Written By Stephen Tulloch

December 31, 2008

Tomorrow is my birthday, as well as New Year’s, so it’s usually a good time to look back and see how far I’ve come as a player and how far we’ve come as a team.

This birthday is different.

I won’t be able to look back at how far we’ve come for another few weeks, hopefully. We’re so close to accomplishing our goals. We have to take a one game at a time approach.

So tomorrow I’ll go out to dinner, chill, just relax, but I won’t be doing any looking back just yet.

We had the best record in the NFL during the regular season and now it means nothing at all. Everybody is 0-0, what you did in the regular season means nothing. Everybody is undefeated right now, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us.

The AFC is a strong conference, so it definitely will be a good game. To get to the playoffs at this level, you’ve got to be doing something right, so whoever we play will be a challenge. Having a bye week will help us as far as rest is concerned and getting our bodies back to where they should be. Whoever plays us will have a challenge with us coming off the bye.

Our injured guys are doing well. Haynesworth is doing fine, he’s rehabbing every day, taking care of his body. He knows what’s at stake and is excited about it. Kyle Vanden Bosch is the same way. He’s working hard, he’s always in early and leaves late. Everybody has a sense of urgency right now, everybody knows what’s at stake.

Playoff time is like no other, the crunch time of all crunch times. There’s no tomorrow, so what you do today is it. Any play you take off could cost you that game, so every play is important right now.

We do have a week off, though, so I’m resting up, taking care of my body. That will give us a little jump on whoever we play. We can sit back this week and study different things.

Stephen Tulloch is the starting middle linebacker for the Tennessee Titans. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.tulloch55.com.