Head Coach Jay Gruden

Opening statement:

"Did not participate – DeAngelo Hall, toe; Jordan Reed, concussion protocol; Chris Culliver, knee; Kory Lichtensteiger, neck/shoulder; Trent Williams, neck. Limited was Andre Roberts, he strained his quad today; DeSean Jackson, hamstring; Matt Jones, big toe; Stephen Paea, back. Full were [Jason] Hatcher, [Pierre] Garcon, [Kedric] Golston, Spencer Long, Perry Riley, Chris Thompson, Josh LeRibeus and Bashaud Breeland."

On if the experience of the missing offensive linemen would make it easier for them to play despite missing practice:

"No question. They are able to participate in the walkthrough, so they're getting a lot of the mental reps and they're in the meetings and all that stuff. Obviously, you'd like to get them reps out here, but if you're going to be able to get away with not practicing during a week it'd those two guys. We want to make sure they're 100 percent. They're feeling good about their strength, their mobility and all that stuff for them to play. We'll just have to wait and see. They're both obviously dealing with some issues and we've got to make sure they're taken care of before they step it up."

On if C Kory Lichtensteiger's situation is similar to CB Chris Culliver's after playing through injury:

"Yeah, he just doesn't have his full strength right now and that's important for an offensive lineman. Obviously, Chris with his knee, he is still having some issues pushing off with his knee. You know, it's a tough deal for these guys. They're trying to fight through it. They want to help the team. They want to play, but there's some instances where if you say you can go, you're going to hurt your team if you're not playing at your top level. That's I think their biggest concern and our biggest concern. We'll have to wait and see tomorrow after practice and see where everybody is at."

On the plan if Lichtensteiger and T Trent Williams can't play against the Jets:

"We have [Josh] LeRibeus. He's ready to go. Spencer Long will back him up. And then obviously Ty Nsekhe has been here and getting a lot of reps."

On if Lichtensteiger's injury was apparent last game:

"Yeah, I think he had some issues in the game. He fought through it. He didn't play his best game obviously and that was the main reason. He fought through it, man. Kory is one of toughest guys on this squad and you can see after watching the tape that something was wrong with him. So, we want to make sure he gets it right where he feels like he can help this football team. Hopefully seeing a doctor and some more treatment tomorrow and today, he'll be good enough to go."

On his level of concern about his 'banged up' offensive line facing the Jets' defensive line:

"We have a level of concern against that defensive line with your starting line [laughter]. But, we know it's going to be a tough battle no matter who's out there but we feel good about the guys that will play. We're going to have 46 guys dressed, no matter what. Those 46 guys are going to play hard and they're going to play their best and we're going to compete. That's all we can do. "

On WR DeSean Jackson:

"Well, he went through a couple drills and you know had a little issue here and there, so he's up in the air still."

On the reason for RT Morgan Moses' turnaround:

"I think reps, number one, since training camp and OTAs – really since training camp – and then the comfort level playing right tackle. Like I said before, he played left tackle his last two years at Virginia and then we tried to flip him last year and he wasn't quite ready. Everything was backwards to him. His sets were different, but having another year under his belt playing just right tackle, I think it's helped him out the most. And [Offensive Line] Coach [Bill] Callahan has done an excellent job with him. The comfort level with his pass sets, his combination blocks on the right side is the big difference."

On if Jackson's 'issue' could be classified as a setback:

"I don't know. He just didn't — you know, he aired it out early and then he pulled himself out. He just felt a little twinge here and there. We'll have to wait and see. So hopefully it was just some scar tissue issues and if it was, then he's still got a chance to go. We'll see what he does tomorrow, see how he feels tomorrow, but precautionary-wise we held him out for the rest of practice."

On the pros and cons of playing WR Rashad Ross more:

"He's going to be a big part of our package moving forward, especially if DeSean can't go and if Andre [Roberts] has trouble with his quad, then Ryan Grant, Rashad Ross, Pierre [Garçon] obviously and [Jamison] Crowder — they're our four receivers. Rashad gives us a little bit of something that other guys don't with the long speed. He's getting more and more comfortable with the offense and he's looking very good."

On if they are looking to throw the ball deep more against the types of fronts they've played this year:

"Yeah, we'd love to. It's not going to matter to the front though. The front's going to be there no matter what we do with the ball. They have corners that can cover and they feel good about their ability to cover the deep ball. They have so far this year. It's a matter of when we do take the shots making something out of them. We do need to get more plays in chunks. You know, it's difficult against a defense like this to think that you're going to go — we've had a lot of good 15/13/14-play drives, I think more than anybody in the league. But we do need to work on our long gains, chunk plays somehow, whether it's in the running game, screens, or shot plays down the field." 

Defensive Coordinator Joe Barry

On what stuck out to him on film from last week's performance:

"Well, a couple things. It was one of those games where we kind of knew we were going to give up a little bit on the run just because of the dynamics of what No. 2 [Matt Ryan] and No.11 [Julio Jones] and No. 85 [Leonard Hankerson] and No. 84 [Roddy White]… So we knew we were going to give up a tad bit. I pointed out to the guys, there was about 60 yards – what'd they rush for, 150? – we kind of said, 'Hey, if we could've gotten out of there with between 95 and 105 yards against that offense with what we had to do with the quarterback and the wideout, we would have been pretty satisfied.' But there was about 60 yards of rushing that was on us. Everyone agreed. We knew we were going to have to give up a little bit in the run just to do the job that we had to do in the passing game. It was still, like I said, about 60 yards too much."

On LB Keenan Robinson's performance:

"I thought Keenan played fairly well. A handful of guys had missed tackles. I told you last week, that running back is a heck of a player now, he really is. Like I said, I think we gave him, him specifically, I think we gave him about 30 or 40 yards too much. Like I said, I think the type of game that it was going to be going into it, the game plan that we had for their passing game, we knew we were going to give up a little. I still think we gave up a little bit too much."

On if the defense played the Falcons too conservatively on Atlanta's final drive:

"Yeah, but our mentality was they needed a touchdown. You have a different mentality when the two-minute starts on what they need – do they need a field goal or do they need a touchdown? I'm a firm believer in our rush and coverage. We wanted a philosophy that we were going to make them earn every blade of grass that they got. We missed a couple tackles in that drive. We were close on a big sack-fumble on a big gain. But still, I still felt pretty good with what we were doing. Shoot, we got them to fourth-and-two with 30 seconds left. We've got to find a way to win a down. Whether it's a sack-fumble, whether it's a tipped pass, we're going to make them earn everything they get. We didn't make the play. They made the play."

On his feelings about their success in the first half against Atlanta:

"Yeah, really, ideally I thought it was. They scored, it was 6-7 when they scored the touchdown where we caused the fumble. I think, still, you said 'ideal,' with 40 seconds left in the game it was, what was it, 13-12? Our guys played hard, they played their butts off. But, again, the 'ideal' game is when we walk off the field and we've won the game. That message will never change. Our job on defense is to hold them to one less point than we score. It doesn't matter how you play in the first half. We played well in the first half but we have got to put a full game together and play four quarters."

On what it says about the players taking Atlanta RB Devonta Freeman's 100-yard day personally:

"They're a prideful group. Like I said, that's the thing that's fun at least as a coach when we do bring them in on Tuesday and watch film with them. They're like, 'No, Coach, you don't need to make excuses for that. There's no way he should've had 100 yards.' When they're preaching that and they're singing that, that's a good thing. I thought the guys played their butts off, they really did. Had some new guys in and some new roles and they played hard. Like I said, I thought the plan was pretty good. You've got to have a plan when you play against that type of offense, that type of quarterback, that type of wideout. Like I said, we gave them a little bit too much in the run game and that was on us."

On if getting a few takeaways gets players to start looking for more:

"Yeah, it does, kind of. You've just got to stay the course and just keep preaching it. It can't be, 'OK, this week we're going to preach turnovers.' That's something that we preach on a daily basis since OTA No. 1 when we were out on the grass the first time. But it is exciting when they see it come to fruition and you're like, 'Oh my god, we keep preaching it. We keep hawking the ball when the ball was in the air. We keep punching the ball, hammering the ball, raking the ball with the ball carriers. Man, we can go get three turnovers.' And really we left a couple opportunities out there. The one big one that Chris Baker caused down on the goal line that we didn't get. That message and our belief as far as takeaways change the game. They change the course of a game. We're going to keep preaching it and they'll keep coming."

On using FB Darrel Young to prepare for Jets RB Chris Ivory:

"At least when we're making contact in practice, we wanted to get the force of a bigger body there, so that's why and DY did give us a good look at that. [No.] 33 [Ivory] is a very physical, hard runner. He's had that ever since he was in New Orleans. I think he's if not the leader, one of the tops in the league as far as yards after first contact. He's always been that style of back. He's a big, physical, downhill runner. So, I think most of the time when you play against a big back we talk about a tackling plan. As a tackler, you've got to have a tackling plan. You can't just go at this guy and tackle him like a normal running back. So, you've got to have a plan against a big, physical back which [No.] 33is definitely that. He runs hard." 

On trying to establish the defense's identity after five games:

"You know, there's three things that we've really preached since the very first meeting we had back in May. That's to compete, to be physical and to finish. We're never going to be satisfied and we're definitely not satisfied yet. As long as we show up every day and we compete and we play physical and we finish, I think those are the things that we are always going to be striving for and make the fans of the Redskins proud. If we do those three things on a consistent basis week in and week out, we'll be… and that's where we're heading. I don't think by any means we've perfected it yet, but that's the message and the message will not change."

On the players' desire and ability to fix their fundamentals mid-game:

"I think the thing that was crazy, we didn't give up a run over 20 yards, but we gave up a 19-yarder, an 18-yarder, I think a 14-yarder, and the thing about it, you guys know the difference between a seven-man front and an eight-man front. Well, against a passing offense, you've got to play a little bit more of a seven-man front so you're better against the pass. Well, the funny thing is, the three biggest runs we gave up were in eight-man fronts. So that's when they see that and it is, it's a little thing. It's a guy maybe being poor with his footwork, or maybe being poor with hands, or getting reached on a reach block when he can't get reached. But, the great thing for a coach is when they come in and they say, 'Dang it, we've got to do better.' It's not me saying, 'Come on guys, we've got to do better.' And that just goes to show everything that I've talked about with a guy like Jason Hatcher, with a guy like Terrance Knighton, with a guy like Dashon Goldson, where they say, 'We've got to do a better job,' and that's exciting. They came back and had an unbelievable week of practice. Wednesday was great, today was great. We'll go back out there and get one more day of work tomorrow to work on those details, the fundamentals and the techniques. That's what you practice for."