Head coach Gary Kubiak and players spoke to the media during open locker room and after practice Wednesday afternoon.
**Head Coach Gary Kubiak
(on Bennie Joppru being signed by Chicago)** "I don't know. I've been around enough in this business to know those things happen, and he's a great kid. I feel like I've got a great relationship with him, and I was hoping he'd come back here. He had a choice and he and his agent decided that that was a good opportunity for him, so I wish him well. Our paths will probably cross again. It's a crazy business; he's a good kid and I wish him well."
(on new injuries or updates) "No, everybody's back out here. (C Mike) Flanagan is full speed today; (CB) Petey (Faggins) was full speed today, so we're 100% ready to go. (T) Ephraim (Salaam) was back working today, so we should be fine the rest of this week."
(on Dallas head coach Bill Parcells comments on DE Greg Ellis) "Yeah, their defensive side of the ball is not only very big, but they create a ton of mismatches. Those linebackers are huge. (S Roy) Williams and Ellis have a lot of stops. They have some big talented players out there and they create mismatches for your backs and even for your tackles. He's built a heck of a crew over there. And their back end, starting with the safety and the corner, they're as good as there is in this business, but you know those two guys. We have our work cut out for us."
(on the key to their defensive line) "Yeah, they don't move. They're 3-4, they're a two-gap team, and it's hard to knock them somewhere even when you're running the ball. It may look as good as it can look and it's a two-yard gain. They don't move, they're big and powerful people and they're tough to knock off the ball, they haven't been given up a lot of big plays. They gave up a few pass plays last week and even one of those that they gave up could have been a big sack for their team, but they missed a sack right there so I know they feel good about their people on defense."
(on Eagles not running the ball) "First off, I think they're a very good defensive football team if that's what you're asking. If you watch a game closely there's a guy in Philly right now that's playing MVP football. And our quarterbacks are going to have to play special for us to have a chance to win this week. (QB Donovan) McNabb made a football game an average guy doesn't make, and we all know that. We see that on film."
(on a creative defensive strategy)"Really you have to be sound. Creativity gets you in a lot of trouble with this football team because that doesn't change what they do. They're going to line up, play their 3-4 and play it well. You may run yourself out, make yourself be sloppy and we can't do that. They're going to have to line up on them and do a good job, just be sound. We can not turn the ball over."
(on trick plays) "You're not going to trick this football team; they're too well coached. They're playing defense better than anybody, not to confuse us because they really don't do a lot, they just line up and say, 'Hey, here we are, that's what we're going to play and you have to be good enough to beat us.' And they're very good at that."
(on WRs Terry Glenn and Terrell Owens) "I think they're both a tremendous threat. To be that balanced on the offensive side of the ball with those two players and those two backs that they had it's a big a test as our defense will face and doing it at their place makes it even tougher."
(on growing from last game) "We have to have some confidence on what we did. Our defense, really, for three and a half quarters played exceptional. We did a great job in third downs and on the offensive side of the ball we played well in the fourth quarter against a heck of a defense on a football team that went to New England last week and were pretty dang good defensively last week. We have some things to grow from, but it's another big time challenge for us and the fact that it's on the road, too, against this football team makes it even tougher."
(on whether Bob McNair has stressed the importance of this game) "We would like them all. I know how big a game it is, it's a rivalry but Bob is always very positive."
(on approaching running game)"It goes back to what I told you going into the Miami game. I would love come out of a game seeing both of those kids (Ron Dayne and Samkon Gado) carrying the ball 15 or 16 times. I would like for it to be right down the middle. But if I think one of them is running the ball a little better than the other one at some particular time in a game I'm going to let him keep going so I'll see how that fans out."
(on LB DeMarcus Ware) "He's exceptional. Not only is he a great football player, he seems to be the guy that makes some huge plays for them. He's knocks the ball out, somebody picks it and runs the other way with it. He's a hell of a player and we're going to have to contain him in some way. You're not going to stop him, we just have to contain him somehow and do a good job on him."
(on whether DT Anthony Maddox is ready to enter the defensive rotation) "You know I liked the way he practiced, and the one think I want to stand for here is if a kid is on our practice squad and he's practicing and doing a positive job, I feel an obligation to move him up and give him a shot. I want to send that message to those players. And he has done that and the fact that Alfred (Malone) broke the wrist or the hand gives him the chance, so we're looking forward to seeing how he does."
(on whether FB Vonta Leach will play) "If we played today, he would play. I count on him, I really do. He can help us on special teams also, but we have a couple days yet. And (to get to) 45, you have to make some tough decisions on game day to get to that. Him suiting up will probably have a lot to do with whether we suit seven or eight offensive linemen."
(on RB Ron Dayne's experience vs. Dallas) "Well, I'm hoping he gives us something extra because he's looking like a better player everyday. He looked really good in practice Monday. He really didn't go through training camp, as I told you, so this is week five or six for him. I'm hoping y'all see him improve every week."
**QB David Carr
(on whether he saw anything in Dallas' loss to Philadelphia that they will use)** "Well, there are a couple situations for that. One time they had a safety out there, and they walked their tight end out there, and he's a good player, and they ended up running a double move off of him, so it's going to be something they'll look at. And I'm sure they will have it fixed. It's not going to be something that we're just going to walk into the game thinking we can throw deep balls on these guys. They are a pretty talented defense."
(on whether they will at least test Dallas) "You have to test them in all areas. The one area we have to test them in, where we have not stood up to the test is just being able to run the ball. We have to be able to run the ball effectively or we're not going to have a chance. If they put us in a one dimensional game, yeah, we can make some plays in the air, but its not going to be enough because they have a talented offense. They have good receivers; they can score some points. So we have to make sure that we have our whole game going."
(on Coach Bill Parcells' use of blitz) "They'll bring one more than you can block sometimes. As a quarterback you have to know where that guy is coming from, where you can get rid of the ball. And there's times you can make plays off that too where it'll give you one-on-one's. They have confidence in their secondary and their corners. They match pretty good outside."
(on whether he thinks Dallas' secondary just had a bad game vs. the Eagles) "They had a flea-flicker they ran, and there were a couple double-move routes. You go through the course of a season and you're going to get beat. That stuff happens, but good teams respond to that. And I have no reason to doubt they won't bounce back and come back from that. So we're going to have to play a pretty solid game."
(on facing Dallas) "It was my favorite team going up, so it's always fun playing against these guys, even though we have only got the one opportunity in regular season to play against them so many years ago. It's still exciting for me because I grew up watching these guys, so I enjoy it."
(on how he feels about Dallas now) "Well, now I hate them. Now it's a little different. It's competitive now, so I can't go root for them now."
**WR Andre Johnson
(on Philadelphia's success passing on Dallas)** "When those plays were made they caught the Cowboys. The corner blitz was sent one time. The other time (Eagles QB) Donovan (McNabb) just put the ball out there and the guy was just able to make a play on it. They were caught in a blitz situation one time and the other one, the guy just made a play. Hopefully we'll be able to make some plays against them."
(on what a quality run game would do for him and WR Eric Moulds) "I think that once we get our running game going the offense will be able to be a lot more consistent. Sometimes we are able to pop off good runs here and there. I think once our run game becomes more consistent then our offense will become a lot better because you have to run the ball. You can't just be one dimensional. You have to be able to run the ball."
(on the Cowboys as a cross-state rival) "I' haven't played a regular season game against the Cowboys. You know, I wasn't here for the first game. I was still in college then. I just know that it is a big, in-state rivalry. Sometimes when you're out and you see fans they talk about how you have to get this one because it is against the Cowboys, but to me I just look at it as another game that we have to go out and win."
**DT Travis Johnson
(on whether the Eagles' game is a blueprint for beating Dallas)** "I wouldn't say a blueprint for success because Dallas beat up Philly, really, the whole game, when you really look at it. It just so happened that Philly won the game in the end, but Dallas really just physically manhandled Philly, when you really look at the film. You have to go out and play your game, play the best game possible."
**CB Dunta Robinson
(on Dallas WR Terry Glenn)** "If you put all of your focus on Terry Glenn then you see T.O. (Terrell Owens) going 80 yards on the other side of the field. I think it's similar to the situation that we have here with (WRs) Andre (Johnson) and Eric (Moulds). You can't focus in on one guy because you have two great receivers. Both of these guys will get the job done, and we just have to make sure that it doesn't happen on Sunday. We just have to go out there and get the job done."
(on how CBs face physical receivers like Terrell Owens) "You just be physical back. If he throws a punch, you throw a punch; not literally because you'd both get ejected. But I'm saying you just have to be physical. You can't just go out there and back down. I don't think we have guys on the backend that are going to back down on anybody. The way to beat a physical guy is to be physical back to him."
(on what made the difference for the defense vs. Miami) "Well, the biggest thing is the quarterback didn't have all day to throw the football. It feels so much better when that front is pressuring the quarterback and making him do things he doesn't want to do with the football. That was the big difference. We just have to go out there and do the same thing to this quarterback. Drew Bledsoe is a great quarterback, but like any other quarter, once you start putting pressure on him he'll get a little rattled. That's what we have to do."
**DE Anthony Weaver
(on the Dallas offense)** "Their offense is impressive, regardless of all of the situations they put themselves in; they still managed to be in that game at the end. Yeah, we have to follow a little of what Philly did, but at the same time we can't give them that many points."
(on seeing Dallas give up sacks) "You know they're going to work to stop that problem. It gives you motivations, especially for the defensive linemen when you hear that team giving up seven sacks. You get your motor running that much more to try and go out there and get some."
**T Zach Wiegert
(on facing a 3-4 defense)** "Oh, it's a change. Miami played probably 50% of time the 3-4, and so we got a look at it already some this season, but it will be a different defense from what we've faced."
(on the Dallas defensive line) "They play a basic defensive front. A lot of teams used to play a 3-4 front. They play it way it was originally played; they two-gap, they read their gaps. If you play a 3-4 and you have a good personnel, it's a great defense. That defense, they are all very gap-sound. They are all very smart players. They don't do a ton of stuff, but they do what they do really well."
**DE Mario Williams
(on his wanting to play like he did vs. Miami)** "Yeah, looking at what happened last week, it is something that, obviously, it is noticeable, but at the same time, that is last week. We can't go out there thinking that it's going to be the same. We have to go there and make things happen."
(on Dallas QB Drew Bledsoe) "He's a great quarterback. Obviously he's been in the league for a while, and he really doesn't run around too much, but then again if you look at it he's been in the league so long that he has a lot of experience and awareness when he's on the field."
(on Bledsoe's lack of mobility helps) "Oh yeah. Anytime you have a quarterback that is not like Michael Vick who can take off and is faster than anybody on the filed, then it's a good thing to have somebody not as mobile."
(what he has learned in the first four games) "Basically, just still working on my technique and just trying to be as fluid
as I can when I'm moving, just keep my feet going and keep going hard. That's
basically it."
