Washington Redskins Quotes

 Washington Redskins
August 3, 2008
Hall of Fame Game vs. Indianapolis Colts

Game Quotes

Redskins Head Coach Jim Zorn
On his first game as the Redskins Head Coach:
“I was excited to be able to score on the first drive.  There is nothing more remarkable than that.  Other than this is a special game that we get to start out with, the Hall of Fame Game, and see two Redskin Hall of Famers go in and then have so many Redskins fans here, it is pretty incredible really.  It is like a home game.”

On quarterback Jason Campbell:
“I am very pleased.  I think he had poise in the pocket.  I thought his tempo was good and his accuracy was pretty good.”

On the second half:
“I am going to mix a little bit.  We have been running the ball pretty well on them, so I am going to try to keep the ball on the ground and keep the clock moving and pick my times to throw it.  We have a makeshift line there and we are going to have young quarterbacks in there too, so I don’t want to put them under too much duress trying to stand in the pocket too long.”

On his overall impression of the first half:
“It was pretty good.  We are not good enough yet to overcome penalties and so once we stopped ourselves on a couple of these offensive drives there was no way we were going to have an opportunity.  Early was good, now we just have to keep the concentration level up.” 

Redskins Quaterback Jason Campbell
On the first and second drive:
“I thought it was important for us to come out fast. That is one thing we talked about as a unit coming out and trying to move the ball quickly and having a rhythm and a tempo. I thought the offensive line came out and set the tempo early. On the second drive we made some plays but also we stepped back. That is just part of the game. A guy came free and got a sack on us, but we just have to move on to the next play. That is one thing we talk about is just move on to the next play. That is what we do. We moved on, got the first down. We had two positive plays after that.”

On the touchdown pass to Antwaan Randle El:
“Randle El ran a good route, but it was opened up by Santana (Moss) by him running a great post route and being in position. The offensive line did a great job of protection. I just had to step up into the pocket and give him an accurate throw.”

Redskins Wide Receiver Antwaan Randle El
On the touchdown play:
“It was a wonderful play. What I did was, I lined up with a tight split, got off the ball clean, got up the field about 12 yards, struck a move, got 22 yards deep and Jason hit me in the end zone. Great job by Santana taking the corner and safety out, great blocking up front and Jason threw a dart. It feels great just to be out here playing, preseason, getting everything kicked off. Here we are. We are enjoying it.”

Player Quotes - Sunday Morning

Clinton Portis

On Coach Zorn’s new offense:
“It’s an open offense that’s going to give a lot of people opportunities to make plays.  And that’s what you ask for, when you’ve got as much talent as we’ve got on the team.  You look for everyone to be a contributor, and I think this offense is going to open it up for a lot of people to come in and contribute something.”

On new offensive coordinator Sherman Smith:
“He’s a guy who wants to pound the ball.  From his success in Tennessee, you know he can run the ball, and that’s exciting.”

On the addition of Jason Taylor:
“I think he’ll bring a lot to this team in terms of the rushing we’ve been missing. People look at it as, now we can get sacks, but the best thing is now we’ve got an opportunity to get more turnovers.  With pressure coming off the ends – you’ve got Andre Carter and Jason Taylor – quarterbacks will have to get the ball out of their hands quicker, and our cornerbacks won’t have to cover as long and can hopefully get some more interceptions.”

On the idea that it takes two seasons to learn this offense:
“I think for us to be completely fluent and everybody breaking free and knowing what’s going on … yeah, maybe it’ll take a couple of seasons for that.  But to catch on to this offense, to make this offense work?  I don’t think that’ll take a couple seasons.  We haven’t had the same offense for two straight years since I’ve been here, so it’s learning on the go.  Right now, we’ve got an opportunity to catch on.  It’s not rocket science, and I think a lot of the guys are smart enough to catch on to it.  Will there be mistakes?  I’m sure there will, but we’ve got to cut down on our mistakes, and even if we make them, we’ve got a defense sitting across from us that we feel good about.  And if we can keep them off the field, I think we’ll put up a lot of points.”

On watching the Hall of Fame inductions:
“It looked like it was great.  I saw the standing ovation that Art Monk got, and it was awesome.  For a guy that carried himself that way for that amount of time, and you never heard him complain about the HOF induction … to finally get it is a wonderful thing.”

Chris Cooley

On what to expect from the first team offense in the first preseason game:
“I think we want nothing less than to take the ball down the field and score.  I think we’re good enough to do that.  I would assume we’ll take one or two shots down the field and then go to six, seven, eight yard passes and try to take chunks.  Obviously, it could be three and out.

“I’ve been impressed by the way we’ve moved the ball in practice.  We’ve taken situations against our first team defense and we’ve been able to move the ball and do a good job.  So I think most of the guys feel like if we move the ball and score, we can take the helmets off and drink Gatorade on the benches.”

On how his role has changed:
“The first nice thing for me is that we don’t shift in motion every play.  I felt like last year, I was running a play before every play.  With all the shifts and motions, I was really tired.  So that’s nice – we go up to the line and snap the ball.

“In the passing game, I think I’ll catch a lot more passes from 4 to 8 yards and then it’ll be what I can do with the ball after that.  Last year, I think there was a major goal to get the ball downfield.”

Chris Samuels

On his recovery:
“I’m feeling great, actually.  I had the elbow surgery a little over a month ago.  Now I think I’m to the point where I’ve been practicing since last Tuesday, and everything’s going well.  Right on course, feeling good.”

On the first drive in tonight’s preseason game:
“We want to score.  We want to go out there, not have any penalties, not have any mistakes, and we’ll be happy with that.”

On early impressions of Coach Zorn:
“I really like him.  Number one thing for me is that he’s a good Christian guy, and I think he’ll treat us fairly because he’s pretty much a god-fearing man.  As far as coaching, he’s pretty laid back, but he will scream and yell and get us fired up when we’re out there making silly mistakes.”

On following personnel changes in the NFC East:
“I don’t really pay much attention to the other teams.  I just concentrate on what I’m doing and doing it to the best of my ability, and hopefully that’s good enough when the season starts.  Any time you get wrapped in all the other teams, it can tend to be a distraction, in my opinion.  I really don’t watch much of the TV or read much stuff on other teams at all.”

On watching the Hall of Fame enshrinement:
“I played with Darrell for three years, and I know his son, who did an awesome job with the speech.  It was good just to watch Darrell Green up there.   I was so happy for his family.  Darrell’s been a great guy since day one, on and off the field, a leader, and I was just so happy for him.” 

On the number of Redskins fans at the enshrinement:
“Once the camera showed the crowd and it was totally Redskins there … that was good to see.  We’ve got the greatest fans in the NFL, in my opinion.”