It's football. It's kind of the nature of the game, the nature of the beast, and we'll find out. |
It's going to be a process with him because of his inexperience. But what we really like about him is he's an explosive guy. |
It's kind of come full circle. It's a confidence that someone is going to get there and hit the quarterback, and it's a confidence that someone is going to cover and the quarterback is going to be forced to hold the ball. It's all working together, and it's reflected now in how we call the game. |
It's like they say, you want to be an eight-man front when they run and a seven-man front when they throw. |
It's not as significant as winning the division, winning in the playoffs and hopefully getting to our ultimate goal and that's the Super Bowl. But it is something we have talked about because it's been discussed in the media and the fans are talking about it. It would be neat. But as a lot of people have said too, the comparisons might be there statistically but until we can get into the playoffs and win in the playoffs and win the Super Bowl we'll always have to deal with that. |
It's not just the impact he has statistically. People talk about how they game-plan, how they attack, and you hear them talk about how Tommie was a devil to block. |
More than anything, you've got to accomplish something before you can be compared to someone else and we hadn't accomplished anything. It was flattering, but we really weren't where we needed to be yet. |
One of the things we talked about was not giving the guy (Smith) a chance to make big plays, and he did that. You see why he's a Pro Bowler, an All-Pro. |
Some of the guys we counted on stepping up or needing to step up really didn't show up, and that was disappointing. We can't have that kind of drop-off between the first group and second group. |
That was a tough thing, too. They went after the young guy. It was a tough play and he failed as well. |
That was the thing that was most disappointing. You're going to have a couple in each game where it's, 'OK. We just go to the next play and line up and play.' But when you get to critical situations where you can take the momentum and keep it, you have to make those plays and we didn't. |
That's not a particular problem because in our defense a lot of the linebackers are interchangeable. The outside guys can play either spot. |
Their passion, their passion for perfection. I don't think Brian gets enough credit for his work ethic. Here's a young man, when he watches film, he studies the film. He reminds me an awful lot of Mike in that respect, because Mike really was a great student of the game. |
These guys feel the same type of fervor. They can't wait until we get started for next season. ... I think there are a lot of pluses we can take from this. I believe that guys do have a defiant attitude because of what happened, and we'll be better for it. |
These guys feel the same type of fervor. They can't wait until we get started for next season. ... I think there are a lot of plusses we can take from this. I believe that guys do have a defiant attitude because of what happened, and we'll be better for it. |