Owner Bob McNair, head coach Gary Kubiak and CB Jacques Reeves spoke with the media after Thursday's practice. The following is a transcript of their interviews.
Owner Bob McNair Head Coach Gary Kubiak CB Jacques Reeves
Head Coach Gary Kubiak
(on the health status of his team) "(CB) Jacques (Reeves) will not be able to play this week. As I told you guys yesterday, he was going through warm-ups and had a ball thrown to him, and compound fracture is the way I understand it. It came out of the skin. He's in the hospital right. He had it fixed; should be out of the hospital sometime this evening. He will not be available this weekend, hopefully next weekend."
(on CB Jacques Reeves' bad luck with injuries this season) "Yeah, it's been rough. The good news is hopefully he'll be back next week."
(on if there is always one position hit harder than others) "I think, if you look around this league, there's a lot of people and you're always nicked up. How you fight through those things usually dictates what kind of season you have, so obviously we've had a lot of players playing back there on the back end. But we've got to keep going and I feel good he's going to be back."
(on wanting his corners to playing tighter) "The question was asked, 'Would you want guys up there tighter when that's what's going on?' and obviously you do. In football, you play zone, you play man. You do a lot of things, so it doesn't mean you go out there and call man coverage every down. That has its problems too. We just have to do a better job breaking on the ball, getting out of our backpedal, recognizing drops, those types of things. If you do that, you should be tighter in coverage."
(on S Bernard Pollard) "He's made progress from yesterday to today. Like I said, I hope to see him be a contributor on Sunday. How much he plays, I think is still up in the air, but he's still going to play."
(on any other injuries) "(TE) Anthony Hill is in the hospital with pneumonia, so he's not here today. Other than that, we've got some normal nicks."
(on if they are looking to make any moves at defensive back) "Well, we don't have any DBs on our practice squad, so it's not like we have anybody to bring up. We're trying to take a hard look at (CB Glover) Quin and (CB Brice) McCain this week, and obviously, we would like to see them play more than they have been playing. Like I said, we'll continue to look at those guys until somebody steps up and basically says, 'You're not getting this spot back.' So we're going to keep looking at those players."
(on defending against the run) "Well, it's a combination of things. Putting your team in a good call in certain situations, that's half the battle. The other half is playing the defense right. Sometimes you're not going to be perfect. It's like offense, same way; you may call a bad play. That's why there are sixty-something plays in the game, you get to come back and make the next one. I just think it's still about consistency and effort and assignment."
Owner Bob McNair
(on opening the season 1-2) "Well, I think that we've showed a lot of good things that we were expecting. Then we've failed to execute at times when I would've expected that that would not happen. But it's all about execution. We've got the players. We've got the schemes and I'm not concerned about that. The coaches are working hard and we've just got to get the players to execute. They're the ones that are out on the field and they're the ones that have to do it, and they know what they're supposed to do. We've got a few young guys, new guys in there. We're going to give them a shot and I think they're going to play well."
(on if it's frustrating not getting better results on defense) "Yeah, it's frustrating. It's frustrating for the players and coaches and to see people sometimes make a mistake. They've been coached up on it during the week and during the week, they didn't make the mistake and then they got in the game and they did. With young players, is it because it's a little stage fright? Inexperience and that sort of thing? What's the cause of it? That's what you really bang your head against the wall on. I think that we've got some really bright spots with some players who are playing well and just going to play even better. I think our linebacking core is just a tremendous improvement. Where we've had problems, it's basically been one player, just not carrying out his assignment. All he had to do, was to do what he had been taught to do. If you have a busted play in this league, one player breaking down makes the whole defense look bad. But the other 10 guys can be playing very well."
(on if it frustrates him when head coach Gary Kubiak gets so much criticism this early in the season) "Well, I think it's too early. We've got 13 games to play and I'm still excited about our team and about our chances. Now, obviously, every game you lose, it reduces the probability of your ultimate success. So we're realistic about it, and we'd be much better off if we were 3-0 instead of 1-2. But still, we have a chance to go out here and win this game Sunday, and I fully expect us to do that and wind up 2-2. At this stage of the game, could it be better? Yes. But are we in bad shape? No. We have a chance to have a real good year."
(on if he expects the Oakland game to be a pivotal game for them) "Well, it just makes it that much more difficult. I mean, some people say that this is a make or break game and each one of them is important and you hate to lose any game. It doesn't matter what it is. Clearly, early on, the more you lose, the more difficult it is to wind up with the kind of record you need at the end of the year. But that's not saying you can't do it. You're just making it more difficult on yourself."
(on the defense saying that defensive coordinator Frank Bush is putting them in the right place) "Well I think that they have bought into the defense, the schemes. They say that it's not a problem with the schemes. It's not a problem with the calls. They just have to execute. In life, if you break it down to its smallest element of the whole universe, everything works well if everybody just does what they should do—each individual. It's not different with a football team. All they have to do is just carry out their assignments. Sometimes, the players will try to do more than that and they just have to believe that all I have to do is do my job. With the talent that we have on this team, we're going to win a lot of games, and we will. We will. I think they're buying into it and they need to be a little more disciplined, and with that discipline, we're going to get better ourselves."
CB Jacques Reeves
(on how he injured his finger) "Doing ball drills and dislocated my pinky. It came out of the skin. Just taking a precaution, they went in and cleaned it out. Nothing serious."
(on the time frame of how long he'll be out) "I'll miss this week. I'll be back next week."
(on if he feels snake bitten with the different injuries) "Not really snake bitten. It's just football, man. Things happen. If I just stay positive and keep working, I'll be alright."
(on if he's disappointed because he's been trying to get back) "Yeah, it sucks. I was going to play this week. It sucks, but I'm not going to just sit around. Just stay positive and keep my teammates into it and do what I can."
(on if he had surgery) "Not really surgery. They opened it up a little bit and cleaned out the joint for precaution. Nothing serious"
(on if there will be any lingering issues next week) "It's a pinkie, man. No, I'll be alright."
(on the use of the hand) "I have a pretty high pain tolerance so I should be alright. I'll be alright."
(on if he will have to wear any kind of productive gear on the pinkie) "I'm not sure yet."
(on if he's had a dislocated finger before) "I dislocate fingers about twice a year. It's never come out of the skin, though, so that was a new thing for me."
