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News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

Joe Gibbs Day-After Press Conference

On how they played defensively against the Giants:

"We felt like we played extremely hard. They gave field position to the offense which was good from the stand point that the offense took advantage of it. Our third and fourth downs were very good. Our ball disruptions, that is times that we got our hands on balls, and third downs were very good. We gave up four explosive plays we didn't like. There were three penalties in there and we gave up that TD right before half were the negatives for us. The following players got the awards for the week. Sean Taylor was all over the place, played very physical and had a heck of a ball game. Another award went to Joe Salave'a. Joe is just extremely tough, pounds people and just keeps working. He does a heck of a job for us. Lemar Marshall gets us lined up correctly got an award. He does a great job of getting people lined up in the right places, scrambling all over the place and making plays for us. Phillip Daniels again a heck of a game. Follows it with last weeks performance another outstanding game this week. He did a terrific job for us. We are not going to mess with success our last award winner is Coach (Greg) Blache because his guys just keep playing great. The guys over there gave him another award. They said his guys are doing such a terrific job and they are. Greg has just been phenomenal there with his guys and they played extremely hard. Our defensive line has done a terrific job."

On how they played on special teams against the Giants:

"We got off to a slow start. That first kickoff really hurt us, that was a negative. After that we had very good coverage we felt like. We ran hard but not as good tackling this week as what we had last week. We lost contain once and we had one penalty in there. One of the biggest plays, when you change momentum in a game it's huge, when you think about it one of the biggest plays in that game and it comes with momentum swings, it is 21-17 and they are kicking a field goal to make it 21-20. Instead we block the field goal and get a big play. The next time they put their hands on the ball its 28-17. So that is huge and a big swing for us. Our award winners there were Pierson (Prioleau), Ade (Jimoh) has been leading us over there and playing extremely well and making tackles for us. We had Khary Campbell who is outstanding on special teams for us and continues to do a good job week in and week out. Renaldo Wynn for the block. It was one of the biggest plays of the game we felt like. It was great effort. I think it says a lot from the standpoint that extra points and field goals to be truthful you can do 25 times and not get one. Then all of the sudden you make a fantastic effort and its hard to keep the effort up, then all of the sudden it is the biggest play of the game. You bat the ball and Renaldo did a great job for us. Mike Sellers led us with very physical play and we also gave him an award."

On how they played offensively against the Giants:

"On offense we felt like we had four finishes to long drives. A couple of them were big plays. We had a very good four minute drill at the end of the game for us, where we actually held the ball for quite a while. There was 4:53 and when they know you are going to run and you know you are going to run it's a big deal for us. We took advantage of turnovers which was good. We were three for three in the red zone. We had a very good third down conversion rate in this game 64%. We had some big plays in there for TD's obviously. We didn't have the average per rush that we wanted but we rushed for 156 yards which is a big deal for us. Our negatives were that we started slow in the run and didn't have a very good average all the way through the first half. We can' do that and we will emphasizes to our guys and go over the film with them and show that we must get off to a quicker start in the run game. We had one sack and one turnover for the touchdown. We only had two plays of over 20-yards. We need more than that. Our award winners were Santana (Moss) continues to make plays for us. He started off the game very physical with his blocking. He set the tempo and you could tell he made up his mind that he was going to play very aggressive. Ray Brown had an excellent day for us jumping in there. I am really proud of him and gave him an award. Clinton Portis continues to be very physical and plays extremely hard the entire game. Robert Royal was excellent at the point of attack on a number of our plays blocking against their ends. Our offensive line gets an award because we rushed for 150 yards. Anytime we do that we feel like our offensive line and tight ends get and award. Our one other award went to Dock (Derrick Dockery)."

On the game in general and next week's game against Philadelphia:

"It was a huge game on a short work week. Our guys we felt like rose to the occasion and played extremely hard. I am really proud of them. I think what that does it after sitting there for the weekend and watching the games it became obvious that the only way we are going to make the playoffs is beating Philly. There is not a single person in this building believes we can get in any other way. I think that is going to be our challenge. We are going to have to come back now and go to Philly, which is an extremely tough place to play."

On QB #8 Mark Brunell's status:

"I called yesterday and talked to everybody yesterday because we were obviously concerned after the game. He had very little swelling in it and not much today. Our guys feel encouraged by it. I'm sure there will be sometime when we rest him this week. We will just see how it progresses towards the end of the week and we will see. The good news was we did an MRI today and there was nothing there. That is real good news. That is the knee he has had surgeries on in the past. We were real encouraged by that report and we will see how it goes during the week."

On if QB #8 Mark Brunell cant play how encouraged he is with QB #11 Patrick Ramsey's performance:

"Patrick has handled everything this year. I can' say enough about him. His attitude and character he has showed throughout the whole year has been outstanding. He has always been there supporting things. We talked to him long and hard all year long as we always do with our quarterback that is sitting in the second position because they are always a play away. This game it came up at a time where we could not have needed somebody more. That is why the quarterback position is so valuable. I think you have to have people there. You have to be deep at quarterback. You have to have guys that can make plays for you. It comes up sometimes at the most crucial times of the year. It did in this case. Patrick went in and did a heck of a job and hit that big one to Santana (Moss). He played well. I thought he looked very good and was poised. We really appreciate his effort and the way he played. It gives us a real good feeling."

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