Brian Urlacher Quotes (43 Quotes)

We had to win in the playoffs to earn respect and we didn't do that. So all of the people who doubted us, I guess, were right. We may be a good team, but we're not a great team.

Our third downs were terrible. We have to make more plays on third down. We have to get better.

Steve Smith, that's what happened to us. He just kept making plays. We had a plan. We never really doubled him. We ran a lot of Cover 2, and obviously that didn't work out too good for us.

He's been trying to come to terms with it for a long time. I think he knew a while back he was going to do this. I'm sure it's not easy for him -- it's what he's done his whole life, it's what he loves to do -- but he's making the right decision when it comes to your livelihood and being able to walk and all that good stuff. Don't mess with your neck.

A few years ago I was definitely hoping the three of us could have stayed together for a long time. But we've got a new thing going here, and Lance doesn't have to take a backseat to anybody.

Jamal's a house, ... I tried to tackle him in the Pro Bowl a couple times and he's not an easy guy to bring down. He's a big boy and he runs hard. We've got our work cut out for us. We've got to stay in our gaps and be sure tacklers.

Today, our defense flew around and had a good time. It was fun out there.

It feels like crap right now. Disappointing. But I guess you could look at the bright side and say we're a young team and all that good stuff. It's going to hurt for a while.

We lost the same way as last time. We got beat in our home stadium. We thought we were good last time after 2001. We were young last time, and we ended up being 4-12 the next season. I'd like to think we will be better next season.

The last couple of years we got off to bad starts, 0-4, 1-5,

We're not the Giants. If they overlooked us, didn't play their best game, whatever. We didn't play our best game either. They scored three points, so we didn't play our best game. They scored on us they shouldn't have.

We don't give up a lot of yards, just too many big plays.

We haven't beaten anyone in the playoffs yet, and that's what we have to do. We've won a lot of big games in the regular season, but we need to win playoff games to get respect.

The thing is, I don't make a lot of big plays, but our team is really good. We make a lot of plays on defense. I don't know if that is going to help me out or not. The No. 1 thing is we won the division. We had a great season. Win the award or not, I don't care because we won and that's all that matters.

It's a good problem to have, if you call it a problem. And it is not a problem. Any time you have a chance to get an off week, it's a good thing. We have given ourselves a good opportunity to rest some guys. It would be nice to sweep our division. It would be great to get 12 wins, but so would having everyone healthy for a playoff game.

It's just a different mind-set around here this time. I know that's easy for me to say, but I mean it.

The No. 1 thing is you have to be able to protect the quarterback, ... If we put pressure on him and stop the run, we'll put ourselves in some good situations.

Takeaways, stopping the run, and as long as we don't turn the ball over, I think we'll be OK, ... If we don't give them a chance to score with their defense on the field, we'll be OK.

No one believed us back then, but there was really no doubt in our mind how good we can be.

We've just got to be more disciplined. If we get out of our gaps and miss tackles, we're going to get gashed. That happened quite a bit.

This is tough for our team, too, because he was one of our leaders. One of the emotional guys out there on the field. He's just an unbelievable guy. At least he didn't injure himself bad. I know that's a blessing for him.

I hope he gets a job somewhere, but I'd like to keep him here for a few years. I'd be happy for him if the Vikings hired him. Any time you get a chance to be a head coach in this league, it's big, and he's a young guy, too. He'd be great as a coach. Anywhere he goes, I'd be happy for him.

It just stinks. Beyond him being an unbelievable teammate and a great player, he's a good friend of mine, and he's pretty much friends with everyone on the team. My daughter, Pamela, loves him. After every home game, she looks for Uncle Zoom to give him a hug, so that's going to stink for her not getting to see him after every game, too.

It was a great hit. The refs didn't call a penalty, so it was a good play.

I love when people pick against us because we just go out and prove them wrong. In training camp, there was no doubt in anyone's mind we had the personnel to do it. It was just a matter of staying healthy and going out there and doing it. Knock on wood, we stayed healthy, and it's been a fun season for us so far.

I guarantee you, guys watching that film are seeing plays like safety Mike Brown's hit on Lions tight end Marcus Pollard, and it's going to be in the back of their head.

But we have to make plays and score on defense. We know that, and we just didnt do it today.

We have to play better. If we think we're a good defense, we better start showing it. We didn't make plays when we had to. We gave up a couple of big plays. We had a chance to win the game. We were in the game the whole time and found a way to lose at the end.

We know about the tradition here and all that good stuff. We've just got to make plays. That's what it comes down to. We know there's a lot of good defenses here in the past, and we feel like we're one of those teams.

Rivera turned us loose today, ... He called a bunch of blitzes -- they worked. We got a bunch of pressure, and when he did get rid of the ball we tackled the guys. We flew around and had a good time.

Even though you're not in the game, you still like to win and see your teammates do well, so it was a little frustrating. But at the same time, we got out of this game healthy with the people we need to get to the Super Bowl, and that's the number one goal we wanted to take into the playoffs.

I'll bet I have 250 pairs. I can't throw any away because as a kid we got one pair a year. Now I order 20 pairs at a time.

I think we know we are No. 1. I don't think yards equal wins. Yards are big, but points are the main thing that matters. We did not play very well and gave up a bunch of yards and I think we lost our No. 1 status, but points are a big deal and I think we hold that.

Look at the teams we played when I was not there - Indy, Minnesota, Green Bay, Philadelphia - that's four playoff teams right there. I don't think it's a significant statistic. We just have to play better when I'm not in there or play easier teams.

We were young last time, too, and we ended up being 4-12 the next year. I'd like to think we'll be better next year. We have a lot of guys coming back. ... We're optimistic, but I'm not going to look at that right now.

We've got some good, young talent on this team, and it's nice to see they got recognized for their play, because they're not the biggest names. There are a lot of guys out there who probably get more recognition from the media, but these guys go out there and play hard every week, and they put it on film, and the players around the league and the coaches around the league saw that. That's why they're going.

This whole season was a blessing. To go through what I went through last year, it was just so frustrating. ... I was mad when (the overrated tag) came out, frustrated, but the people who know me my teammates, the organization know what type of player I am.

This whole season was a blessing.

It's a non-issue it's behind us now. That was a long time ago.

Only time will tell. We feel like we have good players. We brought Moose in, we brought Fred Miller in on offence,

We were in the game the whole time and found a way to lose in the end.

I don't want to go through that again. We got beat up in that game. We couldn't stop the run, we couldn't run the ball, and we turned the ball over. I don't want to remember that game, it ended so badly. We weren't the same for a long time after that. We learned that we've got to play a lot better to win playoff games.

They kept a lot of guys in and only had two or three out on the routes. We thought we would get pressure with four, and they kept seven or eight in to block.