Sunday, September 23, 2007

Brady Interview Post-Bills

Courtesy of the New England Patriots

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK TOM BRADY
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

September 23, 2007

Q: Your first two touchdown drives were set up with good returns from Wes Welker. How important is it for you guys to get that field position there?

TB: I think we got off to a bit of a slow start offensively, kind of like we did in practice this week. We picked it up there in the second half. But you’re right – Wes set up some great field position and I think the key to the game offensively [was] the offensive line, and the way they performed today was exceptional. It’s kind of what they’ve been doing all year, but they were doing such a good job run-blocking, we had a lot of holes in the run game and they did a great job of pass-protection. That allowed us to hold onto the ball a little bit longer. I don’t know if we had any sacks – maybe one – but I held on to the ball. They did a great job.

Q: On that 45-yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss, Coach Belichick thought it might have been incomplete. Did you think it might be too long?

TB: Nope. I haven’t overthrown him yet.

Q: Can you describe that play?

TB: They were playing a lot of cover-2, and they weren’t in cover-2 on that particular play. I just tried to lay it up there for him and he usually comes down with it.

Q: You mentioned the slow start. Was that because of things the Bills were throwing at you or is it just a matter of having to get into a rhythm?

TB: I think it’s a good defense, and I think they did some things. They’re a very fast, physical defense and they have some play-makers over there with Aaron Schobel. I think they played very hard. I think we just capitalized when we had the opportunities – when we got the ball in the red zone on the fumble, missed the fourth down and six, so there’s things that we definitely need to improve on and I’m glad we won, but we have a big week this week.

Q: You made that look easy out there—To throw that ball the distance you threw it, in-stride, on the outside shoulder—How hard is it to make that kind of play?

TB: I just throw it up as high as I can and try to put it out there where only he can get it. Like I said, I think his length allows him to even when the DB is on his hip; just he can extend and make the play. It was a great catch. It was a great call by [offensive coordinator] Josh [McDaniels]. My job is easy. You just have to throw it up there.

Q: You had a slow start this week. Do you think it has to do with an emotional letdown after last week, which was so charged up? How hard is it to maintain that type of energy each week?

TB: [When] you play on Sunday night, you get home at 2:00 in the morning and believe it or not, those things affect you. They carry over for days. You go to bed at 3:00 in the morning and then you’re starting on Monday at the same time as normal. Wednesday afternoon it still kind of feels like late Tuesday night and it just…We have a bunch of old guys on this team and it takes a little longer to recover.

Q: The quarterback is not as young as he used to be.

TB: Yeah, he’s definitely not as young as he used to be. I don’t bounce back quite as fast. You want to have all of that energy all of the time, but some days you just wake up at 6:00 a.m. and say, “Ugh, it’s going to be a long day today.” You have to fight through it, because you can’t lose days. You can’t lose days of preparation. This team knows that and I think Coach recognized it and really came down on us pretty hard – probably harder than he ever has. The team really responded on Friday, Saturday we were focused and today we came out and we made enough plays.

Q: How encouraging does it become that a fumble at the 1-yard line can almost become a momentum builder, given the defensive stop and Wes Welker’s return?

TB: Sure, and it was great that the defense was able to hold them and keep them back there. The fumble was a bad play and you’d rather punch it in there and kick it off to them, but fumbling the ball there on the one and then gaining that field position definitely set us up.

Q: Not that you’d ever fumble on purpose, but did you sense that something was needed at that moment to snap you out of it, because it wasn’t right, and they found the moments to do it?

TB: Like I said, you’d rather have the good plays be the momentum builders than a play like that. I think the defense has given us momentum all year. The punt return that Ellis [Hobbs] gave us in the Jets game, the interception return Adalius [Thomas] gave us last week and then some of those stops and punt returns this week were huge for the offense and setting us up in field position, which is what we’re going to continue to need. I [take] pride [in] that 99-yard drive that we had out there in the fourth quarter. That was pretty good. I hope to continue that.

Q: Were you surprised at the lateral that Wes Walker threw?

TB: I don’t know what they were doing, those two. Maybe Wes learned that in Miami. I’ve never seen it around here. I’m sure Coach is going to [yell at] us for that. It’s just another one of those things that makes tapes. It turned out this time. I don’t know how well it turns out most of the time.

Q: Your first three touchdown throws inside the 10 yard line were to three different people. Are you consciously trying to spread the ball around?

TB: I think this particular time it was just that the coverage really dictated that it go to certain people. We got down there on the first drive and we were inside the five or six yard line and we didn’t get it in. We kicked the field goal and we came back with a good approach the next few times and really pounded the ball in there when we could and then took our shots when we got man-to-man coverage. I thought it was a nice play by Ben [Watson] reading the zone. The second one to Randy was an all-out blitz and the guy had no help in the middle of the field. Randy ran a great route. The third one, Jabar [Gaffney] found a hole. [They] ended up doubling or tripling Randy and Gaff kind of pulled ahead of there and made a catch. I think that’s all set up by great offensive line play, to tell you the truth. For us to hold the ball and sort through that kind of stuff, and with the blitz pick-up like they did, they performed extremely well. And that was a [darn] good defensive line we faced, too, Schobel and [Ryan] Denney and the big guys inside, too, who are excellent. The way they protected and the way they run-blocked for us today – a lot of us do a lot of things offensively.

Q: Don’t you love to throw when Randy is covered and know that the play is still going to be made?

TB: He’s a mismatch every time he’s out there when it’s one-on-one, so if they’re doubling him then you try to find other guys to go to. And if they single him, you have an opportunity even when he’s covered to put the ball in a position [where] only he can make the play because of his height and his length. That’s what happened today. He had pretty good coverage on him. He just made an outstanding catch.

Q: Do you find yourself making throws maybe you wouldn’t have in the past because of who you have out there?

TB: Like I said, we’ve had different styles throughout the years and that style has worked extremely well. This offense is going to just continue to morph into the players that we have. I thought there was a drive there where it was run, run, run, play-action and I hit Wes on that lateral play, but that was fun because we were pounding it in there and finally they had a cover-2 defense, we play-action fake and all three linebackers step up and Wes is wide open. That’s tough on the defense, and the more that we can run it effectively in a play-action pass and then when they give us man coverage you try to throw the ball to your mismatches, that’s a pretty good way to go.

Q: What is it with 38 points?

TB: 38? I don’t know. Coach didn’t want to kick a field goal to get to 41 at the end, so…I don’t know. It’s a good number. I think it’s going to be a tough one this week playing on the road on Monday night, so we have a big challenge. I’m glad we have an extra day to prepare.

Q: You gave credit to your offensive line. Going up against the pass-rush and the success Schobel has had, to not hear his name called for the first three quarters must have made you feel good.

TB: Sure, and Matt [Light] did a great job over there on my left side. At the same time, I think we’re trying to scheme things up so he’s not coming off the edge all day, and you always try to keep those pass-rushes accountable for those pass-rushers, because they can ruin a game. That’s where the best guy usually is, right over on the offense’s left side. They did a good job with him. He’s a great player, a Pro Bowl player, but our offensive line is shutting it down this year.

 

 

 

 

Belichick Interview Post-Bills

Courtesy of the New England Patriots

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

September 23, 2007

BB: I thought it was a good win for our team out there today.  We got off to a little bit of a slow start, but I thought that in the end all three phases came back and we made some plays.  We had some good coverage plays on special teams and finally got the punt return going a little bit.  Defensively after that long drive there in the first quarter, we played better after that.  Offensively we kind of sputtered around a little bit there, but then we started scoring some points in that second and third quarter, even though we moved the ball earlier we weren’t able to convert and get the kind of points that we would like to get off of those drives.  In the end, we made enough plays to win.  That was good.  I thought the players played hard, especially after we got past that first quarter, quarter-and-a-half there.  We just didn’t do a good job.  Buffalo ran some new schemes on us and we had a little trouble adjusting to those, but I thought the players did a good job in the end.  Now we’re moving on to Cincinnati.

Q: You mentioned the punt return game.  Can you maybe expound upon that a little bit?  It seemed like that sparked a little bit of a turnaround.

BB: We haven’t really done anything with the punt return game all year, including preseason.  We’ve worked hard the last couple of week and we usually work on it one day a week.  We’ve worked on it two, and one time even three days just to put more emphasis on it and try to improve.  I think it all starts with getting those guys held up on the line of scrimmage.  Wes [Welker] made some good decisions, good ball handling, it was a tough ball he handled on the long one.  I don’t know how far it went.  It seemed like it went about 70 yards.  What was it?

Q: 75 yards.

BB: 75.  That guy is a great punter.  It was just a combination of things.  No penalties.  That’s the best way to get a punt return, is to not get it called back.  That was good.  It was something that we’ve worked hard on and I’m glad that we can reinforce that with some positive results.

Q: It looked like your offensive line had a pretty good day, especially keeping [Aaron] Schobel out of the backfield.  Can you talk about their performance a little?

BB: We tried.  We certainly put enough guys over there to try to block him, but they still got us a few times and then they moved him inside and stunted him.  He’s a tough guy to block.  He’s really a good player.  He’s quick.  He’s explosive and strong for his size.  He’s very instinctive and he has a great motor.  He’s a hard guy to stay with.  We got him a few times, but he got us too.  He’s a guy you have to game plan for.  He’s tough.

Q: Is it good to see your team come back after an emotional game last week to put up another win?

BB: We try to put all of the games behind us as soon as we can.  By tomorrow afternoon, we need to get on to Cincinnati, correct the mistakes from this game, watch the tape and move on.  It doesn’t really matter whether we win, lose, lose a tough one, win a big one, whatever.  We have to get onto the next game.  We only have 16.  They’re too important and we can’t let one game carryover into another one.  I think the guys are pretty good about trying to do that.  This will be an important week for us to get off to a good start against Cincinnati, especially defensively.  We know what they’re capable of doing from a production standpoint.  They can score a lot of points.

Q: Does anything Randy [Moss] does surprise you or do you think you’ve seen enough of him?

BB: There’s a lot of things he can still work on.  He hasn’t had that much time in the offense, but his production has been good.  Tom [Brady] has been able to find him when he’s been open and Randy has been able to convert.  It was a really nice play down there in the red area on the slant pattern.  It was really good coverage by [Jabari] Greer.  There was almost no space to get the ball in there.  It was just well executed and that’s what it needs to be down there.  It was good.

Q: Did you see Randy’s second touchdown catch at all from where you were?

BB: Are you talking about the one down the sideline in front of their bench?

Q: Yes.

BB: When Brady let it go, it looked to me like it was going to be an incomplete pass.  It didn’t really look like there was much room for the ball to get in there and if it did, the defender would probably get it and somehow it would drop just beyond the corner, just inside the sideline right into Randy’s hands.  I was a long way away from it.  I didn’t really get a good look at it, but when the ball left his hand the last thing I was thinking was, ‘This is going to be a touchdown.’

Q: You’ve seen a lot of great things from Tom over the years.  These past couple of weeks, has this been as good of a stretch that he’s played that you’ve seen?

BB: I think he’s played well.  He’s had some other games that were pretty good games.  It doesn’t really matter.  We have a long way to go.  We just need to keep improving each week.  I’d like to see him handle the ball a little bit better and not fumble it down there on the goal line.  I’m sure he’d like to have that play back.  There’s always going to be plays like that that every player would like to have back, calls that every coach would like to have back.  We have a long way to go and I hope that we can continue to get better.

Q: It seemed like Laurence [Maroney] ran with some more authority today and he was decisive in his cuts.  Is that accurate?

 

BB: I think Laurence has done a good job for us.  He’s done a good job for us.  I thought the line blocked well.  The way that Buffalo plays defense sometimes it’s a little bit of if there’s a good hole there that you can get through or there’s nothing and we saw some of both.  I thought the backs ran hard, but I think they’ve been running hard.

Q: How do you feel about the balance of your offense?  Do you feel at all that the efficiency of your running game has been overlooked?

BB: Well, the most important thing to me is scoring points on offense.  I don’t really care how we score them.  We’ve thrown the ball a lot. We’ve run it a lot.  We’ve been balanced.  I think in the end, you have to be able to execute the plays that are the most advantageous to you based on your personnel and what the defense is doing.  As long as we’re moving the ball and scoring points, then we’re doing well offensively.  If we’re not, then we’re not.  It doesn’t make any difference what we’re doing.  That’s the only reason that unit goes out on the field, is to score.  If we just wanted to run three plays and punt, we could find a lot of guys to do that.  Their job is to move it.

Q: What was your reaction when Wes Welker lateraled the ball to Randy? 

BB: I don’t think that was the best play that I’ve ever seen; let’s put it that way.  When the players have the ball out there, they have to make the plays and it’s their job to do what they think is best.  Being aggressive and trying to make plays is good.  Being careless and not taking care of the ball is bad.  I’ll talk to Wes about it and see exactly what he saw.  I don’t think we want to make a habit of that.  In that case, it worked out for a few extra yards.  It’s hard to get on him, but we’ll try.  We’ll get on him anyway.