[Defensively, the Wasps played shorthanded, missing both starting defensive tackles and playing several first-year players in the secondary, a fact that didnâ€™t bode well against W&Jâ€™s shotgun formation and spread offense.] We played extremely tough at first, before they figured out what we were doing, ... We had to play a totally different style of defense with only three tackles.

Don Montgomery

Defensive Defensively First Missing Played Players Playing Secondary Several Starting Tackles Wasps Year

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Defensively we played awesome. That was our best defensive game of the year.

— Chris Kestner

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Newcastle played quite defensively, but we had to keep playing and get through in the last 20 minutes, and we managed to do it.

— Freddie Ljungberg

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We missed an awful lot of tackles last year and that's one thing that coach (Marvin) Burke and the defensive staff have spent a lot of time on, helping guys learn how to tackle. Last year, we had kids diving on the ground and trying to dive at people. You've got to play this game on your feet.

— Daniel Finn

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We have players who played for the Phantoms last year who do a lot of things really well that are going to help us,

— Ken Hitchcock

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We had too many defensive breakdowns. We had been playing well the last two months, but this game isn't played on paper. We were on the other side of March Madness for the first time as a high seed and we didn't respond well to the challenge.

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