Redskins vs Cowboys: Alex Smith/Adrian Peterson Pressers

Alex Smith and Adrian Peterson spoke to the media after last night’s big win over the Cowboys. Several Redskins players also talked to reporters. The Redskins are the only team in the NFC East with a winning record.

Adrian Peterson Presser

How his body feels:

“It feels good. We just got a win so it makes everything feel better. I feel a lot better than I did last week though, I’ll say that.”

Rushing just shy of 100 yards:

“Make some better reads on my end, and fall for positive yards. I’ll just take the six yards away from the 120 I had, and I’ll throw it on the 97 or 99 something like that, it’ll average out.”

Pitching the ball back to Alex Smith on the one-yard line:

“Just trying to make a play. I had to apologize to him because he took some hits he didn’t want, but I just wanted to give him a chance to create something. For me it was a perfect position, I was falling back, guys were below my waist, so I didn’t really put us in an awkward situation of losing the ball. So, I made eye contact with him and pitched him the ball.”

Is he surprised by his success:

“I think everyone else around is surprised; I’m not. I expect greatness from myself. That’s why I put the work in. God has blessed me with a tremendous talent, a lot of people see it, and a lot of people don’t. Just keeping confidence in myself when I’m presented with my opportunity I’m going to take advantage of it every Sunday, or whenever the game is.”

Playing well through injuries:

“I feel like I’m a very important part of this team. Just to show that leadership, that determination, it’s a mindset of mind over matter. My desire to help this team be successful and knowing how critical this run is that we’re on with two division games back to back, I can endure a little pain to help my team be successful. It’s just a mindset that I’ve always approached this game with.”

Alex Smith Presser

Field goal attempt:

“I was going nuts. I wasn’t sure if Jay [Gruden] was going to try to call the timeout or not and try to ice him, play that game. I didn’t know – you’re looking around for any flags and making sure it’s officially official. Then you’re celebrating. It’s a big win, it’s hard, it’s really really hard to win football games in this league, especially against a team like that within the division. It was a hard-fought game, and you don’t always want them to come down to that kind of dramatic finish, but we’ll take it.”

First half play to TE Jeremy Sprinkle:

“Yeah, I mean I think for us offensively, specifically myself –redzone I think obviously jumps out right away post game. If we do a better job in the redzone, then the game could have ended much differently maybe not as dramatic. We could have opened that up a little, situational football we talked about it a lot. We gotta be better at it—I certainly had my shot obviously with Sprink[Jeremy Sprinkle], sailing that ball putting too much air on it but we gotta get better down there we got down there. I feel like we marched it down a few times and to get inside the five inside the ten you know against these hard fought games those are big big plays.”

Wind’s impact on play calling:

“I felt like the only ball that got impacted by wind was the ball to Mike [Floyd] just on the out—it certainly did kind of rise on me. I don’t think it affected the ball to Josh [Doctson] at all, I was trying to rip that ball off the seam and the safety’s coming over the top and those are the things that you miss it by a yard. Certainly, was more of a time issue there at the end when we put up the Hail Mary, we didn’t have enough time to get down in bounds and get to field goal range.”

Run out of bounds at the end of the game:

“Yep, you saw that huh? You know the situation. We’re in four minutes, I know they had one time out left. I didn’t first see myself initially stepping out and having that grasp. For me I knew a first down would end the game and I did have glimpses of myself getting the first down whatever it took. They were kinda on the yard to make. I saw the line and potentially jumping for it, obviously didn’t get to that position. I all of a sudden found myself pretty awkward on the sidelines there and can’t have it—it could have obviously cost us the game in hindsight at that point, I think kinda abandon ship and go down there on the sideline.”

Run versus throwing the ball away:

“It is a fine line. I talk with Jay [Gruden] about it a lot. I mean the biggest thing, most of the time you have to keep your eyes up. A lot of times you turn on film the next day, and some guy is busting open because of the threat to run. And all that stuff is happening fast and you try to make good decisions with the ball in your hand. So I think you try to take them all differently. All those little situations you try to catalog all of them. Even the one at the end of the game. That is a four- minute situation we are trying to stay in bounds. Sometimes there are times when you got to take some risk and maybe throw one up and give your guy a chance.”

Kapri Bibbs:

“I mean I thought guys executing it certainly. [Brandon] Scherff had a great block, kind of on the kick out there with the screen. And then Kapri [Bibbs] doing the rest. The guys down the field though. You don’t get those big kind of plays without guys blocking down field. I thought our guys outside all day long in the run game and in the screen. Allowing our backs to get down field and make some plays.”

Josh Doctson:

“I think a lot with Josh [Doctson]. I mean, he has such good ball skills, such a good hands catcher, you know catch the ball away from his body. I think he is physical. We talked about that all week and I thought he played like that today, really physical. I thought he made some really, really big plays for us on a couple of those. And we needed him.”

Ryan Kerrigan

Strip sack:

“That play got a little chip on the outside so when I’m getting chipped like that by a tight end I’m trying to just play off the defensive tackle and [Daron Payne] did a good getting up field and clearing a lane for me, the DBs did a good job, made him hold on to the ball, came around and whenever we’re trying to tackle a quarterback or any ball carrier, we’re aiming to come around with one arm and try to knock them into the general vicinity where the balls probably going to be in, get that ball out and fortunately that’s what happened and more fortunately [Preston Smith] was there and didn’t have a long jog to touchdown.”

Daron Payne and the defensive line:

“Those guys they’ve been as advertised. You see why Alabama is so good in football every year because you’ve got guys like that on the team and for us to play the run like we did today against a running back that’s really given us a lot of problems over the past couple years, you’ve got to give a lot of credit to those guys you know [Daron] Payne, Jon[athan Allen] and Matt [Ioannidis].”

Stopping Ezekiel Elliott:

“It’s as much of a mindset as anything. We’ve definitely not taken it personally that they’ve had so much success running the ball against us the last couple of years. I mean even when Zeke [Ezekiel Elliott] didn’t play year, Alfred Morris had a lot of yards against us and so we definitely took that personally and we came out with the mind frame that we were going to stop the run we were going to be physical and we knew that the game was going to be won in the trenches and I think that was clear tonight.”

Chest injury:

“I got a chest contusion last week against the Panthers and have gotten treatment on it all week. It was still a little bit of a pain coming into today and [Ezekiel] Elliott came and chipped [me] one time and got me right in the sweet spot of my chest and definitely brought back that pain. It’s something I just got to get treated and work through. I don’t think it will be anything too bad.”

Jonathan Allen

Shutting down RB Ezekiel Elliott:

“Dominating the line of scrimmage and I feel like we went out there and did that today.”

Big win:

“It’s huge. It takes us in the direction we want to go. We want to have success, it’s about the building blocks of having a good season and we just want to jump start that.”

Mason Foster

Fumble recovery for a touchdown:

“It’s big man, those guys have been rushing, they may not get the sacks like we are all used to seeing, but they been wreaking havoc, creating mismatches, doing a bunch of stuff and helping everyone else get free. It was good that they finally got rewarded on a double team play like that to get the sack and the touchdown. It was big for our defense. We all just play as hard as we can, and it showed tonight.”

Defense’s opening statement, led by D.J. Swearinger Sr.:

“We knew it was going to be on us, we talked about it all week. We had to come out and win the game in the trenches, be physical. They’ve got a great running back and we did that. Those guys up front were hunting and we were going to play off them. It’s big for us man, we want to get three a game, change the momentum, get the crowd into it and just play with energy for four quarters. There were mistakes and things that broke down, but you’ve just got to keep playing through the tough times and adversity and things will go your way.”

D.J. Swearinger

Setting the tone early in the game:

“Oh yeah, it was definitely important to get out to a fast start. It’s something coach [Jay Gruden] has been preaching, get out to a fast start. We had a fast start today and we finished man. That’s something that Redskins football has got to continue to do and do on a consistent basis.”

Forced fumble:

“Yeah, it was just a quarterback sneak and I was seeing him and I’m like if he gets through that hole, it’s mine, it’s my ball. Had the ball in the right hand, I tried to at least punch the ball while hitting him or put my shoulder on the ball and it came out, so it was a good play, good play.”

Stopping Ezekiel Elliott:

“It’s nothing different man, we just got the Alabama wall in that inside, we got Zach Brown, we got Mason Foster, we got Preston Smith man. We got 91 [Ryan Kerrigan] and you know who 91 is, I don’t even got to say his name. Those guys up front man, they do their thing so hats off to them.”

Facing Giants RB Saquon Barkley:

“That’s the one we want. We want Saquon. He’s been doing a lot of great stuff man, he’s a generational player. Watching him, a lot of people can’t tackle him on the first try so we need to be the defense to try and do that.”

Missed Cowboy’s field goal:

Preston Smith

First career touchdown:

“It was great feeling to go out there and get that touchdown run after the sack fumble and I just scooped it for an easy score. I was already in the endzone, so I might as well take a step and get it, but it felt great to get my first career touchdown and a win against the Cowboys. We haven’t won one in a couple years. It was a great team victory and I’m just happy I got a chance to get in the endzone for the first time after so many failed attempts.”

Josh Norman

Defensive touchdown:

“That’s what you need. We want that. We look for that and we know that. You look for it and it’s almost like a given. We got to be relentless. We got to make a play and we got to score if need be and today we did that. We held back up there in the secondary and we got a sack, a strip, and a touchdown. That was biggest play of the game. There were a lot of plays that we had out there. We got three and outs and a turnover. From the front to the back, we all played a relentless game. If we can like that, we can keep this thing going and keep pushing forward.”

Stopping the run:

“It was key. They added another dimension. They thought they were going to come in here and run the ball down our throats. They were trying to move guys out of the way and they couldn’t do anything about it. When you see that, you’re like, ‘I’ll sit back here and drink an iced tea.’ These guys up here are going to play hard and it’s a joy to see.”

Greg Stroman’s performance:

“He held up. He came out here and he was sticky. He was phenomenal. He did the things he needed to do. We’re going to coach him up more. Going into this week, we’re going to need him like all of the other guys we’re going to need. It’s that next man up mentality and we have to keep this thing going.”

Waterboy:

Trent Williams

RIP Rich Tandler:

Adrian Peterson: