DEERFIELD, Ill. -- The sky is not falling in Bulls land.

At least that's the feeling you get when you listen to Vinny Del Negro and Derrick Rose speak. Both men are confident that they can turn things around, despite the fact that they have lost four in a row and face a portion of the schedule that features nothing but over .500 teams in their path.

"Not at all," Rose said when asked if he felt the season was slipping away. "You can't think like that. Things change that way. All our minds are positive. If anything, I'm trying to get us going making sure everybody's all right. I don't see anybody pulling out their hair or anything like that."

Del Negro agreed and joked with the media in the process.

"When we were winning, there was about a quarter of you guys here," he said. "But now we're losing so everybody's here. So, now it's a big deal. Guys have confidence. All you can do is work every day and prepare every day. And go to battle and try to find ways to win."

The Bulls have had a hard time winning ever since they shut Joakim Noah down for at least three weeks because of plantar fasciitis. The fact that the schedule has now turned on them hasn't made things any better, but Del Negro isn't about to use that as a crutch for the rest of the season.

"There's no excuses," he said. "Joakim is out. That definitely affects us, there's no question. But we're good enough to win games. And we're playing some of the tougher teams right now. But we've beaten some of the tougher teams before and hopefully we'll understand what's at stake and take every game as it comes and be prepared and go out and try to get some wins. It's not going to be easy. We got to fight and work and play well."

What's at stake for the Bulls is a playoff berth that certainly appears to be slipping away at the moment. The team heads into Tuesday's game against the Jazz with a 31-31 record and is just a half game ahead of the Charlotte Bobcats, who have won two straight. Even with the odds stacked against them for the time being, Rose doesn't feel the type of pressure that you might think.

"Every time we practice we get to go hard at each other,” Rose said. “Really focus, key on the people we're playing against and we have confidence in ourselves for [Tuesday night's] game."

Del Negro is just hoping that his team's defense can provide more of a boost. The Bulls gave up 122 points against the Mavericks last Saturday and have been getting attacked down low without Noah in the lineup.

"Just play sound basketball," Del Negro said. "Do things that you're capable of doing. Play the game the right way. But, really, defensively ... that's how we've won this season. The last three or four games I haven't been pleased with the team's field goal percentage and just our overall rotations and our urgency defensively. That's how we're going to win. We scored 116 points the other night [against the Mavericks] and still lost. We're scoring enough points. We got to right now hone in on the defense."

If they don't, they'll be looking a five-game losing streak right in the face.