Bill Cowher Defense Quotations

Casey has been so solid for us. He's kind of the rock in the middle of that defense and he's a guy that uses up two blockers. He's got great balance, he can still go sideline to sideline and has a good feel for the game and understands what teams are doing to him.

We've got to play our A game in all three phases - offense, defense and special teams - or we're not going to win this Super Bowl.

We had another third-and-12 against Baltimore last week, we kind of stayed back in a basic defense and that was a touchdown. This was third-and-12 again and I was not going to do it again, so we came with the blitz and we were fortunate it worked out.

We did a good job today of having our offense break the huddle quickly. And we've had a lot of work against the no-huddle offense. We have hand signals for the defense on the sideline. So those are things that shouldn't come as any surprise to us.

Every defense you have, there is a void in there somewhere. He finds it, ... The thing we've got to do is make the time for him to process all that a little shorter and to try to confuse him a little bit. You're not going to confuse him for a long period of time, but maybe just long enough to disrupt their passing game.

Our defense just, they stepped up when they had to, they really did. I thought the biggest thing was the first half. I don't know if we got a first down until the second quarter because we could not get anything going offensively. So, when we come out of the first half to be up 7-3, that was a good thing.

It's all speed; that's the one thing you see in Willie Parker. Willie made our football team because he flashed and he got a chance to play in Week 16 against Buffalo and showed something. We had rested some linemen and he ran against a defense that that was near the top of the National Football League. He got over 100 yards and broke a run.

Their defense is a lot like ours, from the standpoint of scheme-wise. They have good players down there that run it.

He's very important, not just to our defense but to our football team. He's certainly a very explosive player defensively. He can cover. He can rush. He plays the run. He's a complete outside linebacker. He's been very productive on a consistent basis.

Carson Palmer will be back, I don't think there is any question to that, but there are a lot more pieces to that puzzle and not just Carson. He's an integral part of it, trust me, but they've got a lot of pieces around him and with Marvin overseeing that defense they're going to continue to get better. It's going to a big-time rivalry for years to come.

You watch that game last week, there were a number of third-and-9s, third-and-10s that they converted in the first couple of drives, ... It can get demoralizing for a defense. And you keep giving them snaps with the playmakers they have, and a defense will eventually break down and they will make a big play.