It was a tough loss to Tampa. They came out in the second half and made a few more big plays than we did. There were a few crucial plays that could have gotten us off the field, but we had some poor tackling and couldn’t take advantage.

Tampa didn’t do anything spectacular, but in the NFL you can’t give any team too many chances or they will expose you and take advantage. My hats are off to them, they played well and won, but I know that we did not play up to our potential in the second half. Freeman is going to be a good quarterback and we gave him too many chances. The third-and-16 he picked up, that’s one we could have stopped had we tackled better.

We put ourselves in a bad position and we paid for it.

The good thing about it is that when we watched the film, I noticed that all of the things we did wrong were correctible. We can go back to practice and eliminate our mistakes, so next game will be cleaner. The young guys here responded well, no one is hanging their head, nobody is down. These guys are willing to put in the hard work, day in and day out. We know we can learn from this loss and when we’re in this position again we’ll know what to expect and how to come out with a victory.

There’s still a lot of football yet to be played. The only way to get over a loss is with a victory, and with Carolina at home on Sunday, it would be great to go into our bye week on a winning note. The Panthers are coming off their first win so I know they’re flying high. They have two great running backs, so we know we have to go in there and stop the run and make their quarterback feel uncomfortable. If we play Rams football, I think we can get that win heading into the bye week.

I had a chance to see my family this past weekend. They drove down 6 hours from Pensacola to Tampa and stayed the weekend. That’s not a long drive for them. Any time they have a chance to see me play in person, they’re going to take it. It’s good to have your family pulling for you. You know they’re always in your corner, they have your back. You always get a confidence boost when you know your family is at the game and it just makes you play that much harder.

Fred Robbins is a defensive tackle with the St. Louis Rams. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.