September 24, 2009

A lot of people are saying Tampa Bay won’t be tough because they’re 0-2. But in 2007 when we won the Super Bowl we had that same experience. We started 0-2 and people were counting us out from the get-go.

When a team is down, it will fight, scratch and claw to dig out of that hole and get their season going in the right direction. So we’re looking forward to a 60-minute fight. The Bucs are going to come out swinging, with energy, especially playing at home. We’re preparing for a fistfight, because that’s what it’s going to be Sunday at 1 p.m. in Tampa.

The regular season is 16 1-game seasons, you can’t look past anybody. I hate to use a cliché, but on any given Sunday, if a team comes out and plays hard and focused and mistake-free football, they can win. That’s the parity of the NFL and why you can never look past anybody ever.

You have to do what it takes to improve every week, so week in and week out you become a stronger football team. You make your weaknesses your strengths and make your strengths even stronger. Our team has great character and our coaches do a great job of telling us what we do well and what we need to improve.

After our win last week I can see two things we need to improve on as an offensive line and as an offense. We need to strengthen the running game. Sometimes you get in a situation where you need to throw the ball, like against Dallas. It’s a challenge to run the ball when they’re loading up the box, but regardless of the situation you have to be able to run the ball. It’s a challenge for us but we look forward to it and we wouldn’t want it any other way. We’re going to work hard to make sure we get Brandon and Ahmad more involved, and we’ll scratch and claw and do whatever it is we need to do that.

The other thing we need to improve is our offense in the green area. Getting a field goal is always great, but putting those six points on the board instead of three, down the stretch that’s going to make all the difference. We don’t want to keep settling for field goals.

Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/davediehl66.