Q: How much has Pierre-Paul progressed since the beginning of the season?
A: Tremendously. We have a lot of defense in and it's very difficult for a young player to recall and remember all that defense. He's been able to do that, and now he's capitalizing and he's able to make some plays. Some of the plays we would hope he would make earlier in the season, but now because we've been able to spoon feed him, he has been able to make those plays now. We look for that trend to continue.
Q: Has he become more instinctive?
A: More instinctive, no doubt about it. That's given us more confidence to do more things with him, also.
Q: He's also playing the run well, too:
A: He's playing football for us, period. It's not like he's doing one thing better than the other. I think his game is starting to come around and he's become a good run player and a good pass player. Plus, he's playing two positions for us. He's playing defensive end, and in the sub package he's playing defensive tackle. He's got some things to remember.
Q: What has Antrel's versatility brought to the defense?
A: Oh man, he brings us so much flexibility and to do a multitude of things. We do a lot of different things, and he's able to go down and play on a slot receiver, a tight end, a post, the half. He's been able to blitz, and he's one of the better athletes, so he is able to chase down quarterbacks. His versatility has meant a lot to us and what we do and how we do it, and how we plan.
Q: Have you sensed that he's been comfortable from day one here?
A: I wouldn't say that he's comfortable on the football field. He's a football player, that's the best way I can describe it. I think his home is the football field.
Q: What's the reason for more pressure from the defensive backs the past two games? You guys didn't seem to run anything like that in the first nine games:
A: No, we ran it but they just didn't get there. They're getting better in pressuring. We've tried to change it up from time to time. We don't try to keep it in a holding pattern or what have you. We try to feature different things to keep people off balance. That's a fair statement, I was kidding before though.
Q: So why are they more effective now?
A: They're getting comfortable doing it. Sometimes you have to challenge them a little bit, and say ‘Hey man, this is set up for you to have success." Sometimes, you have to challenge them, work on it, and they have to be comfortable doing it. We put Terrell Thomas at the nickel last week and Terrell hasn't played the nickel for us, only in camp. Terrell had all that work in camp and a little bit in the preseason but not much, but he was able to get home for us. That was fun for us because that's stuff that we did in camp. Terrell just recalled it and came back and played.
Q: Anything different with McNabb as a Redskin than before?
A: Obviously it's a different offensive system for him. Anytime it's a different offensive system, and even though he's grasped the system, it's not the one like he was comfortable with in Philly. I still see the savvy veteran quarterback that has a strong arm and he's able to break you down. If he wants to scramble, then he can look all over the field and throw the ball from one side of the field to the other. I see the veteran leader as a quarterback, and he's willing to carry his football team if he has to. I see nothing different from Donovan himself except it's not the offense that he's been comfortable with for a number of years.
Q: Is Donovan not throwing a lot of good balls? He has an interception in almost every game this year:
A: I think some of it is a product of his receivers not being at the right spot at times. Some of the times, he throws some bad balls. I think it's a product of the offensive system that he was comfortable with in Philly, versus now where he has learned this new offensive system and everyone is not in the right spots and the ones he expects them to be in. He's had some receivers that have changed positions and he doesn't have a consistent receiving corps like Eli has.
Q: You can use that to your advantage and maybe try to confuse him a bit more with assignments and things:
A: We hope so. When I say he's not comfortable, I'm saying that when he was in Philly, the difference for me was he knew where everyone was going to be and he was the general of that offense. It's not like he's not the general of the offense, but he doesn't know where everyone is deployed and where everybody is. He has made some mistakes as far as that is concerned from what I can see on tape.