Joe Gibbs Week Quotations

His role hasn't changed. He's an important part of what we do. The last week or two we haven't been very successful on offense. He's a big part of what we do, and he's in every pass play, and we'd like to get him the ball as much as we can.

He's been very, very competitive. Some people are born to be accountants and lawyers. Some are born to be quarterbacks. And he was. He's very tough. We gave him an award this week for being tough. He's a tremendous competitor.

We'd had three tough losses in a row and everybody was down. I think our players said to themselves: 'Our backs are up against the wall and we've got no other option other than just to win, and if we lose another game we're probably out.' So they kind of took it as this last stand, and it was that way every week . . .somehow we found a way to win those last five.

The good thing about it is the cast covers his thumb but your fingers are out, ... He played extremely well with one last week and I asked him, 'Hey, does it bother you?' And he said, 'Not really.' So that's good.

We always want to get him in the game plan. We always want to get him the ball. Last week against Dallas, he only had three catches, but they were all big. He was one of the keys to us offensively and we try to work hard to get him the ball.

It's probably one of our biggest concerns, with his groin. It'll probably be later in the week before we get a report on that.

Every week we've had four or five opportunities to get balls in our hands and we have not been able to, for whatever reason, to either get the fumble or get the interception, ... I don't know how to explain it. But it's put us in a real bind because you're not going to play on that side of the giveaway and takeaway ratio and win many football games.

A loss (Sunday) would have meant your back was against the wall and you're pretty much fighting week to week just to survive. To wind up 5-3, this puts you in a much better position. ... It gives you the feeling that you're fighting for it rather than trying to come off the floor.

I'd love to have a rule where if you play on Monday night, you have to play at home the following Sunday. It's tough to operate on a short work week like that.