I sat down with safety Brian Russell the other day to write a piece about the secondary, which was in the News Tribune on Thursday. Here is the extended version of that interview:

A year into this, and with everybody familiar with both each other and the system, what do you try to accomplish as a group now? I think we have hit the ground running. We are really trying to improve on last year. I think we did some things well, but we have evaluated ourselves, really studied our mistakes last year, and there are some things we can correct, and that should help us be a shutdown secondary. I think we did a good job of limiting big plays last year, we didn’t give up many touchdowns, we had a number of interceptions. But I think we can really dominate games and limit passing yards in total and be better in third down, and I think that will really help the team. That is kind of what we are focusing on.

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You think you can dominate the game from back there? I think so. If you really limit passing yards and offer run support, instead of giving up 200 yards passing and maybe you don’t allow a touchdown and maybe you had a pick, what if you limit them to 110 or 120? We really want to clamp down and be good across the board.

Doesn’t that bring up the whole debate about you need a pass rush for the secondary to be successful, or you need a decent secondary for the pass rush to be successful? That is going to help us. We have the pass rush. We have guys who are really going to get after it. When we are home especially, on third down and the fans are going crazy, Patrick Kerney has his ears pinned back, we should be able to really attack receivers and threaten quarterbacks by doing that. We will just keep tightening it up, limit mistakes. We gave up some plays last year that were just gifts, mental breakdowns on our part, coverages.

What were some of the most memoriable? I don’t want to be too specific. We all have our share of mistakes.

I’m not trying to be critical, but Marcus against Cincinnati immediately comes to mind, when Houshamanzadeh scored early? That was one we were disappointed about, we gave up a cheap one in the first Arizona game. A couple later in the year we gave up the deep ball. Those were things, why not limit those too? If you throw those out of there, then it is a spectacular year. So if we want to achieve the goals we set out there, we have to have a spectacular year.

When did you guys actually feel like you had coalesced last season? I think we felt good coming out of training camp. But when you are not playing with live bullets, it doesn’t really count. So a couple of games in. I think that Cincinnati game we really started clicking. People might argue there because we gave up some passing yards, but we took a really potent offense and kept them out of the end zone most of the game. It took a lot of moving parts to get that done. Everybody was really operating together, great game plan. I felt like Tampa Bay and Arizona we were working our way into it. And beyond that Cincinnati game, we were playing good football.

Is there anything specific you feel like you have to improve and work on in the offseason? Each individual player is going to do that. As a team, we have looked at all of our coverages. The ones we played well, the ones we didn’t play well. As an example, we were working to get a little better on Cover 2. We felt like we could play good quarters but getting better at it. Just getting really specific. And so we give Coach Marshall more bullets in his gun. We want him to feel like he can call anything and we will get it done.

Is there anything that you weren’t able to do because you weren’t familiar enough with each other? I don’t think so. We have a pretty veteran group.

Have you seen improvements in both Marcus and Kelly Jennings? I thought from the day I showed up Marcus was just extremely talented. He has been making plays since the first mini-camp. The guy is just special.

He’s got $50 million that says so, right? Kelly is just gaining confidence it seems like. Breaking on more things. Understanding where the help is that allows him to take a chance on more things. I think as a group we are getting better.

How are you guys with Jim Mora? Do you goof on him knowing that he is going to be in charge next year? We really haven’t just because he our guy and he is 100 percent committed to the secondary. There wouldn’t be a place for it because he is completely in the secondary. He is always talking about ways to play a different coverage, technique.

Well let me ask you this: Could you goof on him where that is concerned? You totally could but I jut don’t know if the joke would work, like you are waiting in the wings, because he is not. He is defensive-minded. He is always talking to me about how I can improve with my technique, so I guess we have just left that one alone.

How do you handle knowing that your position coach is not going to be here next year, and that he is going t be the head coach? In effect, your unit is being broken up? Jim is an upfront, honest guy. If you have an issue with him you just bring it up whether he is the position coach or the head coach. I don’t know that it would change. I am actually going to miss him in our room because he brings a lot to our secondary. You can go back and forth with him on ideas. He will work with you to understand the best way you play something. Textbook says this but with my skills, can I cheat it this way? Or, cover it a different way. If he thinks it works he will go with it.

Did you think that being an undrafted free agent out of college you would have the type of career you have had? I took it one day at a time. I remember when I was first on the team, I was thinking, If I can just make it to the bye week -- and the bye week was the fourth week -- If I get to the bye week I can make it. Then I got to the bye week, and if I can get to the end of the year then I can tell people I played NFL football. And then it just went one year at a time. And now it is eight. I am still taking it that way. People ask me how long do you want to play. What is the goal? If you start thinking too far ahead, then you get beat out by one of these young guys who are hungry like I was.