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Interim Head Coach Wade Phillips**
(on the team's injuries coming out of the Indianapolis game) "Let me go through the injuries first. We had a few more than I thought after the game. Bryan Braman had an X-ray on his finger, just a finger dislocation. Johnathan Joseph had some soreness in his groin and we did an MRI on him. We don't have the results on all these yet. Case Keenum sprained his right thumb on his throwing hand. He also had an MRI today. (DeVier) Posey, like I said after the game, they felt like it was a high ankle sprain. They did an MRI on him. Normally those things don't come back quickly. (Darryl) Sharpton sprained his ankle a little bit but we didn't have to MRI it. It's a slight sprain. Antonio Smith went in for an MRI on his knee. He got his knee sprained during the game. Justin Tuggle had a hyperextension of his elbow, kind of like J.J. Watt had, I believe. But anyway, they did an MRI. Also, Ben Tate went in for a CT scan on his ribs because he got banged in the ribs again, which he hurt before. So we had a few more prospective injuries than I thought."
(on if QB Case Keenum's thumb injury will cause him to change quarterbacks) "Well, we'll have to wait and see. We'll see what they say from the MRI and see what the doctors say and see what he's able to do. But it's certainly a concern on the quarterback when it's right (his) right hand, thumb. But we'll just have to wait and see what he can do on Wednesday in practice."
(on if there is anything more he can do to address the team's penalty issues after addressing them last week) "Well, we're going to continue to that. Not everything is taken care of in one week. We have a whole offseason, a whole training camp to put a team together and then to say well, in one week all of the sudden you're going to change everything. That's not really realistic. I was hoping that we would do better. Unfortunately, some of the penalties we had in practice carried over to the game. We had the players—if they had a penalty in practice, we took them out of the practice and set them on the side. Kind of a timeout. Something to embarrass them a little bit. We're going to continue to do that. We've got to cut down on penalties."
(on if the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Indianapolis T Gosder Cherilus had on DE J.J. Watt was enough) "That's up to the League. I don't really get into those things as far as trying to punish a player or not. The League sees all those things. They evaluate every penalty in a game and they fine people for whatever penalties they deem correct. I'm not going to overstep the League there on that."
(on facing Denver Broncos QB Peyton Manning this week) "Obviously, a great, great challenge for our defense. What more can you say about him besides being the all-time, all-time quarterback. He's having a tremendous year, one of the greatest years ever. So it's going to be a big challenge for us. We're going to have to step up our defensive play and especially our pass defense, which we really feel strong about our pass defense. It will be a big challenge for them anyway, though. They're the number one offense in the league. Not just him, but their whole offense, their offensive line, their running backs. They move the ball better than anybody in the league. I think we're fourth now in people moving the ball on us. It's a big challenge."
(on if he was happy with the effort from everyone yesterday) "Yeah, I thought we had a good effort. We didn't execute very well. Our first drive was disappointing defensively. I thought the rest of the game, they moved the ball their second drive, but we intercepted. And then the rest of the game, we played pretty well. They had the ball three times in our territory starting a drive and they didn't make a first down on two of those and kicked field goals. And then another one, they made one first down and kicked a field goal. When the pressure was on, I thought we played pretty well in those areas. The second half, we gave up three points. Offensively, we didn't have as good a game."
(on saying yesterday that he needed to go back and look at what QB Case Keenum struggled with and what he saw when he looked again) "Yeah, he had a rough game as far as overall. I think we have to go back again and I talked to the offense about it today, we've got to go back to see the things that he's done well because he had some games and had some plays that he's made. He's made good plays and done well with them. We have to go back and go with those and eliminate the ones that he's not doing well. Sometimes a young quarterback, sometimes they have to hit rock bottom a little bit to bounce back up. I've seen it happen. Some of them don't bounce back up and aren't good, and don't end up good quarterbacks. This is a rough time that he's going through. We'll see what he does."
(on QB Case Keenum saying he knows what he's doing wrong and that he isn't able to figure out how to fix it) "Yeah, he's a great kid. I think he takes the blame for everything, certainly. But we've got to help him in all of that. He saw the blitzes when they were coming. But seeing blitzes and getting rid of the football is different than just seeing them. That and reading coverages is not an easy process, especially for a young quarterback to know exactly where to go with even though he goes through it over and over and over in his meetings and so forth and we practice those things. We've just got to find the things that he really does well and we've got to stick with those because we've got to move the football."
(on Defensive Backs Coach Vance Joseph handling the duties of calling the defensive plays)
"Yeah, he did a real good job. Like I said, the first series we weren't happy with and we had another penalty, an interference call that I still don't agree with. And we'll see what the league says about it, but that gave them a touchdown. It gave them 20 yards and gave them the ball at the 1-yard line. We'll find out what the league says about that, but, like I said, three times they had the ball in our territory and scored nine points without really moving the ball at all. Of course, two points wasn't on the defense, so that's 11 out of the 25 points right there."
(on if there is any concern that RB Ben Tate and CB Johnathan Joseph won't play this week)
"Well, I mean, I don't know right now. It's hard for me to answer that. I think Johnathan (Joseph) was more sore and the CT scan will tell us more on (Ben) Tate."
(on if he expects TE Owen Daniels to practice this week)
"You know, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that one. We thought he might practice last week, but he wasn't able to. So I think it's still a 'might situation' this week as far as him practicing. Garrett Graham I didn't mention, but he's still sore. So he's still iffy as far as this week is concerned, and (Ryan) Griffin, I said after the game, but watching the tape, he played pretty well. He still needs some work in the running game as far as a blocking tight end, but, as far as a receiving tight end, I thought he did a pretty good job for us. (He) got open, made some plays, made a really good effort to make the one at the end of the game that fell a yard short."
(on his assessment of the offense as a whole after watching tape)
"It's like our offense overall. We just didn't move the ball well enough overall. I think there were individuals certainly that played well, but it's a group effort. When you only score three points, it's hard to say, 'Well, we had a great game.'"
