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**B:** It's nice to be able to step up here after a close game and talk about the plays we made at the end under pressure to win the game. I really feel good about the way our players prepared this week and went about trying to get things turned around and rebound from the Cleveland game. I really thought that we played better today. We got a lot of big plays, which we needed, but you always do. There were a lot guys that stepped up and made some key plays for us on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game and I am just real proud of the way our team hung in there and fought and made the plays we need to make at the end. Grant Williams went out of the game, I think after they did the x-rays and all of that that he probably could have gone back in at the end so I don't think that is anything real serious. It looks like he will be okay and I think other than some bumps and bruises, it was a tough game. I thought that Scott Mitchell did a real good job in the first half, the whole game, but particularly in the first half. He did a real nice job throwing the ball. They had a good game plan and they worked some of those sideline routes that we had a little trouble defending. That was a new thing, it was something that we hadn't seen a lot of from Cincinnati and they executed very well. The receivers and the quarterback did a good job. They have a real good runner, an aggressive defense and we are just fortunate to have come out on top. It was a tough game and I am proud of the way are players played.
Q: Can you talk about Patrick (Pass) and how you thought he did?
B: He got most of the reps this week with Kevin (Faulk) and we were waiting to see how it would turn out with J.R. (Redmond) and J.R. just wasn't able to go today. He tried very hard to get ready this week, but it just didn't work out. Patrick is a little bigger back and as much blitzing as Cincinnati does we thought it was important to try to have somebody in there that could run the ball and also pick up the blitzes and be able to handle those things. Overall I thought that he did a pretty good job.
Q: I understand an outcome is an outcome and it went in your favor, but could you tell me with first and goal at the one and the time and the timeouts available that you did not attempt a rushing play for a touchdown at the end of the game rather that setup for a field goal?
B: Basically because one play wins the game there with a field goal, like it did, and had we scored on the first play then it just would have given them more time to come back and have whatever it was thirty, thirty-five, forty seconds. They had their timeouts, not all of them but they had at least one of them so it would have just been going against multiple plays and I didn't think we needed to go into that situation.
Q: Is it true that you played one of your practice squad players this week, you know where I am going with this, that you paid them to start a fight on the team?
B: No. We had an intense week of practice this week. I thought the players really prepared hard and we practiced hard and nobody was satisfied with the way we played against Cleveland and wanted to turn this thing around. There was a lot of intensity out there, but no I didn't do that. It's not a bad idea though.
Q: Can you comment on Terry Glenn today?
B: Terry is a guy that stepped up and made a lot of big plays for us. He converted some third downs and made some big plays down the field and of course got the pass interference on the third down at the end of the game, which was a key play getting on op of the corner. Terry has continued to have solid practices and put together solid games and he is obviously a key guy for us in the passing game but I thought that all of our receivers stepped up there and had some plays. Tony (Simmons) had a tough call there on the interception, but Terry is the leader of that group and it is great to see him make some big plays for us again.
That's it? You guys have a thousand questions when we lose.
Q: Can you comment on Bruce Armstrong?
B: We gave Bruce the gameball after the game. 207 games is a tremendous accomplishment particularly at the position he plays, left tackle. To play that position for as long as he has and as well as he has through the years and the contributions and what he has meant to this organization are just exemplary. I am really happy that in breaking this record today that we could do it with a win because I know how important that is to him. Bruce is about winning and I am glad we got one today for him.
Q: Was he as low key in there about this as he was with us outside?
B: Pretty low key, the game is important to him and every game is important to him so I couldn't distinguish this game from any other game. I wouldn't say it is low key in terms of his preparation or his attitude towards winning because that is always very upbeat, but in terms of the record and so forth, yes he didn't make a big deal out of it. I think everybody else made more of it than he did.
Q: I hate to bring this up but cynics might say that even though you won you just barely beat the Bengals and a lot of people consider them one of the worst teams in football, can you dismiss that?
B: Ask Denver, ask Denver how bad they are.
Q: Was there ever any though that Drew (Bledsoe) might not play this week because you didn't designate an emergency quarterback?
B: Drew banged his thumb in Thursday's practice and what that showed me was kind of how fragile the situation would be that he could go in there one play and just get hit the wrong way. It was in part of the walk-through, he just hit it and what that led us to thinking was we could be sitting there after the first play of the game and be down to one quarterback. Then the same thing happens to him, an equipment problem or somebody steps on his toe or whatever and then you have to go to your third. So what happened during the week, to me, pointed out how quickly we could lose a quarterback and have to go to our second quarterback and then the third puts everything into a whole different dimension. So we felt like for this game it would be better to make sure we had all three available in case somebody were to go out for a couple of plays or something, we wouldn't get into a situation where we might have to go to three. We probably should have done the same thing against Cleveland to tell you the truth looking back on that retrospectively, but the way it happened in practice this week that hit me in the face and even I could figure it out then.
Q: And John's (Friesz) situation?
B: Well John has been nagged by it and I just don't think it is going to get any better unless we give him some time to get better so we will give him a little time here and see if he can turn the corner. I think he could have played, but we were just trying to get it over the hump.
Q: The cornerback situation, in particular Ty Law, some of the plays that he usually makes he is not making are you concerned about that?
B: They had a couple of good plays, as I said I thought that Cincinnati had a good game plan and they ran the stop routes on the sideline and the stop and go's and those are tough routes to cover especially in man coverage. (Scott) Mitchell, (Craig) Yeast and (Peter) Warrick did a good job executing them, so I will give them credit. It is something that we need to work on and something that we haven't worked a lot on because we haven't seen it much. I think it caught us a little bit off guard, but usually when a team does that I just don't think the execution would be as good as what it was today. I thought Cincinnati did an excellent job executing those plays and we have to work harder on them obviously.
