Q: Can you talk about Jermaine Cunningham and how you are moving him around?
A: Jermaine has worked really hard through the offseason and in training camp and hopefully will continue to work hard here to be a player for us on defense. Like most of our players, [he] can have multiple roles and be able to be put in different positions based on whatever we can see fit for that week. The big focus for Jermaine is just to work hard, continue to grow as a player, keep learning and really focus on his day-to-day improvement.
Q: What signs did you see in the preseason, training camp and the first game that would lead you to believe that the defense will be improved this year?
A: The biggest thing for us this year on defense in general is just to try to have as much continuity as possible out on the field and to be able to keep our players out there as much as possible working together; to improve every day, from a standpoint of understanding the defense, communication and to just understand the intricacies of what we try to do. Hopefully we've got to try to work on that every day and every week to try to get as good as possible and make it better every day.
Q: There were a couple instances on Sunday when defensive backs in the end zone turned their backs to the quarterback. Although it's tough to tell on television, they didn't appear to know where the ball was. Did that become a teaching point in the classroom on Monday?
A: There are definitely a lot of good things from this game that we can certainly learn from and improve. You're trying to make yourself better on every play. There are a lot of moving parts on each particular play. Obviously when you have that many people on the field at one time there are going to be coaching points that come off of each individual play. I think we try to highlight those the best we can and coach off of them and try to learn from them and make sure that we improve them every week.
Q: Would it be unfair to single out Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung as two of the players that did turn their backs in the end zone?
A: I think through the course of the game every single player is going to have a play that he needs to learn from and to get better on. That's what we're trying to do when we go through the film: allow everyone to grow and learn as a player and improve.
Q: What is the difficulty of having to prepare for two quarterbacks this week?
A: I think in general just trying to prepare for Arizona as a whole, with as many skill players and the quality offensive scheme that they have as far as the blocking and the run game. Obviously Larry Fitzgerald is a fantastic player for them who does numerous things [in] multiple roles and is a real significant player in their offense. Early Doucet and [Andre] Roberts, all of those guys including the running backs and the quarterbacks, do a great job with the system that's in place, so I think really they'll just be able to keep moving no matter what the situation may be out there and be able to run their offense the way they want to run it. We definitely have our work cut out for us here.
Q: Is there much of a difference between the two quarterbacks?
A: I think both of them are obviously both very talented players and have done a lot for them out there through the preseason. They fit well into what they're trying to do from a system standpoint. We'll certainly have to be prepared and have our work cut out for both.
Q: When you move Jermaine Cunningham to the interior rush position, what are some of his strengths that make him an effective option in that role?
A: With Jermaine, again like with all of our players, we're just trying to do the best job we can to keep everybody on the field playing hard, being aggressive and trying to execute the defense as we're asking them to do. Our defense has done a real good job so far of trying to work hard to prepare themselves every week and I think Jermaine falls in that category of a guy who is really trying to improve himself, but certainly has a long way to go as far as getting better every day.
Q: Outside of working hard and his work ethic, what does Jermaine do well as a player?
A: I think Jermaine has some good quality strengths that give us different options when he's out on the field, just like all of our players do. Specifically all of our guys have certain skill sets that may be better presented each week. Like I said, Jermaine is a guy who goes out and works hard and tries to improve and really gives great effort. That's what we're really trying to get out of him on every play.
