The funny thing about it is it's been in our hands several times this year and we seemed to drop it. Our backs are against the wall right now and there are no more drops.

The four best teams in the NFL are playing. They earned it.

You've got to have 11 guys coming to him. You have to keep pounding him.

You've got to know that whatever you did that first game you've got to do a whole lot better, cause they're watching that same film and they're going to come with a different level of intensity and you've got to be able to match it.

You've got to play sound defense. This is one of those running backs where the play might start to the right, but it might end up on the left. He's almost Michael Vick when he has the ball in his hands.

You can't take nothing away from them. They came out and played hard. Rex found a little groove, and they moved the ball some. But when we needed a stop, we usually got it. And when we got the ball back for the offense, they usually did something with it.

He came in and gave us stability on one side of the field, where we can say we've got a shutdown corner. We've got a physical guy that can play the pass and play the run.

He's the one consistent thing back there through all the coaches. From '97 on up, he's been the one constant thing that's been back there. When you got a piece like that, you don't replace that. You replace the stuff around him until you find the right combination, and that's what they've done.

I don't know how we're going to do it because he's crazy, a double threat. You can say all you want about taking away the throwing option, but then he takes off and is running like Eric Dickerson. All you can do is go out there and line up, stay technically sound and hope for the best.

He started off mad. Since Day 1, when he walked into the Panther facility he was mad. But that's Steve. That's the competitor in him. He wanted to be the best.