We're continuously trying to improve our offensive abilities, and Ned provides an instant boost to our offense. He's a talented, offensive-minded player with excellent scoring touch and playmaking skills.

I take offense to stupid.

If you run (the offense) right, there's so many things that we can get into. Even in the offensive breakdowns, we have the ability to read each other and know it's not good to stand around on offense. Even if you do go to the wrong spot, just do it as hard as you can and something good can come out of it.

We're pleased with how Kyle Orton stepped in and gave the offense a boost.

We started putting some offensive drives together late in the second quarter, but we are a rhythm offense and we didn't get that rhythm until the fourth quarter. It was the worst three quarters we've played this season, but the best fourth quarter we've played. That was the difference.

We realize our offense got a lot of guys back, and we've done a lot of things to improve our defense. We were 8-8 last year. We need to step up from there. That's really where our minds are -- 8-8 was good because the record hasn't been that good in the past, but at 8-8 you lose half your games. That's nothing to write home about, nothing to be proud of. We're definitely expecting to take drastic steps from last year into this year.