We're beginning to see the change. I'm excited to see it on Sunday, for it to be our home field advantage and to be back the way it ought to be when we play at Paul Brown Stadium, no matter who we play. ... It's an exciting week for the city. |
We're excited the schedule is out; it helps keep you energized. It's a challenge, but you don't win anything without facing a challenge. We welcome the opportunity to earn our way back into the playoffs. |
We're excited to have this deal concluded. We're excited to get started with David, for his and our future. |
We're going to learn from the whole getting there (to the playoffs), and then what happened. It was inevitable. And we didn't deal with (the attention) as well as I thought we would. It just shows our lack of maturity and experience. We made the playoffs. Now we have to win a playoff game. |
We're going to use this, ... It's a lesson learned. It's on tape. It doesn't count for anything, but it's there. We didn't play well enough anywhere. I'm not discouraged. |
We're in a situation on our football team where no matter what position the guy plays, he doesn't necessarily have to come in right now and be the bell cow. We don't have to put the pressure on that guy to do that, right or wrong. But when we pick that first pick, we want a guy that we feel can be a fine pro for a long time. |
We're making plays, ... but we have to protect the football. |
We're not here to be average. We weren't consistent. What you did in 2003 and 2004 really doesn't matter. It's 2005. The bar has been raised. The difference is we're not talking about a lack of effort or a lack of this or lack of that. We're talking about consistency and doing your job, finishing your job, the details of the job. |
We're obviously doing without some of our leaders. |
We're on the middle line. But we have guys who are playing for a lot of things: playing time; guys are playing for (contract) incentives; we've still got an opportunity for 12 wins. |
We're still writing the script, ... We had a good September, I'll say that. Now we're in October. Let's have a better October. |
We're telling them, 'We're here for you,' ... The problem is when they get a call here, a lot of our guys have their cell phone numbers from down there, so that causes an issue because they can't sometimes receive calls. So it's been that lack of communication back and forth. We just want to provide the support that we can. |
We've focused on how we do things, |
We've got to be fair to everyone else. We got to be fair to Willie [Anderson], to Rudi [Johnson], to Chad [Johnson] and to the defensive players. Let's make sure everybody's upholding their end of the bargain. |
We've got to go out and make first downs and get the field position turned around. |