Wade Phillips press conference 10/29/08

I missed the beginning of the press conference due to technical failures on the feed. So I'll steal from Timmy Mac over at the DMN for the injury update at the beginning of the PC.

CB Anthony Henry (deep thigh bruise) and OLB Anthony Spencer (hamstring) had limited participation in today's practice.

"Both those guys showed a lot of progress," Wade Phillips said.

OG Kyle Kosier (foot) also had limited participation in the practice, but he won't play Sunday against the Giants.

TE Jason Witten (broken rib) sat out today, but he hasn't been ruled out of the Giants game.

QB Tony Romo (pinkie), CB Terence Newman (sports hernia) and RB Felix Jones (hamstring) won't be back until after the bye.

Summary of Wade Phillips' press conference today.

Kyle Kosier might come back for the Washington game, I think all those guys could come back then.

It depends on what Jason Witten does rest of the week. It's a pain issue, he couldn't go back in last week. We got it padded up it pretty good, but it still could be a situation where he can't go, he's played with pain this year but it could take him out this week.

Brooks Bollinger took a couple of snaps with the first team today. We're going with Brad Johnson, that's where we are going. Winning the game is the most important thing for a QB.

(Will Bennett or Curtis start if Witten can't go?) Yes. (laughter) It depends on what formation we have in to start. Some games you start with 3 WR's, others you start with 2 TE's, it's kind of the luck of the draw. Bennett played 55 plays last week, Curtis played 19. So there's more chance Bennett would be in on the first play.

For back-up long-snapper, we got a couple of guys (referencing Pittsburgh losing their long-snapper in the game last week). We don't have someone who we say this is the guy, we have a couple of guys that Bruce Read works extra with. He won't be a LP Ladouceur, it's a problem when you lose guys like that, snappers, kickers or punters in the game.

We played the Giants three times last year. Both teams did some things different in the games but a lot of the same things. They'll have new wrinkles, so will we. The base things that you do well you keep doing. They have a good group, a good defense, lots of guys to rush the passer. Even losing a couple guys they are still are up there in pass rush. (Concern about getting the ball downfield, getting it to T.O.?) We were concerned with that even with Romo, getting our guys downfield is important, get the ball to T.O. is important. The Giants have the same problem with Plaxico, everybody tries to prevent you from getting the ball to your best players..

(Concern about over-using Marion Barber?) With Felix out, we've had to do it. Marion can step up and do it and he has. You want to mix it up but we don't have Felix. The running game has been good in some games, the last game we played the fourth-down plays were important as any we've had. We'd like to make 130 yards a game and we average close to that. Marion has looked strong throughout the games and did last week.

No, I didn't imagine losing so many CB's. It s a physical game, a game of attrition sometimes, we train everybody and hope the first team stays healthy. I wasn't sure how ready the young guys were but they played pretty well last week. Tampa got Galloway back for the game and they threw for 300 yards in the games before last week. We did an outstanding job, the young guys, I was pleased, I think they're going to try to replicate it this week.

The more good players you have the better. Anthony Spencer played three games ago, played six plays and made three tackles and pressured the QB before getting hurt. He can be a force, and it gives Greg Ellis a rest and DeMarcus Ware. DeMarcus is amazing, he rushed the QB 16 plays in a row, and then he still hits the QB on the last play to force the incompletion, and Kevin Burnett had good coverage. If Spencer plays we can mix them around, put different guys on different people. We can move Greg to the other side some or put all three in the game at once.

A lot of teams can have character when they win, but when you lose, it shows if you have real character and they showed it last week.