Opening statement:

I’ll start with the injury report for us. All these people did not participate in practice today: (Demetrius) D. Bell did not and Kyle Williams did not. Both of those are groins. John McCargo was a calf, he did not. Bryan Scott was the ankle, he did not. And Paul (Posluszny) of course with the arm.  Leodis (McKelvin) with the fibula and Donte (Whitner) with the thumb. None of them participated and then Shawn Nelson was back on a limited basis.

On how tough it is for a defense to go into this game with three quarters of the starters out:

It’s a challenge, there’s no doubt about that. But there’s nothing we can do about it except take the next step, see what happens, see how the health is on Sunday and accept the fact that everybody in the league has injuries and somehow you’ve got to get through them. You’ve got to play through them but we’ve certainly had our share.

On SS Bryan Scott and if his injury is more of a high ankle sprain:

He was here today. They’re calling it more like a high-ankle than anything else.

On FS Donte Whitner’s surgery:

We think it went well and that’s kind of a week-to-week thing, so we’ll have to keep our eye on that. But Donte’s always really optimistic and all of them are. They just want to get out and play.

On LB Nic Harris practicing at safety:

I guess the answer to both is yes because you don’t know what’s going to happen in a game. It is in case of an emergency, and as you know, he played there so he seemed like the best bet at this point in case something else occurs.

On DB George Wilson seeing most of his starts at free safety:

 I’ve just always been so comfortable with George Wilson. If he’s on the field, whether it’s special teams or your defense, you know exactly what you’re going to get. You’re going to get everything he has in terms of his efforts and his communication. He’s just a good football player. I feel good about George.

On there being a concern without his two most physical safeties when the Dolphins can run the ball:

It’s a major concern. There’s no way to hide it. As you pointed out they’re third in the league with running the football and they’re really effective at it. They do an outstanding job, so yeah it’s not the best situation for us, but we’ve got to have, and we do have faith in those guys that will play. But it’s a huge challenge and it’s not going to be an easy one.

On still having CB Terrence McGee healthy:

Terrence is, again as you all know, is just a terrific player and he’s a very competitive guy. He likes the challenge of Sunday and he meets it in both the run and the pass game. He’s a very good football player and a tough guy.

On CB Drayton Florence:

This is why we got Drayton. We really liked him as a free agent and what he brings to us. He’s got a great attitude. He works hard. He’s had a number of weeks now, I believe this is his second full week back with kind of no limitations on him, so we’re really glad we have him.

On T Demetrius Bell and if T Kirk Chambers will start for him:

Kirk is (the starter if Bell can’t go). D. Bell didn’t work today. We’re just going to have to see where that thing goes and I say that about all of them because you don’t really know. You can make projections but we know that medicine like anything is not exact, so we just kind of wait and see and hope he comes along faster than we anticipate he might.

On if he’s comfortable with T Jonathan Scott playing at right tackle when he used to play left:

Again, because you’ve all seen us, Jonathan’s played both sides and we’ve flipped him a lot. As the swing tackle he’s kind of had to, so he’s worked in both of those areas as has Kirk. We’ll work our way through the week and then kind of decide what we want to do. But I’m comfortable with Jonathan. I thought he did a nice job for us in the game on Sunday, really playing the right side, but again we’ve talked a lot about him, really to this point and hopefully on into the future, just really happy with what Jonathan Scott has done for himself and for us.

On what they’ll try to do to rattle Miami’s new quarterback:

We always, Perry (Fewell) and the staff, do a good job of tweaking their pressures no matter who we’re playing. Changing them up a little bit to try and suit maybe exactly what you do but then we keep our base. We still have a base pressure. I kind of look at them the same way. I think they’ll basically do what they do because they do it well. They execute it well. I don’t see them changing a lot because of the change at quarterback. They’ll emphasize some things a little more and some things a little less depending on how they feel about his strengths, but we’ll prepare pretty much for what we’ve seen so far and then have some other thoughts. But probably not significantly different than what we would.

On easing in RB Marshawn Lynch or throwing him right in:

A lot of it, for me, will have to do with how he feels at the end of the work week. And quite frankly I can’t anticipate that he’ll feel any differently than kind of how you just described him. I believe he’ll want to go and that’ll be good because we need to… Freddy’s been so good, and we knew he would. Freddy’s not a surprise so it’ll be nice to even out this thing. Get Marshawn back, and get him into the mix. It’s a really positive thing for us. It’s great to have him back.

On if he can identify the problem that C Geoff Hangartner had snapping the ball last game in the shot gun:

No because he’s been so steady and so reliable and it just kind of happens, unfortunately. Every game has its own life no matter what’s occurred before they kind of go their own way. And that was a surprise. That was a big surprise for us and hopefully it’s passed.

On how important it is to get a division win at this point:

This is for lots of reasons. Obviously a division game is really important for us because it’s the game this week and every game is critically important and huge and it’s a huge rival of ours. It’s a big, big football game for our team and I’m sure they feel the same down there for theirs.  

On if it’s reasonable to expect they ease Lynch in to some degree:

I think so and that’s kind of how we look at it. If you run the ball 30 times in a game, that’s a good deal of runs, and we’d like to do that. That means the game is kind of where we’d like it. And if we did that and they split it that might be ok for a back of his kind of unique talent and unique skills. I think that would be ok, but again I want to make sure that he feels good at the end of the work week as we move forward. But it’s really good to have him here.

On having success against the Dolphins’ wild cat last year giving confidence to do it again this year:

I don’t think we’re ever really satisfied with much of anything. We always want to do better. They tweak it. They add things. They do a very nice job so you’re always preparing specifically for this thing this week. Nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter what they did before or what we did before. It’s this week and they give you a lot to think about.

On his opinion of what kind of person and player WR Terrell Owens is now since he hasn’t put his personal records ahead of the team:

Well I never anticipated that he would. I guess I’d say the same things I’ve kind of said all along because that’s really I know about him. He’s very professional in his approach, a very hard worker, and again, I’m not in the locker room. I mean I go through there, it’s not like I avoid it, I walk through there, I sit down sometimes, I talk to guys, but I don’t live in their locker room. That’s there spot. But on the field, I don’t know that you could ask for better in terms of effort, in terms of professionalism, talking football and being a football player. And it’s not all serious all the time. We like to go about our work as long as we get our work done, well we’re not above having some fun out there and they do that too so it’s been really good.

On feeling any more pressure now to win given his job security risk:

No, seems like we talk about this and have talked about it. I’ve never felt any differently from the first game to this game. The first game I played probably to this point. I loved being in the NFL as a player. I loved playing and I love coaching in the NFL. And there is a lot of pressure and it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun so just go out and do the best you can all the time and enjoy it as much as you can because boy it’s great to be part of a team. It really is and then move on. Go on to the next one and get it ready and do the best that you can.

On how disappointed he is being the most penalized team in the NFL:

Yeah not happy. Not happy at all.