Wade Phillips press conference 10/2/08 - Andre Gurode injury

Summary of Wade Phillips' press conference today.

Andre Gurode rolled his ankle yesterday, we held him out today, he worked on rehab but we're optimistic he will play. It's a slightly sprained ankle. Pat Watkins didn't practice, doubtful he'll play Sunday. We limited Stephen Bowen and Tank Johnson, Bowen has a slight hamstring pull, ankle sprain for Tank. Deon Anderson practiced and we think he'll play no problem. Jason Witten, too.

Keith Davis will take Watkins place. Cory Procter played some center in practice today with Gurode out and Montrae Holland played guard today. Joe Berger worked at both. We think Andre will be back, we'll see tomorrow.

Pat Watkins played defense and special teams last week, Keith Davis will have the same role as Watkins had.

Tank played last week with the same thing and should be a little better this week.

Anthony Spencer looked good in the game in terms of moving around, he almost ran a kickoff back, he's back on track. We played him 16 plays last game, we expect more this game. He said he wants the football some more, too. (laughter). Greg Ellis plays well, but he can't play all-out for 70 plays, and I'm talking about DeMarcus Ware, too. It's good to have a guy that we can substitute and be productive, we think Spencer will do that. We haven't had an effective sub with him out. We can play Spencer some for Ellis, and play both of them some for Ware. Depends on number of plays, he gives us an added dimension.

The safety position is not a corner where you're on an island. You can hide safeties a little more than a corner. We have confidence in Keith, he played the whole Carolina game last year, I have confidence. He'll know what to do.

The Bengals got going against the Giants and put things together offensively, their timing in the passing game and their protections came together. The Giants tried to blitz them and didn't get there. The QB had a great game against them.

I don't think we'll run the ball this game. (laughter). Having a fullback certainly helps, Deon is a good lead blocker. Tony Curtis did it for us in the other games. We want to establish the run, but we don't want to be just one or the other (pass or run). We would like to establish either one then go back to the other later. Each matchup against teams is different. We want to establish pass and run. We ran similar running plays because we had a TE doing the fullback role.