Lou Polite is back, Kincade is out.
Hoyte has an arm problem, probably not serious.
Hoyte bruised it in the game, the trainers thought it was OK, but it was less than perfect yesterday, but he looked much better today. We had to get Lou back learn the gameplan, he was down in Florida.
Hatcher looks improved from yesterday. I still don't know about him.
Practice was better today. We had pads on today.
Vandy is OK on kickoffs.
Still working the same group on kick returns. Elam will be there for sure. Who's active on Sunday is part of the consideration, have to consider number of special teams play, also if starters are nicked up. I want more depth on defense, because the LB's and safeties are special teams players now.
The Washington pass defense isn't bad, they just had problems at corner, then you take chances to compensate and you try to create pressure, then you get hit with big plays. They are pretty well healed up now.
In this case, during the bye week, I think Joe Gibbs will be meticulous in his evaluation and he will emphasize things they do well and cutback on what they don't do well. They'll look at the Giant game; look at people who've had success against us.
It's the KC offense but with a sprinkling of Gibbs influence. They might change things up, go to some things they've had success with on us.
Our offensive line hasn't been better than I expected. I thought we had a chance to be better. The o-line is not all the problem. In the Philly and Giants games, if they could cut things by half, they wouldn't get so much blame. I have young developing players who are backing up now. Overall some of the linemen are playing better. Kosier has been solid, not perfect, but pretty good, Gurode is playing better this year than at any time before. Flo is picking it up. Colombo is the biggest pleasant surprise, that's a position we were worried about. He did a good job last week.
I love these TE's we got, when they don't catch passes it's always because they have to stay in and block. It's never because they are dropping them.
I thought the o-line had a chance to be a decent group. They've been playing as a unit now, starting to gel, and that's starting to show. The FB helped us a lot last week, we might finally have that thing figured out. Fasano is doing better, some of the inexperienced guys are making a contribution, it helps. Now it feels like we got 11 guys playing on offense instead of 9. The backs are doing well. I'm worried with only 2 backs this week.
I think Romo's mobility can help the line, but it helps only if he's efficient. I told him not to be afraid to run last week. But I don't want to cloud him up. A friend told me to tell Romo - which I did - the start is important but the follow up is more important.
It's hard to tell what's influencing players these days. Cell phones, faxes, email, the volume of information coming in is greater today.
The most important thing he can do is recognize the Washington jerseys, jersey recognition is very important.
Skyler Green is going pretty good in transition to RB, you might see him Sunday.
I'm alright with the TE's we got. My expectations for Witten are probably too high. I get on Fasano, he speaks my language so I get on him more than the other rookies. Curtis is coming along, a couple of practice squad guys are doing good. RB's, TE's pressure players on defense, corners, keep them coming. You can never have enough.
Newman is doing alright. Just because he's over there with him [Smith] doesn't mean it's man-to-man, but he's competitive, an improved player, he's a little bit distractible, he needs to get lined up quicker for my tastes. He wants to think about everything.
On telling him to "snap out of it" at the end of the game Sunday: That was in reference to one play, and he knew what play I was talking about. We ran an all out blitz, and he's got to take the inside on Smith and he didn't, that's a mental error, luckily Smith dropped the ball. Newman was pressed up for the fade, but you got to take care of the basics first. That was my 3rd snap out of it that night, I gave him a couple of them earlier in the game.
Comparing Romo to former super-sub QB Jeff Hostettler: Jeff wanted to play, and he was smart and he did the job. They were saying you can't win with a backup QB, they were wrong. Of course you'rer concerned when making that change. No other team had won with a backup QB before. (To the reporter) You probably don't remember that, you were still kicking slats out of your cradle when that happened. Romo reminds me of some players I've had, he was sort of like Jeff. But Jeff's release point was different, and he was big-time in college, first day player on draft day. Cavanaugh and Rutledge had similar characteristics. They played 12 to 14 years in the league. Somebody must've thought they were pretty good. But I don't know what's going to happen.
Are you still worried about playing Romo: The time to worry is before you place the bet. The bets down, the wheel is spinning. The game is going. Romo knows the opportunity; I think he'll do everything he can to be ready to go. It will be less than perfect, but the wheel is spinning.
If you watch this game from a different perspective than where'd the ball go, who made the tackle, things like that. In preseason you can do that, you can watch how players are behaving. I could watch Marcus Spears three to four plays in a row, to get a sense of how he's doing. Same with the QB, in training camp practice, I try to evaluate the different groups, one group one day, one another day. I don't need to watch Rivera, I know about him. I watch the ones I'm wondering about. I'm getting an ice tea after the press conference and going watch today's practice film to be ready at 4:30 pm meet the coaches.
Every coach is unique, we all like a certain kind of guy, but they're different kind of guys. I like that guy that showed up the other night for the game. I like that kid that almost retired yesterday, I don't know if he did or not. They're all different. Keith Davis has it. Is he a pain in the butt? You bet he is, but I like him, he's showing up on Sunday, he's playing the game. Now, you can have too many pet cats. But some guys have attributes that you can't see. I have to figure that out. When you see that in an athlete, you're pretty far down the road, you can see skill, but that has nothing to do with being good and not good.
Romo will take his cuts; he's not going to leave the bat on his shoulder. They haven't laid him out yet, broken his nose or something, but that's coming on, then you'll find out more.
Some kids that show up are con-men, they're full of it , they believe the hype they've been told by people. Others are apprehensive, they're afraid of the process. I told Romo "you know don't know anything" when he got here, you can't play this game on impulse. Vinny was beneficial to him, showed him how to be a pro. Work ethic, weight training, preparation, etc. Everyone needs a role model.
I told Romo don't look over your shoulder; someone might be gaining on you. I told him exactly that.
On Romo signing a shorter contract instead of opting for long-term security and money: That showed me that he was confident that he would get opportunity and he thought he could do something with it once he got it. Showed the owner something, too. Particularly when you don't have a lot of money, the chance at getting the money is hard to pass up. At some point in time, raising a family comes into question, sending the kids to college, economics enter the equation. But he's bright, he doesn't have six kids to take care of, he's out there on his own. So his judgments really only effect him.