in base. So if you're going to play us in base, it's difficult to cover the pass. So it's picking what they want to do."
On trying to get running back Chris Polk more touches upon his return: "We were just happy to get Chris back. I think we were excited about him. He had a great offseason for us in OTAs and in minicamp. He was a guy we were excited about, and then he went down. I don't know if it was the second or third day of camp and then he was out. He wasn't even active for the first game. So I'm happy to get him back. He's had a couple good weeks of training here. When we talked about it, [special teams coordinator Dave] Fipp was one that said, hey, I think maybe we can try Chris as a returner. We had trained him there last spring but really never got a chance to do any of that in camp because he was hurt. So it was just a matter of getting him acclimated and getting him back in. Then obviously the way we were running the ball yesterday wasn't a situation where we were thinking, hey, let's get another running back in there, because we didn't get many touches from Darren either, so it was just one of those days. But obviously when Chris has had a chance to get the ball in his hands, he's been productive for us."
On linebacker Marcus Smith playing at inside linebacker and his performance: "Yeah, it was new to him. He just started practicing there. Got three days under his belt, and I thought he was solid in terms of what he did. He did a nice job a couple times covering the tight end. Once he got stuck on the tight end there in the shallow cross, he did a really nice job on it. So for the limited exposure he had at the position, the ability to go in and play 16 snaps and kind of hang in there, he did a really good job. Now how do we build upon that? Obviously, because of where we are at inside linebacker and not knowing what Mychal's situation is, we'll have to train him there again at least at the beginning of this week and see where Kendricks is in terms of bringing him along."
On whether the defense is getting enough pressure: "You always want to get the sacks, but I think we hit their quarterback. [LB] Trent [Cole] hit him four times. You always wish you had more production. You know, it's the same thing. But I think sometimes when you look at just the sheer stats, you can say, hey, you're not getting enough production. You know, if you look at the end of the day and look at the stats on the other side and say we didn't have any sacks. We didn't give up any sacks, but they certainly hit our quarterback and got to him. Sometimes you get there and sometimes you don't get there. But can you get him off his spot and change where he's throwing the football and can you cause an incompletion. That's just as good at times as getting the sack and getting the quarterback down."
On trying to get CB Brandon Boykin on the field more, even though he is, in the Eagles' system, a starter: "Right now we're looking at that as a starting spot, and that's how it looks in terms of people playing 11 personnel and 12 personnel with us. So it really depends on what's going on from an injury standpoint if we were going to get him anything out wide.
On whether this was Nick Foles' best game: "This year? Oh, overall in playing this year and the 10 last year? I think the Raiders game wasn't too shabby. It set an NFL record."
On this game being tougher than the Oakland game last season: "Yeah, it was a tougher game. He was in a fight out there. It was obviously a different opponent, a different thing. It just depends on what you're looking for. I think it was his best game, and that is the one thing I've seen with Nick and saw it last year, he got better, I thought he got better each week. I thought he got better from game 1, to game 2, to game 3. So we're excited to go see what he can be like in game 4."
On G/T Matt Tobin seeing playing time as he gets healthy, and where: "Where are we looking for him to help? Anywhere. Right now, up front? We don't have a lot up there, so we have I don't know what the rest of the situation is, but we'll is sit down and see where he is and where he fits in. But he can play a couple multiple positions. It's just we haven't met on it. We just watched game film as a staff, and haven't met on where we're going with San Francisco. But we'll go from there."
On his opinion of the [Chris] Baker hit: "It's a penalty."
On whether he thinks it warranted more than a penalty: "I don't control that so I don't worry about that. But it was a penalty. No question about it. You can't hit a defenseless player. The referee called it the right way, and he was ejected from the game."
On concern over T Jason Peters being suspended for throwing a punch: "I haven't heard anything, but I don't think so. I don't know if they do that."
On the coverage issues in the secondary against Kirk Cousins: "Yeah, obviously, I think credit goes to him. I thought he played an outstanding game. And the biggest thing was we gave up too many X plays. We didn't get a post safety help on one of the touchdown passes, we got beat on the out and up on a 3rd and 1, and [defensive coordinator] Billy [Davis] said it. Billy said blame the call on the screen pass, and we didn't really rally down to the play on the big things. So we were keeping the ball in front of us. It was a real dink and dunk game, and if it's going to be that type of game, you have to keep the ball in front of you and do a better job tackling in space. But the biggest concern was there were five X plays where we got the ball thrown deep, and we can't allow that to happen."
On whether he thinks defending a quarterback is an exception to his opposition to fighting: "No, I don't look at it that way."
On what running back LeSean McCoy had to go through in terms of concussion protocol: "It's concussion protocol so they just tell me literally the guy is up or the guy is down. So I don't say, hey, what happened in terms of the independent. I don't even know who it is nor should I know who it is. They just tell us if guys can go or can't go. If they say they're out, they're ruled out. Until they get cleared through the concussion protocol what it is. I don't have the detailed part of it just because I probably wouldn't understand it, so I have enough stuff running around in my head that I don't have to worry about what the protocol is. Tell me if he's cleared and they came back and said he was cleared. But there is an independent doctor that has to clear him to play, and the independent doctor cleared him to play. Who that is and how that takes place, I don't really know. I don't have the ins and outs of that."
