Chris Hope Quotations

When we went up to Indianapolis the last time, the whole thing was, the Steelers are going to out-physical the Colts.

We'll see some screens and throws to the running backs. I'm sure Travis Henry and Chris Brown can catch very well.

I can't say enough about how our offense has been playing. In the middle of the season, we were moving the ball but we weren't scoring. That's all changed, now.

I don't think we played real well as a defense. We missed a lot of tackles and played over-aggressive. We missed a couple of assignments here and there. We didn't do it consistently enough where it cost us, but we also didn't consistently stop them, either.

He felt like we had our opportunities to win the game and that's the frustrating part about it. You look at the schedule and it doesn't get any easier. You lose the games you had every opportunity to win on the field, you can't get that back.

We treat every game like we got to win it one way or another. There have been times when the offense bailed us out. There have been times when we didn't play our best and the offense played their best.

We treat every game like we got to win it one way or another, ... There have been times when the offense bailed us out. There have been times when we didn't play our best and the offense played their best.

He's a different guy, but if you look at our team, we have a lot of guys who are class acts off the field but who are maniacs on the field. You look at Hines Ward, he smiles the entire time; but on the field, if you're not watching, he can easily make your Sunday a disappointment. Jerome Bettis is a yes-sir, no-sir guy, but on the field he can hammer you, too. That's just the makeup of our team.

He's built like Terrell Owens, but probably a whole lot faster.

Our rivalries are the conference games. But as far as trying to determine who's king of the hill, the Patriots are the king.

Our goal is to keep him from making big plays, but you also have to be careful with focusing everything on him. Because the thing is, they have a team full of stars. (Running back) Rudi Johnson might get going while you're focusing on Chad, then you go after Rudi, and Chad comes back and strikes. He can cause a lot of problems for you.

Pittsburgh was a great place. I was limited to just play in the middle of the field, but I have the ability to play either safety.

I would love to be back. It's not about me all the time. But, then again, you do have to worry about yourself because this is a business in which you get few opportunities. The window of opportunity isn't open very long for you to cash in. You've got to be smart about it.

We had to win, so we went out and did it. But it has to be about one game at a time from here on in.

Troy is different. He is not what people think of as your typical professional athlete.

We haven't peaked yet, because we're still making mistakes. We still have things to clean up. The thing about this team is everybody wants to keep on getting better. Nobody around here thinks they're playing their best football. We don't have egos like that. We're going to get back to practicing hard and go about the business of taking this next one like we've done the whole way: One game at a time.

We love the challenge of it. It's when we play our best football. Guys are more focused. We can go in there and take the crowd out of it. We like that pressure. It allows us more attention to detail.

To win after nobody thought we could - sixth seed, three playoff games on the road - was more special than if we had won last year when we were the cream of the crop.

There's no specific play that lost the game. Any time you lose and you lose in the dramatic way like we lost, and we had an opportunity to win, you're frustrated about just losing, period. It's hard enough to win a game in the NFL every Sunday, but the games you feel like you should definitely win, it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

They ain't nothing but another game on our schedule, ... If I had an opportunity to see the future, looking back at how we played last year and how it turned out last year, I'd let them win the first one this time.

There will be times we have to go to a meeting in five minutes, and he'll say, I'm going to sleep for three minutes. Wake me up.

It would be big, being that we're real young and we still have lot of improvement to do.

Sometimes, it does, but it can motivate you. That was a different day, a different era. The game has changed 10 times to one since they played, but with them being as dominant as they were, they give you a foundation you want to build off of.

Once you get to the college and professional levels and meet guys from all over the world, it's hard to think you'll find a true friend, a true teammate. That's what I compare it to. It's almost like we have an unbelievable trust in each other. I never thought I'd have that opportunity to experience that again. You never think you'll see that bond you had in high school. Here, it's something we have.

As a whole, we had too many little mistakes -- our expectations are much higher than that. In the secondary, we gave up a couple of deep ones and you didn't see too much of that last year, so we have to get back to the drawing board.

It's just us. It's how we play and how we want to play. He had burned us in the first game, and we weren't going to let it happen again. We just feel if we do things smartly and unpredictably, it's really hard to stop us consistently.

It's a hard situation to talk about. And at the same time, it's a tough situation to be in because you're working with a guy who makes you better. You're working on a great defense. But you might not get all the credit or the respect that you deserve.

It's tough when you don't play and then it's time to get back in the swing of things. We won 15 games last year and the starters didn't play much at end. That was tough to get back into the flow. We've had four or five games this year that mattered down the stretch, which is why we're playing well.

They just take what you give them, ... If we're trying to be the No. 1 defense, we've got to stop a team like that. We had to come up with a stop late and we didn't.

Any time you lose when you have the opportunity to win, it's frustrating. Any time you lose, period, it's frustrating. But it's still early in the season. The biggest thing that stands out in my mind is that I think we could easily be undefeated right now.

I hope there's a city there when we get back. I imagine it's under siege.

I never played before in an NCAA Tournament, but that's the closest thing I can come to that. Crazy. Emotional.

If you leave the games you have won or had every opportunity to win on the field, you can't get them back.

I have to get paid what the best safeties in the league get paid; that's only fair to myself.

Hey, it's like heaven. We're walking around, and people are snapping pictures of us. People want to come up to you and talk to you. It's Hollywood. It's like you're on a cloud.

I felt the push on my back. He had to make the call. It was a great call.

I felt Tennessee was my new home. The Titans have been a very productive organization. In my rookie season, they beat us in the playoffs.

He's not going to do what he did in college -- not at this level. Look, Steve Spurrier's college offense didn't work too well in the NFL.