Well, that was interesting... quite interesting.
Anyway, the basics are that Kenny Watson will be resigned this week (likely on Tuesday), Palmer's elbow is OK and the biggie was that Marvin Lewis said he's happy with his team -- well, despite the 0-5 part.
One thing that needed to be clarified -- a question was asked of Lewis, quote a supposed report from ESPN's Chris Mortensen. The question, as worded in the press conference was "A week ago Wednesday, Chris Mortensen said, 'I don't know that Marvin wouldn't welcome a dismissal'" -- well Mortensen called and said that was not, in fact, anything he said recently. Mortensen claims he may or may not have mentioned several weeks ago, as an off-handed remark, not as a report of any facts, that Lewis was not on "the hot seat" but he may welcome a dismissal. So, anyway, Lewis' response to that question was:
"Yes, I am very committed to doing the right thing here."
In response to a report on the league's official website, NFL.com, that he'd been told by management that his job was safe as long as he wanted it, Lewis said:
"That's great. I appreciate that. ... I honestly don't think anything has ever changed here. The commitment that I made five years ago here and three years ago, two years ago, whenever, is that we'd see this thing all the way through and get us back to where we were. We've taken some lumps this year, and that doesn't change how I approach what I do. I'm excited about our football team. I actually like our football team, other than being 0-5. I like our guys. I like what we're doing. We're working very, very hard. We're not creating enough plays. Our margin for error is very, very slim. But they come here and they come to work. We go out there and we play football games. We dug a bad hole yesterday; I mean, we dug a huge hole. And to play on the road, a tough place to play against a good football team, and we were able to dig out of it by creating some plays and making some plays and making some things happen. It wasn't all pretty, but it all wasn't totally bad. We fought the thing down and we had a chance to make some plays at the end of the football game that mattered. I told our team we needed to win the third quarter; well, we won the third, we won the second half, we just didn't win the fourth. We have to find a way to not be behind in the game, and go ahead and win the second half and win the fourth quarter. Those are things we talk about. We've made some progress, not nearly enough, and I'm not satisfied with where we are that way."
On how losing affects physche: "It doesn't do anything. We want to win. My job every day is to come here and get things going and moving, and that's what we're going to do. We don't come around here with our tail between our legs like some people in this building. We'll be ready to go in New York. Psyche only is a problem with weak-minded people who quit at the first drop of a hat, so it's not going to affect many people in this building."
On the 2-point play, with reference to the way the question was asked, with an assesment of Ben Utecht having "questionable hands and questionable leaping ability": "It came from the gameplan, that's the play that was called. You can evaluate all your, uh, I don't know where you get your information. But that's your judgement, OK."
On not going downfield on offense: "How many have you seen this year? We had a couple of downfields called, and they were on top in the coverage. We had a downfield called where T.J. ended up breaking up the ball coming across the field. We had an opportunity to go to Chad, and the safety was way over the top. One of the good things Carson didn't do yesterday was not force the ball in there and try to prove to anybody that he could throw the ball downfield."
On Perry's fumble problems: "He has to just keep working on it. We can’t have three lost fumbles and five fumbles in five games. We have to do a better job in practice, making sure we are going for the ball all the time. Although, last week he took a helmet to the ball which made him fumble and this week they had the wrap around. So the hard part is that you don’t want a lot of guy tangled up going after the ball in practice."
On more work for Benson?: "Well, we have to take care of the football. I’m not going to sit here and explain how we are going to handle that situation. We want Chris (Perry) to take care for the ball and do that just like everybody else that handles the football on this team is asked to do. As Cedric learns more about this offensive and understands where he needs to go, e role has an opportunity to expand. We should sign Kenny (Watson) later today to add back and bring him back to his position on the team."
More: "I thought he ran with great pad level. I thought he was pretty decisive in his cuts, in his movement, which is important right now where we are, I think, offensively, that we go ahead and we let the guys up-front work and kind of ride the wave a little bit. And I think that's important. That's the one thing that we continue to coach Chris on very hard, of go ahead and take the ball, take it vertically, and then let things happen. When Chris is taking the ball vertically, good things are happening. He had a fine run yesterday on the touchdown that was called back. So those kind of things are important, and that's where we are, kind of, offensively right now. We need to take what's given, and come and play the next play. So make the positive plays right now and make it happen, because that will create more and more runs. Just got to keep putting those plays together."
How long it will take? "Well, it's going to take a little bit of time. There will be some things that for a while he'll be a little bit unsure of, which will cause me to be a little anxious about how much he's in the game because we can't create all the different looks and the things that perhaps could happen. Now I will tell you, he's a very diligent worker and hopefully he'll continue to be a diligent learner at what he has to do so that we become more comfortable with those things, and then being able to go ahead and execute it. And that's the biggest part of a running back coming in. The natural part of carrying the football -- that's the easy part. It's the other things that come with it that tax you a little bit more and can be just as important at times."
On the radio last night Melvin said that the fans should not be front runners, interesting when did one winning season become front running?
Steve10:47 AM EST