Everybody is eager to play defense this year. Everybody wants to get stops, everybody wants to press, everybody wants to do all that stuff, there's a lot of pride on defense.

It's great for us. We've just got to keep playing defense and play even better if we want to win the whole thing. I think we can do it.

After taking the press off we just want to get in the passing lanes and play good half-court defense. We're trying to pride ourselves on getting big stops in key situations. In practice this week, we worked on the communication side of defense and I thought it showed.

I try to do my part. It's gratifying when you pin them down there and the defense stops and they have to punt from the end zone - it's kind of the hidden stuff.

We're going to be eager all day. I bet most of the guys wish they could get up at 7 p.m. and then just go play. There's going to be a lot of sitting around, and we're going to get anxious.

We're staring to understand how to play defense a little better. We put the press in over Christmas and the more we play the more consistent with it we become.