Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio
*
*(on if it's harder in the playoff race with all the tie breaks and scenarios)
**"I don't think so. It still comes down to lining up and competing against a football
team on Sunday. All of the scenarios have a way of playing themselves out. For
us, the best thing we can do and the wisest thing we can do is focus on the task
at hand."
(on being in the playoff race this late in the season)"At this point it's easier. The way you look at it is 'hey, all we have to do is continue to win.' If you continue to win everything will work in our favor. At this point it's easier when we were that game out, that half a game out because you worry about all these difference scenarios. Now you're at the point where you just go out and just try to find a way to win."
(on what makes the Jaguars so good at winning close games)"I think it's the mentality of our football team – that we're going to go out there and play for 60 minutes. We're going to play hardnosed football for 60 minutes. In practice we're always in situations, the tough situations where coach (Jack) Del Rio wanted to see us as players find a way to get us out of this hole. When you do those things in practice and when game time comes it just feels like 'hey, let's just do what we always do in practice.'"
(on the Texans and Jaguars rivalry)"That's the greatness thing about this league and the conference that we're in. From week to week every time you play somebody in your conference it's a rivalry game. When we play Indy it's a rivalry game; when we play Tennessee it's a rivalry game; when we play Houston it's a rivalry game. That's what makes it exciting and that's how you want it as a player. You want it as a player where their fans don't like you (and) you're fans don't like them. I think it's the beginning of something big."
(on their position in the playoff race)"It's good that we're at where we're at but it means nothing. The key is for us to still go out there and win football games. It's not over yet. We still have a lot of games left and all our focus is on Houston. We understand how good a football team they have and we got to make sure we're prepared to play on Sunday."
(on putting Donovin Darius' hit of Packers WR Robert Ferguson in the past)"It's good to get it out of the way. It's good to get it out of the way and everybody understands what's going on. You hate to see anybody lying on the floor like that. It's great to hear that (Ferguson) is doing OK. At the same time you hate to see a guy like Donovin catch as much stuff as he has caught in probably the past few days because you know what kind of (good) guy he is."
*(on talk of a hit he took from Gary Walker in the last game against the Texans) *"I don't believe it was done intentionally. I don't believe it was done to try to hurt me. It's just in this game of football that we play sometimes things like that happen. I was fortunate enough that I didn't have to miss the season and I was able to come back and kind of help my team this year."
(on playing for Del Rio)"I think the key to any coach and why we as players on this team respect him so much is he's the same guy. You want to have the same guy when everything is going good and you want to have the same guy when things are not going so good. You respect that more. I think he's that way because he's a former player. It wasn't too long ago that he was out there filling up the 'A' gap hitting people. When he talks to you, he talks to you from the heart because he's talking to you as if he was a player. He understands our part of it. He understands the situation of it and at the same time we all know who the boss is. We all know who the head coach is but he's really what you call a player's coach because he understands his players."
(on the possibility of playing in the Super Bowl in his home stadium)"You think about it before the season but right now it's so hard to go week in and week out and be focused so you can't allow yourself to focus on all these different things. You've got to focus on the task at hand and the task at hand is trying to find a way to win this game on Sunday."
(on the Texans defense)"I think they've been playing great defense all year. In this league sometimes you're not going to play great every week. Watching these guys on film and just seeing how many playmakers they've got … They've got a lot of guys that go out there on the defensive side of the ball and they're always making plays. Anytime they get an opportunity to make plays they always make it."
