Q&A with Cardinals coach Dennis Green

Q: Can you talk about Emmitt (Smith) and what he has done for you guys this year? A: He is a great winner. I had no idea if Emmitt wanted to play one more year. He signed a two-year contract and had a year left and he said he wanted to play that year.

He had a very good off-season, he was in the 7 o’clock workout group. It is a very demanding weight and conditioning program. He was into it and did everything everyone else did and so I got the impression that he would have an excellent year. He runs the ball well. He’s one of the best cutback runners in the game. He can find the end zone and the first downs. He has very good balance and I think what he does is he is a good example to our players that if you’re a good solid pro and you take care of yourself, you can stay healthy and have a long career.

Q: When you went up against Strahan in the past how much time did that occupy with preparation for the Giants?

A: A lot. You have to get help, you can’t go out there and expect any tackle to…I don’t know if there is a tackle in the league that can block Michael Strahan by himself. You have to make sure you understand who is helping. It could be by a lineman, it could be a tight end who stays in, it could be a tight end who hits him on the outside before he goes out, it could be a back that helps hit him, what they call a chip-in, before he goes out, it could be a slide protection that way, which means that you have a tackle and guard blocking him a certain percentage of the time unless the outside linebacker blitzes. Any time you say, how are we going to handle Strahan…and sometimes you say that won’t work, because you don’t have a way to help. If you can’t help, you probably don’t have a good play.

Q: So at the very least, not having him there gives you more time to devote to other parts of what you want to do?

A: Yes, in theory, that is the case. But in the same sense, I look at number 72 and he looks pretty fired up to me, and Norman Hand looks pretty fired up to me. He has always been a pretty rugged player, too, so I think you go in with the idea that obviously one of the best players and one of the all-time sack leaders is not playing, but you know that his substitutes are going to play very well also.

Q: When you look at what the Giants went through injury wise this week; do you feel fortunate that you guys are healthy right now?

A: Yes, we do. We had a lot of injuries early in the training camp. We lost Anquan Boldin and Marcel Shipp in two consecutive days. Anquan is a Pro-Bowl player. Right now we’re relatively healthy. Josh Scobey should be back in a week or two, either this week, maybe next week. So we feel great and we know injuries are part of the game and most often the things….you see the tackles that Michael made, he’s made that kind of tackle, his arm was out there and the guy ran through it and somehow boom, so there are a lot of things that you just can’t predict.

Q: How relieved are you that Strahan is out?

A: We don’t think of it that way. We just know that we’re playing against a New York Giants defense that is very good. They have outstanding corners, so the can play man-coverage. They have good linebackers that can run to the ball and that’s just one phase of the game. There’s a reason why they’re 5-3 and there is a reason why we’re 3-5.