Jonathan Gannon was talking about the development of rookie Tip Reiman, and he noted the usual things -- Reiman "plays with his hair on fire and he's violent," that Reiman does the extra work in meetings and the weight room.

But there was one comment Gannon made that caught my attention. "Any time a back gets on the ground, he goes and picks up the back. It's good ball. The guy cares."

It was notable enough to ask Gannon how closely he watches such things from his players, either when he is watching video or observing his team live.

"We have a standard of how we want to do things here and it is important to me and then it's important to the coaches and the players," Gannon said. "What you emphasize is what you normally get."

Gannon said one of the "winning edge" categories he had for his team going into the game was "20-plus pickups."

"You guys are probably like, 'Why would that be a winning edge,' right?'" Gannon said. "It speaks to the effort and our mode of play. That can be demoralizing to another team when they see that. I thought we did a good job with it (Sunday)."