Spags Conference Call Recap

(On any injury updates)
“The only thing that was a little bit new was (CB) Dionte Dinkins came in with kind of a hyper-extended knee. He couldn’t really straighten it out so it’s not real functional right now, but (S) MikaiI Baker is the same, (DT) Jermelle Cudjo. I don’t know if I mentioned (DT) Freddie Robbins last night but he hit the ground pretty hard one time and kind of has a contusion on his back. He may be limited or may not be practicing tomorrow. The other guys are kind of bumped up, there is a bunch of busted bumps and bruises. I mentioned about (DE) Chris Long, I think I called it turf toe. (Head Athletic Trainer) Reggie (Scott) isn’t calling it turf toe. They’ll reassess it tomorrow. They may put something in his shoe to protect him a little bit, but hopefully we’ll get him back for tomorrow. (LB) Na’il Diggs had a contusion on his knee, hopefully that’s not real serious. Other than that, just a bunch of bumps and bruises.”

(On if communication issues up front are due to the offense being fairly new)
“I wouldn’t call it communications up front. I’m going to go back to reacting. When the end comes in and you thought he was going to go out and then linebacker goes out, when you thought he was coming in, then two guys just kind of exchange that. But there is nothing verbal to it. That’s just kind of… but that isn’t anything different than we would have done last year.”

(On defensive gap integrity)
“Well one of them, the long run that came out the left side part of the defense. You saw (S) Darian Stewart try to make a tackle there and really that was more of a missed tackle than anything else. Actually, the gap integrity on that was pretty good. It made the running back bounce it all the way back outside the defensive end or outside their tight end. That’s where the safety has to show up. Later on in the game I thought Darian Stewart made some really good tackles, but on that particular play he didn’t. So there’s one real big cut back run. There were a couple other ones that it was both linebackers and linemen to be quite honest with you…linemen getting breached out of an A-gap or B-gap and the linebacker not being down hill in his gap. Everybody kind of took a turn there.”

(On if anything happened Saturday to separate some of the receivers in their competition for roster spots)
“I saw a lot of good play there. It was nice to see Greg Salas out there. Danario (Alexander) made a play on a quick screen we call it, ran with the ball pretty good. Mardy (Gilyard) had one good catch there at the end. It was nice to see Fendi (Onobun) out there. I know that’s not the receiver crew, it’s a tight end, but they’re still catching the ball. And certainly Donnie Avery, having him back in there catching a long ball like that is pretty good. Brandon Gibson opened up the game with a good play. You know, I told Brandon after that play, really that’s not an easy ball to catch. Sometimes those are the tougher ones. It’s out there, it’s wide open, it’s a perfect throw, nobody’s on you. Sometimes that can be tough, but he made a good play and got in the end zone. I thought we got some production out of the receiving corps and the competition continues.”