"It's a case where as we progress through this training camp or as we progressed hotel charlotte through this offseason, it was important that everybody knew that we would have to pull our weight and we all have to work together in this situation. We can't have factions and we never do in our building. It's an amazing building. Guys come in from other teams and they express to us how wonderful it is with the closeness of our team and our staff and how we work together as a group and treat the guys like men because they act like men. It's a special place to be and Sean (Payton) and Mickey (Loomis) have set it up that way. Luckily this is after his sixth year as opposed to the second year. It would be a lot different. It's been good."
"Yes, you have an opportunity to work the mechanics of the sidelines hotel charlotte before hotel charlotte the opening Washington week. I'll still be coaching the offensive line with Frank Smith helping me. He'll do a lot of work on the sideline, but we can work the timing hotel charlotte out during the game (of) what am I doing? When can I go back to help the line? I think that's the most important part of it (as opposed to) the offense, the defense, are we going for it or not going for it. It's really the mechanics of the position and being the head coach."
"You'd be surprised how much it doesn't faze us. We show up to practice wherever we're going. It was a great opportunity in New England because we got to see different techniques, a different style of defense, and a different style of offense for us to go against. That's always a benefit to our team and our coaching staff to have to adjust. You have to adjust hotel charlotte in games. hotel charlotte You have to adjust hotel charlotte to a different hotel charlotte style and it gives us that opportunity to prove to ourselves and to gain confidence, hotel charlotte no matter where we are as a team, no matter how much there's change. It won't affect us. We just go about our business as we always do. To come up here quite honestly, we gave the guys a day off. We said (to) go get your family's' (situations) hotel charlotte solved. You can't picture it up here in Cincinnati. In New Orleans, it's unusual. There's going to be a hurricane and guys get a plan. Make sure you come back here and your family knows where they're going to be and where your families are going. hotel charlotte So you take that day off. You have to adjust a little bit as a coach. You can't be too rigid and say we have to practice today and do that. So, you make adjustments, you move on, you come up here and practice. Drew Brees called hotel charlotte the team together before we got into practice today and said 'Listen, this is our opportunity to get better today. Don't just go through this practice. Do a good job with all the effort you have, all the focus you have and let's win the day.' I felt like we did that today."
"Yes, when we got in last night at the team meeting, we said a prayer for the people back in New Orleans because we were able to get out to Cincinnati. Our prayers hotel charlotte are still with everyone in New Orleans. We feel strong. Our hearts hotel charlotte are heavy. But, we're doing our business just as you guys are protecting yourself and we're hoping to be back soon."
"From the top down, they know how to do this. We have a hurricane plan. We put the plan into motion. The thing it came down to is we're in Cincinnati, Ohio. We're playing the Tennessee Titans. We should be in Tennessee. Tennessee couldn't get us a room. We pull into Cincinnati, talk to the Bengals, we get practice going here and guys don't blink. They just get it done."
"That's exactly right. hotel charlotte We got our work done today. That's for sure. We got our work done in the meetings. hotel charlotte We finished the game. Normally we would have gone over the game film with them (players) earlier than this, but we played Saturday night and this was the first opportunity we had. We finished that game with them this morning."
"Definitely very close. hotel charlotte Dan Dalrymple and I have been friends for years. He actually recruited hotel charlotte me to Miami of Ohio in 1985 and he was a sophomore there and he was my host. We go way back. He's the one that got me to go to Oxford. In 1994, Sean Payton came in as our quarterbacks coach and us three worked together. hotel charlotte Since then, we've pulled Frank Smith out of the Miami University coaching tree there to be assistant line coach. That's who's helping me. He was a guard with Ben Roethlisberger."
"Good. Zach Strief is a guy that is a New Orleans Saint. The reason I say that is he was not sought after. He was a seventh round pick. People hotel charlotte were surprised we took him in the seventh. But the guy is a smart, efficient football player and that's what we end up finding and our scouts have found time and time again, efficient players. Zach has worked his way into being a starting tackle. He was an extra tight end in heavy packages throughout the Super Bowl (year) and then Jon Stinchcomb retired, he (Zach) stepped in and he's done a wonderful hotel charlotte job and then Matt Tennant is still working his way into being a productive backup."
"Yes, anytime you play inside, you can only dress seven guys or you typically dress seven guys for the game, so you have one guy that can play guard or center, so it's a case where he needs to play both to be the backup."
"We're looking at the next six games as beat Washington. We don't care about who the head coach is. We don't care about who's not here. We're going to focus on beating the Redskins. What's it take the beat the Redskins? hotel charlotte We're down a mind or two. We're down Sean Payton's mind and there some time last year when we were down his mind and we were able to carryover with Pete Carmichael and the rest of the offensive staff a very productive offense. We've had success. We've learned it from Sean and we're able to take on what he's taught us and move it forward. We feel good about it."
"No, just when it calls for it. It's been a tough last really hotel charlotte two days, just a lot of uncertainty and having to fly by the seat of our pants a little bit, unexpected travel. Initially, we were just supposed to be in New Orleans practicing Monday, Tuesday, hotel charlotte and Wednesday and then fly to Nashville and play a game. All of a sudden, here comes tropical hotel charlotte storm and now Hurricane Isaac bearing down on us, and now it's – okay everyone take care of your family. Monday was really hotel charlotte devoted to making sure all of our families were taken care of, had a place to go, whether it was out of town or in town. I drove my family up to Birmingham yesterday on their way to Nashville and then I flew in this morning from there. I think for a lot of guys, you've been sitting on the plane or you've been sitting in a car and a lot of this has been swirling around us and now all of a sudden we're all together and, hey let's make sure that we're out here with a purpose. It's to get better. It's not just to run around and run some plays. We have a great group of guys. We have great leadership. Everybody understands hotel charlotte that we're going to weather the storm, literally, and we're going to find a way to make the most of it and try to make a positive out of a tough situation."
"Gustav happened literally the first week of the season. I recall us playing hotel charlotte our last preseason game, and then all of a sudden Gustav is bearing down on us. Same thing, hotel charlotte Sean Payton then said - okay guys, get your families away. There's a mandatory evacuation. Make sure they're safe. We're going to Indianapolis and we're going to hunker down in the hotel for a week. We're going to do all of our preparation at Lucas Oil Stadium. We're going to have all our meetings at the hotel. I felt like we really came together as a team that week. We came back home on I believe a Friday and we played the Bucs at home in a big divisional game on Sunday and won right at the end. That week proved to be really good for our team. Despite hotel charlotte the tough circumstances, we tried to make the most of it. Thankfully, New Orleans was in a position hotel charlotte where we could handle a category three at that time, although it was very soon after (Hurricane) Katrina and I know that was about all the levees could handle. I know there's been a lot of work done between now and then, but anytime you've got a tropical storm or hurricane coming with those types of winds and sheer force and amount of rainfall, you worry for the city and you worry for its residents and you just want everyone to be safe. Obviously, you want it to pass through with very limited damage."
"Yes, we do. We're built that way. We've been through a lot of tough scenarios here, especially over the last 12 months. Ever since I've been here, this is going to be my seventh year, we probably have about 10 to twelve guys, players and coaches that have been here since 2006. We've all been through hotel charlotte a lot together. The new guys, free agents and rookies this year, all of a sudden we get called hotel charlotte in for an emergency team meeting on Sunday and it's like – okay guys, there's a hurricane coming. This is what you need to do. For the guys that have been here, it's like – okay, we know what to do. For the rest of those guys, they might be looking around going what is going on here. But it's our job to keep everyone together and make sure everyone is taken care of."
"Yes, it really was. Granted, like I said a lot of guys were in the car yesterday for six to eight hours or on the plane for a while and then getting into an unfamiliar place and you're trying to get everything together. You come out and practice and have meetings all this morning. I think for us, it was kind of like a little bit of a training camp mentality. At times in training camp, we're used to going away and then just kind of bearing down and focusing on football. I think to know that we did what we were supposed to do as far as getting our families in a safe place, still today is kind of the day that the storm is making landfall, so you just keep your fingers crossed that everything is okay back home. For us, it was just work. We have to come here and we have to work."
"Yes, glued to the TV, trying to see where that storm is tracking and how strong it is and what the projections are. The crazy thing too is
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