Head coach Mike Smith
On Gerald McCoy trying to play with a broken hand:
"I think there's been a number of guys that have played with broken fingers, broken hands. It's up to the doctor and the doctor will make that decision on who's going to play and who's not. I don't think it's ever a player that makes that decision. I think it's the team doctor and team trainers. I've been on teams where we had guys that have played with broken hands, broken fingers and even broken ribs. It's just a matter of the severity of it, and a doctor's going to make that decision. I don't think any player in the NFL, in this day and age, is going to tell a doctor that he's going to go out there and play."
On Matt Bosher and Josh Harris signed:
"Those guys have done a very good job for us in terms of helping us on special teams. Matt is a guy that can help us not only punting the ball, but his kickoffs, especially in the dome, are outstanding, and Josh has been a very solid snapper for us in both field goals and punts. When you got a guy that can do that trade you want to try and keep them around as long as you can. I'm happy for those guys personally, and we know that we got a punter/kickoff guy and a snapper that's going to be here a couple more years."
On the injury report for tomorrow's game:
"Today we had full participation with everyone except for Roddy (White), and Roddy will be listed as questionable for the game. The other guys have been out here practicing, so unless something happens in the next 24 hours we anticipate that they're going to go out and play."
On what the primary challenge is of playing Thursday night games:
"It's a challenge both physically and mentality. Normally, this is the first day that we're out on the practice field during seven day cycle. When you have a five day cycle, this is the day before the game. It's tough physically and it's tough mentality, in terms of getting the game plan in. We have six days to get it in, and it's a couple of days here. The League has done a good job for the most part in terms of having it be against division opponents and not having a lot of travel time. We're at a little bit of a disadvantage this year because it's a new coaching staff and in week three we don't have a whole lot of film of the offense that they're playing. We're more familiar with their defense because Coach Lovie Smith's been doing it a long time, running that Tampa 2 scheme. It's challenging. I think it's great though on the other side for the fans that we get Thursday, Sunday and Monday night the NFL is the thing to watch."
On having two straight division games at home:
"Well, it's very important for us to handle the games in the division. We feel like when we play division games we weight it as one and a half games. It's very important to us to get our second division win early in the season. They're a very good team and the schedule makers put it to where we have two home games early. We'll get paid back later on during the season. I have no doubt about that.
