Coach Jim Haslett October 13

[RamWraith]

Head Coach Jim Haslett

October 13, 2008



(Opening remarks)

"(G) Jacob Bell has a strained foot and he will be day-to-day. (WR) Drew
Bennett is still out probably one-to-two weeks. (QB) Marc Bulger has an
index finger and he will be day-to-day. (WR) Keenan Burton should
practice and be ready to go this week. (CB) Tye Hill (will be out)
couple more weeks I would think. (RB) Brain Leonard separated his
shoulder again and we are going to put him on IR today, so he will be
out the remainder of the season and hopefully he will get surgery in the
next couple weeks. (WR) Dane Looker, don't ask me all the medical
issues, he passed his physical, he will be back on the active roster
starting Wednesday and I don't know all the other answers for you. You
can talk to him about that but he is back and he is ready to go and he
is going to start this Wednesday. (CB) Ricky Manning Jr. is going to
have surgery tomorrow on his broken leg and he also will be put on
injury/reserve today. (T) Orlando Pace has a grade two quad strain and
he will be questionable for the game and (RB) Antonio Pittman is also
going to be another one-two weeks."



(On RB Brian Leonard's injury)

"I am not really sure. His shoulder popped out, he tore some more
ligaments and muscles in it, so we thought he could probably do rehab
for a couple weeks and could play but it would probably happen again. I
would rather do it now and get it over with and have him ready for the
offseason next year, if we wait until the end of the season to get it
done, it would hinder him from being ready for training camp next year.
It is best for him, not the best thing for us, but the best thing for
him to get it done."



(On other roster moves)

"We signed (CB) Fahkir Brown back to the active roster and we signed
(DT) Willie Williams, a guy from Louisville and we had him in training
camp. He will be on the practice squad."



(On if this is the same shoulder RB Brain Leonard hurt in training camp)

"Yes, it is the same one he hurt in training camp, the same one he hurt
a couple weeks ago and he just re-injured it yesterday."



(On QB Marc Bulger's injury)

"I don't know, all I know is that it is his throwing finger. He will be
alright, he will be fine. He came back and played with it the rest of
the game. He will be fine by the end of the week."



(On if the team plans to sign another player to address the running back
position)

"There are a couple guys on the practice squad that we are looking at
and there is a guy that we kind of like but I am not sure if we are
going to get him so I am not going to mention his name. If we get him,
he would be our third running back."



(On what happened with (CB) Leigh Torrence on the sideline during the
game)

"Basically what happened was, he is a flyer on their punt team and I was
in the white area, so I backed out of the white and then I saw he was
getting a little closer so I backed out of the white area and I could
not get any further back, when we jammed him out of bounds. So he
decided he was going to run the side lines and he is supposed to run the
white, he can't run behind the bench. So he was coming at me so I
figured it was me or him. He was going to run me over or I was going to
get him, so I got a good shot on him. I did not want to get run over.
You see those coaches that get toppled, it was not going to be me."



(On what he said to G Rickie Incognito regarding his penalties in the
game against the Redskins)

"Yes I talked to him and I am part to blame. I was trying to get the
offensive line fired up to play this week and I wanted him to play with
emotion. He played excellent in the game, he just has to understand that
there is a fine line between doing what you are supposed to do and
getting a 15-yard penalty or talking to the referees. He does not need
to do that because if he just plays with enthusiasm and intensity, then
he is a fine ball player. He does not have to go the extra way and I
think he understands that and we had a long talk today and he had a long
talk with (Offensive line) coach (Steve) Loney and he will be alright."



(On how big this win was for the team)

"Obviously winning takes care of a lot. Everything I talked about this
week came true. The talk was at half, we lost two players, fumbled the
ball that led to a touchdown, we got two holding penalties and two drops
but you know what, we are winning the game. It really doesn't kick in
until you win a game and I think it will go a long way, I think they
understand what it takes to win in this league. There are things that
happen all the time but it is how you handle it and going in to that
environment is another situation. That is a hard place to play, it has
92,000 people screaming and yelling and the band playing, just the whole
environment, it is a hard place to win in and I thought we did a good
job of handling it. I thought we did a good job of handling that
adversity on the field. 70-percent of the teams in this league don't win
games, 70-percent loose games. It is a game of mistakes and not everyone
is going to be perfect all the time, so you try to keep turnovers to a
minimum, do the best you can to keep the penalties to a minimum but
things happen bad and you have to overcome them."



(On if G Richie Incognito understood the potential problems caused by
his penalty)

"I think Richie got the point, if we'd lost the game Richie might not be
here today. I think he understands that. One thing he is he's a smart
kid he understands all that stuff, but thank god we have a good kicker,
the kid's (Josh Brown) the real deal."



(On how you get G Richie Incognito fired up without going over the top
and getting penalties)

"Obviously, I didn't do a good job of that this week, but we'll work on
it. I think when Richie plays his best football he's aggressive, so he's
got to make sure he doesn't go overboard."



(On if he tells players to respond, not back down and have an edge when
they take the field)

"No, I haven't even had time enough to talk about things like that, but
I would think they would take it. You don't want somebody pushing around
and shoving you around out there either, but I think there is a fine
line in this business from right and wrong and Richie just crossed a
line a little bit yesterday. I think he'll stay under the radar. He'll
stay under that line this week."



(On how happy he is to have CB Fakhir Brown back on the roster)

"Well, it's good to have him back. I thought he was one of our better
defensive backs and he's a good kid. When he's healthy he's a pretty
good corner, so it'd be nice to have him back, but we have to get back
in full, he hasn't been here for a couple weeks. I know he's excited
about coming back."



(On if CB Fakhir Brown will be in the starting lineup on Sunday)

"I haven't really talked about that with the defensive coaches. I'm sure
he'll figure in the mix."



(On LB Pisa Tinoisamoa's performance in Washington)

"I thought Pisa played extremely well. That's one of his best games he's
played since I've been here. Actually Pisa has been playing well all
year. I think there's one or two plays every game he doesn't play too
well, but I'm not sure exactly, I want to say 14 tackles, I think he had
nine (tackles) and five assists. He was taking on big guys, he was
flying around, he knocked the ball loose from offensive (lineman) Pete
Kendall on that play, so he's actually been playing pretty good
football; about as good as I've seen him play."



(On how he thinks CB Fakhir Brown was playing before he was released)

"I thought he was paying pretty well. He just had the shoulder injury
and he was fighting through that. He's probably just a couple weeks away
from being 100 percent, so it looks like to me, talking to him, he's 100
percent ready to go."



(On if he plans to keep CB Ron Bartell exclusively at corner)

"Actually, I think Ron can play almost anything. I think he'd be a great
free safety and I think he's playing pretty well at corner also. Right
now, we need him at corner and he's playing real well, but he is our
fourth safety also. If something happened and we lost a couple, he would
go in and play free safety. He's a smart kid and he's got great speed, I
don't know if you saw the play O.J. (Atogwe) scored he was, the guy can
run, he's smart, he's got a lot of good qualities. He's long-legged, so
he has to keep it down because he's got a long torso, but he's made
great strides this year."



(On the other players helping out on blocking when S O.J. Atogwe
recovered the fumble)

"(DL) Chris (Long) can run pretty well too. You've got some pretty fast
guys running down, you've got (CB) Ron (Bartell), you've got him, you
got (LB) Will Witherspoon, and (S) O.J. (Atogwe), so again we're not the
biggest defense, but we do have a little bit of speed."



(On what he sees different from a game-plan perspective with Brad
Johnson at quarterback and not Tony Romo)

"To be honest with you, I haven't even gotten that far. The defensive
staff is up there working on it right now. We've played Brad (Johnson) a
number of times in the past when he was at Tampa Bay and even when he
was in Minnesota, so we kind of know him. I still think that offense
will change. He does a good job getting the ball out of his hands. I'd
say the only difference between him and Tony (Romo), there's a lot of
differences, but Tony can run around and make plays on his feet. Brad
doesn't really do that anymore, but he has a great feel for the game. He
will run the offense extremely well. He'll get the ball out of his
hands. He can still throw it, just based off of what I know about Brad."



(On losing CB Ricky Manning Jr. for the season and the impact he was
starting to have)

"Ricky was playing well. He didn't hit anybody when he broke his leg. He
actually was coming in to get his second sack and he just twisted it and
fell. I was kind of surprised his leg broke on that play. He was
actually laughing to Leonard (Little) saying that if he had gotten that
sack, he would have been leading the team in sacks and he had only been
here for three weeks. I like Ricky because he's a tough kid and he plays
hard and has a great feel for the game. It's a shame that happened to
him, but they're taking care of it and he'll be back."



(On being able to beat a team in the fourth quarter that has been
playing well in the fourth quarter this season)

"That's one of the things. Good teams win in the fourth quarter.
Usually, the game comes down to the last couple minutes of the game
anyway. It just happened that they scored a touchdown and our offense
went out there and Donnie Avery made a great play. It all boils down to
the players. Guys made the plays when they had to. Donnie (Avery) made a
great play. Marc (Bulger) did a nice job of stepping up in the pocket,
avoiding the rush and getting the ball out of his hands. Two guys made a
nice play on that. It was drawn pretty well."



(On if the win will give the team some momentum going forward)

"I don't know Jim. You got one win. It's been long in coming. We'll come
out Wednesday and we'll practice hard Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and
we'll give it everything we have to win the game on Sunday. It's a great
football team. Not excluding their injuries, going into the season, I
thought (the Dallas Cowboys) were the best team in the National Football
League, with the most talent. There is a lot of talent on that football
team."



(On how they can stop the tandem of Cowboys running backs, Marion Barber
and Felix Jones)

"I just understood that Felix (Jones) is out for a couple of weeks.
Someone just told me that he got hurt. I'm not sure if that is true or
not. I know this, the guys have great speed. He can take it to the house
any time. (Marion) Barber is the real deal. I think he is one of the
best in the league. The guy runs hard, great pad level, plays hard, good
blocker, he has it all going for him. We just facing them, we get
(Redskins RB Clinton) Portis, and they just keep bringing them on, so
we'll just deal with them the best we can. He is a great running back. I
don't know. I can't imagine the University of Minnesota with that 1-2
combination, how they lost a game, two good running backs on the same
team."



(On what his emotions were with everything involved in the win)

"To be honest with you, I was kind of excited to see how our team
reacted to everything. It's been a long two weeks. It was a hard two
weeks and getting on a plane and to travel and go into that environment.
I was kind of anxious just to see how they responded. It was actually
kind of funny, because we preached about field position and adversity
and all of sudden we make a third-down stop, but we have 12 guys on the
field. I was like you have to be kidding me. They got a couple of first
downs and punted so we lost our field position right away, so we get the
ball backed up which is what we didn't want, then a fumble comes. Well,
this will be a good test right here to start off, so I was actually kind
of laughing. I was walking up and down the sideline telling those guys,
'well, they are testing us early, so we'll see how we are.' We actually
fought through it and did alright with it."



(On signing DT Willie Williams to the practice squad)

"We just need to give some of those guys a break. We have a bunch of
receivers on the practice squad and we are kind of just shuffling the
deck a little bit."



(On if it was to the active roster or to the practice squad)

"He is on the practice squad, yes."



(On what bone CB Ricky Manning Jr. fractured)

"Do I know what bone it is? It's down by the foot somewhere. I'm not
really sure."



(On if he is more disappointed that the team did not score an offensive
touchdown or encouraged that they won without one)

"Well, obviously we want to score some touchdowns. I'm disappointed that
we didn't score any touchdowns. I'm encouraged that we won the game
without scoring any, so I think it is two-fold. I thought we didn't have
a lot of yards and it's a pretty good defensive team and they pressured
us a lot and did some things. I think the No. 1 goal is to take away
Steven (Jackson) and Steven ran hard and he did a nice job running. We
have to generate more points, obviously, to win games in this league.
You are not going to win games scoring 12 points on offense. I think
once we get, Donnie (Avery) is going to be more involved. we get Keenan
(Burton) back here pretty soon, we get (Derek) Stanley going, with
Steven (Jackson). We'll generate some more points."



(On if he has run through any offensive line combinations in either G
Jacob Bell or T Orlando Pace can't go next Sunday)

"We'll see what happens this week. I'm not really sure exactly what is
going to happen. There might not be any changes at all. We ended up with
(Adam) Goldberg going in and went in and played. We'll take it
day-to-day and just see who's available and go from there."



(On if he considers Brett Romberg able to play guard or strictly a
center)

"He can play both, inside, inside."



(On what he thought about Dante Hall's performance on special teams)

"Let me tell you something, our special teams played excellent
yesterday. I want to give them credit. The group we were playing has a
great unit. For one, they have a great coach, (Redskins Special Teams
Coach) Danny Smith. They really have a good special teams unit. I
thought we outplayed them. I thought we did a good job. Dante (Hall) was
hitting the returns. I thought he could have broke a few. One he almost
got, the guy grabbed a hold of the ball and he might have scored. He
ran with authority, guys blocked well, we had great coverage units
yesterday. I thought the punter and kicker, obviously they did their
jobs. I thought our special teams were excellent yesterday. That was one
of the keys, field position and the way they played. That was one of the
keys to winning the game."

[eldfan]

"Let me tell you something, our special teams played excellent
yesterday. I want to give them credit. The group we were playing has a
great unit. For one, they have a great coach, (Redskins Special Teams
Coach) Danny Smith. They really have a good special teams unit. I
thought we outplayed them. I thought we did a good job. Dante (Hall) was
hitting the returns. I thought he could have broke a few. One he almost
got, the guy grabbed a hold of the ball and he might have scored. He
ran with authority, guys blocked well, we had great coverage units
yesterday. I thought the punter and kicker, obviously they did their
jobs. I thought our special teams were excellent yesterday. That was one
of the keys, field position and the way they played. That was one of the
keys to winning the game."

What was once a pain year end and year out is now a strength.

[UtterBlitz]

(On losing CB Ricky Manning Jr. for the season and the impact he was
starting to have)

"Ricky was playing well. He didn't hit anybody when he broke his leg. He
actually was coming in to get his second sack and he just twisted it and
fell. I was kind of surprised his leg broke on that play. He was
actually laughing to Leonard (Little) saying that if he had gotten that
sack, he would have been leading the team in sacks and he had only been
here for three weeks. I like Ricky because he's a tough kid and he plays
hard and has a great feel for the game. It's a shame that happened to
him, but they're taking care of it and he'll be back."

Manning is gone for the season. That sucks.

He didn't even hit anybody, just twisted it.

[Mooselini]

It's tough that we lost Manning for the season. He was playing so good. Imagine, Bartell, Manning and Brown as our CB's. Thats a pretty solid set right there. Now we're short again. This will be a tough loss, but I really hope that he comes back as a Ram next year. He's won my support.

Special teams was great yesterday. I was on giving up on Hall just last week, but he did a pretty good job yesterday. We know he can return kicks still. He should stay there at KR rather than WR.

Offense was a problem. Obviously, the Redskins job was to contain Jackson, yet he still broke out for a decent amount of yards. Good playing by Jackson yesterday. We need to play a bit better on offense however. We get Burton back and that is a big plus. Bulger needs to trust his WR's a little more instead of forcing stuff to Holt constantly. If we get the offense rolling, it will be fun to watch again.

GO RAMS!

[r8rh8rmike]

He was going to run me over or I was going to get him, so I got a good shot on him. I did not want to get run over. You see those coaches that get toppled, it was not going to be me.

You gotta love this!

[letsgoramz]

Haslett isn't no Linehan i can tell u that off of that quote