I went into our first preseason game Sunday with a pretty simple mentality: fly around and make plays.
I knew there would be things I needed to clean up and mistakes I’d need to correct, but for Game 1, I just wanted to put things on tape that I could be proud of and just enjoy myself. I think I did just that.
First of all, playing in DA’s (Dennis Allen’s) defense for the first time in real action was a lot of fun. Especially when we were playing goal line defense, just running through guys and making things happen in a high pressure situation, I loved it. We really attacked rather than playing conservative, so it was just truly fun. I can’t wait to keep playing for him.
I know there were a couple plays I left out on the field that I want back, but for the first game, I feel good about how I showed up and how I executed my role within our scheme. I felt like I was really just getting my feet wet and gave myself a good foundation to build on the rest of the preseason.
The one play that definitely stood out was the tackle-for-loss I had. That was really just me playing ball. The ball carrier came to where my assignment was and I just made the play. It wasn’t anything bigger than me doing my job, but I definitely had fun with that one.