We have a veteran group on defense. It's not a case of having a dominant player there. It's a combination of getting good play from the line, the linebackers and the defensive backs.

I feel comfortable with where we're at. Traditionally, we've been a team that gets better as the season goes along. We've been in all our games. I don't feel too bad about being 1-2.

We're just a play or two from being 2-1 or even 3-0. We just have to make plays, to finish off drives. But at some point, you have to make the big plays. You sometimes wonder if you're going to get over that hump.

During our 13 days off, we worked on defense. I knew we'd be good at that. The shooting ... well, I wasn't sure.

I wish we could have made our shots early. But our defense early was the difference. Our defense won the game for us.

Sickles played really good defense. You're not going to beat a team by only scoring 35 points. They did what they had to do to win and what a great year they've had. I'm not saying we didn't have a great year, but Coach Garcia has done an excellent job with his kids.