My Voice will be an occasional blog from running back Justin Forsett with his personal insight.
This isn't the first time Justin Forsett has been on a losing team. In 2008, he and the Seahawks finished 4-12. The following year, Seattle went 7-9. Forsett didn't experience a winning season until 2012, his fifth year in the league, with the Houston Texans. The following year, he went to Jacksonville, and the Jags ended the season 4-12. Thus, Baltimore's 2015 campaign and 5-11 record was nothing new for the veteran running back – except in how he saw the team handle it.
I've been on other teams in this situation before when we only won four games and it was not the same – at all.
It's so easy to point fingers. No one is really looking in the mirror. The effort isn't there in the practice. People are talking about what they're going to do, going to the club or party or whatever, after the day is over.
That wasn't the focus for us. We wanted to go out and win every Sunday. The effort was there in practice. That's from Head Coach John Harbaugh and the work he puts on us during practice. We're always focused and he holds us accountable.
When we lost two tough games out West that we knew we should have won, and we came back home and our record was nowhere near where we thought it would be, it was tough. But the way we took our job seriously on the field during practice, it showed me it was different here. Easily, guys could have been like, "Oh man, woe is me." It was exactly the same as before. The way we worked, it was totally different from any other losing team that I've been on.
When you're faced with adversity, your true colors shine through. I think it's something that is instilled in you when you get here. If you don't already have it when you get here, you're going to get it. We are a tough, hard-nosed team.
We put a lot of stress on our bodies, just preparing for the game. The offseason work is crazy, the weight room stuff that we do is unbelievable. You're always under stress. When we go out and face adversity, the only way we know how to respond is fighting and pushing back. Pressure either makes diamonds or busts pipes. You're going to come out shining or you're going to come out beaten up.
The fight we had this year was incredible. From the situation we were in, we never wavered as far as our belief and our effort on the field. You keep getting hit with something else, whether it was injuries or losing guys or losing games. Just being able to find that resiliency, that's what we're going to be able to take with us through training camp. And I think next season, our resiliency will show up.
We're fighters. That's what we found out this year.
