Coach Parcells held his post-mortem on the Skins game this afternoon. Tuna was pretty calm and matter-of-fact in his press conference and wasn't shy about discussing the immaturity of his team and the shaky confidence in whether they can recover from a devastating loss. Here are the quick highlights.
On removing Drew from the game-
Coach thought about taking Drew out in the 3rd quarter, he talked to Drew about it, Drew wanted to stay in, he's the leader of the team, so he left him in.
On what happened in general yesterday-
We got beat up physically, had penalties and turnovers and a lot of pressure from their defense. Our defense didn't stop the run, we didn't kick the ball well. The game got away from us.
Was Coach surprised by the effort-
Of course he was surprised by the teams performance. We have shown no consistency this year. We have some immaturity on our team. Enough guys don't know what its going to be like, going on the road against the division.
On the plyoffs-
Mathematically we can still do something but we can't lose another game.
On the run defense-
Not tackling well, secondary support on the run was poor. (he mentioned this twice)
What's up with Anthony Henry-
Anthony Henry has an abdomen strain, not the same groin injury, trainers say its a different injury, it cropped up on Friday.
Any changes to the offensive line-
Bill thought about using Marc Colombo some, he's been watching him in practice, but just throwing in a new guy isn't going to help.
How about playing Carolina-
Tall order to get back and get ready for Carolina in a short week. They run the ball well and have two good defensive ends, two things that have bothered us all year.
What caused the game to go the way it did-
Filed position and turnovers. Washington started five drives inside Dallas territory, one four play drive for TD and two 2 play drives for TD. Can't have that next week.
Do you feel helpless to change things-
Not feeling helpless, today's conversation is based on yesterday. We've been erratic this year but you have to think that's not really what we are, what you saw yesterday.
Why is this team so inconsistent-
Everybody has times of inconsistency, but we've won 8 games, that's better than a lot of teams. You turn the ball over 4 times and give up 7 sacks and nothing can help.
Kicking game-
McBriar and Cundiff are safe for another week.
Why has the defense not performed well lately-
Corner out for 6 weeks, 2 starting LB's out, the defense is having problems. But players like Fujita and Spears are playing better.
Does this game reflect personally on you-
Parcells sees this game as a reflection on him, he feels it personally.
Can this team respond on Saturday-
Not confident in how the team will respond on Saturday, how can I be with what I saw yesterday.
How did Canty play, what about Glover at DE-
Was using La'Roi Glover at DE because they weren't sure how much Canty could go, that's why they dressed Thomas Johnson. So he could fill in at NT while Glover played at DE. But Canty was able to get through the game.