MATT LIGHT

**Q: At that left tackle position, you have Dwight Freeney coming at you. What kind of a player is he?

ML:** Obviously, the guy knows how to make a lot of big plays. He has had a lot of sacks in a short amount of time. He is the type of guy that can wreck a game for you. He is one of those guys that can ever let up on. He is always going to be giving you 100 percent and it is going to take a lot to block him.

**Q: Being an offensive guy, can you appreciate what the Colts have done these past few weeks putting up the numbers with no punts?

ML:** That is absolutely unbelievable to me. To see a team go a couple games and not punt the ball, in the playoffs, that says a lot about those guys up front, the guys catching the ball, the guy throwing it. They are obviously all doing a great job.

**Q: Talk a little bit about the Light Foundation and what that means to you?

ML:** We started that back in January, finally getting all the paperwork done. We like to benefit a lot of people back in Darke County. I grew up in Ohio, not too far from Indy. There are a lot of people back there that we like to do stuff with. We like to give money to youth groups and a lot of the youth football camps. We have donated some money back to my high school. The Light Foundation was set up for charity. We have a couple of different events back in Ohio. We had an event back here that raised some money and we gave the money to the Children's Hospital of Boston, which was a lot of fun. It is something that I can do outside of football in the offseason that keeps me busy and it is a lot of fun.

**Q: And West Lafayette is involved as well.

ML:** We are going to plan on doing something back there in the future. It is still early in the foundation, but it is a lot of fun for me. My family gets involved a lot. We look forward to putting smiles on those little guys' faces.

**Q: Can you win a shootout against these guys on Sunday?

ML:** I know for one thing, we are going to definitely have to put up points. I know that is what it comes down to. I know that our offense is going to probably play the best game of this season because it is going to be tougher then what it was at their place. I think that they are going to present a lot more challenges defensively and I know that their offense is going to try to switch things up for our defense. It is probably going to be a little bit of a shootout. I think that we are definitely going to have to put up a lot of points.

**Q: They say the best way to defend Peyton Manning is to keep him off the field. That means you guys have to stay on the field.

ML:** I don't think that you ever go out there offensively and just play the situations like that. We are going to go out there and do what we can. Obviously, when Peyton Manning has the ball in his hands, he is a threat in that he can hit you with them in multiple ways. The guy is unbelievable. It doesn't matter what you throw at him. He finds a way to kind of counter those things. I think everybody around him; he has a whole host of guys around him that make him that much better. Offensively, I think our key is just to go down there and play the best game that we can all play collectively and not make big mistakes and definitely score points.

**Q: How much help was Daniel Graham chipping Dwight Freeney in the first game?

ML:** You definitely do that when you are playing a guy that is as dynamic as Freeney and that can make as many plays as he can. You try to gain a little help here and there. I'm sure that we will come at him from many different angles and many different ways and try to slow him down a little bit however we can.

RUSS HOCHSTEIN

**Q: Are there differences in the way that you are preparing for this week's game compared to last week?

RH:** No. Everybody that is on the offensive line, all the guys that are active every week, all sit down and have to prepare and all have to prepare to play no matter what situation you are in. You never know in a game situation what will happen and if some guy goes down. Substitution-wise you have to be ready to play at a drop of a hat. That is how we prepare every game and that is how we are going to do this one.

**Q: Does the fact that the offense had success in the first game give the team more confidence into this game?

RH:** They are very good on offense right now and Kansas City had some success. None of that really matters. All that matters is how we prepare for them and how we play against them. To make any kind of judgments about how they played in the past really doesn't matter. The game we played last doesn't matter. The game against Kansas City doesn't matter. All that matters is how we play this week.

DEDRIC WARD

**Q: Is it important for wide receivers to have a quarterback that they know is a good leader?

DW:** It is important for us to know that we have a quarterback who is calm and who understands the situation, who knows where to go with the ball under certain circumstances. You have to give a lot of credit to his preparation throughout the week, the hours he spends understanding what the defense is going to do to try to stop you and he gets the job done.

**Q: When you enter a game, does part of your confidence come from knowing how well prepared the staff has gotten you and that you have the best game plan possible?

DW:** Yes, the game plan is in place, the coaching staff has confidence in us to do our jobs whether it's one player or 50 players, and I think that's the unselfish nature of this team. I think that's the reason there are a bunch of winners in this locker room, because guys don't get caught up in worrying about 'how many plays am I going to play, am I going to start, am I going to be in at the end of the game,' guys come in when their number is called they step up and make the play and that's the big reason why there are so many winners in this locker room.

**Q: What is the best thing Bill has done this year to motivate you?

DW:** The way he prepares week in and week out for an opponent. Every day we come in to meetings he has game films on things that will cause you to lose and different things throughout the season that have caused teams to win or lose and once you see that you understand it, and I think that preparation carries into the game. Once we get out there we say 'Indianapolis won because of these factors and what are we going to do prevent them from doing that,' and that's how we prepare week in and week out.

**Q: Is there any reason the players work so well together here?

DW:** I don't think there is any particular formula. You just don't have the attitude of people worrying about who's going to start. You don't have the moaning and groaning between the offense, the defense and the special teams. Here it's just 53 guys who understand that it's going to take everybody to win and even if you're on the practice squad, your input and practice preparation is just as important as the guy who starts and takes 50 or 60 snaps in the game. I think that's the reason that we win.