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News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

Jim Zorn Saturday Press Conference

On Jason Campbell's touchdown run:

"He made a heads up play by moving out of the pocket still looking down the field for an open guy. He put a really nice pump fake on the linebacker. The guy left his feet; it was pretty slick. It was very smooth by Jason and he ended up being able to score. It was an excellent play. Definitely a big league play."

On Jason Campbell's performance:

"I saw him being really sharp on a lot of the things that he did. We needed to see him hit that deep post to Santana [Moss] which I thought was just an excellent route by Santana. Great speed, great acceleration away from the defender. I would have liked to have seen him hit that, but for the most part I thought he stood strong in the pocket. I thought he made some moves within the pocket to get some plays off that may not have been there. He got stuck on a receiver or two that he needed to move on from, but I thought he was very aggressive and ran our offense very well."

On the team's wide receiver play:

"We didn't get Fred [Davis] involved as much as I would have liked to. We still have some improvement. There are things that we can do better as far as wide receivers go. They played aggressively, they separated from some man coverage, things that I was impressed with, and I hope we can continue that type of play and improvement on the football field."

On Devin Thomas' performance:

"Catching the ball in traffic was excellent for Devin. And the move he put on Jerod Mayo to get about six more yards after the one under route that he ran, it was a great move, a really quick move. He had a post in the game that could have scored as well against blitz coverage. The quarterback got flushed and didn't see him, but he might have gone all the way if we had seen him and hit him on that play. We just didn't have the protection to be able to have the time to see it."

On if Marko Mitchell solidified himself as the fifth wide receiver:

"It's still a battle going on. He's definitely been impressive and has made a couple of really heads up plays; some strong catches. One for a touchdown which he was really excited about, we were all really excited about that play. He and Colt [Brennan] made great adjustments on that play for a touchdown. He's going to be here next week to play again and we hope he continues to show his improvements."

On his impressions of Marcus Mason, Kevin Barnes, and Marko Mitchell:

"The challenge was put out to a lot of guys and certainly the younger players trying to step up and make this football team. Each guy came up with different kinds of plays. Kevin Barnes, what a great play to react to the ball in front of that receiver to pick the ball up. It was a tremendous play and gave us an opportunity to have a short field and possibly put us back in the game."

On if he thinks offensive line is ready to compete this season:

"I think they're really coming along. One of the things we were talking about in our offensive staff meeting this morning was that they're challenging each other and holding each other accountable. They're also taking some of the responsibility and putting heat on each other and I think that has been very significant. I think Sherman [Smith] has been doing a very good job during practice times to give ourselves an opportunity to study and look at different blitzes. So far we have done a great job communicating those blitzes. I think all-in-all we're all trying to improve that area and I think we have."

On if he had any regrets about not calling a timeout at the end of the first half:

"We had it in plus territory, they have very good offense. I don't want to give them any time left on the clock. I didn't anticipate us having to use a ten second run-off or a timeout for that situation. We ended up getting down there and having our opportunity to score on any one of those plays we had going. Unfortunately we ended up with just a field goal. I don't think I would have changed it. I probably let fifteen seconds go in that whole event because we didn't get up to the line of scrimmage and get a play off as quickly as I would have liked to. We kind of just hung around a little bit on a slow no huddle. We had to have a little more sense of urgency."

On New England's offense:

"They are a very seasoned offense. They really did a nice job and Tom [Brady] did a great job of causing us to show, changing some of those plays and some of those protections. It's what a real seasoned group does. You saw that he had time. Randy Moss is very difficult to cover. We were there, he screens people out. He does a really nice job of his route running to come up with big plays. Tom does a nice job of getting rid of the ball quickly. Their offensive line did a nice job for him to give him protection."

On if his outlook of the season has changed:

"We still have work to do. We're a work in progress. One of the things that I was concerned about last night was all the penalties we had last night. We had eight on defense, several on offense, a couple on special teams. It is deserved because of what we did or didn't do on the field. We have to improve that area. We are not hitting on all the things that we need to to play in our division but we're on our way. I'm not discouraged, I'm encouraged in where we are going but we're not there yet."

On getting 15 penalties in last night's game:

"I would like to have a minimum penalty game. Having fifteen in one game is just showing a lack of discipline in some areas. Some of them I understand what happened, I can see what happened and part of it is just aggressive play which we like, but you've got to know how to start and finish without creating penalties."

On if he is going to play the starters next game:

"I haven't decided that yet. Part of that will be how we work through these next couple of days. We're not going to see the starters like we did this week; it will be very cut down. One of the reasons is not to just save the starters but also the following week there will be over twenty guys cut from this football team and there a still a lot of question marks that we have to find out some answers too. The competition is stiff and everybody is competing hard for a spot on this team. We're going to challenge a lot of those guys in that next game."

On injuries from last night's game and for the current week of practice:

"We had a little rib bruise with Marcus Mason. Clinton Portis has a little rib bruise. All of the X-rays are negative. A little sprained ankle by Antwaan Randle El, I think he is going to be fine. Jason Campbell is fine. He got hit underneath his shoulder pad, and it jerked his shoulder a little bit. Kareem [Moore] pulled his hamstring a little bit, I don't know if he'll play this next game because of that, but I think it's minor. We're pushing to get Mike Williams in the next game and play him a lot so his ankle should be getting right where it needs to be. I was excited to see [Anthony] Aldridge back in the game. Rock Cartwright felt a lot better today, I think the rest did him well for his groin and we've just have to see how he practices this week."

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