Rookie CB TJ Carrie spoke to the media after Sunday's practice and discussed his first game action as a professional.
Q: Do you need a game, or a practice like that against someone else to open your eyes to what you need to work on?
Carrie: I think at that point it does become hard. If you go into each and every practice thinking you're only competing against who you're practicing against on the other side, you kind of lose focus on what you overall need to be doing. It takes a lot of discipline for you to practice each and every day and making sure that you focus on your own skills, so that you hone those to the best of your ability so when you do go and practice against other competition, you're ability and the technique that you've been working so hard carries you through that chance and opportunity.
Q: TJ, how difficult is it to gauge the return game when you're practicing against your own teammates? You got a chance the other night against the Vikings, will you be able to do some against the Cowboys, and obviously against Detroit Friday night?
Carrie: I think the difficult thing as far as the return game is really analyzing the punter or the kicker that you're going against. You kind of get used to going against your own kicker or your own punter. You figure out the ways…if he's standing this way he's kicking it this way, if it comes off his foot in this direction it's going that way. I think that comes down to scheme and a lot of film that the coaching staff has given us to look at on the typical punters that we're going to go against and how they punt the ball. So it is difficult for that.
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](http://www.pntra.com/t/R0BKRkpMSEBKTERGSEBISEtERw)Q:The Cowboys have some of the bigger wide receivers you're going to see. How important is it to see that kind of competition?
Carrie: It's great. It's great to get a chance to go against those bigger receivers before you actually go into that live game experience. You get to kind of pick up tips and notes on what you need to be doing for yourself in order to handle those types of situations. We live in a day and age now where receivers are getting bigger and faster.
Q: From rookie mini-camp up to now, how do you grade yourself, what's your evaluation?
Carrie: I can't really gauge it. I think each day brings a new opportunity. The grading process is basically every rep that I take. It's hard to kind of gauge what I've been doing. I think that I definitely need to continue to work…you can never be satisfied. For me, I think working every day is an accomplishment in this goal I need to continue to achieve.
