Peppers: I'm not sick or injured

[stevo]

Peppers: I'm not sick or injured
STAN OLSON
Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers admitted Wednesday that this 2007 season has been difficult, both for him and his team. But his problems, he said, have nothing to do with illness or injury.
"I feel like I'm struggling right now to do some things, and I have been," he said. "Everybody struggles. It's going on longer than usual; longer than expected. But at some point, hopefully, I'm going to break out of it. I would like to think I would."

Peppers, often not found during the Panthers' open locker room sessions, stood in the middle of the room and talked for as long as anyone had questions.

Trying to explain the numbers in a season no one expected.

A year ago, Peppers had a career-high 13 sacks and made his third consecutive Pro Bowl. Still just 27, he was being called the best defensive player in the NFL by some publications entering the season.

However, through nine games, he has 1.5 sacks, all in the game at Arizona. And he's made fewer of the game-changing plays that fans have come to expect from him.

"I feel like I could play better," he said. "I'm not playing as bad as people make it seem, but I'm not playing as good as I played in the past. That's about it."

He missed considerable training camp time with an undisclosed illness, which had led to rumors that he was still feeling its affects.

"No injury, no sickness; I don't understand where y'all are getting that from," he said. "Sometimes things just don't happen the way you want them to. I'm fine now. That was two months ago."

The rumor that he had battled mononucleosis was mentioned, and Peppers shook his head slightly. "Mono? Come on."

Someone asked if Carolina's defensive scheme, which often drops him back into coverage, was part of the problem. "I'm happy with how I'm being used, I'm happy with the defense, I'm happy with everything," he said. "That has nothing to do with any of it."

Peppers did say teams have been defending him a bit differently.

"I find a lot of guys now bailing out, jumping straight back from the line of scrimmage," he said. "Basically, getting back 5 yards to take the edge (his outside rush) away. That's something I've seen a lot more.

"Not giving the inside up but trying to force me to go inside and not around the edge. Once you go inside, there's more traffic to get through."

Later, fellow defensive end Mike Rucker would say, "He's Pep. He's going to command (attention), and get the little extra things that other people might not get.

"It could be the line being slipped that way, that you might not think a lot about. But there's a reason why it slides that way."

Still, a player of Peppers' ability expects to break through more often.

"What's going on is, I haven't made the plays that I made in the past," he said. "That's all that's going on. Things that y'all are accustomed to are not happening right now.

"That's part of the game. You've got to take the good with the bad when you're a person in a position like myself. Sometimes you get looked at harder than other people.

"And I accept that. I can take the criticism; I can take the heat, because that's the position I'm in. I don't run away from it.

"There's no excuses for my play or for this team's play. We've still got games left to get this stuff corrected. And hopefully that's what we're going to come out and do."

Charlotte Observer | 11/15/2007 | Peppers: I'm not sick or injured

[Uncle B]

so, whats he saying, "i ain't sick or injured, i'm just playin like shit." ?

sounds that way..lol