Coach Cable: Players that did not practice, Darren McFadden, Hubbard, Tony Stewart, Charlie Frye, Swayze Waters, Sam Williams and Jay Richardson. The only two guys at this point, actually three guys that I would say are questionable would be Hubbard and Frye. Possible McFadden, but he is certainly improving today so we should start to get him back here pretty quick.
Q: For this upcoming game, what difference will you see from the last game to this one?
Coach Cable:Our focus is improving; we are going to get a different defense with structure and all that from the 3-4 back to an even front, or a four man front. A much different style offense, we saw the power stuff in Dallas and now to the spread throw the ball over the place in Chicago. It will be good for us on both sides of the football.
Q: What is the main thing that you want to see out of the players as far as players being on the verge of one way or the other?
Coach Cable:I think we will see how we can eliminate the negatives from the Dallas game. As a staff we will have to focus on that kind of improvement there are a lot of things we didn't feel good about after Dallas, and so we would like to eliminate some of those things. Move them over into the column where you can succeed and win with them. There is a number of things starting with the penalties, third down stuff offensively. See if we can lower the rushing average defensively things like that.
Q: Are you about where you thought you would be passing wise or are you seeing too many balls on the ground?
Coach Cable:I still feel like there is too many on the ground we fight that constantly. We need to improve in that area, but we just need to keep cleaning it up. There are days you feel like you are making improvement on it and there are days where you are like okay, we still have a lot of work to do, so consistency.
Q: What kind of camp is Mario Henderson having?
Coach Cable:There are some really good things going on and there are some things that that want to make him more consistent. One of them was the pass and being more consistent with that particular fundamental. The other things I like, so I just want to clean that up and we can get him back to how he was playing there for awhile.
Q: The intensity of practice, when to use pads and when to not use pads, how do you feel practice is going so far?
Coach Cable:I think that it is going well. I think my thought on pads and no pads is A, are health and B, the quality of work we're getting whether we are in them or out of them. This team is showing maturity and show that they can get work done and not have to be in pads to do it all the time.
Q: How do you help the guys fight through the dog days, you are two weeks in and have been out here grinding away. How do you help them fight through that?
Coach Cable:We have been pretty specific on a task every day, making a big deal out of it and talking about the night before as well as the morning of. Really just giving them something to focus on, and let it become kind of like ground hogs day, and give them something to really wrap themselves around. They can come out and have a purpose for why they are out here and what they are working on.
Q: As far as spacing out the pads and stuff, if you were to hammer them into the ground everyday I think the dog days would be there?
Coach Cable:The nice thing for us, and you guys have all seen it, when we have gotten to pads, and went to work and saw a couple of live situations and went short on Thursday; we can be a physical team and a tackling team. Those are things that pads give you, and if you don't have those things going on then you have to stay on them and work to that point. But we will continue to try and find the right balance when it comes to that.
