On the Redskins meeting as a team the day after they lost to the Chargers:
"We always talk about what happened and where we are. Then we take a real good look at the film. We highlight plays that we could have done better. Generally, that day is always tough -- particularly with what we've been through. We've had three tough weeks. It's going to be interesting to see how we bounce back from that. It's an emotional thing. We put a lot into it. Our guys felt like we really played hard on Sunday. We came out on the short end again. Thos are things that, up here [in the NFL], can happen to you. I haven't had three in a row happen like that to me. Anything can happen in pro sports. It's tough thing. You have to deal with it."
On whether he tries to rally his players after dramatic losses:
"That's hard for a coach. I don't think you rally the guys. They're going to look at you, analyze how you're trying to help them, and what you're trying to do. In general, when you deal with really tough things like that, it will come down to character issues and the kind of guys that you have on the team. We have guys that take it hard because they put a lot into it. They worked extremely hard in the off-season. They paid a price. Then [they had] three tough losses like that. It comes down to not something I'll say, [but] something that comes from them. The way we're going to play this week will come from them."
On facing the Rams, particularly rookie QB, #12 Ryan Fitzpatrick:
"It's a pretty miraculous deal. If you told me that you had a 10 point lead with 33 seconds to go and you're on [the opponents'] 33-yard line, I'd say the odds of you winning that football game are one in one million. That's probably what it was. I told our team that, if you look at all of their stats -- for instance, their offensive stats -- they're all better than ours offensively. They have a very talented offensive team. They have excellent receivers. The quarterback played the game of his life. We've faced young quarterbacks this year. We did in Tampa Bay [Chris Simms], for example. He had a great rating against us and played extremely well. Everyone that makes it to this level is capable of playing great. It's happened to us already this year."
On the Rams' perpetually dangerous offense:
"We study offenses in the league when the year is over with. They're always one of the ones that everyone studies. They're one of the few teams left that still do a lot of shift and movement. They're very much a timing passing game. They'll put a lot of pressure on you. They're fast paced. We tried to simulate that today in practice, but it's hard to do. They're very good athletes. Everyone up here [in the NFL] admires their offense and studies it. We have great respect for them. You don't want to leave those receivers out there."
On whether the Rams offense resembles the "Air Coryell" offenses he coordinated with San Diego State and the San Diego Chargers:
"Yeah. [Rams head] coach [Mike] Martz was in and out through those systems with Ernie [Zampese]. He was here [in Washington, too]. He's a really creative guy. The current coaches, [such as interim head] coach [Joe] Vitt, are doing a great job with it. They have a system there. They believe in it. It works. I told our players, out of everyone we played last year, there was one team that dominated us in a game. That was St. Louis. That game sticks in my memory because I thought we had a very good football team defensively. You just watched all of the things that they did to us. Then offensively, we had a real struggle with them. On special teams [too]. They kind of dominated the whole thing. [The Edward Jones Dome] is a tough place to play. This will be the first dome for us this year. I [still] remember that game [from last year]. It made an impression on me. They're extremely fast and quick."
On what he appreciates most about Redskins OL, #67 Ray Brown:
"[I most appreciate] the kind of person he is. Ray is the only guy left over from [the Redskins teams from his first stint in the NFL]. I have a lot of great Ray Brown stories. He adds a lot to the locker room. For a guy that doesn't start, the whole team listens to him. He's one of our leaders. It's [about] character issues. You admire football players, but the number one thing that you remember about people is the kind of character they have. He's a terrific leader. He's a man now. He's a big man. He's played this [game] for a long time. I really think he could start for us under other circumstances. At 42 years old, that's pretty remarkable."
On cohesiveness in the Redskins locker room amidst the team's three-game losing streak:
"That's a testimony to the locker room. One of the things that coaches ask [players] is, 'How's the locker room?' Last year, we had to let a couple guys go [in the off-season]. Every single one of them told me, 'Coach, you have great guys, a great locker room.' That's a tribute to the guys. One of the toughest things in football is that you have a special teams group that meets together, the defensive [group] that meets together, and the offensive [group] that meets together. So it's easy on a football team, particularly when one group doesn't play well one or two weeks, for one group to say, 'We're doing our part. What's wrong with those guys?' I really appreciate our guys, [such as] the Ray Browns and other people in there, as a group. All it would take is one guy in there. It's tough. People don't like to hear about [football teams being] a family and they always make fun of [that analogy], but if you're on a good football team that sticks together, that is what it's like. Some people don't like to hear it, but it's true."
On what he hopes to hear when meeting with players:
"I'm looking for any kind of feedback [regarding] things I need to hear. Tell me anything. As we family, we can tell anything in here. No one is going to get mad. I'll take anything. Come and talk to me. It's open for them. I look at this as their team. If there are some issues in there that I need to hear, [a meeting] is the place [to talk about them] so that I know. If I'm stuck in [my office] and locked away so that I'm not with them, I don't hear [about the issues]. That's hard to deal with as a coach. [The meeting] was mostly like that -- all of us together as a group, venting anything that we want to vent and just talking about things. Certainly, that was an emotional time for us. We've played three heart-breaking games. It's hard to draw up [a situation in which] we could be any more upset or down. Those were three excruciating weeks. You do the best you can to talk about it."
On QB, #11 Patrick Ramsey serving as an example of Redskins players' selfless attitudes:
"I told him [soon] after [his demotion], I think in the Dallas locker room before the game [against the Cowboys], that I don't know if anyone could have handled it so well. I wasn't asking him to give me a comment or anything. I just said I appreciate that because it's a tough [situation]. It says a lot about his character and the type of person that he is. He's been so supportive of [QB, #8] Mark [Brunell]. They get along great. Of course, Mark was in the other situation last year. He did the same thing was Patrick. Those are two guys there that you can kind of say are unusual people. Patrick has not made a comment. He's been super supportive. If he wasn't the kind of person that he is, that could have been a tough [situation]. I sure appreciate it. I probably couldn't have handled it that well. He's done a great job."
On playing with the pressure, as the Colts currently are and as the Redskins did in 1991, that accompanies the possibility of an undefeated season:
"That's certainly a different kind of pressure that you live up to. Every week, [the pressure] starts mounting. The other team says, 'We have to be the ones here [to beat them].' We were watching them on film as one of the films that we broke down for [the Rams game]. They're a machine right now. They're actually getting things that most people up here don't get. People who are playing them are so afraid of the passing game that they're playing them with a six-man box. That opens up the run. Someone is going to have to play awfully good to beat them. They're impressive. I love [Colts head coach] Tony Dungy. He's done a terrific job."
On facing speedy Rams DE, #91 Leonard Little:
"We faced two of those guys [against San Diego] last week who are extremely quick and fast. Those up-field rushers cause a lot of problems. You have to have a really good game plan. You can't be hanging around back there with the ball, either. All the way across the board, we have real respect for them. We're both kind of in life or death [situations]. We're both going after it as hard as we can."
