Street Talk

THREE DOWNS

by Aaron Wilson

November 12, 2006
4:00 am

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Three downs with Derrick Mason

1. On whether the team chemistry is different because of a 6-2 record: â€œYes, of course. Everyone is more upbeat. The atmosphere is a little less stressful. Little less tension in the air because when youâ€™re 2-6, youâ€™re always pressing to try to make something work. When youâ€™re 6-2, youâ€™re not relaxing, but everything just seems to come easier. At 2-6, itâ€™s like, â€˜Man, weâ€™ve tried every play and it seems to not be working.â€™ Your natural instinct is to kind of be tense.â€

2. On whether last yearâ€™s lopsided defeat at Tennessee still affects the team: â€œNo, itâ€™s over with. Last year was last year. We were not a good team last year on record. This year, we are a much better team on record. So, what happened last year is what happened last year. Weâ€™re not going to use that as a motivational tool for us.

3. On if itâ€™s hard to watch his old team struggle: â€œIn a sense, yeah. I know the type of character they have and the coaches they have are tremendous. You kind of feel for them, but Iâ€™ve got to like the position weâ€™re in. Jeff Fisher will get that team turned around. Do I feel a little bit for them? Yeah, but if we feel sorry for them, we might walk out of that stadium with a loss. So, weâ€™ve got to go in there and play as if they are 8-0.â€

Three downs with Vince Young

1. On the Titansâ€™ growing pains: â€œWeâ€™re working on our chemistry right now as a team. Weâ€™re young. Guys are getting better each week. To me, we continue to make a lot of progress and we can win on any given Sunday, but weâ€™ve got to keep using our efforts, keep bringing a lot of effort to the game on Sunday.â€

2. On facing veteran defenses as a rookie quarterback: â€œI donâ€™t know what they are going to try to do to me. We can just go off what they are showing on film. Weâ€™ve got to wait until the game starts to see what they try to do to me. Weâ€™ve got the mindset that we are going to go out there to play our game.â€

3. On the challenge of rebuilding after salary-cap upheaval: â€œI just feel like what goes on business-wise is not our business. Basically, our business is down here in this locker room, out there on that field and trying to win ballgames. I feel like the team is working hard and weâ€™ve just got to do some things to overcome some of the things that go on for us to deal with these losses, these two or three players, that hurt us a lot in the long run.â€

Aaron Wilson covers the Baltimore Ravens for the Carroll County Times in Westminster, Maryland.

Aaron Wilson

Aaron Wilson covers the NFL for National Football Post as well as the Baltimore Ravens for The Carroll County Times and Ravens24x7.com. He has previously covered the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans and has covered the NFL since 1997. He has won several regional writing awards, including, most recently, Best Sports News Story for the state of Maryland in voting conducted by the Associated Press managing editors.