Interim Head Coach Emmitt Thomas
Q: Can you update us on some of the team’s injuries?
A: “Right now, we are waiting for MRIs to come back on John Abraham and Lewis Sanders. Jerious Norwood should be ready to go and that’s all we know at the present time.”
Q: Does Chris Houston have a knee injury as well?
A: “Chris will be alright. It’s a knee injury that he’s had through the season, which he bruised. He should be good to go.”
Q: What is the extent of Lewis Sanders’ injury?
A: “He has a pectoral injury and they wanted to get an MRI to see if it was torn or if he has the same thing as Dwayne Blakely has had in the past.”
Q: Is Chris Redman still the starting quarterback?
A: “Yes he is.”
Q: How tough is it for the team to allow their opponent to score so many times off of turnovers?
A: “As a staff viewing the tape this morning, we saw we had four turnovers. One went for a touchdown and then they broke a kickoff for a touchdown. When you give up 14 points (off of turnovers) to any team in the NFL, it’s really hard to win a ballgame. We have to get back to the basics and that means protecting football, running the ball like we are capable of doing and throwing the ball when the opportunity presents itself. I thought the defense played well down the stretch, but then we wilted in the end. We are going to get back to the basics in all three phases, offense, defense and special teams. We’re going to go out to Phoenix and try to get a win. Yesterday, I ranted and raved a little bit about the ‘W’s’ and ‘L’s’ and how they don’t matter because of the character issues. We addressed that to our players at halftime and I think they acted accordingly in the second half. We are going to talk to them again on Wednesday. Now we are going to go back to the drawing board, get back to the basics and try to win a football game.”
Q: What do you mean when you talk about going back to the basics?
A: “Protecting the football, blocking, tackling, taking care of you assignment and not doing anything you are not capable of doing. We have to take care of our responsibilities first and then run to the football. That’s all football is. Blocking, tackling, running and we have to get back to that.”
Q: Will having a normal week benefit the team in their preparations?
A: “I think it will, but we are not going to use that as an excuse. We get paid to be professionals. You are going to have distractions in whatever job you have and we should have been able to manage better than the way we did. That’s behind us now and we are going to look forward to playing Arizona this week.”
Q: Do you have any feeling to be concerned with the focus of the team heading into this week?
A: “I don’t think they lost focus and I think they will be focused this week. They were hurt and they wanted that game badly. You might say their emotions ran high and caused us to act out of character somewhat. We’ll be ready.”
Q: Have you ever pulled DeAngelo Hall aside and told him enough is enough with the unsportsmanlike penalties?
A: “We talked to him. He’ll come to the sideline and apologize and then he’ll go two or three games before he explodes again. I don’t want to go back in time. But when we played Carolina the first time, he really whooped (Steve) Smith in that game. But, because of his outburst, we passed it over. He really is a good football player. When you look at my career, our last three or four years, we were in the same situation. I’ve been at both ends.”
Q: Do you think players today are more in the game for themselves?
A: “No, I wouldn’t say that. I think we’ve had individual and selfish players from the beginning of sports and we’ll have them until the end. Because of the media coverage now, everything gets exposed. When we played, there wasn’t much media attention and we got away with things that these guys can’t get away with. I think these guys are good football players and good people.”
Q: What are some of the issues Arizona presents with their offense?
A: “They have an excellent veteran quarterback in Kurt Warner and he can really throw the football. They have an excellent running back (Edgerrin James) and their two receivers (Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin) are outstanding. They are both strong and powerful guys who catch the ball very well. They can run after the catch well. We think we match-up well and we’ll try to put some pressure in the pocket.”
Q: Are you going to try to get Jerious Norwood some more carries next season?
A: “We’re not looking toward next year, we’re looking forward to Arizona. We are going to start Warrick Dunn and interchange him like we’ve done all year.”
