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News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

Clinton Portis Post-Game Press Conference

On his second TD vs. the Eagles:

"I think that play was designed for a two-yard loss. If the guy would have tackled me, it would have been a two-yard loss but fortunately, a spin move and he disappeared and all I saw was day light."

On winning the last 5 games to make the playoffs:

"It was a team effort. At 5-6, everybody wrote us off. We started out 3-0 and people jumped on the bandwagon. You turn around and we're 5-6 and everyone jumped off the bandwagon. It was right back to last year. As a team we came together. Coach called a meeting and asked the guys what they wanted to do and guys told him to put it on our shoulders. Don't put it on the defense because we have offensive guys over here to make plays: Santana, Chris Cooley, Mark, Robert Royal, Mike Sellers, and the list goes on. Ever since then, Coach gave us the opportunity to go out there and make plays and guys have been making them."

On the defense forcing three turnovers against the Eagles:

"The defense is always putting us into good situations. We never took anything away from our defense. We have guys like Sean Taylor, Marcus Washington, LaVar, Phillip Daniels, Cornelius Griffin, Ryan Clark... you have guys that play team ball. None of them are selfish, none of them worry about themselves. It's all about the team. You stay in there and continue to plug away and eventually the Eagles will start turning the ball over and we capitalize."

On the amount of carries he gets in a game:

"If I can get 18 carries and we're up 14 or 17 points and are going to win, I'll come out of the game. I don't care about all those records and staying in for carries. Whatever it takes to win, that's what I'm trying to do. If it requires me to stay in the game and take 25-27 carries, I'm all for it. But if I can get in and get my work done and get out, I love that."

On running inside:

"I do love to run inside because it gives you the opportunity to see everybody. When you're running away at an angle, guys come up and you don't get to see the whole field. When you're running inside, your shoulders are square and you see where the linebackers fill in and you make your read. Sometimes the line is shifting. If you catch them doing that it's a big play. When everybody crashes to the middle that gives you the opportunity to make a move inside and break to the outside."

On the collar tackle from behind:

"He kind of twisted me up. One day I hope they throw a flag for that. They are going to continue to do it until I start playing dirty. I tried to get up and walk away but if they are going to continue to let guys do it, you put the rules in so throw the flag. Is it going to take ending my career because somebody blew out my knee or twisted me up to where I can't play no more before they decide that's a penalty? I don't know how many times it's going to take. Before long I'm going to get up and start kicking people."

On breaking the Redskins single season rushing record:

"That's big. That's what they brought me here for. They brought me out of the jungle after having two consecutive 1,500-yard seasons and coming here and doing it again in my second season. Last season, maybe it could have happened. After that first run, I thought I was going to have a 2,000-yard season but it didn't go that way. So I just stayed focused, kept planning in meetings, working with EB (Coach Earnest Byner) and it brought me a long way. Once I gave in to coaching and stopped feeling like I knew everything, actually talking with him and seeing how he was successful in the system and let him be a coach and do his job, it brought us to this point where I've been successful and the team is in the playoffs."

On QB Mark Brunell:

"Last year, I don't think Mark got a fair chance. Like I said all along, we never had the same starting line up which people didn't notice. We shuffled our line all year and tight ends. Once we finally got the same people playing week in and week out, Patrick was leading us. So Mark having this whole off season to work with the guys and having our whole team here brought everybody along. We all knew what we put into this off season to get to where we are today and it's paying off."

On what the conversation was in the locker room during halftime:

"We talked about packing it up tomorrow... it was either go out there and find a way to win or we'd be cleaning out our lockers tomorrow morning. I wasn't ready to clean my locker out and I don't think any of the other guys were either."

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