They played with enthusiasm, they played hard and they made big plays when they had to. You could see them flying around the ball and hitting people. Both those characteristics are critical to putting together a strong unit. That gives you a big advantage over the offense. When you re playing on the other side of the ball, you have to go through much more of a thought process to figure out what s going on.
Defense is more reacting to the ball.
Last season s unit knew how to react to the opposition quickly. When it comes to specifics, it s hard for me to draw too many comparisons from the 88 team to last season s group. But it was obvious that guys like Rocky Boiman, Tony Driver and Anthony Denman were major cogs of the team. All three of those guys flew to the ball, and when you have a few guys doing that it ll spread to everyone else rather quickly. That kind of attitude will become contagious and the next thing you know everybody is running all over the place making plays.