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John Fox, as he challenged Brad Hoover's goal-line fumble in the second quarter Sunday. (PHOTO: MATTHEW BRINKLEY / PANTHERS.COM)

Comments from head coach John Fox's day-after-game press conference at Bank of America Stadium.

ON WAKING UP AFTER A WIN: The sky's bluer, even if it's not real blue. It's just better.

ON INJURIES: No new updates. I might have mentioned Captain Munnerlyn (Sunday); he came out briefly with a shoulder (injury), but that was our only injury from the game. I don't know the extent of that yet. We'll update you guys Wednesday.

ON HOLLIS THOMAS: He's a big body. Every once in a while, you get double-teamed in there and I think that size is a real advantage. We call it the "600-pound block," and that's what you're getting -- two 300-pound (offensive) linemen coming off on you. He's got the experience, technique and size to do it. It helped quite a bit.

ON THOMAS' JOB BEING TO OCCUPY MULTIPLE BLOCKERS: That's part of it. There's a lot to the job description. They also run zone blocking, where you've got to get down the line of scrimmage, stay in your gap and not get displaced in your gap. It's more than just that. There's a lot to it, and I thought for a guy who played his first game as a Panther, it was pretty good.

ON NICK HAYDEN TRYING TO HANDLE THAT WORK EARLIER AFTER LOSING WEIGHT IN OFFSEASON: Well, Nick's done a good job. Unfortunately for Nick, he's been injured. He had a toe injury, and that can weigh heavily on how you push off, how quick you are, how powerful you are. He played in the game and played well. It wasn't just one guy; it's a team game. We just executed better on defense. If there's been any setbacks for Nick, it wasn't so much the weight; it's just been that he's playing with a little nick as far as his toe.

ON KEEPING THE SIDELINE MOOD UPBEAT AFTER DEANGELO HALL'S THIRD-QUARTER INTERCEPTION: Well, if I had to answer to that, I probably wouldn't be 1-3. It's human nature. When bad stuff happens, sometimes people panic; sometimes people go in the tank. When you're a real competitor, you don't do that. It's something you fight. You fight it in any sport. There's people in life who don't do so well with adversity. Yesterday I sensed that guys weren't happy about it; you're not going to see guys jumping up and down with excitement. But you've just got to rally and get back to it. I thought Jake (Delhomme) and Moose (Muhsin Muhammad) went on to make some key plays after that. That's why I talked yesterday about (the game being) a character win, because when things are going that poorly, you've got to be able to change the ebb, and I thought we did.

ON THOMAS DAVIS' PERFORMANCE SUNDAY: Thomas has had an excellent season so far. Unfortunately, the Panthers haven't. But it hasn't been his fault. He's played well. He's been very productive. He's had a great attitude as far as preparation. He's a talented guy that is getting more accustomed to his position. He's gaining more experience and confidence. I think he's played very well up to this point.

ON WHETHER HOLLIS THOMAS HELPED JON BEASON PLAY BETTER: I think the thing that had more to do with it than anything is that they missed a lot of time in training camp -- both Davis, Beason, and then Chris Harris hadn't played all season; yesterday was his firs game. Don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to downplay Hollis' effectiveness; I think he did a good job. But so did a lot of other people (including) Julius Peppers, who'd been under the microscope a little bit, so to speak, I thought was much better. We were 0-3. We had to coach better. We had to play better. I thought our guys responded, especially after getting off to a pretty shaky start.

ON HAVING BEASON CLOSE TO 100 PERCENT HEALTH AFTER HIS KNEE INJURY: Again, these guys stay in pretty good shape; they're in good health. But they're playing football. You've got to practice football to play it well, and when you miss time, that makes it harder. There's a lot of communication that goes on between guys. A lot of fans and you guys don't get a chance to see it, but it takes a little time to get used to playing next to somebody, and there's a comfort level; I don't care what side of the ball and phase of the game.

ON WHETHER CAROLINA'S RUN GAME WORE DOWN THE REDSKINS LATE: Our game plans have been pretty similar in all four games. There were times yesterday where the execution didn't look so good, whether it was the run or pass game. I think the mindset is we want to run the ball. Fortunately, the game was in the grasp, so we were able to run it more. We didn't have to get in a lot of two-minute situations. I think it was more the way we are built to play, and, luckily it worked out.

ON OPTING TO RUN UP THE MIDDLE FOUR CONSECUTIVE TIMES INSIDE THE TWO-YARD LINE IN THE SECOND QUARTER: You don't want to run sideways runs; you're trying to get it across the goal line. I don't think that's abnormal. They got down there (and) they ran two straight-ahead runs. They just made it. I wished we ran one or two straight-ahead runs, too. The difference is we were trying to score and we didn't. Good teams run and are successful on the ground. We expected to get it. Four shots at it, I think the expectation was that we would score a touchdown.

ON WHETHER BRAD HOOVER CROSSED THE GOAL LINE BEFORE FUMBLING: We might have the worst seat in the house from where we watch the game (sideline). It was a wad of bodies and it's hard to say. The ruling, initially, was that it was a touchdown. The sideline copy (of the play) is way upstairs and from the 50(-yard line) toward the goal line, so there is not much of a view there. Then from the end-zone copy it's just a wad of bodies, so you don't see. It's hard to visualize depth-wise whether Hoov crossed the plane, where the ball was, all that fun stuff. But at the end of the play the ball game out, and Jeff King had it across the goal line. Well on fourth down you can't fumble forward. Whether he had broken the plane or not, who knows? You can't tell on our copy and if we send it to them, they won't be able to tell any more than we can tell, so it was unfortunate.

ON WHETHER HE CAN PINPOINT ANY REASON FOR THE RUN GAME NOT MATCHING ITS 2008 PRODUCTION: No. Statistics can build up any way you want them to build. When you're down 31-10 in your opening game, one game can set your statistics all out of whack. You divide it by four and one game your 25 percent difference. It's a 16-game season, and I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know where we're going to end up. But I know what we're building toward and I don't want to try to define us after four games. I think some of the situations have hurt those statistics. We've still got a lot of work to do, no question, but I see progress and we'll keep working for that.

EVALUATING THE OFFENSIVE LINE AFTER FOUR GAMES: One-and-three. Just like I've coached, just like the offense has been, the defense has been, the kicking game has been. Right now we're 1-3. The good news is, hopefully, we've gained some confidence. We won a game. All of these games are hard to win. We don't look at the records like people on the outside. People see somebody with a 5-0 record, and they've got them going to the Super Bowl. It's a little early to be making those (predictions). The key is they've won their games. We look at the tape and we see what guys can do. On any given Sunday in this league, regardless of record, you better come to play. We've done well once and not so well three times.

ON KENNETH MOORE AND WHETHER HE CAN BE THE PRIMARY KICKOFF RETURNER AFTER MIKE GOODSON RETURNS FROM A CONCUSSION: We'll see how Goody is on Wednesday. We'll go through the week's work in practice and see who we think gives us the best chance and we'll go from there.