Marcus Bell: "Speak on It" Week 4
I want to say thanks to all of the Cardinals fans that were in the stands on Sunday and the ones that were everywhere else rooting us on all across the state. All of that green and cheese in the stands is the kind of stuff that gets me going and apparently it got the whole team going, but I want to say thanks to all the true fans that were there rooting us on throughout the whole game in the heat, and everybody else that was on that Direct TV with the NFL ticket and was truly going for us. I just want to say thanks.
There are a few things I want to speak on today, you know me, I just want to be keeping things real. I want to talk about this win over Green Bay. It was a good win for the team with us being 0-2 on the start, not just because it was Green Bay, but it was the next game in line for the rest of the games of the season. Green Bay is a team that everybody says is one of the leaders in the NFL. To pull the win off because it was the next team and it was Green Bay makes it even better. Everyone on the sidelines and in the stands just felt so good to be a Cardinal. It is just the start. To win two, you gotta win one. We won the first one on Sunday and we just want to try and stay focused and try to come back and play like we played on Sunday when we go to St. Louis on the road. It is another test this week to go on the road and play a team like St. Louis. They have a good team, good special teams, good defense, they do a lot of different things offensively. Even without Faulk, they do a lot of things to mix things up and throw a defense off. We just need to come out and play and not have any mistakes or turnovers, and play like we played on Sunday. I think everyone on Sunday took the negative energy from all those fans wearing green and wanting to shut them up. We just wanted to come up and shut them up and on all aspects, offense, defense, special teams, guys came together and played good.
What makes it even better for me, it was my first game back since getting injured in the preseason. It felt so good to be back out there with my defense like I’ve been talking about since week one on my column. It felt good to have that feeling. Wendell went down early in the game and I got out there and had a chance to play the game a lot. That is what I live for and it felt so good. Coming back was great, everyone welcomed me back from the Head Coach all the way down and I appreciated having an opportunity to be out there.
A lot of people are always asking about what it is like to play for Hall of Famer Joe Greene. Coach Green, a lot of people say he is crazy and at times he may even tell you that, but the bottom line, to be coached by a legend like he is, a guy that played and won Super Bowls and dominated on the kind of defense he played on, you just have to respect. It is kind of like Emmitt coming into this locker room with a majority of young guys. Anything he says, you have to take it and respect it. When you do something good, Joe is going to shoot you straight forward that it was a great job. If you do something bad, he is going to shoot it to you that it isn’t going to get it done, that it is bad, that it is something easy you should get done. The best think I like about him, he is a good person and as a coach, he’s not going to beat around the bush about anything. He’s going to give it you straight forward just as it is and he is going to tell you how he feels about it. That is real. That is what I am talking about, keeping it real.
In our division, Seattle has been doing well and as you all know, we lost to them in week two. The Rams were up in the game early last week, but Seattle made some plays. Their defense has been playing great and made some plays and from there, they came out and won the game. Defense wins games and that is my philosophy. We have to play like that as a defense.
Winning truly changes the atmosphere around here. I spoke on before about coming in Monday after a loss and how it feels bad to watch the film. It is vice versa after a win, but in the same aspect, come Wednesday you have to put it behind you and get ready for a new week. All you have done is set the tone for the next week. You know what you can do and you’ve already set the pedestal up there, so you are really just setting a new challenge for the next week. The challenge coming off a loss is to not feel like you felt that last Sunday. The challenge coming off a win is to feel like you felt like on Sunday, which was a great feeling…to get the win, get the first one of the season, get it against the Packers, it was just a great feeling all the way around.
I think this week’s practice has gone real well. Wednesday was overcast and sort of a muggy day and it went real good. You can be a lot of places and it is a muggy day and that is what kind of practice it turns out to be. But guys came out and worked and made the practice real great. The reason why I said it was great because with the overcast weather, guys have a tendency to relax but guys went about it like they were fighting with that win just like we did last week. Then Thursday, we came out and it was hot and humid and we had the pads on and it was a tough day. Guys stayed focused. Even Coach Mac said at the end he knew it was hot and humid from the rain, but that guys had stayed focused and practiced well. There are always going to be mistakes in practice. There is no perfect practice, but the point is to keep fighting. Every guy on both sides of the ball and even special teams working late at the end of practice, guys were still working to get better and trying to get the technique right. Guys fought against the heat and made things happen and I want to thank everybody for being that type of group and not willing to just get things 60% right. Guys have been trying to get things 100% right out on the field and in practice.
Going back on the road, my first time on the road, I like that. When you are on the road you need to go in there thinking this is my house today. A lot of guys on defense think that way and you just go out and perform. You are still going to have fans there – I’ve got twenty-something people coming to the game and a lot of guys… Wendell Bryant probably has about 30 people coming. Plus everybody back here in the Valley will be watching, so we know that there are people behind us.
I want to thank all the people that have been e-mailing me so I know they will be watching and we do it not just for ourselves but for our fans too. I found out this week alone that we have fans everywhere from all of the e-mails, so being on the road is no different. St. Louis is going to bring the high-powered offense they’ve had the last few years, defensively the coordinator is going to try to blitz and that is what practice and meetings are there for, to prepare us to do our best.
I want to send out a shout out to everyone that e-mailed me. I probably won’t be able to answer all of them, but thank you and I appreciate it. It sounded like the majority of them were just happy to be proud of the win!
Emmitt is down here trying to bug me while I am trying to get my column together. He wants to talk about his 16-month old son being with my 11-month old daughter so I am about to have to cut this thing off.
I want to give a shout out to Dexter for being NFC Defensive Player of the Week. I want to shout out to my boy David Boston because whatever is going on, keep it together. Stay focused. I want to give a shout out to the o-line for grinding out like that against the Pack. Emmitt might get his 100-yard game this week, he’d like to get that I know. A shout out to Anquan for playing real good and I hope he keeps playing like he has been. Too many guys be down here talking in my ear, so I’ll be back with more next week.
Keep it real!
Marcus Bell
You must be registered for see images
I want to say thanks to all of the Cardinals fans that were in the stands on Sunday and the ones that were everywhere else rooting us on all across the state. All of that green and cheese in the stands is the kind of stuff that gets me going and apparently it got the whole team going, but I want to say thanks to all the true fans that were there rooting us on throughout the whole game in the heat, and everybody else that was on that Direct TV with the NFL ticket and was truly going for us. I just want to say thanks.
There are a few things I want to speak on today, you know me, I just want to be keeping things real. I want to talk about this win over Green Bay. It was a good win for the team with us being 0-2 on the start, not just because it was Green Bay, but it was the next game in line for the rest of the games of the season. Green Bay is a team that everybody says is one of the leaders in the NFL. To pull the win off because it was the next team and it was Green Bay makes it even better. Everyone on the sidelines and in the stands just felt so good to be a Cardinal. It is just the start. To win two, you gotta win one. We won the first one on Sunday and we just want to try and stay focused and try to come back and play like we played on Sunday when we go to St. Louis on the road. It is another test this week to go on the road and play a team like St. Louis. They have a good team, good special teams, good defense, they do a lot of different things offensively. Even without Faulk, they do a lot of things to mix things up and throw a defense off. We just need to come out and play and not have any mistakes or turnovers, and play like we played on Sunday. I think everyone on Sunday took the negative energy from all those fans wearing green and wanting to shut them up. We just wanted to come up and shut them up and on all aspects, offense, defense, special teams, guys came together and played good.
What makes it even better for me, it was my first game back since getting injured in the preseason. It felt so good to be back out there with my defense like I’ve been talking about since week one on my column. It felt good to have that feeling. Wendell went down early in the game and I got out there and had a chance to play the game a lot. That is what I live for and it felt so good. Coming back was great, everyone welcomed me back from the Head Coach all the way down and I appreciated having an opportunity to be out there.
A lot of people are always asking about what it is like to play for Hall of Famer Joe Greene. Coach Green, a lot of people say he is crazy and at times he may even tell you that, but the bottom line, to be coached by a legend like he is, a guy that played and won Super Bowls and dominated on the kind of defense he played on, you just have to respect. It is kind of like Emmitt coming into this locker room with a majority of young guys. Anything he says, you have to take it and respect it. When you do something good, Joe is going to shoot you straight forward that it was a great job. If you do something bad, he is going to shoot it to you that it isn’t going to get it done, that it is bad, that it is something easy you should get done. The best think I like about him, he is a good person and as a coach, he’s not going to beat around the bush about anything. He’s going to give it you straight forward just as it is and he is going to tell you how he feels about it. That is real. That is what I am talking about, keeping it real.
In our division, Seattle has been doing well and as you all know, we lost to them in week two. The Rams were up in the game early last week, but Seattle made some plays. Their defense has been playing great and made some plays and from there, they came out and won the game. Defense wins games and that is my philosophy. We have to play like that as a defense.
Winning truly changes the atmosphere around here. I spoke on before about coming in Monday after a loss and how it feels bad to watch the film. It is vice versa after a win, but in the same aspect, come Wednesday you have to put it behind you and get ready for a new week. All you have done is set the tone for the next week. You know what you can do and you’ve already set the pedestal up there, so you are really just setting a new challenge for the next week. The challenge coming off a loss is to not feel like you felt that last Sunday. The challenge coming off a win is to feel like you felt like on Sunday, which was a great feeling…to get the win, get the first one of the season, get it against the Packers, it was just a great feeling all the way around.
I think this week’s practice has gone real well. Wednesday was overcast and sort of a muggy day and it went real good. You can be a lot of places and it is a muggy day and that is what kind of practice it turns out to be. But guys came out and worked and made the practice real great. The reason why I said it was great because with the overcast weather, guys have a tendency to relax but guys went about it like they were fighting with that win just like we did last week. Then Thursday, we came out and it was hot and humid and we had the pads on and it was a tough day. Guys stayed focused. Even Coach Mac said at the end he knew it was hot and humid from the rain, but that guys had stayed focused and practiced well. There are always going to be mistakes in practice. There is no perfect practice, but the point is to keep fighting. Every guy on both sides of the ball and even special teams working late at the end of practice, guys were still working to get better and trying to get the technique right. Guys fought against the heat and made things happen and I want to thank everybody for being that type of group and not willing to just get things 60% right. Guys have been trying to get things 100% right out on the field and in practice.
Going back on the road, my first time on the road, I like that. When you are on the road you need to go in there thinking this is my house today. A lot of guys on defense think that way and you just go out and perform. You are still going to have fans there – I’ve got twenty-something people coming to the game and a lot of guys… Wendell Bryant probably has about 30 people coming. Plus everybody back here in the Valley will be watching, so we know that there are people behind us.
I want to thank all the people that have been e-mailing me so I know they will be watching and we do it not just for ourselves but for our fans too. I found out this week alone that we have fans everywhere from all of the e-mails, so being on the road is no different. St. Louis is going to bring the high-powered offense they’ve had the last few years, defensively the coordinator is going to try to blitz and that is what practice and meetings are there for, to prepare us to do our best.
I want to send out a shout out to everyone that e-mailed me. I probably won’t be able to answer all of them, but thank you and I appreciate it. It sounded like the majority of them were just happy to be proud of the win!
Emmitt is down here trying to bug me while I am trying to get my column together. He wants to talk about his 16-month old son being with my 11-month old daughter so I am about to have to cut this thing off.
I want to give a shout out to Dexter for being NFC Defensive Player of the Week. I want to shout out to my boy David Boston because whatever is going on, keep it together. Stay focused. I want to give a shout out to the o-line for grinding out like that against the Pack. Emmitt might get his 100-yard game this week, he’d like to get that I know. A shout out to Anquan for playing real good and I hope he keeps playing like he has been. Too many guys be down here talking in my ear, so I’ll be back with more next week.
Keep it real!
Marcus Bell
