Head coach **Gary Kubiak** and other players spoke to the media Wednesday afternoon during open locker
room and following practice.
**Head coach Gary Kubiak
(on backfield starters)** "Wali (Lundy) will start with Jameel (Cook). That'll be the two starters. Of course (Vernand) Morency is going to play a great deal. Lundy and Morency are basically going to split time, with Wali probably playing a bit more. But we're going to be in a rotating two backs rotation system."
**(on
's punt return team)** "It concerns us a bunch and (special teams coach) Joe (Marciano) has done a good job of addressing that and talking about it. When you play this team, they're very aggressive on special teams. They've been known to run some fakes and do various things so we've got our work cut out for us from that standpoint. That returner they have is special."
**(on
defense)** "Their scheme is just awesome. (defensive coordinator) Coach (Jim) Johnson does an unbelievable job with that defense and he has since he's been there. (He is) one of the toughest guys to prepare for, in my mind, in this business, from an offensive side. They play hard, they give it up for their team and you know you're going to get their best effort every week. We've got our work cut out for us so it's going to be a tough day and we've got to get ready to go.
"His players are so well coached. Nothing really bothers them regardless of formations, personnel or anything. That's probably a reflection of what they go against every day with (head coach) Andy's (Reid) offense. They're very well coached. You're not going to get them out of position and those things. You're going to have to line up and go toe-to-toe with them and we know that so we have to get ready to do that."
(on last year's Broncos' 200 rushing yards and 300 passing yards) "I didn't know that. They had a lot of injuries last year and there were a lot of players missing that football game. You go back and see that. But this team all you have to do is watch them during preseason and how they play and listen to them. They have been going to four championships in a row and having the problems they had last year and keep battling and then come back this year to have such a good preseason, we will see the best Philly has to offer on Sunday."
(on his four-game experience) "I don't know. I could probably let you know that after Sunday. Game day is game day. I'm sure this will be a little different and a little more emotion and that type of thing. But I'm looking forward to it. It's nice to open at home and with the opponent that we have we have to be on our A-game to have a chance to be successful. We're excited about that."
(on family coming in) "The usual, wife and kids, they're excited about it. I know the whole city's looking forward to it. I just want them to be loud because we'll be excited to play."
(on DT Alfred Malone) "He's had a good camp. He's a young player, but he had a good camp and he's been asked to do more because of the decision we made this past week. We're doing that across the board on our football team. We've got a lot of young guys that we're counting on and we'll find out if we can start answering that bell on Sunday. I think that's the key of the progress of the franchise and the team. It's that these young players come along and if you don't stand up and give them a chance then, when do you find out? That's why we're going to give these players a chance."
(on developing and winning at the same time) "I don't know. Maybe I'm about to find out. I know one thing, if you don't have a vision in this business, if you don't know where you're going and what you're trying to get accomplished, you can spin your wheels fast. We do understand we have a lot of young players but we won't use that as an excuse. I promise you. We're just going to battle and get better every day."
(on the progress of the team since the start of training camp) "I think it has come a long way, just growing as a group, how they practice. I thought we practice really, really well today, very fast and efficient. And that's the key, when you have short numbers you don't have a lot of guys out here, and if guys don't know their role, don't know their job on the team week in and week out you can get sloppy. I think these guys are learning what's expected of them and the roles they have to play as the scout team and those types of things. When you practice good, good things usually happen. This team is learning to practice well and hopefully we'll keep that happening."
(on his expectations for the team this year) "I just want to see us get better every time out. I want to see us keep preparing the way we're preparing. I know there'll be some good times and there'll be some tough times, but I just want to see us playing hard and be playing towards a common goal, and that is becoming a winner."
(on the team's focus this week) "Well, it seems like when you play this game, because everybody plays their last preseason game early, then all of a sudden you are standing around and its 10, 11 days before you play for real. We almost feel like we could go out there today, but we have a couple more days, so we'll just try to keep them in the barn, so to speak, for a few more days, then turn them loose. I like the way we worked."
(on whether any of the newly signed players besides RB Ron Dayne will be game-ready) "I really don't know that. That decision can be made as late as Saturday. We won't throw them in there before they are ready, but I think there may be a few who are ready to help us this weekend."
(on how different it is having more time to get ready this week) "It's not really that much different. If you're a coach you probably go and try and do too much sometimes. You try and make sure you don't do that. You don't want to overload your players. What I want us to do is work real hard yesterday, pretty dang hard toady, (then) I want to start to taper off and make sure they are good and fresh and ready to go."
** QB David Carr
(on the Eagles' not liking being viewed as a rebuilding team)** "They're a good football team, so it remains to be seen if (Coach) Andy Reed can make them even better. Some things happened last season, and they obviously didn't have the season they wanted to have last year. They're still a good football team, ask anyone in the NFL."
(on what he will try to do Sunday to get the Texans started) "We will just try to get some completions and run the football well. I think, especially, if we can run the football well that's going to show how we will play the entire year. If we're able to run the ball effectively, that's how our offense will play. Play-action, it's all set up off the run game. If we can't do that, then it's going to be tough."
**DE Mario Williams
(on whether he will be nervous Sunday)** "Obviously, I will be excited, but I'm not really nervous about messing up or anything like that. I'm just going to try to do what I can to help the team."
(on whether he is excited about facing QB Donovan McNabb) "Well I play with him on Madden so…But he's a great player, and it's going to be a challenge, a challenge that we all, as a unit, try to contain or try to stop him, or slow him down at least."
(on whether he has played Madden as himself against McNabb and how that went) "I could never get to him."
