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Q. Will RB Ryan Mathews be back today?
PAT SHURMUR: He's getting better. He's making progress. We'll have to see.
Q. Has Mathews cleared the concussion protocol?
PAT SHURMUR: He's going through the process and making good progress.
Q. How did QB Sam Bradford look on film? He has not had a turnover in 14 quarters. Why is that?
PAT SHURMUR: Well, I think he's playing better each week. I keep saying it each week and I think he had another really fine game. He had one noticeable overthrow to [TE Zach] Ertz just into the second half there, but for the most part, he executed really well. He did a lot for us in the run game which sometimes goes unseen. And at the end there, the throw to [WR Riley Cooper] Coop, we needed to get the first down to hopefully end the game there. He stepped up, made a really fine throw with a little bit of pressure in his face, and there are a lot of elements to that play that were good, but it started with him.
Q. Who do you consider to be the No. 1 running back on this team?
PAT SHURMUR: We have a group of running backs that we feel good about putting in the game all the time.
Q. But if you look, for instance, before last week, RB DeMarco Murray, every game he played in, he took the majority of the snaps. It seemed he would be the No. 1 running back in those situations.
PAT SHURMUR: I think that's the way people line it up outside the building. We're very, very confident when he's in there running the football, and he's actually had more snaps, right, than the other three guys combined over the course of the season. But I've said this all along, though: You've got to look at involvement and production over the course of the season. Some games, you get a handful more. Some games, you get a handful less. And we felt like we were getting good production from the other guys. So inside out, we don't -- it's not that big a deal to us who is in there right now.
Q. Has Murray expressed any displeasure to you with his workload?
PAT SHURMUR: No. Nope.
Q. You said it's not a big deal to you guys. Is it a big deal to him?
PAT SHURMUR: I don't know. That's a question for him.
Q. There seemed to be a handful of plays, maybe even more, that it looked like you guys had false starts that were not called. Did you kind of see that?
PAT SHURMUR: Well, I don't know about that. There are times when you're on the road in a loud environment where we are going silent cadence. We've got to clean some of that up. Now, whether or not they were or not -- you know, sometimes a guy will jump, let's say a tackle, for instance, may get a little quicker start than it appears the guard, but he's actually going with the ball. Maybe the guard is a little slow. So the naked eye may not quite pick it up the way the guy looking right down the line sees it or certainly what we see on tape.
Q. T Jason Peters was saying how blocking for the smaller guys like RB Darren Sproles and RB Kenjon Barner, you don't have to hold your block as long. For someone like DeMarco, who perhaps is waiting a little more for a play or to shoot a gap, etc. that is slower developing --
PAT SHURMUR: I think I understand your question, but no, that's not the case. You have to block to the whistle for all of them. A guy that may bounce around a little bit more, he may be showing up someplace you don't expect him, where a guy that kind of hits the crease and hits it through there, you still have to finish your block.
Q. You don't think it takes longer to block for DeMarco than it would be for some of these slashers?
PAT SHURMUR: No.
Q. This is kind of a different situation because DeMarco led the NFL in rushing last year and got a big contract and had expectations. At what point do you have to pull a guy aside and say look -- he was 26 carries a game last year. At what point do you have responsibility to say 'Look, this is the situation,' explain it to him?
PAT SHURMUR: I think what you've got to look at is we won a football game the other night against a really fine opponent and he contributed in the game and I think that's the reality of it. There should be some joy in that at least for a few hours until we get back to Philly from our flight from Providence, I think we play all the running backs, we all know that. Sometimes guys will play a handful of snaps more than --
Q. I understand that, but at what point -- I this i.e. was out --
PAT SHURMUR: You're talking about expectations?
Q. He was out there for 14 snaps, he played 14 snaps. At what point do you guys feel it's the right thing to do to say, 'DeMarco, here is the situation. Here is why you didn't play that much'?
PAT SHURMUR: You just play the guys and put the guys in the game that will help us win the football game. And like I said, we feel good about all the guys being in there. And so --
Q. Three months into the season, what's your evaluation of the way DeMarco has performed this year?
PAT SHURMUR: We are going to do everything we can to get ready to play Buffalo and he's contributing -- he helped contribute to a win the other night, just like the three weeks prior, we all contributed to losing. But we found a way to win against a really fine opponent the other night, and everybody that was -- all the 46 guys that were in the game and competed helped us do it, period. Beyond that evaluation, I don't know why it matters.
Q. Why didn't WR Miles Austin work out here?
PAT SHURMUR: I think some of it becomes -- some of the other guys we have on the roster we want to see. But Miles contributed. He was a positive influence around here. We all know that there are situations when rosters change and we wish him the best.
Q. What changed as far as like your feeling about DeMarco going from a guy who was pretty much the primary back getting most of the carries to a guy --
PAT SHURMUR: Well, he still is the guy getting -- I think he's got -- the three guys combined don't have as many snaps as he has. So we're talking about a one-game -- we're talking about a one-game deal, right?
Q. So is it possible then you're saying that you could go back to having DeMarco taking the bulk of the carries?
PAT SHURMUR: We are going to come out here and train and get ready to play Buffalo and we are going to put the guys on the field based on how they train and how we match up against Buffalo that are going to give us the best chance to win the football game. It's not coach speak or cliché. That's the reality.
Q. I know as you prepare for the Bills, you see all of their game tape. But can you get additional information from somebody like QB Mark Sanchez who faced Bills Head Coach Rex Ryan's defense every day in practice for so long with the Jets?
PAT SHURMUR: Every time we play an opponent -- we've all changed teams a great deal, players and coaches. So every time you play an opponent that has history with the team, we have some players that were there, we have coaches that were with Rex. So we get information in ways that are natural and normal, so, yeah.
Q. On the day of the Bills RB LeSean McCoy trade, what was your reaction?
PAT SHURMUR: The day of the McCoy trade?
Q. When you first found out you were trading LeSean McCoy.
PAT SHURMUR: You move on. He was an outstanding player here for a very long time. I like LeSean. I wish him the best, because I genuinely liked him. And he just happens to be playing against us this week. I'm sure he'll be motivated to play well. When I see him before the game, I'm going to shake his hand and wish him well, and typically when you meet somebody before the game that you're competing against, you wish them good health and that's about it.
Q. How did WR Jonathan Krause do in his first extended action? Will he get the reps that Miles was getting?
PAT SHURMUR: Good. He'll be in the mix. He'll be in the flow with the other receivers that are up. He had his first catch in an NFL game, caught a shallow cross, and for the most part did what he was supposed to. I think he'll get better with more time.
Q. What has RB Kenjon Barner done to give you faith to give him those carries at the end of the game?
PAT SHURMUR: We've seen it on the practice field. He's trained well and he's got juice in there where he'll hit it and he can run really fast, and any time he's got the ball in his hands, we feel like he can score a touchdown.
Q. So will Krause be the guy that rotates with WR Riley Cooper, and WR Josh Huff and WR Nelson Agholor will still rotate?
PAT SHURMUR: There will probably be a less defined rotation there but we'll try to get them all in the mix. Some of it will depend on how much we play with two tight ends, three wides. You saw the other night, we played a couple snaps with three tight ends and then we played a couple snaps with four wide. So it just depends, and again, we'll just have to have it reveal itself after we play Buffalo how we are going to play them.
Q. What did you think of the pass protection, especially in comparison to the previous two games?
PAT SHURMUR: I thought it was good. I thought those guys battled. I think you saw the benefits of all five guys playing the same spot throughout the game. [T] Lane [Johnson] didn't have to move from right-to-left. I think Lane played one of his finest games. I thought [C Jason] Kelce directed us well. I thought for the most part, the right side did a really good job working together. That starts the process for Sam to be able to have a good night throwing the ball and I thought they battled hard.
Q. Is Nelson progressing at the rate you expected him and wanted him to?
PAT SHURMUR: He's getting better each day and each week. Any time a guy has an injury, whether it's in training camp or midseason, they come back from those injuries at different rates, and depending on what position you play, if you're an interior offensive lineman dragging around a bad ankle, sometimes you can play [and it] looks like better than maybe a skill player that's got to go out there and move quickly and explosively out in space. But for the most part, we feel like he's coming back well.
Q. He's a guy that it seems like he's pretty intense and this certainly isn't the rookie year he anticipated. Do you have to talk to him at all?
PAT SHURMUR: You're right. You're right. He wants to compete and he wants to do well and he wants to contribute in a positive way. He trains that way. And I think if he just keeps working, the production or what everybody might see on a stat sheet will come his way.
Q. Is he getting open?
PAT SHURMUR: He is getting open, sure. That's a really good question, yeah. He gets open and he can get open.
Q. It's simply a matter of the ball is not going in his direction then?
PAT SHURMUR: Not always. You know, there's times when we have full-field progressions where the ball will be completed to a guy open on the left where he's coming from the right or wherever he's lined up and you say, 'Well, Miles was open,' but the guy over here caught it and he's running with it. We weren't looking there first. And there are times when that's the case.
