On playing after surgery
“We figured it out Saturday and we created a plan. It was either I get surgery and go in a cast, or don’t get surgery and go in a cast. I just thought I might as well do it and go in a cast. It’s going to have to be Tuesday because Monday was a holiday. They were like, ‘you know you don’t have to practice’, and I said I wanted to practice. I came back the next day and practiced Wednesday with it too. I just wanted to show my teammates that I’m going to be out there with them because I was going to play on Saturday still. I just thought that was important.”

On practicing while fasting
“I was out there and I was tired. The coaches looked out for me and my teammates were there picking me up when I was down. I made it through.”

On importance of rush defense this week
“That’s one thing we’ve been cleaning up a lot since Cincinnati. Having proper rush lanes and being able to counter out the level of the quarterback. We can’t have two B-gap rushers. That’s just some things we’ve been really attacking. We have this one drill that we’ve been pushing a lot this week.”