Every week, Redskins.com chats with a Redskins coach about a hot topic. This week: assistant head coach-defense Gregg Williams discusses his principles for Redskins defense:

"You hear Coach Gibbs talk about principles of Redskins football. Well, those principles are the same on the defensive side of the ball. We preach the same thing: you have to be tough on the line of scrimmage and you have to be a very good tackling defense. You also have to get off blocks and you have to minimize explosive plays.

"When we do that, we'll be in every single game. We'll give our offense a chance to win it late and we'll give our offense a chance to win it early.

"Defensively, that's what we have to continue to emphasize for the rest of this season. We haven't let up, though. I do see us struggling in technique at times. I see us struggling at tackling sometimes--some of that has to do with some of the athletes that we've had to play against this season.

"Tackling is something we do every single day in practice. I don't think other teams tackle as much as we do in practice. A lot of teams, at this point of the season, don't do any live tackling in practice. Coach Gibbs, since he's been here, has been that way and we'll continue to be that way. I think you have to do that all the way to the final gun.

"At this point of the season, it's not as difficult as one might think in keeping spirits up. Coach Gibbs is special about that. When you have strong character people around you, everybody sees it from him on downm through the seriousness we take every single day and from our approach to the profession.

"We have to maintain discipline and we have to maintain what we believe in. Coach Gibbs does that every single day."