Top 776 Defensive Quotes & Sayings

Defense comes with defensive concepts.

Defensive guys don't really understand. It's totally different for offense. Defensive guys are convinced they know us but they just don't understand. Quarterbacks have so much that they have to read and adjust to. They have to look at everybody on the defense. It's totally different for the offense.

I come from a Napoli team who scored 104 goals. Do you think I'm going to be hyper-defensive with Real Madrid? A team that creates chances and is great in possession is not defensive.

I've started most of the time I've been in a Knick jersey, so I just think they want me to bring a certain energy every night. They want me to bring that defensive presence because they know I can make something out of nothing on defense, and I think they just want me to bring that defensive presence every day.

Before Wenger came, Arsenal celebrated 1-0 and were based on defensive solidity. With Arsene, joy came from attacking, with players of good standing. And the perfect combination was the Invincibles. But over time, only technical quality and offensive freedom were taken care of, losing the defensive structure.

In my country, they used to call players who play in my position a defensive midfielder, but it is not defensive.

You can't change when you're defensive.

If you're a great defensive player, you're a great defensive player 100% of the time. You can't be a great defensive player half of the time because you didn't get the ball once or twice. That can't sidetrack you. It's got to be 'I live for my defense, and my offense I'll get. But I can't let it affect my defense. Nothing affects my defense.'

Thought reflexes get conditioned very strongly, and they are very hard to change. And the also interfere. A reflex may connect to the endorphins and produce an impulse to hold that whole pattern forther. In other words, it produces a defensive reflex. Not merely is it stuck because it's chemically so well built up, but also there is a defensive reflex which defends against evidence which might weaken it. Thus it all happens, one reflex after another after another. It's just a vast system of reflexes. And they form a 'structure' as they get more rigid.

I want to be Defensive Player of the Year.

I'm a little territorial and defensive.

When I was in Germany I never played like this, so defensive - almost a left-back, but that is good for me because defensive work was something I missed in Germany.

On the defensive end, I just have to be better.

Against the best batsmen, you can't have a defensive strategy.

Karate is a defensive art from beginning to end.

Look at baseball, with its defensive shifts - outfielders looking at cards on the field much like a quarterback would. It's possible that someday defensive backs will be playing with similar cards based on where receivers are lined up and what those receivers' route-running strengths are. The possibilities are endless.

You want to be Defensive Player of the Year.

I really wasn't a good defensive player at all.

To me death is better than the defensive.

The Berlin Defence suited my strategy for the match. I had a defensive strategy - Actually, I had in my pocket some other sharper stuff to fall back on - but first I wanted to try the defensive strategy with Black and it worked so well.

The two biggest things to understand when you're tracking the ball as a defensive back is your position on the field and understanding that once the ball is in the air you become the receiver. Too many young defensive backs worry about the receiver catching it or what the receiver is doing instead of focusing on what they should be doing. Just go out and make the play yourself, don't worry about him. Know where the ball is and attack it. Put yourself in position to bat it or catch it and make the play.

I would love to be the best defensive team in the league.

The difference between a good defensive team and a bad defensive team is as little as three possessions

For every team in the playoffs, their defensive intensity, their defensive attention to detail just becomes greater.

If you commit to the defensive end of the floor, you're going to have a chance to win every night. And if you're a great defensive team, you're going to go to the playoffs.

I am sometimes perplexed by people who refer to defensive rifles, or defensive rifle shooting. The defensive arm is the pistol, since you have it at hand to meet situations that you do not anticipate. If you have the luxury of anticipating a lethal encounter, you pick up a long arm, either a rifle or a shotgun, but in that case you go on to the attack. Thus rifle shooting is offensive, and pistol shooting is defensive. Of course, life does not always duplicate theory, and there are exceptions to everything, but nevertheless the rifle is not a defensive weapon in concept.

I'm a great defensive wrestler.

I didn't say what I said to be controversial just because most people are picking the Patriots to win. I consider myself a pretty good judge of talent when it comes to defensive linemen and the Panthers' biggest strength is their defensive line. You win the battle of the trenches and that goes a long way to winning the game.

I want to play for a team that has a strong defensive reputation. One that relies on a system and where assists are valued. And a team that needs what I do - making other guys better, leading a team, being a defensive stopper every night. I want to be a good fit.

Defensive moments are for each and every player.

I've always thought of myself as the best defensive player in the league, and I want to play like the best defensive player in the league.

I never heard Coen brothers get defensive, ever. You get with these filmmakers doing the hardest work in the world, and they're not defensive. They're happy together, they crack jokes together, they have different opinions - and it doesn't bother them that they have different opinions. So no wonder their work is so good, because you're getting two for the price of one.

I have game-changing defensive abilities.

I think when you're a very good defensive team - it's very rare a team wins a championship when you're not a very good defensive team.

If you have a defensive concept, you're going to play defense. If you don't have a defensive concept, and you have an offensive concept, then you're going to play offense.

The logical end to defensive warfare is surrender.

On the defensive end, I have to do my job.

I'm not really a defensive midfielder.

I always liked the defensive part of baseball.

I'm a defensive-minded player.

The official strategy is defensive pessimism, always.

Defensive midfielder is my position and I have to be focused on that role.

I am the finest defensive player in the game.

You can teach defensive wizardry, but you need the talent to go with it. You have to be born with that natural defensive radar.

I don't give a score prediction, but I am a defensive guy, so I'll definitely be looking forward to a defensive game.

I have three Defensive Players of the Year. Only one other player has done that. But being a defensive lineman, it's hard to control the game.

You never want to be in a defensive mode or have a defensive mindset. You always want to know that you're in control as the pitcher, you make him get hits, you're never passive, always aggressive. If I get beat, I want it to be because I got rocked, got hit hard, never because I walked a couple of guys and before you know it.

The purely defensive is doomed to defeat.

I'm really trying to work on my defensive positioning.

I don't say we are a defensive team. I say we are a strong team in defensive terms, but at the same time lacking sufficient fluidity in attack because that will take time to come.

Incentives are not strategy, they are tactics. Defensive measures.

... to be human is to be on the defensive, somewhere, somehow.

Tom Stafford was an odd character, you know - a brilliant guy. He looked weird and I think he took a really defensive attitude about being a hunchback. You know how people can be, giving him a hard time. So he turned that into a defensive mechanism. He would strike first, a lot of times. But he was a great guy, and really those talks we had when I was about 15, out of all of that came the studio over the drugstore and everything else. I'm not saying - I'm no big deal, but I was a part of the birth of the music there.

Night Train Lane was the best defensive back to ever play the game. I tried to pattern my game after him because he was the best. He could have played any one of the four (secondary) positions. I've never seen a defensive back hit the way he hit - I mean take them down, whether it be Jim Taylor or Jim Brown.

Contempt is a well-recognized defensive reaction.

Obviously, teams are passing a lot more, and there are rules that... allow the offense to be more explosive, so you want to have as many defensive players and defensive playmakers and defensive backs that you can.

You have to win games by scoring points, of course, so that's important. But when you're having nights against a good defensive team, you have to win in a different manner. You have to win a defensive-type game.

Canzeroni is the only defensive catcher that can't catch.

The most overrated thing is that you're a good defensive team because of your coaching. No. You're a good defensive team because you care and because it's important to you.

Defensive player of the year is MVP in my book.