David Diehl, 08.06.09

Q. It looked like the defense got the better of you guys on offense today. Is this something you pay attention to?

A. Each practice can go either way. One group is going to have a better practice than the other, or vice versa, that’s just the way it is. But the best thing about two-a-days is that we’ll have another opportunity at them. We’re going to take a little break now, watch some film, and see what we need to do better. Hopefully we’ll be able to learn from our mistakes and redeem ourselves in the second practice. That’s what training camp is all about, battling, competing, and when things don’t go your way, you don’t sulk, you go back out there and get them the next time out.

Q. Is the offensive line’s approach any different this year than it has been in years past?

A. As a group, we’re not just satisfied by where we’re at just because we’ve been together. That’s probably the biggest strength of our group, we’ve been together for three years now, but we continue to push each other to get better. I think that’s the one thing that you must do as an athlete, and as a competitor. Once you start getting satisfied, you’ll never get any better…you’ll kind of just sit on the fence. Even though we’ve played together for three years, none of us have come in here and relaxed, we’re all still pushing each other.

Q. Did the way last year end give you extra motivation for this year?

A. Without a doubt. You’re only as good as your last game, and we weren’t that good in our last game. We had an opportunity to make another run at it, but we came up short. I think it has pushed us this entire off-season leading up to training camp. Once you experience that feeling of being a champion, and holding up that trophy, you’re always going to be hungry to get back there and want to do whatever it takes to get back there. I think everybody has that in the back of their minds heading into training camp.