In part deservedly (allegedly punching a cabbie) and in part undeservedly (so what if he smelled of alcohol — he was in a cab!) Aqib Talib has been batted about in the local fourth estate over the past 24 hours or so.

Last Saturday, Talib pulled no punches when he was quite kind to answer a few questions from Joe about the Bucs’ defense:

“We wanted to come out and play and make plays on the ball. That was our goal and that’s what we accomplished.

“I really like the pressure we put on receivers. We want to be in your face all day. That’s the best thing about our defense. And you were right. We were daring Kerry Collins to beat us deep. We have a saying, ‘Underthrown balls are our balls.’ You have to overthrow it. You have to put the ball on the money. That’s how our defense works. It puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback and puts a lot of pressure on the wide receiver.

“Me, personally, I like this defense better [than the Tampa-2] because I like to play up on the line of scrimmage. I’d rather challenge the receivers. Last year we kind of sat back and gave the receivers the underneath.

“No one is 100 percent in their assignments right now. Everyone is still learning the defense. We have a month before the first game so we have time to get it down pat. All we can do is get better.”