Here are some key paraphrases of the Jason Garrett press conference on Wednesday.
Note: The Cowboys practiced in pads, seems like that will be every week on Wednesday. Oh yea, Garrett did remind everybody the Lions will be here at 12 PM (CST) on Sunday.
Concerned about Jay Ratliff's injury?
I would say concerned, he's nicked up, concerned whether he'll play on Sunday.
What's your philosophy on dealing with injuries?
We want guys to practice, all our guys, but over the course of 16 games we have to deal with each one individually. That's worked well for us in the past. If a guy can't practice we have walk-throughs during the practice that he can do.
On Byan McCann:
You have to be ready to go, whether because of injury, or your role has to change during the game, you have to be ready, be prepared.
How did he play outside that one big play?
He made the big play, and he fought hard through the game. They made a few plays on him, but he has something I think the good players have and that's the ability to just keep coming back. He tries to play with good technique, he's tenacious, he's an achiever.
Ndamukong Suh?
He looks awfully good, awfully good. Their front line is their strength on defense and they play with a play with great motor, they're awfully good.
Why do you do pads on Weds?
Football is a physical sport and you can never lose that during the season. You have to be smart going forward over the season, but Weds is the day we implement the base stuff and that is focused on the running game and play-action pass, and you have to be physical in those areas, if you don't practice that way you can lose it. There are other coaching philosophies that have done it other ways and been successful, but it's just something we believe in.
How has Roy Williams improved this year over the previous ones?
He's done a really good job, his weight is down and has been since spring. He's improved on aspects of game, he needed to get better on change of direction routes on the inside, he needed to increase the number of routes he can run. He's been effective for us in the redzone, he's made a lot of competitive catches (catches in traffic), that's been a focus. You saw last year some balls he could have made competitive catches, but didn't. He's a big strong guy with strong hands, he's worked on and it's been successful.
How did Jason Hatcher look?
He got started back to doing things. He's a tough guy, he wants to play, wants to practice, we'll see how it goes.