TE Andy Thorn added to the practice squad.
I expect Gurode to practice tomorrow.
Philly is a good place to play, their fans are passionate and knowledgable, except for the egg-throwing incident last year. It will be a hostile environment.
On the bus ride last year, the egg-throwing shouldn't take place. They must have an extra supply of eggs. But we're not going to Vietnam here. (laughter)
I talked to the team about what I wanted to say, nothing related to Terrell specifically.
I coach him (Terrell) like I coach everyone else.
I told the them to pay attention to the opponent, their schemes, who you're playing against. That determines how you'll perform. There's nothing more than that this week. I can't control how the media reacts. I tell my players what to pay atention to, and it's not the media. I've got some young players and it's the first time playing here. They're (Philly) the highest scroing team in the league. They have an improved offensive line.
Philly has all their division opponents at home in the first part of the season, then they're going to have a tough stretch at the end of the season.
Philly have their base schemes and they adhere to it, but they always have some wrinkles thrown in. At the end of the day it comes down to the execution by the players.
When your scoring at the rate they are - and we're up there pretty close to them - that doesn't happen accidentally.
McNabb has played very well this year, he's in good condition and looks like he's ready to go. Last year he had injury problems, but now you're seeing him look like he did when he was younger, but he's got the maturity to not make some of the mistakes.
Eagles secondary is a good aggressive group, they've had injuries but they've managed to hold the fort.
They put Westbrook in several different positions, he's very dynamic. They use him smartly, they don't over-use him, they use him enough to be a factor, He's a unique player. There isn't anybody else quite like him in the division.
Westbrook isn't underrated by me.
Haven't decided about the kicking game yet. I try to have as few thoughts about that as I can.
Our tackles will be playing against more speed than they've seen in Trent Cole. Cole is undersized but fast, I like the player, saw him at the Senior Bowl a few years ago.
They're not that much different without Kearse. He had speed but Darren Howard is a more forceful player, bigger, has size and strength.
Philly will blitz, that's what Coach Johnson does. I respect him, you gotta watch it because he will pressure you.
I've got a smart offensive line, they haven't made a lot of mental errors so far, they might get beat physically, but not mentally. They have good communication.
I think we have a better offensive team this year than last year.
If Gurode doesn't practice he's not playing.
Terrell is not limited by his hand. His confidence is good.
Not satisfied with Witten, he's been dropping the ball, he needs to correct that. I'm confident he will.
I think JJ is well in advance of where he was a few years ago. His bad decisions are fewer, I think he's relaxed to the point wehere you can talk to him about other things. Just talked to him this morning about trying to ingest information before the ball is snapped. Looking past the front line and seeing the secondary. If he breaks the play, the memory is there to where the secondary players are going to be. You have to practice doing that. In five seconds you can get a pretty good picture of the 11 defensive players.
He has a better sense of where the defense is. He's more patient, better at understanding the plays and reads them well. He's running on intelligence, instinct and patience. If you are just instinctive when you run you might have some good runs but also a lot of negative plays. I can't explain it but its an innate ability that needs to be practiced.
They will run the same plays even with Donte Stallworth. He doesn't change their scheme.
I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary this week with Terrell. He's on par with everyone else.
Gurode's stiches are doing well, they should be good by Sunday.
25% of games are decided by 3 points or less and I wish things would settle down in this area (kicking), but I'm still a little worried. It's not going to go away. I have to decide each week how to deal with it.