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News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

Joe Gibbs Post-Game: Redskins-Eagles

On the 27-3 loss:

"From the Redskins standpoint, the Eagles did a heck of job today. For me personally, there was a lot out there. I want to do a good job of studying the film and I don't have a lot of things that I think I will comment on right now. I think we need to take a long hard look at everything. I'm always careful after a game like this of jumping out and trying to analyze things. Probably what we'll do is go back and go to work. Tomorrow we'll come in and look at the film. One thing that I'm thankful for is that we have some other games to play. We get a chance to come back and hopefully redeem ourselves. I say real good job on Philly's part. I thought [the Eagles] played well, and we've got a lot to look at from our standpoint."

On the Redskins' replay challenge that determined that Brian Westbrook was ruled down by contact:

"I'm going to be curious to see what they say on that. For sure, we felt like it was caught and he got off the ground before we touched him and he fumbled. That's the way we saw it, and I'll be in absolute shock if you see anything different than that, to address that one play. But that was [just] one play too."

On the injury suffered by running back Clinton Portis:

"I think he broke a bone in his hand. My best guess, and I haven't had a chance to really talk with him yet, is that it may be something that you have to put some screws in or something. I haven't talked to anybody yet, so don't hold me to that."

On whether he considered inserting back-up quarterback Todd Collins into the game:

"I talked about doing that with about nine minutes to go or something just because it had been a tough day for Mark [Brunell] and everything. The way it worked out, it was a moot point."

On the vulnerability of the Redskins defense to giving up big plays:

"I don't think you can single out one part of our team. I certainly wouldn't do that. Defensively, I think we struggled with big plays. They're a very talented group and you have to be at your best to keep them from making big plays. They have a great quarterback, and they're certainly capable of making plays. I don't think I would stand here today and say it's just defense. We have a lot of things to look at, and a lot of things that we need to go to work on."

On whether he has any initial thoughts about the Redskins quarterback situation:

"I don't really have any initial thoughts. I know everyone will be wanting to talk about it, but I don't have any initial thoughts."

On the Redskins' performance following an emotional victory over Dallas one week earlier:

"We played a very emotional game last week, and they played their guts out last week. We bounce back, and for whatever reason lose a lopsided game here. I think there's a lot to look at there. I'll try to do a good job of analyzing that with the coaches and try to make the best decisions we can and go to work."

On the difficulty of bouncing back from a loss like today:

"That's what we have to do. We don't have a choice. We played last week, and we played this week. We know what we did last week, and we'll do a good job tomorrow of analyzing what happened in this game and then go to work on it. That's part of what we do up here. For me personally, I'm glad we have other games. I'm glad we play again next week."

On whether he can use the balance of the NFC as a selling point with his team in regard to bouncing back from this loss:

"I think our players are real smart. They analyze things before I ever get a chance to even talk to them. They're a smart bunch of guys. They kind of understand where we stand. They know what our record is and they look at everybody else in the NFC. That picture is there for them. They're always talking about analyzing what we do. This division is extremely tough and people do knock each other off and it happens week to week. That's the way you have to look at it. What I'm focused on is playing a good game next week and getting focused and somehow finding a way to get ourselves turned around in one week to playing the way that we're capable of playing next week. That will be a tough assignment for us."

On costly Washington penalties:

"We definitely hurt ourselves on penalties and that is a discouragement for me. I can definitely speak for that. We did a good job last week and we bounced back and spent a lot of time during the break of putting an emphasis on penalties. Last week we came out with five [penalties], and we definitely won the penalty difference last week against Dallas. Then it jumped back and grabbed us again today. It's definitely something that hurts us. It's more of a risk on the road with false starts and things like that. If we continue with that from a penalty standpoint, you're going to have a tough time winning football games. I think that's something that we definitely can fix. Why we would have a good week last week and drop back? I don't have an answer for that."

On whether you can coach NFL players to avoid taking penalties:

"We talk a lot about it here with the media that's around us. We do a lot with officials in practice, and we watch films of it. We start with the film tomorrow of everything that happened in this game. There's a lot we do. I felt like we made progress last week, but then we drop back again this week and have a bunch of penalties that really hurt us."

On whether execution or personnel needs to be evaluated in regard to the review of the film:

"I'm talking about just in general. Every game for you is the best teaching tool. It's also the way that you learn the most. You see your guys match up out there today and you have to go through everything. You kind of analyze and see what did happen to us, and then you go to work on fixing it. It's a little bit of everything I would say."

On whether he expects his team to rebound from the loss:

"I think we'll fight to the bitter end. I think that's what we'll do. That's what I want us to do, and I think that's what our players want. As I look around the locker room, a bunch of those guys were with us and with me when we went 6-10. Then they turned around last year and they were with me when we made it to the playoffs. I think that group with their character will fight. I feel good about that part. But we have a lot of work to do."

On how to keep the loss from being too demoralizing:
"These guys are smart. They know, and they'll do a good job of watching the film and seeing what happened. They'll kind of analyze where we are and we'll tee it up and go to war."

On whether the Redskins struggles have been especially difficult this season after the successful that was achieved last year:

"It's definitely frustrating and it's a disappointment for all of us. I always start with myself. I'm the number one person that makes a lot of the decisions, and most of this rests at my feet. I think you have to do a good job as the coach of analyzing every single thing that has happened to our football team, do a good job of analyzing this game, and work hard this next week. As I've said before, my only way to get out of things like this is to work hard and make good decisions. That's what we'll try to do."

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