Bills Safety Donte Whitner
11/7/07
On the temptation to look past the Dolphins to the Patriots
None at all. No temptation at all to look past Miami. We're four and four and we fought to get into the position that we're in right now so we're going to take it one game at a time. We want to go out and have a great game against Miami and it starts with preparation this week. On Cleo Lemon's scrambling ability
It is a concern on our part. He is a great athlete and they have confidence in him that he can get the job done. Last year we played him at the end of the game and he made a couple plays on us and tried to get a final touchdown. We know what he can do. On starting to get some respect nationally
It means a lot to us because we fought so long and so hard to get some respect around here. Even going into last week's game they were saying Cincinnati has a high-powered offense and they're looking to put up record numbers on us. We really took that stuff personally. You could see the way guys played and how they flew around and how physical guys played. You could tell that we really took that personally. The other thing we took personally was last year in the preseason game. They put up a lot of points on us and even in the second half they were still throwing the football. We took that personally also. That's why you're seeing guys play the way that they are playing and you'll continue to see guys play that way. On talking to former Ohio St. teammate Ted Ginn Jr.
I do talk to him and (this year) has been tough for him. He held out of camp for a little while. He had a foot injury going into camp during their entire off-season. Then he has to get down there and learn the offense. Then he has to go down there and deal with the fans booing him and high expectations and not playing immediately. Then on special teams he hasn't been able to break one and he hasn't really done too much on offense. So I still talk to him and tell him to keep his head up. I told him to make sure he doesn't have a good game this week. I still talk to him and tell him that I will hit him. Just because we're friends doesn't mean I won't hit him. I'm still going to hit him but we have to watch out for him because he has great straight line speed. If you slip up one bit he can beat you. So we have to watch out for him and we don't really want to let him get off this week in his first time against Buffalo. He's really going to feel the rivalry. I told him if he comes across the middle he's going to feel the rivalry and that's not bulletin board material because we're friends. I tell him that one-on-one so he can look forward to that. On the difference between the Dolphins and Bills because both teams are very banged up
I wouldn't say what the difference is because I don't know what is going on in their locker room. I know we have great leadership in our locker room and even when things were going bad guys were still in there together and still watching film together. Guys were doing extra things together because we knew that at some point things had to turn around. Everything can't go bad for the entire season. Losing four or five or six guys in the first two or three games of the football season is tough. Then your starting quarterback goes out with an injury. Then Paul (Posluszny) goes out with a broken arm. It's tough to lose so many guys but it's a credit to the leadership throughout the coaching staff, the players and the organization. On having a healthy fear of a winless team
Yes we do have a fear of going down there and we know that they'll be hungry. They had a bye week last week so they have two weeks to prepare and I know that their coaching staff and players in that locker room will be ready to come out and get their first win against us at home after a bye week. So we have to watch out going up there. If some guys are looking forward to next week we can't do that. We have to look forward to playing the Miami Dolphins in Miami on Sunday. On playing the Dolphins and the Patriots after bye weeks
We're not worried about teams after the bye week. We just have to know what we're doing and stay focused. We know what we're going down there to do. We plan on going down there to get a win and that's it.
