“Isaac (Bruce) re-aggravated his left hamstring in the third quarter. It’s an old injury. He’s been having problems with it. We can’t tell until he gets into practice on Wednesday and Thursday how it will affect his playing status for this game.
“Aaron (Walker) will have shoulder surgery tomorrow, on his left shoulder to repair a torn labrum. He will be out for the season and will be on IR tomorrow.
“Leonard Little should have, by now, completed surgery on his left toe today, in Charlotte. He will be back here as soon as his off crutches.
“Richie Incognito, we’re still evaluating if there’s any chance of having him back at some point in this season. It does not look like that will happen. In that case we will probably add another player to our roster in the next 24 hours and put Richie on injury reserve.
“A couple of players that we will evaluate this week based on both having blows or shots to the head which is something we want to keep a good eye on is Eric Bassey and Todd Johnson. They showed some symptoms after the game that they had banged their heads during the game. We’ll have to go through a series of test this week to make sure they are cleared for the next game.
“Brett Romberg was way too sore in his pregame workout yesterday to be cleared for the game. We’ll evaluate his availability for the next game, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.”
(On plans to fill TE Aaron Walker’s roster spot)
“We’re looking at a possibility of doing two things – adding a current player off of our practice squad to our 53-man roster and then adding another offensive lineman to replace Richie (Incognito). If we add somebody from outside the team, we would probably do that first because the other player that would potentially be put up is already here. By week’s end, if both of these players go on IR there should be two replacements – one by tomorrow and the other by the end of the week.”
(On WR Dante Hall’s status)
“Dante should be good to go this game. He had a good workout before the game. He still experienced some lateral cut discomforts on Friday. He had a really good workout on Sunday. Unless he has a setback I don’t think there’s any reason he won’t be our returner this game.”
(On how C Nick Leckey played against the Saints)
“Being that he had two weeks to prepare, and with the idea he wasn’t sure if he was starting or not, he did a very, very good job. He’s very competitive. He’s going to be out mastered, out manned at some point in a game because of his overall bulk and size. He makes up for it with his effort. We played Nick, Brandon (Gorin) and Rob (Petitti) on the right side as a group. Whoever was in there played as good as could be expected.”
(On rotating T Brandon Gorin and T Rob Petitti at right tackle to evaluate them)
“I wanted to see what each guy could do. Rob ended up playing and little more than Brandon because of the length of the drives when it was his series. Between the two of them, it gave us a different type player there. Both of them competed very well.”
(On if Gorin and Petitti are different type players)
“They have different body types. Brandon (Gorin) is a little more of an athletic body type and his skills are more toward being an athletic type of tackle. Rob is a little more of a big, powerful guy and a little more athletic than he’s getting credit for. We’re getting to know both players. It’s new any time we put them out there and see them play, as to what they can do for us. I was pleased with both tackles, when they played, the way they competed and played in this game.”
(On how the offensive line played so well)
“It helped that we were able to have good balance in what we’re doing – still establish the run and put ourselves in favorable third downs. Although we were in some pretty tough third downs-and-long that we overcame and converted. We did so without having to hold the football. The timing with the plays that we ran and the passes gave them more of a chance to have success as well as them playing well. Studying and putting a lot of time into the game as far as what they expected to see from New Orleans, we played and went out and executed the plan pretty well.”
(On what the first win does to the psyche of the team)
“It’s one win. We still have the record we have. It does give us confidence in that this is a second season for us, an eight-game season. We’re focusing on that and not what happened in the first eight even though they all count. We count them too. We know it’s a part of where we are in the season, but it does give us much more confidence as a football team to know that when the chips are down and everything’s against you, you can go on the road and play against a team that is playing as good as anybody in the NFC and play like we did. It’s a matter of confidence, sometimes that can go a long way.”
(On playing with essentially the same offensive line that played against Cleveland)
“That was part of the reason we talked about the potential lineups. We wanted to leave as many people at the places they finished last game. Being able to start four guys that started the last, even though we needed a little bit more with the right side of our line, it helped a little bit with continuity. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to go in to two games in a row with similar lineups. It is nice to know that Brett (Romberg) has a potential of coming back and being inserted in that lineup at some point. We’re still optimistic that two weeks from now we’ll be able to re-sign Todd Steussie to the lineup. There are some things that are going in the right direction as far as what we’re trying to get done. Being able to go out a play a game like we did yesterday is the most critical part in helping their confidence.”
(On if G Milford Brown is settling in to the left guard position)
“It’s the natural position for Milford. That’s one reason we didn’t want to move him. That’s his best position. For him and Alex (Barron) to play consecutive games together in that position is going to pay off in the end. Milford is playing much better. He is getting more comfortable at the left guard spot which is really his best spot.”
(On WR Drew Bennett playing well against New Orleans)
“Drew hasn’t been healthy until recently. He was close to 100 percent in the Cleveland game. He was better than too. Since that preseason practice when he pulled his quad and hadn’t been able to practice full speed or even play full speed without having problems with his legs has affected him. It’s obvious to me that he’s much healthier now. He’s 100 percent and it’s going to pay up for us if we can continue to stay healthy at some of these spots.”
(On how close WR Torry Holt is to being 100 percent)
“It’s not going to be any different. Managing where he is, is what we have to do for the rest of the year. When the season’s over we have to sit down and evaluate what we have to do to get from one game to the next to get through these long seasons with a very sore knee. Torry has not missed any games since I’ve been here. He’s played through everything, but it’s noticeable as we go through training camp or a Wednesday practice or a full practice. It’s getting more and more difficult for him to do it the way he used to do it. He’s figured out his own body and how it feels and what he has to do to get himself to Sundays. The bye week helped him. Hopefully we can get through the remainder of the games we’re playing and get him to where he can continue to be as productive as he has been the last two weeks.”
(On if Holt is getting better)
“I don’t think he’s getting worse. In some ways he’s getting better because we’re adjusting to some of the things that are aggravating him during the week and avoiding those. It’s catch-22. You want to get the timing down and work with the quarterback and the offense during the week, but you also don’t want to have a guy that has a banged up and sore knee on Sunday. We’re trying to come up with the best solution which is to do as much as we can on Thursdays and Fridays so that we’re as close as we need to be on Sunday.”
(On if Holt’s production is surprising)
“That’s just a testament to how good he is – to be able to play and know that he’s not 100 percent. I don’t know what the percent is. It’s not 100 percent, but he’s able to get himself ready for Sunday. In recent weeks he’s got himself closer and closer to what he needs to do to be effective. Even with a banged up knee this year and the last couple of years, I don’t think he’s felt great especially at the end of the ’05, ’06 seasons. He’s still been able to do what he can do. Marc (Bulger) and he trust each other. Those two ultimately hook up in critical plays.”
(On how QB Marc Bulger looked on Sunday)
“We executed better and played better. When everyone plays better, not just an offensive player, but defensively and special teams, you just tend to be a little more accurate, a little more confident. Your timing tends to be better. We shut off the fact that the game couldn’t have started any worse for us. They went down and scored on the opening drive like it was nothing. We went three-and-out offensively. What happened in this game that was different, that helped the confidence of Marc or anybody else is even when things looked like they couldn’t be any worse to start the game O.J. (Oshiomogho Atogwe) makes a great interception and the offense goes out and takes advantage of it and puts some points on the board. Then all of a sudden things started to click as to what we set goals to do in that game. When you start playing like that, you feed off each other. You tend to get to the quarterback a little bit faster. Balls tend to be a little more accurate and you play with a little more confidence.”
(On how the team’s confidence affected the play calling)
“When you’re executing, I’ve always thought you get a third-down-and-17 and you run a precision route like we ran with Marc and Torry and complete that thing just like you would do versus air out there. It doesn’t matter what you call, it’s going to work and the players feel the same way. What happens is the plays start to roll quicker and the tempo becomes better. You still have a little bounce in their step of the players when they get in and out of the huddle. It helps everybody. When you start making your shots that rim just gets bigger and bigger. It’s the same way in football. When you start hitting those passes it’s easy to get first downs and score touchdowns.”
(On how he keeps the energy level up)
“The way the season goes, it’s a marathon because we’re going into a tough week. We’ve had our bye. The bye was needed for us not just because of our record or anything like that, but we’ve had a lot of injuries. We needed to get ourselves healthy and get our minds refresh. The best thing that happened to most of us, including myself, is we got some time away from it during the bye even though the tendency is you need to spend more time. We probably spent more time and more hours in this building this year than you can imagine. You can’t mistake activity for achievement. We have to focus on the positive things that we need to focus on to get that confidence and play at the level we need to play. Everybody took their own advice and took advantage of it. For one week it paid off, we just have to keep get going.”
(On if the Rams have the personnel on defense to continue playing an aggressive style of defense)
“Yeah I think that is really how our defense is built. We knew going into that particular game that we needed to do something to take that rhythm away from that offense because they have had and will continue to have extremely good rhythm with their quarterback and their receiving corps and number 25 (Reggie Bush), one of the most dangerous players in the league. You have to disrupt that. You can’t just sit back and let that transpire. Otherwise you get the same result as the other four opponents prior to us. I think when you recognize that, that is what you have to do. There may be times where people are anticipating that they are going to get a lot of good looks and they have a match-up that they are taking advantage of. So you have to be aggressive with your head on your shoulders. I think you have to keep that frame of mind that that’s going to be an advantage for us but don’t put anyone in a position where they can’t have success in either.”
(On if he was surprised that RB Steven Jackson received 27 touches)
“Yeah but the way it worked out was good because it wasn’t 27 consecutive touches. We were able to let him have a break. It is a little similar to basketball if you have a player that you can give a break at a certain point in the game. Let him get his fluid back in him, let him get his rest, don’t wear him down early and be in it for the long haul. What was great about Steven last year was, at seasons end last year, he was really at his best at the end of the game and in the fourth quarter. You could see that on a couple of those plays at the end of the game. I think it helped that he wasn’t taking every snap up to that point and we would like to keep it that way. That would be a good formula for us if we can do that.”
(On if he notices opposing defenses playing differently when Jackson is in the game)
“I think the defensive mentality is different when he is in there and our team’s mentality is different when he is in there too. Yeah I think they definitely focus a little more on stopping 39 (Steven Jackson) when he is in the game.”
(On what made him decide to work RB Antonio Pittman as the No. 2 running back)
“We signed him when he was waived right before the season. The idea was, at some point, he was going to be potentially at that spot. I think the fact that we were now in a position where if Steven (Jackson) was back we could use Brian (Leonard) in primarily the fullback spot, which is why we drafted and brought him here. Pittman had enough time in our offense at this point and with the Bye Week to get him ready that he would be ready to be the No. 2 guy at the tailback spot. It’s funny how much more motivated you are going back and playing the team that drafted you and had released you. I think that factored in it with me because I know it was added motivation for him to work that much harder going into this game and it was nice. It was a nice little change of pace. He still has a ways to go yet. He still has a lot of rookie things in him but he has grown up a lot since he has been here and hopefully it’s going to be something that we can continue to do.”
(On the offense being able to convert 8-of-11 third downs in the first three quarters)
“We executed on third downs. I have always preached manageable third downs but we got in some tough ones and we were able to convert those too. Sometimes you have to play your best football to stay on the field. We felt our best defense in this game was to stay on the field on offense. If you can keep that football out of that football team’s hands, you have a great chance to win. Over three quarters we had the ball for almost 33 minutes and I think they only had it for 12 minutes. I’ve never ever, since I have been in pro football, seen that number after three quarters which I think had a lot to do with the success of our football game. We knew going into it, that was our goal, to convert on third down and keep their offense off the field.”
(On if it was an emotional day for defensive coordinator Jim Haslett)
“Yeah I think so. To be honest with you, I think it was pretty emotional for everybody. We haven’t had a lot of fun here. It just happened to happen down there. I think it came at a good time, that we had guys like Jim and Rick (Venturi) who spent a lot of time down there and who had that much added incentive and emotional input into the week and the two weeks up to the game. I think that gave us an added boost but I still give credit to the players for going out and taking advantage of two weeks of preparation and really putting together our best team effort so far this year.”
(On what it meant to receive the game ball from QB Marc Bulger)
“It meant more to me that we got our first win for our football team. Gestures like that are nice and don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it. I think it just goes to show we are in this together and we have all been feeling very accountable and responsible for not being achieving what our goals have been. We re-centered a lot of that during the Bye and it was great to see the time and energy that was put into a game plan and the game. It would have been easy for guys to basically ‘sack the bat,’ and look forward to next year. I think in a lot of ways our guys have refocused on the second half of the season. To make those kind of gestures says a lot about the leadership that we are trying to promote on our football team.”
(On if he slept better last night)
“I slept about the same but different. It was better insomnia than weeks before. I just don’t sleep very well after games. I have to be honest with you. It was fun to go home and spend time with family. They were pretty excited about it. Keep your perspective, we are sitting here with one win after nine games, there is still a lot to learn from and build from being that you are in such a position that you still have to continue to do your job and work on motivating yourself and the people around you. That was good and I would like to keep that going.”