On the Redskins' quarterback situation:

"I made the decision that we are going to start Mark (Brunell). I know this is something to every fan and every person that thinks the world of the Redskins and pulls for them. I know a lot of people would disagree with this and I understand that. For me personally I felt like this was a decision that I had to make. I think we have a situation where two quarterbacks can go in there and win ball games for us. I just felt like at this point the best decision for us and the Redskins was to start Mark. I had a talk with Patrick (Ramsey) and of course this is something that Patrick doesn't agree with. He is a competitive guy and I understand that. It is something that we will have to work through and it was a decision that I had to make. We had a talk from that stand point and I just felt like at this point in the season it was a decision I needed to make. It is something that we will have to work through. It is not an easy thing to do."

On if his decision was made based on the first couple of drives against the Bears:

"It is just a general feeling that I have. I am here, living through it, watching the films and going through everything and I felt like at this point it would be the best for us to start Mark (Brunell). Really what I am looking towards is somebody to really establish themselves as the quarterback, take over and take off with the football team."

On what Mark Brunell showed him in the offseason:

"Mark has been real consistent with his play since we started back this year. I think he has been confident and sure, but I also think that we kind of made a decision to start Patrick (Ramsey) and we wanted to go that route. A lot of time in games you don't predict what is going to happen and you don't know what is going to happen and there were a series of circumstances there yesterday. I think it is not something that you have to go back and say all the different things that I feel. I think we have kind of laid out a plan. I have with Bill (Musgrave) and we are going to go to work with Patrick and continue hopefully to improve."

On if it is hard for him to switch from Patrick Ramsey to Mark Brunell:

"I think this is something that is extremely hard. You don't like doing this/ I don't. Sometimes you don't chart the circumstances or what happens. It just happens. Certainly it wasn't the plan I had going in but sometimes plans change and I think you do the best you can in dealing with them, whatever the situation will be."

On why he feels Mark Brunell will have more success this season:

"I think from Mark's standpoint from when he was playing last year, personnel wise, we weren't as good, certainly as we are right now. I felt like the second biggest thing there for Mark was that he got a real severe (hamstring) pull in the Giant game. I think he refused to come out and played with it. I think that probably hurt his play. I also think our football team personnel wise and the things we are doing, I think we are better now. Hopefully that will turn out to be the case."

On John Hall's status:

"John Hall kicked extremely well for us. On the last field goal he got an injury similar to what he had last year but not nearly as bad. I think our best decision there is that we are going to have to wait that out. If I had to guess it will make it tough for him to make it back for Monday night. If I had to guess, I am not saying that is the case."

On Jon Jansen's injury:

"The other injury coming out of that game is that got (broke) his other thumb. He played extremely well with the one injury. I don't see the other one hurting him that much. Hopefully that will be the case."

On how the defense played against Chicago:

"Our defense played extremely well as far as at the line of scrimmage and everything. We had a turnover there and the guys were upset that they scored but I think our defense played extremely well for the day."

On how the offense played against Chicago:

"The first part of the game, we were kind of surprised by their quickness. They were extremely quick. They kind of gave us fits there early from a running standpoint. As the game progressed and later on in the game I felt like our guys started to get a handle on it. We kept battling and battling. I felt like towards the end of the game we played much better."

On how the special teams played against Chicago:

"I think on special teams there were some areas in there we did extremely well--particularly our coverage and our efforts were very good. We don't like the fact that we turned that ball over on special teams."

On how they fared in terms of penalties and turnovers on Sunday:

"Our penalty situation, we dropped way back on penalties. We had five. Two on teams, two on offense and one on defense I think. That was a big improvement there. We still turned the ball over which is a real concern for us and we put ourselves in jeopardy when we do that. We have been consistently doing that. It is still a major concern, something we need to learn form, and we need to find a way to prevent that from happening because you put your self in a hole any time you come out on the negative end of a turnover."