Chicago Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith Page 2

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1 Chicago Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith Page 2 To finish up the first quarter at three and one, was a goal that we just had to get accomplished. You know it s always hard when you go on the road, especially playing a team like the Cowboys. But our guys came out ready to play. Defense, when you talk about taking the ball away, always. Normally, when you score a couple of defensive touchdowns, you have a chance to win. And when you get five take aways, you re headed in the right direction. So, just outstanding play by our defense. It seemed like everyone had a say in it. Tim Jennings getting another interception, Major Wright coming through, how about Lance Briggs? You guys didn t know that he could run that fast, did you? But, those were all big plays and in order to get those you have to have pressure. Romo is hard to get down; he kept a lot of plays alive for them. But defense did what they had to do. On the other side, I thought that it starts with the quarterback, I thought that Jay played outstanding ball. In order for that to happen, the protection upfront we had to play a good game. Because Dallas of course, had a good defensive front. So, the line did a great job, gave him time and allowed him to hit the receivers, especially Brandon Marshall; who really kind of showed up. Our guys get up for Monday Night Football. Again this was a NFC road win for us, it gets us back on track; getting ready for Jacksonville. Injury wise, Matt Forte, little soreness in the ankle, the first carry that he got, but from there he finished strong. So, no major injuries either. How big was the {Inaudible} in the second half, to make it 10-7? {Rest of question inaudible} Huge! We deferred. I think on the road you want to have an opportunity. First, try to get the crowd out of it in the first half. But, you want the ball the second half to come out but you have to answer. So, that drive really kind of set the tempo for the second half for us. For Demarcus Ware {inaudible question} Well, going into the game, playing against a player like Demarcus Ware you got to have a plan to. I mean great pass rushers you have to get an offensive tackle some help with him. So, that was the plan. Demarcus, you know, it s not like we were tripping every time. I thought our line did a good job, when they were in a one-on-one situation with him. I don t know again, how many times but he held his own tonight. Lovie, it looked like balance was a point of emphasis for you guys tonight. {Rest of question inaudible} You know, I d like to say that every time we go out on the field we re trying to get that balance. There was an emphasis on it. Again, going on the road you have to establish the running game. We were committed to it. Even though I don t think the yards were outstanding, but the commitment to the run and the timely runs that we had contributed. For the Lance touchdown and turnover, was that kind of a key moment? Definitely so. Any defensive touchdown is key. But yes, right after a turnover, for Lance. Normally, you don t see linebackers running interceptions back that far. But in order to do that, you have to have some good blocking, which he did. Lance Briggs is a Pro Bowl player; arguably one of the best outside linebackers around as far as linebackers. So, it s not like we haven t seen him make plays like that. Did Defense plays as well as five interceptions would indicate? Statistically, would you think that they played that well? I think when you get five; from there they had a lot of yards of course. But, you know we don t really get into yards that much it s about third down conversions which we are normally pretty good at and taking the ball away defensively. Lovie, you re 8 2 now in Monday Night Football, is there anything that you can put your finger on as to why you re so successful? I don t know why we ve been successful with it. But, the guys realize, it s a big stage that you want to play well. Everyone is watching you and we have good players. I think most of those Monday night games, it s not like we are at Soldier Field, for most of them we have been on the road. Just saying a lot about what kind of team we have. What s it like to see that many fans on the road? Glad you brought that up. I should have. We travel well. Last time we came down here, there s nothing like hearing the Let s Go Bears, chant early and throughout the game. I thought our fans were outstanding. The Chicago Bear colors were all around, they really were. I m glad we are able to give our loyal fans that type of effort. Has Cowboy stadium became a kind of home away from home for you? It s always good to come home and just not for me. We have Roberto Garza; I think had over 75 relatives and friends here. A lot of us, I mean there are a lot of Chicago Bear fans down here because we do have a lot guys from the state here. It s always good to come back and get a win anywhere, but especially here.

2 Chicago Bears - Podium Brandon Marshall Wide Receiver You looked fired up tonight. What was your mindset coming into the game? It felt like a tidal wave building all week. Crescendoing. All glory to God. I m just thankful that he chose to use me. It s humble to be in this type of venue this atmosphere. I really wanted to enjoy it and take advantage of this opportunity. I m just humbled and thankful. Were there any communication issues early because Jay was a little frustrated? Jay, frustrated? No. Jay s never frustrated or mad. That s part of the football game. We wanted to have a lot of rhythm coming into this game. It took a quarter to get there. We finally got there. I think we all saw the tempo of the game throughout the second half. After they made it 10-7 at the end of the half, how important was (the opening drive) in the third quarter? Every drive is important. We knew coming in it was going to be a tough game in this hostile environment against the Dallas Cowboys. It was a great game for us. You always expect for it to go to the end against that type of team. Today it was a wheelbarrow game for us and a shot glass for them, so we re thankful and all glory to God, man. On Jay Cutler s performance. I think he managed the huddle well. He was outstanding. He was fired up before the game and we just fed off of him. Do you feel the momentum building (on the season)? You know, we wanted to finish this first quarter of the season strong and we did. We re going to enjoy it. Nice little plane ride home and take a day off tomorrow but Wednesday we ll get back to work. We ve got a Jacksonville team that s hungry, that s playing some football they re waiting to explode. We ve got to get focused and keep it going. It s a long season. You re familiar with Brandon Carr over the years. What was their approach to try to slow you down? You know, he s tough. I ve played against him for a few years. Denver and Kansas City days. Even played against him last year when I was in Miami. He s a tough cookie. Going against a guy like that, you know it s going to be physical, so they gave him a little freedom to play one-on-one. They did a good job of mixing it up. Can you shed some light on what your familiarity with Jay Cutler is like now that you re a quarter of the way through the season? We have great chemistry on and off the field. We re like brothers. We push each other. We re both passionate about the game but the good thing about what we have here in Chicago is we have guys like Alshon Jeffery. See him make big plays today. Devin Hester. Without those guys making those plays, we can t do what we do when we get one-on-one coverage. Matt Forte. Kellen made some big plays down the stretch for us. Some awesome catches, so the sky s the limit for us with the guys in our locker room the talent and the character. We want to definitely build off of this and take advantage of this opportunity here in Chicago. In a couple of cases, Cutler connected with you even when he was in trouble. Were those just instances where he knew? That s just Jay, man. I think, last year, before he got hurt, he was playing the quarterback position better than anyone. My opinion. That s what he was doing last year. As a fan looking at it last year, he did a great job of just making plays. Tonight he got a little rhythm up tempo and he got us going. He pushed us tonight. He challenged us all throughout the week and I think it transferred over to game day tonight. Jay Cutler Quarterback What clicked for you guys tonight? Offensive line played extremely well start to finish. We ran the ball well. When the defense is playing like that, it s hard to lose. You guys won the toss and deferred. Is your preference to get the ball to start the game or to get the ball in the second half? You know, on the road, we like to give our defense a chance. At home, we like to go ahead and take the ball. Both ways are good with me. Kellen Davis dropped a ball early. Are you ever hesitant to go back to a guy after something like that? You can t be. He s probably got as many balls as he wanted. He s playing good football. What s it like to reconnect with Brandon Marshall? Great receiver. He s hard to cover. He adds a lot of energy and enthusiasm to our huddle. I thought tonight was a perfect example of him being patient and waiting for his ball and, when he got the chance, he made them count. When we get one-on-one, he s going to be my guy. I know he s going to protect me. He s going to get open. He s going to fight for the football. I thought Kellen earned a lot of respect tonight. Alshon s getting there. Devin Hester whenever he gets a chance he s makes a play. Those guys on the outside the way the offensive line s blocking, it makes it easy for them. Does a win on Monday Night Football like this send a statement to the rest of the league? I don t think so. It s so hard week in, week out to win football games. Our defense played great. The offensive line played extremely well. We ve just got to take that momentum and keep moving with it. We go on the road again. Jacksonville a tough game. In this league, it s about consistency. Putting together wins and being successful week in and week out. Romo had five interceptions tonight I ve had four. I think I ve thrown five before. It happens. He s been there. He s done it. He ll come back next week and he ll play well. They ve got good coaching. They ve got good coaching. They ve got good players around him. He ll be fine. Do you feel the offense got into a rhythm today for the first time this season? We did. We re not where we need to be. Offensive line played with some intensity. The guys on the outside were patient.

3 Chicago Bears - Defense #21 Major Wright (S) On the ball-hawking defense: That s what our coaches preach on every day, every day of the week. Take aways. Take aways. Take aways. On his second interception off a tip from Tim Jennings (#26, CB): With Tim, the way he s playing now, very confident. He s definitely getting after the ball. You always want to be around him. On the confidence of the defense: Basically every day week in and week out, alignment, assignment, key technique. Focus on that and everything else will take place. #90 Julius Peppers (DE) On the team s performance: It is still a work in progress. We still have things to learn on this side too. We just have to get both sides going at the same time. And that kind of happened tonight. You can kind of see where we are going. Tonight was a little bit of sign where we are headed. On Coach Rod Marinelli s challenge to be the better defense: He always does that. That is not something he just did tonight. He always challenges us to outplay the other defense. Tonight it was a great effort by us collectively. Five turnovers. A couple sacks. A couple of picks. It was a good day at the office. On the defense: It all works together. When we rush well, they play well. When they cover well, it allows us time to get to the quarterback because he is holding the ball. We work off of each other. It has been good so far. On winning a big national game: It is all the same. It is just one win. We have to forget about this and get back to work. It is good for everybody to see, I guess. Maybe not. We want to stay under the radar as long as possible. But when you do something like this on national TV, it puts the spotlight on you. #54 Brian Urlacher (LB) On the interception by Lance Briggs (#55, LB): He made those first two guys miss. I ve seen him before when he gets the ball in his hands. He was a running back in high school, so he knows what to do with it. It was a great play. I didn t see how he got the football. I just saw him running with it. On the ball-hogging secondary: It is good for our team. Getting take aways is always going to help your team out. Major had two nice ones, saved us in the red zone down there. D.J. had, I mean, I could go on and on. Our guys did a good job all the way through, and our D-Line got pressure again. #33 Charles Tillman (CB) On the interception: I think when quarterbacks throw the ball like that, that s probably one of the hardest plays in football because it takes so long and you are thinking like, alright, alright, oh, oh, don t drop it! Don t! Okay, I got it. Just run. Out run everybody. I don t know. I got lucky on that play, I suppose. On how they got so many interceptions: Rush and cover. Rush and cover. I think our D-Line did a great job of hassling Tony Romo and the offensive line, and I think our D-Line made him throw some throws that he wasn t set for. And defensively we were in position to make some plays. On whether the defense made a statement: No, I don t think we made a statement. The star of our defense is our defense. We have a lot of talented players. We have great coaching. And we are humble. We will enjoy this win tonight. Now it is really, focus, and get ready for Jacksonville. On Tim Jennings (#26, CB) and how his tipped balls always seem to land in someone else s hands: I think y all need to ask Major Wright (#21, S) about that. He has benefitted in that tipped ball department. If I m around Tim, I m looking for those tips.

4 Chicago Bears - Offense Page 4 Matt Forte, Running Back It s football. We get banged up a little bit I was proud of myself to not just to be able to stay out there, but also to continue to help the team win. They stacked the box a little bit. But me and Mike (Bush) combined for probably over 20 total (carries). So, we did run the ball effectively when we had to, which opened up the passing game. It s good when we can open it up and see Brandon (Marshall) and those guys get catches and get big yards. On getting re-taped: It helped a lot. I had it taped on the bottom and a spider on the top. But I guess I needed a little more tape on there. When you run the ball, you ve got to run between all those big bodies and you re going to get rolled up. I kind of got rolled up on the first play, but thank God I picked my foot up a little bit so it didn t keep me out. On limited touches: A win is a win. Obviously, I played and I had a part in us winning the game. There are enough balls to spread around in this offense to everybody. I m not going to complain to get only thirteen carries. We won the game and we played well, especially our defense. On Monday Night success: I don t know I think we ve got to come out each week and focus, no matter what time the game is or what channel or whatever that we come out and play good football and sound football and win the turnover ratio. Devin Hester, Wide Receiver I asked for a little more opportunities Mike Tice came to me and said I was going to be one of the stars of the game. That pretty much told me that he was going to give me opportunities to make plays. How I handle it, you know, was on me. On the touchdown: It was a little pump move to get the corner the bite. Once he set, he took it I knew it was a touchdown. I told everybody I caught it. I felt if I could get more opportunities to make plays that I could make them. That s the most important thing about making plays is getting the opportunity to make them. Once you get the opportunities, you ve got to take advantage of them. The more opportunities you get, the more plays you can make. On Mike Tice: We understand each other. That s the great thing about Coach Tice he s willing to drop his ego and communicate more with the players. When you got a coach like that, the players will do whatever it takes. The way he s going by communicating with players he s going to get a lot of guys to fight for him. Roberto Garza, Offensive Line We have to do our job week in and week out. Obviously on a big stage like this against a good defense, there was a little more pressure on us. But that s part of what we do. We re excited to go out there and execute our game plan. There s a lot we can clean, but our skills did a hell of a job today. On momentum from turnovers: With this defense, it s something they do week in and week out. By them scoring 14 points, obviously it gives us a little leeway. We were able to go out there after turnovers and create points off those and continue to get in rhythm. When we re in rhythm and doing things, it s fun out there. Gabe Carimi, Offensive Line It was definitely a good win. We needed to win on the road. On a Monday game too, it was definitely a good win to have. I think we had a good game plan this week and we followed through with it. On Matt Forte: He s a dynamic player. It s always a good thing when the ball is in his hands. So, we try to give it to him whenever we can. Michael Bush, Running Back On how he feels: Good. Fine. No issues. I m good. Great win for us. I m proud of it. On going in after the injury to Forte: I prepared myself for that the whole week. I know he s back, but stuff happens. He was getting his confidence through the week and that s why he tried it today. I just made sure I watched him carefully in case I needed to go in and that s what happened on the first play. He was able to bounce back. J Marcus Webb, Offensive Line I think we did pretty well. We ve got to look at the film. We definitely made some mistakes. You re never going to have a perfect game. To go out there and be physical, keep fighting and keep working is definitely the goal Progress is good.

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6 Jerry Jones Jerry Jones- Owner On the loss: We met a Chicago team that made big plays with the ball. They took care of the ball. They made plays with the ball. We didn t. We got beat soundly. That s all there is to it. I m very disappointed to get beat at home in front of our fans. We thought a lot was at stake here. We got a long way to go. On how surprised he is by the poor performance: All I know is we have a long way to go. But this isn t the way I wanted to get started. Nobody does. Nobody in this dressing room does. I m glad we have the time off that we have. That ll give us the chance to reassess and look in the mirror. This was a very timely bye for us. On what advice he gave this team: All that I could say is I ve been buried nine feet under before with no hope and got to see some sunshine and came out. It s what you have to do. It s very disappointing. Nobody is more disappointed than our fans and our players. Nobody is more disappointed than Tony (Romo). There is no question about it. We ll get in here and see how we can get better. I am surprised. On if this is the same team that beat the Giants: I know it s the same make-up of the team. Same personnel. Consequently, we have an adage when we re evaluating a player. We ve seen this team play well and we can play a lot better. We can not in any way not honor the ball better than we did tonight and do those things and win games. We have a lot of work to do.

7 Dallas Cowboys Head Coach Jason Garrett On what he thought was the biggest problem for his offense: I think the story of the game was the turnovers. There s no question about that. I thought we moved the ball really well throughout the game it was mostly throwing the football; they did a good job defending the run. I felt we were up and down the field throwing, just at different times they made the key plays. We got down to the redzone and they made an interception that preventing us from getting a score. We were coming out and we had a miscommunication between the quarterback and the receiver and then the interception for a touchdown. And then Tony (Romo) tried to climb the pocket once and the ball got knocked out and they returned that for a touchdown. Those were the key plays in the ballgame. Then we get behind in the game and we re trying to compete and win, but we re down three scores, so it became more of a one dimensional game at that point but we were trying to move it and score and just try and stay in the ballgame as best as we could from that third quarter on. On if any of the interceptions were a case of Romo forcing his throws especially at the end of the game when he had to force them: Yes, obviously he was aggressive towards the end of the ballgame trying to get us back in it, so I think that s the case of being overly aggressive at that point. You want to go down there and score, but you want to score as quickly as you can. I thought he was aggressive with the last two interceptions, but the early one was a contested throw to (Kevin) Ogletree down in the redzone. It was a miscommunication with Dez Bryant on the left hand side. The other one was climbing the pocket and it got knocked out. I didn t get a great look at it, but it looked like it got knocked out, the one that (Lance) Briggs returned for a touchdown. Those are the big plays in the ballgame. That s what they do. They re an outstanding defense and one of the reasons is that they ve done such a good job over the years taking the ball away from teams. It was a big emphasis for us and we didn t carry it into the game like we needed to and I thought that was the story of the game. On if it s better for them to have the bye coming this week or would he rather be back on the field this week: It is what it is. We re off this week and we play Baltimore next week. Like most teams in the league, the bye week always comes at a good time relative to injuries. We ve had some guys who have been out a little bit, so hopefully we ll get a number of these guys, particularly on defense, back and healthy and ready to go. We ll see, really case-by-case, but hopefully we ll get a number of them back before the Baltimore game, so that certainly will help us from that standpoint. But your point is well made: you like to, after a game like this, get right back at it. You like to play the next day to get the taste out of your mouth, but there s a lot to learn from this ballgame, we just have to do that collectively as a team. On how Chicago was able to isolate Brandon Marshall on their safeties: Obviously they moved him around a lot. They try to do some stuff with formations. They do a good job that way and he does a good job. He s a physical receiver. He kind of pushes off the top of things and creates some separation and he did that throughout the ballgame and (Jay) Cutler did a nice job finding him and throwing him the football at a lot of little plays in the game and some big plays as well. On if the Bears did anything in particular to slow the running game down: They play good run defense. They always have. There s a commitment at the line of scrimmage. That s what they like to do, so when you play them you have to continue to try to be persistent with the run game throughout the game just to pay a little bit downhill at them. But at the same time, you re going to make your miles in the passing game and we were able to do that. We were able to move the football throughout the game. There were some third down conversions that we didn t make early on that we needed to keep drives alive and we didn t get that done and gave them opportunities to come back with their offense. That s what they like to do. They like to get in situations where it s third and long by defending the run on the early downs and make it difficult to convert on those third downs. On what s the emphasis going to be this week in terms of getting his offense going: I think the biggest thing is we have to maximize the opportunities we have. Like I said, we moved the ball relatively well. We didn t convert some third downs when we got in the redzone. We did have the one turnover in the redzone. So we just have to maximize the opportunity to score touchdowns. I thought there were some plays to be made out there, and obviously once we got way behind in the ballgame, we were in a little bit different of a mode so we weren t playing with a normal rhythm. We were just trying to score relatively quickly. We have to just keep banging away. We have to focus on executing ball plays all over the field and in particular down in the redzone and cash in on some scoring opportunities. On the dropped passes and miscommunication on offense becoming a concern: That s the style of their defense. They re going to force you to drive the football. That s the way they play. That s the

8 Dallas Cowboys Head Coach Jason Garrett way they ve always played. And then when you have a chance to make a couple of big plays, you have to make them. We tried to create a couple of things and we did have some opportunities that we didn t cash in on. Whether it was a drop or a missed throw or whatever the case might be, you have to cash in because they don t give you that many of them. That s why they re such a good defense. So we had to be patient and persistent driving the football, taking the underneath throws and then cashing in on the big ones and we didn t do that on a consistent basis. On Chicago s style of defense: Their style of defense has been pretty consistent. That s how they ve played. It s been very good for them through the years. We have a pretty good feel for what their front s were going to do, what their pressures were and what their coverages were throughout the game. They re no different. They re just very good at it. It s not real exotic and in my experience it s been the best defenses sometimes can be the simplest ones because they re good at what they do. They do a good job defending the run and putting you in some harder down and distance situations on third down. That s been their style for a long, long time. On if Bryant was supposed to stop on his route in his miscommunication with Romo: Really, it s probably not characterized the right way to say it was a miscommunication. We just were seeing how the corner played. Dez saw it one way and Tony saw it the other way. On who saw it the right way: We ll have to watch the tape. On Rob Ryan s defense: I thought our defense did a good job hanging in there. Obviously, they scored 14 points directly on offensive turnovers the two interceptions for touchdowns. That impacts the score of the game significantly. I thought Chicago was able to move the ball a little bit, but I thought we came up with some big stops at critical times. We held them to field goals in the redzone; we got some third down stops when we needed them; but obviously there s move for improvement. We ll look at what we did defensively and get back to work and try to clean some of that stuff up and welcome some of the guys back who ve been out and hopefully they can help us in that area. On failing to keep their offense from moving the ball when pinning them inside the 20-yard line: Those are important. They did a good job in the coming out situation. It s something we emphasize a lot as a team for the reasons you talk about: to try and keep the field position the way it is. But they did a good job of mixing the run and pass. They made some timely throws throughout the ballgame and that helped them get out of those situations. On if they anticipated being successful pressuring Chicago in the pocket on offense: It s certainly one of our goals to affect the quarterback every week. Some teams have had success against them. They did a good job getting back and getting the ball out of their hands. I think they ran the ball well enough to keep us honest in that area, but certainly you have a goal every week of affecting the quarterback, sacking the quarterback, making him get out of rhythm to feel uncomfortable back there. At times we did that and at times we didn t do that in the ballgame.

9 Tony Romo Page On the offense not seeming to be where it s been before in the past: Yeah, I think we have to just keep figuring out a way to execute better. They re simple things sometimes. The number one factor is taking care of the football. I know that and preach it to the guys. It s obviously frustrating. You have a lot of down time here before the next game. Your thoughts on what you re going to do and how you get over this? Well you have to get over it, it s just going to suck for a few days now obviously. It s going to sit there in your stomach and just eat at you. In different situations out there where you re trying to do too much and help out different areas, I think that it s going to catch up to you at some point in the National Football League. I m going to have to reassess a couple of things that are happening and make sure that they don t happen again. It s been like this; at a time where we had a game where we had turnovers last year. We just have to make a conscious effort to make sure and control that aspect, and saying that I can t try and do too much and I think that I tried to do that too much tonight and going forward I just have to do my job, and I will. How difficult is it when you are getting pressure from all parts of the offensive line and sometimes that pressure is random and you don t know where it s going to come from on any given play? I think we re all continuing to do things (?). You have to watch the tape and see what we can improve upon but I can control what I can control and I need to go back and do a better job with that and I will from here on out. It s just disappointing that we have to lose a game. On feeling like you have to make something happen to get the offense going Well I have to do my job. That s your objective playing in the National Football League. Obviously the competitive side of you takes over sometimes and tries to make a play or do things. The last two were just pushing it down the field when we re behind by seventeen points. You don t make those decisions at any other point in the game and I know better than that. You just can t make that mistake. On feeling like there is too much on you. Like you re in a position where you do have to do too much No I don t feel that way. I just have to play better and I have to do a better job than what I did tonight. On the running game We ll go back and watch the tape and we just have to do a better job in a lot of phases, and it starts with me. Did the Bears do anything different that what you expected? They had a couple of things, but the thing about football is that teams are evenly matched a lot of time in the National Football League and it comes down to executing. It comes down to whether I take a sack or you throw it and a guy intercepts you, whether I hold on to the ball or he strips you, or whether you have it tucked. It comes down to the catch or not to move the chains or whether we just get good enough blocks. That s football and it comes down to eight or 10 good plays and one play can take away all of those quickly and that s what happened tonight. And I have to do a better job of maintaining those important plays, that win or lose the ball game. Dez Bryant What happened on that interception? It looked like you and Tony were on the same page at the start of the play but something happened at the end You just have to give great credit to the defensive back. We thought that he was going and he stopped and he played it and he just made a good play on it. When he stopped you played what happened? It was like a press man and it went to a zone. If he pressed up, I was supposed to..if he s man up I was supposed to convert and if he backed off I was supposed to keep it on and he just made a good play. On the drops.. You know there s really no excuse because, like I said, I take pride in catching the football and on the second pass I felt the sideline and I felt like I just wanted to stay in and I was too busy trying to focus on the sideline and not on the ball and I let it tip my fingers.

10 Cowboys Defense Page 5 Sean Lee (LB) On the overall performance of the defense: Defensively, we just have to play better football. We have to cut out bad plays. We have to cut out big plays. I thought we were on track as the night went on but we came out in the second half and gave up a long drive down the field. On what the team needs to accomplish during the bye week: We just have to play better. When you see us, we don t make mistakes. When we play the right way every play, we are a very good defense. The key is to be able to do that nonstop and consistently. It s something that we are battling right now. On the defensive injuries: I think that a lot of the guys that have stepped up in their roles have done a great job. It s a matter of time before they continue to get better and better. But it would be great to get some guys back because we know how talented they are. At the same time, we have faith in the guys that have stepped up. Danny McCray (S) On the defensive injuries: The guys that we put in have played. They know what they are doing. (Anthony) Spencer is out and Victor Butler is there. He s been playing. (Barry) Church is out, and I ve played. This is really my third game getting a lot of playing time. The guys that are getting in know what s going on and know how to play football. On making key stops but still being down: It s all on the defense just like on offense, it s all on the offense. We just go out there and want to get the ball back. If we re down 10, we just want to get the ball back. We just couldn t get that done today. On the defensive performance: We gave up those big plays. In the secondary we preach make them go the long way. We gave up those big plays. Nobody is feeling too good on how we did as a unit. If one plays bad, then we all play bad. That s just how it works.

11 Dallas Cowboys Offense Page 3 Jason Witten On the loss Ultimately I m disappointed and frustrated we didn t execute better. We knew the style of defense they would play. You can t turn the ball over and win in this league. We know the stats. Jason (Garrett) has been telling us that. You can t turn it over and win in this league, especially a team like this. We didn t play our best football obviously. We have to play better but more importantly than anything else we have to execute plays better offensively. On the Bye Week We have to evaluate it. We have to be critical of ourselves. I believe we have a really powerful offense, but we can t do that when we re not executing at different times once it s the running game, once it s the passing game, once it s drops, turnovers All of those things play into it. I am confident in the group and this has got to be a wake-up call for us. I don t say that nonchalantly. You can t bounce back and forth like this and try to compete come December. You can t do it. We ve been in that situation before. You can not do it and we know that. We ll get better. We thought long and hard about getting to 3-1 going into this bye. We have to take it one at a time, we have to regroup, get healthy, evaluate it, [and] stick together. There s no finger pointing. We have great guys that are working hard. Ultimately it comes down to results, we know that. There s a process to get there. We ll get it turned around. We have the right guys to do it and I believe we have a good enough offense to do it too. On turnovers Give them credit. They re a good defense, they rally the ball, and they stop the run. We knew coming in they were number one in the league with sacks. They get pressure with four man rushes and they don t blitz a whole lot. But when they do get leads they re the kings of the Tampa Two. For us, we gave them opportunities and obviously they made plays. On consistency That s a disappointing thing It s all about execution. It s not about anything else other than executing plays, about not turning the ball over, about keeping yourself in a positive down and distance. Too many times you re behind the chains. That s not winning football and we have to do better. On the win against New York compared to last three games It s disappointing. It s something different each time; whether it s pressure inside, or you cant get the running game going. It s disappointing but there s only one thing to do, stay together and work harder. On offense I m confident in our offense. The body of work we have is a good group We just have to focus on execution. On Romo Tony is the most competitive guy I know. He s a heck of a football player and a great quarterback. Obviously this will be a tough night for him but he ll evaluate it and be better because of it. I ve said it many times, he is an elite quarterback. He ll get back to playing the way he knows he can play.