BB: It was good, even though we had a couple of miscues – a dropped ball, a bad snap and that kind of thing – but at least we didn't turn the ball over. So those are positives, but we need to finish off the drives and we need to get more points on the board. Players will be back in on Sunday. We'll watch the tape, we'll go out and do some running and try to get the soreness out and then start getting ready for Carolina. This is a little bit of a different preseason game for us. It's similar to last year's situation against Tampa, where we play a team in the preseason and then play them again very early in the regular season. So this will be an important week for us in terms of preparation and becoming familiar with the preseason opponent so that we can take some knowledge and use it at a later point in time. There wasn't very much game planning in the Giants game. We pretty much concentrated on fundamentals and tried to use our core things, the things we've been practicing the last couple of weeks and emphasize basic things that we want to try to build from as a good foundation through training camp and into the season. But the Carolina game will certainly have a little bit more in terms of not so much game planning, but scouting reports and really being familiar with when they are doing. So I think that's pretty much where we're at.
Q:: Is there anything new in the Terry Glenn situation?
BB: No.
Q:: Well coach, you did mention some roster moves and the exemption that you got yesterday for [Dan] Hadenfeldt. We're trying to clarify. That's not a binding exemption meaning if Terry came back, you'd have to remove a player from the roster and go from there. And secondly, you can still put Terry on that 'left camp' list if you chose to.
BB: That's correct.
Q:: Bill, last night you used both Ted Johnson and Bryan Cox together for a few plays anyway. Can you talk about those two veteran guys and if they can indeed work together?
BB: Well, I think they can. Our three inside linebackers, [Tedy] Bruschi, Ted Johnson and Cox, all played together in different combinations. We had two of the three on the field through the majority of the first half when we were in regular defense, and that's the way we practiced for a week. They're somewhat interchangeable, it gives us depth at two positions with three guys. Ted and Bryan, even though they have a little bit different style of play, their both really physical, really powerful inside linebackers whose strengths are tackling, taking on blockers, and playing at the point of attack. And not that they both don't pursue well, but none of those guys are going to run four or five or that type of thing, that's not their style. They're very physical, tough, guys that can take people on and be sturdy inside.
Q:: Bill, can you explain what happened with Cox's interception? What was going on on the field at the time? What was his responsibility on the field?
BB: It was a play action pass and he read the play, was in the throwing lane, I don't know if the
**Q:uarterback… what the read was or whatever. But Bryan made a nice play on it, surprisingly caught the ball fluidly. He's not known for having great hands, but me made a nice play on that one.
Q:: Are you happy with what you saw from [Roman] Phifer at that position?
BB: Yeah, Roman played outside linebacker and also played some inside in the sub defenses. I thought Roman was coming along well. It's his first week back in two-a-days and all that, so I think he's a little bit behind in terms of the soreness and that kind of thing. He's at the one-week stage instead of the two-week stage like some of the players are at. I thought Roman did a good, solid job. He's got experience in the defense and knows how things work, so he fit in pretty
**Q:uickly and looked pretty comfortable out there.
Q:: What do you see from the nose tackle position? Garrett Johnson hasn't got a ton of experience, and you don't have a lot of depth there as you do in a lot of other positions. Are you happy with what you saw last night? What are your plans there?
BB: We played three people there last night: Giradie [Mercer], Jayce [Sayler] and Garrett. I think all three of them showed some positive things. They all have things they need to work on as well. Techni
**Q:ue-wise, we need to get them a little bit more experience and get them a little bit more refined in certain areas, but they all showed up and made some plays. We'll keep looking at all three of those players until either somebody emerges or something else happens, but right now I'd say that that's a pretty competitive spot and all three guys are doing some good things. Giradie has the least experience on this team, he hasn't been here as long, and Jayce is a rookie, so they're all kind of young, but they all have some upside and they've all shown some positive signs. So, again, as long as they keep getting better and they keep improving, then I think we're heading in the right direction. Once it levels off, or once one guy takes control and moves ahead of the other one, we'll make that change, but that hasn't happened yet.
Q:: Is the running back race too close to call right now?
BB: We'll have to evaluate it from week to week. For example, this week, if Robert Edwards comes back and is able to play in the game, then we'll probably try to give him a little bit of an opportunity. With J.R. [Redmond] and Antowain [Smith] and Kevin [Faulk] all being guys that for one reason or another need a little work, and we kind of like some of the things we saw from Walter Williams last night. It's tough to look at everybody and at the same time give a guy a half or 15 carries, that kind of thing. So we're just going to have to try to balance that. I thought last night it kind of worked out pretty well for us, because J.R. and Antowain both got to handle the ball a decent amount of times, so realistically, last night's probably about the best we can do, as long as competition is pretty open. If one guy takes control of it, then that's a different story, then we can focus more attention on him and let everyone else get what they can. But again, we just haven't got to that point yet.
Q:: Coach, any update on Katzenmoyer? Was he there last night?
BB: Andy's in camp here. I don't have any update on him, no.
Q:: Is there any plan to get him on the field playing this week?
BB: I'm not sure. As of today, no, but whether that could change or not, I'm not sure. It's still… there's no real definition for his situation at this point.
Q:: Could you address the performance of your special teams, especially Curtis Jackson as a punt returner?
BB: I thought Curtis ran hard… Broke a couple of tackles… Used pretty good judgment back there handling the ball… Made a nice play on the one ball that was rolling down there around the 10-yard line and saved us about probably five or 10 yards of field position at a critical point on the field. So I thought that Curtis did a good job overall. I thought our special teams gave us good field position. We were able to down punts inside the 20-yard line… Had a couple of good plays there… T.J. Turner made a good play on a ball rolling into the end zone. The punters both put the ball up there so that we had a chance to cover it and not kick it 10 yards deep into the end zone like sometimes you see. So overall, I thought that our field position was good. The biggest negatives in the kicking game were the penalties, which cost us good field position, and I thought that we really had a chance to block a couple of punts, we were close, we got our hand on one, but after watching the tape, we probably could have got at least two clean had we just been a little bit better at it. So, there were a couple of chances there for big plays that could have even been bigger. The kicking was a little inconsistent – I wouldn't say it was bad by any stretch – but it could have been better. We missed a short field goal, we had an 11-yard punt, so there were a couple of things there that could have been improved from a consistency standpoint. But overall, for the first time out, not bad. I've seen worse.
**Q:: Bill, I know it's a sensitive subject, but is there any talk yet of replacing Dick Rehbein as the
Q:uarterbacks coach?
BB: No. Charlie [Weis] and I talked about it last week, and we decided that for the week we'd just keep things the way they were. We were just getting ready to enter the practices with the Giants and everything was pretty well set. We need to sit down in the near future and talk about exactly how we want to break down the responsibilities and what we need to do on the offensive staff, if anything. We can probably continue along similar to the way we are right now. We'll have to make some kind of adjustment once we think about all the responsibilities that Dick had during the season, but right now we haven't addressed that directly or made any kind of final decision on it or anything like that. Charlie and I have been pretty busy just trying to get through this week and the game and watch the tape and all that. Once we get a chance this week to sit down and talk about it, then we'll each talk about our ideas and think about what's best.
Q:: Is it possible that you could assume some of those responsibilities?
BB: There are a lot of different possibilities and I don't want to commit to any of them at this time. There's nothing wrong with brainstorming a little bit, but in terms of making the decision, I think that we need a time when we can clear our heads and sit back and really take a lot of things into consideration. When you're running two practices a day and trying to set up a game plan and have the services and all the things that happened last week, it really wasn't a good time or even the right time to do it. I think we can try to make good, rational decisions once we get a little window.
Q:: Bill, you spoke last year of your frustration with your limited options in the receiving corps. Last night you had 12 or 13 guys catch balls. Is that the option progress that you were looking for? Were you pleased to see that in the first game?
BB: It was good to see people involved in the passing game. We saw them doing different things, so I think that we see that we have some different dimensions out there. We have some guys that can run and stretch the field a little bit and some bigger receivers that can come inside and catch it. Our backs didn't do a bad job of catching the ball and running with it. We still need a little bit more production out of the tight ends, but they all handled the ball too, so that was good. I wouldn't say that I'm displeased with it. The thing I would really like to see is when we get down in the red area for us to be more productive down there. That goes for everybody:
**Q:uarterbacks, receivers, running backs, tight ends. We've got to do a better job of making the catch in tight coverage and getting the ball into the end zone, and making the throws and catches in tight coverage.
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