Wade Phillips press conference 12/27/07

Wade: Injuries the same as yesterday. Terrell Owens won’t play, Andre Gurode won’t play, iffy for Jay Ratliff, those three are probably out for sure. Terence Newman and Pat Watkins didn’t do much today. Terry Glenn practiced well, ran with the first group and with Tony some. Looks like he might play. Field conditions might be the only thing to hold him out, rain or a bad field. But I think he’ll be ready.

Terry Glenn?
He felt better today on his routes, able to go get the ball, able to turn it on, it was a positive practice.

Marcus Spears inside, not Stephen Bowen?
He’s more adept in there, both work inside on the sub-packages. We like his size and quickness, especially the way we play the nose guard. He’s a smart player, has picked it up well.

Do you want to look at certain guys who haven’t played much this year?
I’d like to see some guys that have worked 16 weeks and improved, the only way to see that is to let them play. We don’t have enough people to sit everybody out, we can’t play just backups. Ware and Ellis will have to play some, but Spencer will play a few more. We don’t have enough guys to just look at them.

Are you scouting possible playoff opponents yet?
We won’t start the process until after our game. We have three teams as a possibility.

Ken Hamlin?
He had an outstanding year, he’s in the Pro Bowl, he certainly helped us. Solidified the secondary, our passing defense is rated high by QB rating against, yards per attempt, etc. Part of it is him. He’s not just lining them up but sometimes he’s alerting them to the exact play on offense. They come out in a formation or use motion and he’ll alert specific routes to the corners, the SS and the LB’s in some cases.

How do you think Roy Williams will do in his return?
He’ll be fine. He had 100+ tackles already. He’ll be aggressive, that’s the way he plays.

Why hasn’t Bobby Carpenter gotten more playing time?
Cause of us (coaches), we made the decision. I told them all, we don’t always make the right decisions. He’ll probably tall you this, in the last preseason game we gave a big opportunity and he didn’t play well. Maybe we put too much on that one game. He practices hard, does everything he’s supposed to do, he’s a good guy, a good athlete. Bradie James has been a part of it, too. Bradie is a good player who needs to be on the field and that’s inhibited Bobby. He’ll get some time this week, he’ll get a chance to show us.

Isaiah Stanback this week?
A good possibility.

You have five injured guys but will the other three inactives be starters?
I don’t know to that extent. I did that one year in Buffalo, Bruce Smith, Bryce Paup, Thurman Thomas, and Andre Reed. We were playing Houston and a Houston coach asked me before the game is that your inactive list or the Pro Bowl list? But most guys will have to play.

(Disclaimer: These press conference recaps are just paraphrases of what Wade Phillips says and aren’t vetted for total accuracy on quotes. I shorten and condense things he says but try to get across the intended meaning. Occasionally, what I post loses the context of something Wade said and may appear counter-intuitive. If you have questions about something from the press conference, feel free to ask in the comments.)