The first quarter of the season is over with and we are 3-1. It's a good situation to be in. One thing is for sure, our opponents won't get any easier. Hopefully we can continue the momentum that we started the season out with and not take any steps backwards.
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We want to continue to move forward and press on and just establish our identity across the league as a team that is up and coming.
We have a tough opponent this weekend in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A lot has been made about their running back situation with some of their key players out due to injury, but I'll say this: every NFL player is in this league for a reason. Regardless of who they have back there, we really have to prepare to stop the run because the Buccaneers really do a good job of pounding the football.
With Cadillac Williams and Michael Pittman out, Earnest Graham will be motivated and is going to want to come out and make a name for himself against a pretty good run-defensive team. We have to prepare the same way each week — for a tough battle.
After we evaluated the film from last week's victory against Atlanta, our hustle and effort really made up for a lot of mistakes that we made. Although the defense had a good day overall, we didn't play as solid as we wanted to as a defensive unit. There's always room for improvement and we want to take the next step as a defense against the Bucs.
Overall, we really like being 3-1 with our only loss this season coming against the defending Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts — and we played them well. We only listen to one voice and that's Coach Fisher. He is keeping us humble and focused on the things we have to do each and every day at practice, while focusing on the upcoming opponent each and every week.
We're taking it one opponent at a time to ultimately get to where we want to be.
