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DeMarcus Ware knows just what this team needs to get back on track

Ware isn’t on the field, but his impact is still felt in the locker room

Carolina Panthers v Denver Broncos Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

“I see better”

The final whistle blew, the score read 26-23, Broncos, and the locker room began celebrating a hard fought victory that took the team to 6-0 going into the bye week. Each of those six games, while resulting in a victory, showed potential cracks in the armor of what was a Super Bowl contender.

And yet, here they were sitting undefeated in the opposing team’s locker room listening to their coach say he was proud of the way they battled to get the win. This is time for high fives, hugs, and smiles. After all, as John Fox used to put it, “what’s better than 5-0? 6-0!”

Then DeMarcus Ware spoke up.

“We are 6-0. But let me tell you something. Sitting there on that sideline, I see better. I see better. I see that we can be a better team. So what we gotta get out there and do? We take care of this bye week, everybody get back right, and we gotta get out there and grind. I’m gonna sit up and be straight will ya’ll, we gotta put that work in now.”

Behind him Von Miller and Aqib Talib echo his sentiments with “Yes, sir!”.

And grind they did. We all know the story from here, they came out of the bye, demolished Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, and proceeded to win the Super Bowl.

But it started with players, like Ware, who were willing to speak the hard truth. To realize that they had a long way to go and plenty to correct, even after starting 6-0.

His message this time around? Same as last year.

Since I've been on the sidelines the last couple of weeks, I've seen firsthand what's caused our two-game losing skid.

[A] lot of guys have revamped themselves after these two losses saying, "Hey, we need to go back to the fundamentals of what we do best."

Do the small things. Don't try to do too much. Just get out there and play.

That's what this week has been about.

The thing that's been missing from our game is the edge. And, the edge comes from practice. Sometimes you can't just go out in the game and have an edge. You have to practice that week in and week out.

As a conglomerate, we've taken note of this. Everyone knows that in order to improve, we have to get our edge back, and that process has already started this week in practice.

We can talk X’s and O’s about how this team can improve, but this is a prime example of what we need to shake this team out of its slump.

DeMarcus Ware and this group of guys know they can be a better team. Hopefully we’ll see that team on Monday night.