Parcells press conference 01/03/07
By Grizz
Everybody practiced, we didn't report any injuries, Reeves and Ratliff looked pretty good.
How well has this team dealt with the attention to T.O.? I don't know, it seems that's just the way it is and you just get used to it. That's the best way to describe it.
Do you think the team has done a good job dealing with him? Yeah, I think so.
Injuries in the Seattle secondary? I don't think they can make wholesale changes in their scheme, they might try to protect a player or two in their coverage calls, but they aren't changing the scheme.
Why did you have success against Alexander last year? I don't know, it makes no difference now, I promise you that.
Romo turnovers? Of course taking care of the ball is a premium, especially on the road in the playoffs. These things get magnified. It's what beat us last week but we could have dome more in other areas to help. Turnovers and punt returns gave them the ball where you can't keep points off the board.
The offensive line has played together all 16 games without injury? We're lucky to have that happen, some teams only have one guy left playing. We're fortunate in that regard, our guys have good conditioning and good luck, including our backups. I can't remember people missing practices on the o-line this year.
Protecting against injury vs. going hard in practice? Good question, I've thought about that lately. It's such a long season now, you try to evaluate your team, keep your team in the best physical condition you can keep them. But sometimes in doing that, practicing in shells a lot in an effort to keep some older guys going, sometimes you sacrifice the development of younger players. You can also, if you don't have a team that is mentally tough, you can lose that physical edge, that's what you get caught between as a coach. Keeping them sharp and practicing with a good physical tempo, but it may wear your team down. Right now we are not beat up physically, and there are several players I have no concern about keeping their physical edge, but I do worry about some others. There's no answer to the question, whatever you do could be wrong.
Did you make changes in practice this week? No changes this week because what I need to do is have a team as fresh as possible. When things are not great, you want to have your team be - (to the reporter), you know this, you were a player - players are always like my legs are tired or something, players are going to find something, if practice is at 1 they ask why not at 12:30? But you have to asses your team physically. We are fortunate health-wise, other than Greg. Credit Joe Juraszek, he keeps them going. We've had no weight fines, you monitor that stuff. A lot of this now is mental. Can you muster up the energy to compete for 3-4 more weeks?
Because you're getting to the end of coaching, does a game like this mean more? I told you before, when you get older the games get more precious to you. You don't know how much longer it will be. I'm sure Mike Holmgren feels the same way. We talked about this very thing before the season. In the conversation I sensed he felt the same way.
I haven't thought about next year or beyond, but I will.
After the season, what happens with you and Jerry Jones? We have an understanding as to what will happen, I'll let you know after the season. But we have an understanding in place, and we'll talk about it.
You have a time frame agreement? Yes.
Will the next few weeks have an impact on that decision? I doubt it. It's not about a 10 or 14-day period, you make a judgment based on whether you want to take on the task, muster up the energy for the free agents, the draft, training camp, the whole drill. If you're ready to do it with the energy needed, then go forward, but you can't B.S. yourself either.
Do you have the energy, you looked really down after the last game? Your judging me on a 5 minute period after a game, after a great disappointment. Your disappointed when you give something away, and don't give yourself the chance. It was 36-31, and after all that had happened, I thought we win this game easy, I really did. I thought just give us the ball and we'll drive down the field and win this. But then we fumbled and that's when I started to have doubts.
Is Jerry Jones in agreement that it's your decision to come back? Yeah, I thinks so, but you'd have to ask him. We'll see, I'll let you know after the last game. Why are we talking about this, we got a game to play?
Do you watch the San Diego/Seattle game for scouting the Seahawks? Well, it's an odd-man front, so you do look at it, you watch what they do front-wise and coverage wise. I looked at it three times.
Do big-time players need to step up in the playoffs? To a degree, but not to the degree the media portrays it. The evaluation of a QB is not just winning a Super Bowl or this or that. All of us who've been in sports know that sometimes the situation doesn't allow an individual to achieve; we've seen the case many times. I'm not one to evaluate totally on that basis. I do evaluate players when they do have the opportunity and it's not what it could be.
Do you expect more from Terrell in the playoffs? I don't expect more, I expect all the players to have a good solid game, play error free, not play stupid. The last few weeks we haven't, but for a good block of the season we were. I'm hoping we can get that back.
More Terrell: With any player, if they are determined to do something to negate an individual, it's difficult. But they have Terry and Jason to contend with, too.
Has attention to Terrell opened-up things for the others? I wouldn't say an inordinate amount, but there have been times teams try to take him away, but sometimes they take their chances. You try to take advantage of it, you hope the QB makes the right read, and you have the right call on. Sometimes they match you through luck, other times they call the right defense on purpose, sometimes, their totally wrong, It's a chess match, there as so many multiples today, its more difficult than ever with so many variables.
Has Terrell's stats matched his contribution? I thinks he's been pretty solid.
Any inkling of this team playing well this week, or is it too early to tell? I think the situation - if you're a professional football player and you have anything to you - the situation you're in should help the concentration and the effort. If you got much to you.
Is this team better than the playoff team three years ago? Yeah, we're a much better team than the one three years ago. How many points did we score three years ago? We must have at least 150 more points this year than that team. The year before I came we scored 217, now we have 425, three more points and we'd be second in the league. Offensively we've produced good numbers. On defense, the other team was statistically better, but personnel-wise, this team is better. We played well on defense for 10 weeks of the season, but the last 5-6 have been bad. But I think we could play better.
Why did you practice outside today? The forecast for the game is 44 degrees and showers. Today it was 44 degrees and we practiced with a wet ball.
False starts in Seattle? I've been up there five times, I know what it's like. I was going to use noise today until it was 44 degrees outside. It was a good thing to go outside, it was something different, and we've been using wet balls some the past two days. Romo practiced with gloves. With a wet ball, you can't throw it as hard or it will float on you. Things slip out of your hands, the balls we used were wetter than game conditions, we're dunking them in buckets.
Mindset of the team? I think its difficult to say, they're intent on learning right now, and it's never perfect, you see a mistake or two on film, but I'll have a better sense after tomorrow's practice.
Will Tony Parrish play this week? We have a couple of moving parts, I don't know, we have to activate 8 and I know 5, but not the last 3. It depends on the rest of the week. He's in the mix in the last 3.
Do you think Pat Watkins can be a good starting safety? I think he can. He's more aware now and doing better, not perfect. He has enough ability to play the position. I thought he had the ability in training camp. Just got to get some looks and start to understand the game. Guys have different clocks. Some guys are great from start, others you spoon feed.
Everybody practiced, we didn't report any injuries, Reeves and Ratliff looked pretty good.
How well has this team dealt with the attention to T.O.? I don't know, it seems that's just the way it is and you just get used to it. That's the best way to describe it.
Do you think the team has done a good job dealing with him? Yeah, I think so.
Injuries in the Seattle secondary? I don't think they can make wholesale changes in their scheme, they might try to protect a player or two in their coverage calls, but they aren't changing the scheme.
Why did you have success against Alexander last year? I don't know, it makes no difference now, I promise you that.
Romo turnovers? Of course taking care of the ball is a premium, especially on the road in the playoffs. These things get magnified. It's what beat us last week but we could have dome more in other areas to help. Turnovers and punt returns gave them the ball where you can't keep points off the board.
The offensive line has played together all 16 games without injury? We're lucky to have that happen, some teams only have one guy left playing. We're fortunate in that regard, our guys have good conditioning and good luck, including our backups. I can't remember people missing practices on the o-line this year.
Protecting against injury vs. going hard in practice? Good question, I've thought about that lately. It's such a long season now, you try to evaluate your team, keep your team in the best physical condition you can keep them. But sometimes in doing that, practicing in shells a lot in an effort to keep some older guys going, sometimes you sacrifice the development of younger players. You can also, if you don't have a team that is mentally tough, you can lose that physical edge, that's what you get caught between as a coach. Keeping them sharp and practicing with a good physical tempo, but it may wear your team down. Right now we are not beat up physically, and there are several players I have no concern about keeping their physical edge, but I do worry about some others. There's no answer to the question, whatever you do could be wrong.
Did you make changes in practice this week? No changes this week because what I need to do is have a team as fresh as possible. When things are not great, you want to have your team be - (to the reporter), you know this, you were a player - players are always like my legs are tired or something, players are going to find something, if practice is at 1 they ask why not at 12:30? But you have to asses your team physically. We are fortunate health-wise, other than Greg. Credit Joe Juraszek, he keeps them going. We've had no weight fines, you monitor that stuff. A lot of this now is mental. Can you muster up the energy to compete for 3-4 more weeks?
Because you're getting to the end of coaching, does a game like this mean more? I told you before, when you get older the games get more precious to you. You don't know how much longer it will be. I'm sure Mike Holmgren feels the same way. We talked about this very thing before the season. In the conversation I sensed he felt the same way.
I haven't thought about next year or beyond, but I will.
After the season, what happens with you and Jerry Jones? We have an understanding as to what will happen, I'll let you know after the season. But we have an understanding in place, and we'll talk about it.
You have a time frame agreement? Yes.
Will the next few weeks have an impact on that decision? I doubt it. It's not about a 10 or 14-day period, you make a judgment based on whether you want to take on the task, muster up the energy for the free agents, the draft, training camp, the whole drill. If you're ready to do it with the energy needed, then go forward, but you can't B.S. yourself either.
Do you have the energy, you looked really down after the last game? Your judging me on a 5 minute period after a game, after a great disappointment. Your disappointed when you give something away, and don't give yourself the chance. It was 36-31, and after all that had happened, I thought we win this game easy, I really did. I thought just give us the ball and we'll drive down the field and win this. But then we fumbled and that's when I started to have doubts.
Is Jerry Jones in agreement that it's your decision to come back? Yeah, I thinks so, but you'd have to ask him. We'll see, I'll let you know after the last game. Why are we talking about this, we got a game to play?
Do you watch the San Diego/Seattle game for scouting the Seahawks? Well, it's an odd-man front, so you do look at it, you watch what they do front-wise and coverage wise. I looked at it three times.
Do big-time players need to step up in the playoffs? To a degree, but not to the degree the media portrays it. The evaluation of a QB is not just winning a Super Bowl or this or that. All of us who've been in sports know that sometimes the situation doesn't allow an individual to achieve; we've seen the case many times. I'm not one to evaluate totally on that basis. I do evaluate players when they do have the opportunity and it's not what it could be.
Do you expect more from Terrell in the playoffs? I don't expect more, I expect all the players to have a good solid game, play error free, not play stupid. The last few weeks we haven't, but for a good block of the season we were. I'm hoping we can get that back.
More Terrell: With any player, if they are determined to do something to negate an individual, it's difficult. But they have Terry and Jason to contend with, too.
Has attention to Terrell opened-up things for the others? I wouldn't say an inordinate amount, but there have been times teams try to take him away, but sometimes they take their chances. You try to take advantage of it, you hope the QB makes the right read, and you have the right call on. Sometimes they match you through luck, other times they call the right defense on purpose, sometimes, their totally wrong, It's a chess match, there as so many multiples today, its more difficult than ever with so many variables.
Has Terrell's stats matched his contribution? I thinks he's been pretty solid.
Any inkling of this team playing well this week, or is it too early to tell? I think the situation - if you're a professional football player and you have anything to you - the situation you're in should help the concentration and the effort. If you got much to you.
Is this team better than the playoff team three years ago? Yeah, we're a much better team than the one three years ago. How many points did we score three years ago? We must have at least 150 more points this year than that team. The year before I came we scored 217, now we have 425, three more points and we'd be second in the league. Offensively we've produced good numbers. On defense, the other team was statistically better, but personnel-wise, this team is better. We played well on defense for 10 weeks of the season, but the last 5-6 have been bad. But I think we could play better.
Why did you practice outside today? The forecast for the game is 44 degrees and showers. Today it was 44 degrees and we practiced with a wet ball.
False starts in Seattle? I've been up there five times, I know what it's like. I was going to use noise today until it was 44 degrees outside. It was a good thing to go outside, it was something different, and we've been using wet balls some the past two days. Romo practiced with gloves. With a wet ball, you can't throw it as hard or it will float on you. Things slip out of your hands, the balls we used were wetter than game conditions, we're dunking them in buckets.
Mindset of the team? I think its difficult to say, they're intent on learning right now, and it's never perfect, you see a mistake or two on film, but I'll have a better sense after tomorrow's practice.
Will Tony Parrish play this week? We have a couple of moving parts, I don't know, we have to activate 8 and I know 5, but not the last 3. It depends on the rest of the week. He's in the mix in the last 3.
Do you think Pat Watkins can be a good starting safety? I think he can. He's more aware now and doing better, not perfect. He has enough ability to play the position. I thought he had the ability in training camp. Just got to get some looks and start to understand the game. Guys have different clocks. Some guys are great from start, others you spoon feed.
posted by The Gryphon at 10:05 PM
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