Adewale Ogunleye Quotations

On paper, we have the ability to be a top-three defense. That's on paper. Now we have to go out and do it.

I think that's big because we've always since the beginning of camp talked about trying to be the No. 1 defense in the league. So whoever is playing has got to try to live up to that.

I think the way I go, the D-line goes. That is the way I have to think about it. Everybody on the D-line has to think that way. But me, that is how I think. I feel like I have to play well, especially in the playoffs -- in this three-game run. I have to prove my worth. I have to lead out there. It's not just statistics, it's doing the right things.

You just don't want to go into that bye week having to use it to get healthy. You want to use it to get better and mentally prepared.

Winner takes all. This game is more important than that last game for both of us. We know it and they know it and we'll see on Sunday.

We have certain periods where we work on pass-rush drills, one-on-one, speed and stuff like that. Really, everything is geared toward the pass rush. Everybody is trying to get up the field and try to get in the quarterback's face.

You know they had all the hype coming into the (last) game and we felt they didn't deserve it. And I think again, (they have) a lot more hype than they should, and we're going to continue to play as hard as we can. I'm not downplaying the Carolina Panthers, but I'm up-playing us.

You know they had all the hype coming into the game and we felt they didn't deserve it. And I think again, they have a lot more hype than they should, and we're going to continue to play as hard as we can. I'm not downplaying the Carolina Panthers, but I'm up-playing us.

We're not too concerned about them as far as running the ball; we think we can control the run.

We didn't show up today. It's a big disappointment to us that we didn't play well for the city of Chicago. Our offense did a good job. But we didn't play well as a defense, top to bottom.

We didn't show up. The offense played great.

We knew we had nay-sayers, and rightly so. (Carolina) was a team that everybody said was going to the Super Bowl. We looked at their schedule and looked at ours and felt this was really their first test of somebody that came to play.

You have to work on that first step, getting off on the ball. That kind of dictates what's going to happen. And then there's a secondary move. But the biggest thing to rush the passer is that first step.

You have to understand that the '85 Bears run this city. This is their city. They've got commercials, car deals. Whatever they want to do, they can do it -- and they deserve it. To be put in the same sentence is an honor, but I think the '85 Bears were in a league of their own.

Brian is the leader of the No. 1 defense in the league. You can go either way, and I'm sure Brian would say Thomas Jones, but he's right at the top.

Didn't affect us at all. As a defensive end, it has absolutely no bearing on me. It shouldn't affect Sundays. On Sundays, I promise you, everyone forgets about all of that.

Everything is going to come down to what defense plays the best, and which is going to make the least amount of mistakes. It's definitely going to be a defensive struggle.

I've seen teams win Super Bowls like that. Defense wins championships in this league, and I don't see why we should be any different.

It would be tough. You can't you have to guess, you have to double-check everything. You have to game plan for a lot of stuff.

Teams have been able to get after them. We're kind of in the same situation. We're almost mirror images of each other. The offenses haven't probably been doing as well as they want to, and the defenses have been playing solid and they've been winning on defense the games that they've won, same with us. What they're going to give us, we're going to give them. We just can't turn the ball over.

Some people have some personal goals they want to get. By the same token, we've got a chance to sweep the division and send a message for next season, too.

Now, he knows it's a business. He just comes to work every day and tries to work hard.

That's when I was kind of convinced we had something special. The front four were able to get after the quarterback. The defensive backs played well. The linebackers played well. It kind of came together.

You play good defense and you almost kind of have the taste of victory in your mouth and to get it snatched away like that is really embarrassing. That's not the way that I play football. That's not the way the defense plays football, and as a team that's not the way we should be playing football.

A lot of it was (Carson Palmer) just throwing it up. Sometimes you've just got to cover somebody. At the same time, I guess, since it's a team effort, we didn't get enough pressure on the quarterback.

There's a big difference mentally between being 1-1 and 0-2. This, to me, is a game we have to have.

A team like the Colts, they have the lead most of the time, a big one, so they get to pin their ears back and go. We haven't been playing with a lot of big leads.

It says a lot about people who make predictions.

For me it's because this is the team that everybody picked to go to the Super Bowl. And now it's like they are a cat with nine lives. They continue to bounce back, and everybody continues to still give them more credit than they deserve. This is a chance for us to disprove everybody again and get back on the field and show everybody the Bears are for real.

For a while, he was all the offense we had. And he did a good job of keeping us healthy.

Everybody has faith in everybody else that everybody is going to be in their position and be in their gap and make the play. The linebackers expect us to be somewhere, and we expect the linebackers to be somewhere.

It's not an issue. And it won't be. We're all in this together. We, as a defense, know what we have to do. I won't lie to you and say there isn't more pressure on us, because there is. Deservedly so. Our quarterback went down. It's up to us to make sure we get the ball back for the offense and limit the scoring. We'll be OK if we do that.

That is tough. We win as a team, we lose as a team. That counts against the defense, but it's not going to take away from our efforts. It definitely is disappointing because that was a goal we had in the back of our minds.

They did a good job against the Giants. But I think if we can stop the run and make them a one-dimensional team and try to go to Steve Smith, you know that's going to be our game plan.

There've been a lot of broken plays ... and Brian's the guy who's been saving us. He's been running to the ball making tackles. Even though it may have been a 20-yard gain, he keeps it from being a touchdown with his speed.

It's not about spectacular numbers, it's about being steady. Not enough credit goes out to him.

I'm really not sad about it. They've had a good run, and all good things have to come to an end. Hopefully, we can try to put the finishing touches on it Sunday.

In this defense, this scheme, we need the ball to come out fast. I'm good with what happened. I'm getting a lot of calls from friends around the league. It's not going to take away from the year I am having.

In the back of your mind, you're going, 'oh shoot, here we go again,' ... You might want to doubt yourself for a while again. But then you re-group. And think that it's good that it happened early in the season. It gives us a chance to have our identity in place by the time the season starts September 11.

I just hope it doesn't make us lax on defense.

I just don't think they deserve that credit. I think they have to prove it. We proved it over time. We'll have to do it again.

I believe if we bring our 'A' game and they bring theirs, yeah, I think we'll win.

These are guys that are going to be able to go year in and year out for the next couple of years. I'm really excited for them.