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Transcript:Mike Smith Post-Practice Interview

On the injury report:

WR Harry Douglas and RB Antone Smith didn't practice today. DT Jonathan Babineaux, TE Michael Palmer, and OG Garrett Reynolds were limited in participation. We had two out, no participation and three limited. We got a knee and an ankle with Harry and a hamstring with Tone, groin with Babineaux, shoulder with Palmer, and Garrett Reynolds a back."

On how DT Corey Peters is progressing:

"Peters is ramping up his sprints, in terms of he had no contact on Monday. We gave him some limited contact today to see how he responds to the contact. It's the only day we really have contact during the week. He's progressed. Again, he's not in football shape. That's going to be a big concern. We want to weigh that in in terms of our decision, as we go through is it this week or is it next week?  We've got 21 days to do it."

On third down being crucial on Sunday since the Falcons are good at converting and the Eagles are good at stopping teams on third down:

"If we end up being in a lot of third downs it's going to be real crucial. We try to eliminate those opportunities by getting first downs on first down and getting first downs on second down. If you don't get them on first or second down then you have to win third down. They've been very good at it. We've been very good at it. Of course, you always want to try and get the yardage to be in your favor which means you'd like it be less than five on third down. It's definitely an advantage for the offense. Our goal would be to try and get as many first downs on first and second down and try and stay out of those third downs if we can."

On how important it is to get off to fast start this weekend with the Eagles having a new defensive coordinator:

"I think it's very important for us this week. We've not started fast the last three weeks. The first three games I thought we started well, especially on the offensive side of the ball. It's going to be imperative. When you're on the road, I think it's real important to start fast. You want to try and take the crowd out of it and have people sitting on their hands instead of cheering. I think it's going to be very important. They're a fast starting team historically the way that Coach Reid puts together his scripting of the first fifteen plays. They're usually fast paced. They've done a very good job in scoring in the first quarter, historically. I don't think this year it's been as good as it's been in the past though."

On there being extra energy with the team coming off the Bye week:

"I think the guys have had an opportunity to recover physically and mentally. It's been ten weeks of games plus two weeks of training camp before we started playing games. They came back and had a spirited practice on Monday. We had yesterday off and I thought today was good. We got to get better on the execution in terms of our preparation, but I thought the energy and the effort was outstanding."

On how helpful CB Asante Samuel can be to QB Matt Ryan and the offense about the Eagles defense:

"I think he can give us some insight on the players, not necessarily the scheme. He was in that scheme for one season defensively. There's a potential that it's going to change. He can tell you about the receivers. He's gone up against them all the time in one-on-ones. He can probably tell us about the DB's and he has. We're going to try and get as much information as we can. We try and be as collaborative as we can be. We'll take all the information in that we can."

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