Andy Reid Eagles Cardinals Press Conference Opening Remarks

Head Coach Andy Reid Press Conference
11-28-08

Opening Remarks:
“All in all, a good football game. I thought we played well probably for the first time this year with all three phases contributing at a high level, and I was proud of the guys for that. They willed themselves to that point. It was a short week and they just brought a lot of energy. I thought our fans were unbelievable. They, believe it or not, when you’re sore going into a game, they can take a little of that soreness away when they crank that up and that adds another notch of adrenaline to your game. It was a great atmosphere for a football game. I think the Cardinals are a good football team. They had a tough chore having played the Giants there and then having to travel in a short period of time to the east coast. I think that [Cardinals head coach] Ken [Whisenhunt] has done a nice job with that football team, and I think that they have a lot of wins ahead of them. As far as our team goes, defensively, again I think Arizona has one of the best offenses in the National Football League, in particular the passing game. I thought our guys came out very determined to stop that passing game. It all starts up front and the pressure that you can put on the quarterback. We learned yesterday that it’s not all about sacks but just having somebody around him or in his face makes any quarterback in this league a different thrower and a little bit less accurate, and you’re talking about one of the most accurate quarterbacks that’s ever played the game. I thought that our defensive line stepped up. I thought our secondary challenged those receivers and we know how good those receivers are. They really have three just outstanding receivers. It was good to see that when you take [CB] Asante Samuel out of the mix, that the guys still play at a high level. [CB] Jose[lio Hanson] stepped up and did a nice job. He had an interception, I think his first interception, and got his hand on balls, and I thought that he played big. [S] Quintin Demps had a nice role in there. We singled him up on [Cardinals WR Anquan] Boldin a lot of the times and there’s nothing like starting out with one of the best in the business. So, that was his first major action there and he challenged him all night and I thought he did a nice job. [FS] Brian Dawkins had an interception that tied him for the record for this organization, and I know that he’ll break that here in the next few games. Offensively, again, it starts with the offensive line and then obviously it goes to the quarterback, and I just thought [QB] Donovan [McNabb] played an outstanding game. With the things that he went through this past week and in the Ravens game and even in the Cincinnati game, he just showed again what makes him such a great quarterback. Under the toughest conditions he always seems to step up and he did that in a big way. [RB] Brian Westbrook, he hasn’t played all week, practiced all week, really hasn’t felt very good for the last six weeks or so. I don’t know if it was mind over matter but he said he felt better yesterday than he had, he said this before the game, that he felt better than he had in the last however many weeks and it looked that way. He ran very hard, kept his eyes up for extra yardage, kept the feet moving and played good football. And obviously, he catches the ball very well, too, and that creates tremendous matchup problems there. Then, [FB] Kyle Eckel. Eckel had a chance to jump in there as did [RB Lorenzo] Book[er]. Both those two, I think, got some valuable playing experience. It was nice to convert a third-and-short. They’ve been hard to get and Eckel was able to get in there and crank it out a couple of times. And then special teams, I feel like every time we touch the football on a punt or a kickoff with those two young kids, they have a chance to take it the whole distance and that’s exciting. It’s a great challenge for their blockers every week to make their block, to make that block that allows them to break one for a touchdown. Then, the coaches, I thought the coaches had a great plan. [Offensive coordinator] Marty [Mornhinweg] called a phenomenal game, [defensive coordinator] Jim [Johnson] called a phenomenal game, and [special teams coordinator] Rory [Segrest] did a great job with the special teams.”

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