On his thoughts about the improvement on defense the last couple of weeks: "Yeah, they've been working hard all year, we've talked about that. You all have been at practice, it's no different; they've been working hard, but the thing is they've been working their fundamentals and we've just been getting better and better. And we've had a couple of bad games, but we've had a couple of, you know [CB Nnamdi Asomugha] and [CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie] were hurt and that hurt us a little bit. But you know, the front, the linebackers, the DBs, the coaches are doing a great job working them. You know, [defensive line coach Jim] Washburn, [linebackers coach Mike] Caldwell, [defensive backs coach] Johnny Lynn, and [safeties coach Michael] Zordich are doing a great job working the fundamentals with those guys and those guys are working their butts off. And I'm just happy for them that they get rewarded. [Because] when you work hard, good things happen and you guys know that. It's hard when you're working hard and you don't get rewarded, then your faith gets tested."

On whether he's finally found a defensive package that works well: "Well, what I think it is, you have to understand that we really didn't have training camp. I mean, we had with Nnamdi and Dominique and some of those guys they missed that. And I think initially I started too fast and I what I found out is I had to go backwards with some of those guys because they had missed some of that and we were making some mistakes just on fundamental stuff. You know, now as we understand all of our packages we're able to add as we keep going. And there is still a lot to add, but the first thing we have to understand is how to handle our fundamental packages."

On whether the players are able to be more instinctive and play faster after learning the fundamental packages: "That's right. I mean, that's the key, once you know what you're doing you play fast. We talked about being able to play fast and physical, but what's hard is really we had a lot of new guys. Even though we said, 'Well, we're going to keep some of the same names.' We're keeping the same names, but even Wash, they're different for Wash because he came from somewhere else and all of the other guys weren't from here. So even the old verbiage, that was new, you know so all of those things."

On his thoughts about standing Babin up: "Well you know what, I think just like with everything else the package is growing because everybody is starting to understand the base package and now we can have fun with the guys a little bit. And I think they enjoy those packages, they have fun with it. You know, I hear about it all the time when they have a meeting. I always sit in with the d-line on the meeting before the game and they were talking about, 'We like this one, we like that one.' So it's easier for me to call those because they like them."