Skins.com:Quotes From Redskin Park, Nov. 17

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Quotes From Redskin Park, Nov. 17

11/17/2003

HEAD COACH STEVE SPURRIER

On the team’s injuries:

“We came out of the game in pretty good shape. Rock Cartwright sprained his ankle early in the game but he was able to finish. He was fairly sore today, but he’ll probably be held out of practice on Wednesday, possibly. Hopefully he’ll be back for a Sunday night game against the Miami Dolphins. Chris Samuels has an inflammation of the knee. He’ll practice as tolerated.”

On the 20-17 loss to Carolina:

“As far as the game yesterday, as a coaching staff we felt the guys played with a lot of effort. We had some bad plays here and there. We had a chance to win it and we didn’t get it done. We’ve been in a lot of close games this year—won a few, lost a few. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us yesterday. It’s history now. We’ll try to move on and get ready for the Miami Dolphins.”

On the play at the goal line in which Stephen Davis scored a 3-yard touchdown:

“No, I don’t think they were going to call it a fumble. What happened was, Stephen Davis got tackled at about the 1-yard line and his forward progress was stopped. He was reaching for the goal line. Whether or not [the ball] crossed or not, it was very close. I think they would have whistled the ball dead and not called it a fumble, but I don’t know. They just said it was a touchdown. And when they reviewed it, they said there was not enough evidence to call it anything else. That’s the way it happened.”

On whether he considered contacting the NFL about the play:

"No. Again, if they had called it not a touchdown, I think they probably would have given them the ball on the 6-inch line or something like that. And they still would have had a couple downs to score. Again, if the replay is not conclusive, they will not change it. It was close enough that you have to figure they would not change it.”

On failing to score points off of turnovers:

“We did get some turnovers and did not capitalize. Again, Rock fumbled at the 1-yard line going in and we got sacked down there and missed a longer field goal that we should have had. We had a chance to get a lot of points there. We had a chance for 21 points and got three.”

On Patrick Ramsey’s development:

“Patrick throws a lot of good balls but obviously he missed a few yesterday. Still he needs to continue playing. He’s a second-year quarterback. We have to get him more comfortable in the pocket. He’s been hit an awful lot. Our protection at times is pretty good, but not all the time. He’s had some balls he could have thrown better, but he’s thrown some good ones with guys hitting all over him, too. He’s hanging in there and playing well. Our offense didn’t play very well but we made a couple touchdowns in the fourth quarter. It didn’t work out.”

On the running backs:

“Obviously when we let Kenny Watson go, we thought Ladell Betts would certainly be a guy who’d play an awful lot along with Trung Canidate. But then Ladell got hurt. And Trung has performed okay. He didn’t have a lot of running room yesterday. Carolina was tough up front.”

On whether Ladell Betts will be back next Sunday:

“According to the injury report, they will take another X-ray of his forearm and see if it’s healed enough to allow him to play.”

On Trung Canidate’s performance on Sunday:

“He’s not had a lot of holes to go through. We thought he ran hard yesterday. He’s a 195-pound tailback running up against a lot of big guys. He needs some bigger holes to make big yards.”

On whom the starting running back will be next Sunday.

“We’ll see if Rock can come around. John Simon has been with us a couple weeks now and I think it’s time he gets an opportunity to play.”

On what he liked about Sunday’s game:

“I thought our run defense was as good as it’s been all year. Stephen Davis only had 3.3 yards per carry on 28 carries. Our run defense was very good. Our pass defense was not as good as it needs to be. Even with all that, a couple plays at the end of the game took us from a possible winner to loser. But our run defense and the effort by those guys, we thought was very good yesterday.”

On whether offensive coordinator Hue Jackson will continue calling plays:

“We’ll talk about that. I thought Hue did an excellent job. He called what was in our game plan. And we probably threw it a little bit more than we originally thought, but when you run the ball and don’t go very far…then that’s what you try to do. But we’ll talk about [who will call plays] later in the week.”

On the key 4th-and-one play in which Stephen Davis caught a 25-yard pass in the fourth quarter:

“It was an assignment error. No question about it. Our linebacker thought Stephen was blocking. He had coverage and he’s got to make sure Stephen doesn’t sneak out of the backfield. We had an assignment error there. That was one of the big plays of the game. Hopefully we can get [plays like that one] straightened out real soon because it’s happened at crucial times.”

On what he tells the players:

“First of all, you tell the players it’s a 16-game season. We talk about playing the entire season the best we can. That’s what we talk about all year. And we talk about where we are, and unfortunately five out of the last six games, we haven’t been very good. We have to keep playing as hard as we can and the best we can so that we improve.”

On the running backs by committee approach:

"If we had one running back who was clearly our best, he’d be the guy to do it all. Early in the season, we were playing Ladell and Trung to see how it was going to work out. Of course, Ladell got hurt and Trung sprained an ankle. Ladell was our second-round draft pick and he averaged 4.7 yards per carry last year, so we certainly think he’s a back with some big-time potential. Unfortunately he fractured his forearm and he hasn’t played in several weeks."

LAVERANUES COLES (WR, #80)

On Patrick Ramsey's performance:

"I think Patrick is a very good quarterback. He made some mistakes on Sunday, but no mistake is bigger than another. We all make mistakes. I don't think one or two plays decide the outcome of ballgames. You have to play all four quarters. Sometimes you can have a momentum swing, but I don't thnk any of Patrick's play had anything to do with it. Coach Spurrier said it in a meeting today: 'The offense didn't lose the game, the defense didn't lose the game, the special teams didn't lose the game and the coaches didn't lose the game. We all lost it together.'"

On what he saw in game film from Sunday's loss:

"You try to figure out you played well and see how you contributed to the ball club and then you go from there. You try to see if you could have helped the team in a different way and it's up to the coaches to determine how we're going to attack our next game plan."

On whether the team needs to win the rest of the remaining games:

"I pretty much thought we had to do that before last week's game, before we lost to Carolina. So I think now it's just one of those things where we're going to take it one game at a time and not get too far ahead of ourselves. Let's forget about what we have to win out, let's take it one game at a time, quarter by quarter, play by play...and hopefully we can come out on top."

CHAMP BAILEY (CB, #24)

On the loss to the Panthers:

"We're disappointed that we lost, but we have to keep moving. We have to get ready for Miami and we can't look back. The Carolina game is over and there's nothing we can do about it."

On the disputed Stephen Davis touchdown:

"I said it was not a touchdown. I watched the film and I still say it was not a touchdown."

On the problems with the defense:

"Too many big plays. They had too many plays going over 20 yards. But it's one of those things where every guy has to be accountable for their own actions."