 |
| |
|
|
| |
2005 quotes
|
|
|
|
|
| |
"It is about having players.
That's all it's about. That's who goes out there and plays the game....
Any success that we've had has been due, more than anything, to the performance
of the players on the field under pressure situations against a high level of
competition."
When asked if it was about the players or the system |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
what he told the team after the loss
"Well,
everybody, we were all disappointed.... When you put as much into it as we did, and work
as hard at the game as the team has worked, of course it's going to
be disappointing when the results are what they are. I don't think
there are really any words that can provide that great a comfort to
it. Denver played better than we did Saturday night. That's what
happened. They played better than we did. I don't know that they're
the better team but they played better than we did, they deserved to
win, and that's why they're playing next weekend and we aren't."
if this has been a trying season
"I think
that it's been really good for me to coach the players that I've
coached. I mean, this team is a hardworking, focused, dedicated,
football-is-important-to-them team. The most trying seasons for me
have been to work with players who just really don't put as much
into it as I feel like they should or they're capable of. If the
guy's out there giving you everything he's got, doing everything he
can do to try to be the best player and to give you the best chance to
win as a team that he can, I can't argue with that. That's all I'm
looking for. What's disappointing is when players don't put forth
that effort, and have another personal agenda, or just non-team type
players. And that doesn't really exist on this team. So from that
standpoint it's challenging every week. There are good teams and
good players out there every single time we line up on Sunday, or
Saturday, whenever it is. But the way the team worked and their
effort and their attention to detail and their unselfishness I love
that about this team. And I have a lot of respect for every single
one of them because they all put forth that effort."
weei, january 16 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
controversial officiating decisions
"There
were some real questionable decisions, there's no doubt about that.
But the bottom line is we didn't play well enough to win, didn't
coach well enough to win. Denver was the better team last night.
There were some things that went against us, but I don't think that
was the difference in the game. I think Denver deserved to win
because they played better. But there were certainly some very
questionable decisions in that game that...I don't know. I'm
surprised that that was the playoff crew. But that didn't decide the
outcome of the game. I think it would have been a lot worse if it
had come down to one play and that play had been a questionable call
or something like that. There really wasn't the case."
conference call, january 15 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
losing to Denver in the AFC Divisional Playoff
"Obviously that was a game of big plays tonight and Denver made more than we
did. Congratulate Mike and the Broncos, they're a good football team. They
earned the right to play here tonight, and they played well, so I give them credit
for the way they performed, what they did, and for winning the game. Obviously,
we're disappointed. We weren't able to make the plays that we needed to make to
win, and that's why we didn't win."
postgame,
january 14 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about John Lynch
"They involve John in quite a bit of their pressure defense, so they
probably blitz him out of the secondary more than any other player.
So from that standpoint you've got to be aware of him. Now, he
doesn't always blitz, he probably blitzes four or five times a game.
Like in the San Diego game, if he blitzes and you don't account for
him there are strip sacks and hits in the backfield and all that.
Those can be huge plays. So, I think John's definitely a guy you've
got to account for, but it's hard to get past Al Wilson. It's even
harder to get past Trevor Pryce. You've got to be real careful with
Champ Bailey. And all those linebackers, as blitzers, are
very fast. I'm talking about Gold and D.J. and Al, when they
blitz him. So they're all problems, too. I definitely don't think
you can say it's just one guy. Lynch is a good player, he's
certainly a problem with the things that he does. I think there are
a lot of other guys that are a problem, too. And the way they play
their defensive line, which is very unusual, really. A lot of
people rotate five or six guys through there, they really rotate
eight. They have two full sets of linemen. So not only are they
fresher when they're playing fewer plays but the matchups from one
player to the next is different. You take a guy like Trevor Pryce
who literally can play all four spots across the line,
he's an outstanding player. This guy is as good as anybody we've
played. Can play end and tackle and plays both sides. He's a
tough matchup for everybody, and they've all got to be ready for him
to know exactly how that one's going to unfold, where he's going to
be. But he's a problem no matter where he is."
press conference, january 12 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
Deion Branch about work ethic
"From the get-go it starts with Coach Belichick. He instills all
that into us once the season starts. At the beginning of this season
our slogan was 'to climb this mountain,' which we started way back
in preseason when everybody was talking about 'defending champion'
such and such. His main thing was that we're not defending anything
because we don't have a title. We won that last year. When
you're defending a title is when you have it, such as a boxer. When
a boxer goes in to fight, he has the title. All 32 teams are
fighting for one goal in the beginning of the season. That was his
main slogan and for us to work at climbing that mountain, which
we've been doing. We still have a pretty long way to go."
about Coach Belichick
"Everything that comes out of
coach's mouth is a positive, and if you don't take anything from it
then you shouldn't be around here. For a guy to be a head coach
thirty years, he knows a whole lot about the game. He knows a whole
lot more than I do, as well. And the guys that are around
here."
deion branch press conference, january 11 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
Troy Brown about Coach Belichick
"We just had to keep rep-ing stuff. We just kept working. That was
it. We weren't going to throw in the towel ... that's not going to
happen around here. We kept plugging away at it. We just kept
working. We'd go out and we'd have contact practices. We'd do
whatever. Whatever it took to get us better, that's what we did. And
the guys responded to it. I'm not going to say everybody was happy
about it, but we knew we had to do something to get better. Like I
said, we kept working hard, and I like the results that it produced.
We have a chance now."
if it's a credit to the players
"That's a credit to
the whole staff, the players and everybody. It's a team effort. It's
just not going to be if the coach can implement it, but the players
have to be willing to do it. That's what it came down to it's
a total team effort from everybody, and we gave ourselves a
chance at the end of the season."
troy brown press conference, january 11 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if communication breakdown was part of the problem during the
second quarter of their week 6 loss in Denver
"I don't
think it was nearly as much of a problem as just bad coaching and
bad playing. A guy takes the ball and runs right up the middle...it
doesn't get much worse than that. Unless they throw it straight over
your head, uncontested. Twice."
if it took a while to adjust to the changing personnel on defense
"No.... There are always adjustments. I mean, that's what football is. It's not like baseball, where
you've got a pitcher out there on the mound and a batter in the
batter's box. I mean, you've got different formations, you've got
different down and distances every game's different. Every play's different. It's not
static like that. So, that's part of it. If you can't do
that then you're not going to be any good. Can you say, 'Did the
changes, did that affect...' Well, of course. All changes
affect you. Either you can deal with it and get it done, or you
can't. It's as simple as that. But whatever happened, happened. We
didn't do as good a job at times as we thought we should have, or I
felt we could have, and that includes me. There's plenty of bad
coaching to go in there with that bad playing, now. It's not all
just bad playing. There's a lot of bad coaching. You just try to do
a better job and hope you can eliminate as much of it as possible.
There are times when we did okay and there are other times when we
didn't. If it's not good enough then you'd better find a way to make
it better."
press conference, january 11 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
what they did right and wrong against Denver in week 6
"Well, a lot more wrong than we did right. I don't
think we have enough time here to go through all of that. It was
28-3 early in the third quarter. Bad coaching. Bad playing. Just bad
football. And a lot of good football from Denver. When those two
forces collide then that's what you have 28-3."
the effects of turnovers & interceptions in the playoffs
"In terms of turnovers, the fewer the better, we all know that,
that's what you strive for. I think Jake [Plummer] has done a great
job this year of not only making big plays, but not turning the ball
over. But more importantly, moving the offense. When you have a team
like Denver that's had at least one 80-yard drive in every game,
that's a lot of good football. It's not just one play, or one or two
weeks, but on a weekly basis you can take the ball, move it the
length of the field, that's a lot of good football, and it certainly
runs through the quarterback. To be able to manage the team and make
the plays the passes and third down
conversions and red area passes or whatever it is in that sequence
of plays, as well as formationing and the cadence and the motioning
and all the other stuff that goes with it I
think that's really a credit to him, as well. I mean, the
quarterback's job is to get the ball into the end zone and score
points. It's not to put up stats. Stats are...I mean, they're stats.
But production is team production. If the quarterback can get the
offense in the end zone, then he's done his job. Whether he's gone
3-for-4 or 9-for-10, he's done his job. And that's what Plummer does
he
gets them down the field and he gets them in the end zone, gets
points up on the board. That's how I judge a quarterback."
press conference, january 10 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
Denver in week 6
"They moved
the ball very well and we just didn't do a very good job on
anything the running game, the passing game. What did they have
rushing, 160? Rod Smith had his usual 130 yards against us, Lelie
caught a big one. We just
didn't really stop anything very consistently. When you give up 28 points
early in the third quarter, it's hard to win. And we didn't."
the strength of Denver's defense
"They're
pretty good in a lot of places. I think Champ Bailey's probably the best
corner in the league. I think he's the premier corner. Their defensive
line is very strong they have eight guys, they rotate them in there,
all eight of them play. They're extremely fast at linebacker with D.J. Williams, Ian Gold and Al Wilson. Those guys are almost like
strong safeties, they're so athletic and fast. They're probably as
athletic as a lot of safeties in this league. They cover a lot of
ground. And they're good in the secondary with Lynch and Ferguson
and Champ Bailey. But Bailey's kind of a shutdown
corner you don't see a lot of balls get caught on him, and he's
intercepted seven or eight this year, run a bunch of them back for a
touchdown, so he's a tough guy to deal with. But it's hard to block
their front four, and a lot of times their front seven, because the linebackers are involved in
a lot of their pressure defenses. So
they're strong across the board. They put a lot of pressure on the
offense in terms of blitzes and pressure calls, but they can cover,
too. I think that's why they're right at the top of the league in
defense they're second or third. It's because they're good in
everything."
weei, january 9 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
winning the AFC Wildcard Playoff
"That was a good win for
our football team. I was really proud of our players, I thought they played hard
tonight. And Jacksonville is a very physical team. Tough football team. And the
first half, 7-3, was a hard fought half. Fortunately we were able to put a good
drive together there in the third quarter to make some plays and play pretty
competitively on defense. Did a decent job on the running game, got a couple
turnovers. I thought it was a solid effort in all three phases. Certainly, we
could play better, I am sure we could coach better, but it was good to win. And
now we're on to whoever we play already beat us
pretty handily this year, whichever team it ends up being, so we have our work
cut out for us next week. We're looking forward to getting started on that. But
we'll enjoy this one for a while it was a good, solid team
win. I thought the players really had a good week of preparation and put
a lot into this game. I thought it showed tonight."
postgame,
january 7 (link fixed) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the enjoyment of game planning
"It's part of
coaching. I like all coaching. It's understanding what they're
doing, trying to prepare your team for what they do, trying to come
up with what you feel like gives the players an opportunity to be
successful, teaching them that, going through it either on
the practice field or in the game. It doesn't always work the way
you want it to, so you either change something that you're doing, or
try to coach it better so that you can still do it, but help
the players figure out the way to solve the problem that they're
having with the play. And then you get into the game situations and
it's more of the same process, just accelerated into a smaller
time-frame and more critical situations. But I enjoy all of that ...
It's very challenging, because you've got all the other good teams
in the league, good coaches, good players and everybody's got a lot
of things to work with, and they're trying to cause you more
problems than you're trying to cause them. So you just have to try
to figure out what the best thing to do is, what gives you the best
chance given all the things that you're trying to take into
consideration. I think it's hard in this league to just do the same
thing every time pretty much everybody can figure out a way to
handle that, no matter what it is. So you've got to have enough
variety to not be so predictable unless you can just go out
there and execute it flawlessly time after time. There may be some
teams that can do that in certain aspects of their game, but
certainly not in all three phases on a consistent basis. I think
that would be pretty rare. But that's what a big part of coaching
is. There are a lot of other things that go with it, too. We can
talk about game planning, but that also leads into preparation and
practice. You've only got so many plays out there in practice which
ones are you going to run? What are you going to run them against?
What do you think the other team's going to do when you run those
plays? If you end up practicing them against the wrong thing then
it's really a waste of time, and then you end up never really
practicing against what you're going to see out there on Sunday. So
that's all part of it, too."
press conference, january 5 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
regarding Tom Brady's comments about the team not receiving much
respect this season
"I think that opinion's been
represented quite a bit this year. Yes, I agree with Tom. Sure. ...
Everybody can write what they want to write, think whatever they
want to think. Everybody's entitled to their own opinion. Nobody's
holding any grudges on it. But I think that opinion has been
expressed far and wide many times over, by all the people that he
identified ... It doesn't really matter what anybody else thinks
about our team or thinks about us I
don't really care about that. All I care about is how we prepare and
how we play against Jacksonville. Whatever the results are Saturday
night, that'll tell the story. Good or bad, whatever they are,
that's what we're out there for. I don't think the rest of it's
going to effect us too much I don't think it
should. I understand that everybody's interested in the game
and they're going to write an opinion about it I
have no problem with that. That's why pro football's a great
game there's a lot of interest in it, a lot of
excitement, everybody wants to try to see what's going to happen.
It'll all come out there Saturday night. I'm comfortable with that I
wouldn't want to change any of it. But the only thing we can control is what we do and how we prepare for the game, so that's
where we're going to put all our efforts and energies. It doesn't
really matter to me what anybody else thinks or what anybody else's
opinion on the game is in the end none
of that's going to matter. The only thing that's going to matter is
how the two teams perform against each other in that arena out
there."
if he uses it to motivate the team
"I don't think
that's going to put any points on the board. And I don't think it's
going to take any off."
press conference, january 4 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about Jacksonville's lack of playoff experience
"I think that, to a degree, that's a little
bit overrated. We heard all that in '01 when we went into the
playoffs, about inexperience and all that, an inexperienced
quarterback with Brady, and so forth. But I think really what it
comes down to is playing well and executing well. If your team can
do that, then you've got a chance. If they can't, it doesn't really
make any difference what else you do have. If you don't have
good execution and real precise, good, solid, smart football at this
time of year, you're probably not going to be playing for too long.
And I think that's the thing Jacksonville has shown they've
won twelve games. That's a lot of wins, so they're doing a lot of
things well enough to put that kind of record up there. That
experience it's nice to have it, but I don't think it's as important
as playing good football, and that's what they've been doing."
if previous success gives them a mental edge
"I don't think that anybody really
has much of an edge. The '05 team is different than any other team
we've had. We have different players and I think there are some
things that we do maybe a little better than we've done on other
teams, and there are things that we don't do as well. So the '05
team hasn't really accomplished anything this year, other than what
it has accomplished in terms of winning the division, but in
the playoffs we haven't won a game, we haven't done anything. It
will be up to this team to set its own course on that based on its
performance. So I think the edge goes to the team that plays
better."
weei, january 3 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
competing with Cincinnati for the third seed while playing Miami
"We went into the game playing to win
like we always do. We also wanted to give all our players an
opportunity to play so that they could be ready to play in the
playoffs and have some game experience. So we played everybody and
we played to win. It came down to the final play, we weren't able to
make the two-point conversion. But who we had out there played as
well as they could and we got beat by a better team on Sunday."
conference call with jacksonville media, january 3 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
what he tells players who haven't been to the playoffs
"That we're moving up a level in intensity. I would say the
overall intensity and the magnitude of each play. There are some
games during the season that, let's face it, if you lose them, your
season can continue. We're not at that point now. So every play,
every situation, every decision, everything in every game, it truly
is a one game season now. Everything is more important. Everything
is critical. There's not one aspect of any part of the preparation
for the game that isn't of utmost importance because it could
determine not only the outcome of the game, but the outcome of their
season. That's how I would explain it to them."
press conference, january 3 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about Jacksonville being perceived as the "easier matchup"
It's pretty ridiculous. ... Talk to whoever thinks
that. Go talk to the 12 wins that they've had go
talk to the teams that have lost to them and see what they have to
say."
press conference, january 2 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
doug flutie's dropkick
"We had tryouts out there, and Doug shanked a couple, but he hit a
couple pretty good ones so I thought if we had an opportunity to do
it here in one of these last couple games that we'd give him a shot.
I think Doug deserves it. He's a guy that adds a lot to this game of
football, has added a lot through his great career running, passing, and now kicking. He's got a
skill and we had a chance to let him use it. I'm happy for him.
First time since '41 ... It might be sixty years again, too.
It's a lot tougher the way the ball is now. It's a lot tougher
kicking than it was back then. Really, Doug's hit a lot of good ones
in practice. We've done it a few times and he's banged it right
through there."
postgame, january 1 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
losing to Miami in the final game of the regular season
"One of the things we wanted to do today was play competitively
against a good football team, which Miami is. Obviously, it came right down to
the last play. I was proud of the way the players fought. We got a lot of people
an opportunity to play. You never know when that's going to be beneficial, and
this was really our last opportunity to do it, so we tried to take advantage of
that. I think we got everybody in and got some significant playing time for some
guys that haven't had as much opportunity to play recently. Congratulate Miami,
they've won six straight. They're a good football team. I think Nick's done a
great job down there. Unfortunately he's in our division, and so is Miami. They
played very competitively and made the plays they needed to make to win. Give
them credit."
postgame, january 1 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
expectations this time of year
"I think the big thing is to just try to keep our team
focused on a short-term basis. We can control what we do today,
and that's where all our energy should be our
meetings, our film sessions, our practice. And try to be a better
team and a better player today than we were when we walked out on
the field yesterday. That's our big goal."
what has happened in the last month
"I don't see us doing all that much differently, I see us doing
it better....I think it comes down to better execution, better
preparation, better overall team defense, maybe better coaching you can probably throw that in there, because
there were a lot of games early in the season that I didn't
think were very well coached. I didn't think that at the time and I
don't think that looking back at them, either. I just think
collectively we've done a little bit better job, but I think it's a
lot more execution and staying with what we've got and what we
believe in and what we think we can do well, rather than making a
whole lot of changes and going into a whole lot of different
directions that try to take care of it all with scheme.
Try to take care of it with better play."
press conference, december 29 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if progress has been made this year
"It's really pretty much week-to-week. I don't ever really
look too far ahead where things are going to be a month from now. To
me, it's one-game seasons where are we this week, how can we get
better against Miami, what things can we do better, how can we play
better, what techniques to work on, maybe things to modify, plays to
call, so forth and then deal with next week next week. That's what
it was a month ago, two months ago, three months ago. It's just, try
to take a short-term approach. Things that we're not doing well, try
to find a way to improve them whether it's change them, or do them
more in practice, or sometimes it's change personnel to get a better
combination in there, whatever it is, but try to find some way to
correct it and make it better. And then see how that goes. Then
sometimes you have to change it again the following week, or
sometimes you feel like you're making progress even though you're
not quite there yet, and you stay with it and hope that it will get
better. It's kind of the same process every week, it doesn't really
change. Where I thought we'd be a month from now, I didn't really
think that, I was just trying to think of where we'd be a week from
now. And that's the way I feel right now, today. I'm not worried
about a month from now, I'm worried about Miami and how we can try
to play better against them and make ourselves a better football
team. I think that's our best chance."
"I think we've all improved and gotten better at
doing a number of things on the defensive side of the ball. I would
hope that we would after the amount of practices and meetings and
walkthroughs and film sessions and all of that that we've had."
press conference, december 28 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
this week's priorities
"To continue to
work on the things that are important to us, to perform well as a
football team, and to prepare for the Dolphins and try to improve on
some of the things that we didn't do as well against the Jets, or
that we'd like to get better from recent weeks, and continue to try
to be consistent on the things that have been fairly productive. I
think that's really all we can do. Again, there are just too
many variables going into the following week. It's different than in
preseason, where you know who your opening opponent is and all that
you just have a lot more concrete information to work off of.
Here, there are just so many variables. I know from past
experience that if you put a lot of time into something two or three
weeks ahead of time in anticipation of the way it's going to go, and
then things change at the last minute and you end up playing
somebody else, then in a way it ends up being more of a setback than
it is getting ahead."
weei, december 27 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
beating the Jets week 16
"I thought we could play better than
we played in the early part of the season. That wouldn't take much, though. We
were last in the league in defense. It wouldn't take much to play better than
that. But we just try to work hard, improve on the things we're not doing well,
see if we can get them corrected and get them better. The players have done a
good job of that. They've been very diligent and done extra film study, extra
practice, extra meetings, just a lot of extra things to try to improve our
performance and how we can play situationally and just our overall execution of
a lot of different areas in the game, offensively and defensively and in the
kicking game. I think that that hard work has paid off with some better results.
It's a credit to the players that they've been able to turn some of those
situations around."
postgame, december 26 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about making a run for the Super Bowl
"Right now we're just trying to get ready for the Jets. I don't know
about a run anywhere. I hope we can run the ball. That would be a
change if we could. We're just trying to get ready for the Jets.
It's a Monday night game. Herm always does a great job in getting
his team ready to go. They play with a lot of emotion, a high energy
level; they certainly have the last couple weeks. I think we've made
some improvement over the last couple weeks in our play, but we're
still lacking consistency in some areas. Hopefully, we can do a
better job of that. We're looking forward to playing the Jets down
there at home where they usually play well. Herm does a great job of
getting the team ready to go. I'm sure they'll be at their best
Monday night."
conference call with new york media, december 21 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if there is more sophistication this late in the season
"Oh, no
question. No question. It's not even close. That's why when you take
a game against a team that you've played at the end of the season,
like Pittsburgh last year for example, in the '04 season, where
those two teams were, and 150 practices, and 17 regular season and
postseason games, and the sophistication of what you can do as a
team in every phase of the game offense, defense, and special teams
and then multiply that times all the things that they can do
at an accomplished level, and where that game is relative to now
playing them in the second or third week of the season where you just can't execute those things. You could go out and say, 'Gee,
this play looked great, that play looked great,' but you've had a
third of those practices, you've played a fifth of that number of
games you're just not at the same
level of execution, you just don't have the background. And yeah,
you can call the play, but now stuff happens and you haven't gone
over it as thoroughly, and you're not quite sure what to do and you
have different people doing it, and so forth and so on. It's just
not the same. So as the team progresses through the year you build
your system offensively and defensively. You also have to deal with
more on the other side of the ball, generally speaking what they do
and the game kind of graduates up to a different level. I'm not
saying the game's better or worse, but I think it's coached and
played differently in the third week of the season than it is in the
fifteenth week. No question about it. But it's hard when you take a
game like, again, the Pittsburgh game's a great example. You take a
game like that and you look at it in the offseason and you say okay,
boy the next time we play them here's what we can do. But you're
just not playing with the same team. Even if it's the exact same guys, you're not playing with the same team. Their
execution level and their efficiency in September compared to where
it is in January, it's just, if you can ever get that kind of
execution in September, then you really have something. But
it's all relative."
press conference, december 21 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
winning the last two games or resting players
"I
think you want to go into the game playing good football, and of
course you want your people as healthy as possible, so I think you
try to balance those two things. I think one without the
other probably isn't any good. I think you want to try to balance
those two factors to as high a level as possible. Sort of like where
you are at the end of preseason where you want to have your team
executing well. You want to get them in there and have them playing
well, and you want everybody as healthy as possible. But it's
nothing you have any control over, so I think our approach this week
against the Jets is just going to be like any other week. We're not
going to do anything any differently just because of whatever the
standings say, or don't say. We've got to improve in a lot of areas
we can improve, certainly, defensively in our third down
conversions, and we're still last in the league in takeaways.
Offensively, running the ball. And in the kicking game we can
certainly improve a lot there in terms of our kick coverage. So
there are things that we can keep doing a better job on. That's
where the emphasis is going to be."
weei, december 19 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if winning is more important after Thanksgiving
"It doesn't matter for any game. Every game is it's own
game. I don't think it matters if you've won however many in a row
or lost however many in a row. Last year, you guys had the stories
written on Wednesday when we went down to Miami and how that game
was going to turn out and then you had to rewrite them at the end of
the game. It doesn't make any difference. None of that matters. The
only thing that matters is how the team plays competitively against
its opponent on that day. That's the only thing that matters. That's
all that we can control, is our preparation and our performance for
that game. The rest of it, in November, December, October, Monday
night, Thursday night, when the temperature is below
, when the wind
is out of the East. Honestly, I can't get into any of that."
if the team is lacking emotion
"No, I never thought that. I thought that we, as I
said a couple weeks ago, I think that we have more confidence now. I don't think we ever lacked confidence, or maybe lacked
intensity or emotion or whatever that word is, I just think we're at
a higher level now, and I think that's come from having a little bit
more success and from being more confident, really. Confidence is
really, in the end, what drives your aggressiveness, your emotion,
your spirit, your communication, your everything. If you're sure
it's right, and you know it's going to work out right, it's a lot
easier to hit it hard. You know, the nail's sitting right there and
you can just lean back and crack it. [But] if the thing's moving,
it's tilting, it's jiggling, it's vibrating, you just can't get the
same...you just can't do it as aggressively. So I think that that
confidence has grown in the second half of the season. I think
that's a big part of it. I don't think it was ever not there, I'm
not saying that. I do think we're at a higher point, though."
press conference, december 19 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
winning the division and making the playoffs
"We're happy that we've done that, and now we'll still take it one
week at a time and do everything we can to keep improving as a football team. I
think we've gotten better in the last month ... so
hopefully we can keep it going in that direction. But the only way
that'll happen is if we keep working hard at it. It won't happen
just because we want it to happen. We're going to have to work at it."
if the team now has an identity
"I think there has been, looking backward. I don't know whether
we'll be able to sustain that going forward or not. That's our
challenge. But at least we've got something to work with ...
I think defensively we're developing a little bit more consistency,
and hopefully some more continuity, particularly in the secondary.
Hopefully we can build on that, but believe me, that can go down
just as quick as it can bounce back up. So if we don't keep working
at it and keep the same attitude and work ethic that we've had
recently, then I'm sure the results won't reflect that."
postgame, december 17 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if quarterback can be a game-time decision or if it's sacred
"I couldn't speak for anybody else, but I
don't think there is anything sacred about anything. I will do
what's best for the team, whatever that is be it any player, any position, or any game. I can't ever
tell you what that's going to be until really you get down to
whatever the final decision making time is. If you know for sure
before that, then you make it. If you don't, then you go down until
you can get as much information and have as much knowledge of the
situation or the circumstances as you can, and then you make the
final call. What that will be, I have no idea."
press conference, december 15 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if the players' work ethic & knowledge of the game are a
reflection of himself and the assistant coaches
"No. I think that the players' work ethic and knowledge is a
reflection of their effort and time and work that they put
into their job. I think that as a player, you get out of it what you
put into it. And if a player works hard and studies film and
practices hard and is in good condition, then that's really what's
going to establish his career and make him successful. I think
that's where it starts. As a coach you can try to motivate people or
try to push them in a certain direction, but I think 90% of that
comes from the individual's inner character and his own determination and motivation more so than it is somebody else
motivating him. It's just too long a season, there's too many games.
That just doesn't work every day. A guy's got to either want to do
it and take a lot of pride in it themselves, or they don't and
somebody else is going to come along and pass them up."
press conference, december 14 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about Jon Gruden
"Jon
and I have never worked together. I think considering that we've
never worked together, I'm probably as close to him as any coach
that I haven't worked with on a day-to-day basis. We've talked a lot
about different aspects of football, whether it's head coaching or
offense/defense. We've been in different conferences for awhile, so
we've been able to talk about how to matchup against a common
opponent that we were both facing. We're not really in direct
competition, other than when he was at Oakland. But when he was at
Philadelphia, and also now at Tampa, now it's easier to exchange
information or try to help each other out when you face another
team, or in the offseason. Jon's got a great mind, he's got a great
understanding of the game. He really understands defenses and how to
attack them and how to put stress points on them. At the same time,
[he] coaches a very fundamentally sound game where he can get his
players to execute basic, simple plays and techniques. In the end,
breaks down a defense as much as anything does, it's just good
execution. I really have a lot of respect for Jon. He's a great guy
to be around, we've had a lot of fun together. I'm glad we don't
have to compete with him on a regular basis, that he's not in our
division or anything like that, it just makes for a better
relationship that way. I think what he's done at Tampa has been
outstanding the success he had the
first year, and then kind of the team he's rebuilt here. He's made a
lot of changes in the last couple of years to get to this point. He
changed the perceptions about things that they could or could not
do. They're a top, hard-nosed, good, fundamentally sound football
team. That's what Jon is. I think his personality is very much
reflected in the team and the way they play."
conference call with tampa bay, december 14 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
good defense
"When you're playing the run better
... and you've
got some second-and-nines and third-and-tens, it's a lot easier to
call defenses than when it's second-and-three and third-and-two.
Then the offense has a lot of options you've
got runs, you've got all the receivers, you've got quarterback
scrambles, you've got little gadget plays, stuff like that like
Buffalo ran in the first game against us where they ran a wide
receiver option for three yards. But it was third-and-two, so
it looks like a good play. You just cut down on a lot of that stuff
as the yardage gets greater, and it starts with stopping the running
game, and it starts with not giving up easy conversions in
the passing game."
third down
"Third down has a lot to do with first down. If you can make
yards on first down and come up with second-and-five,
second-and-four, it's hard to be in a bad third down
situation. It really is. You have to get sacked or have a big
penalty or a big negative play. So the running game and the
completions just being able to hit at a high
completion percentage, which we've been able to do in a couple games
this year that helps the third down situation as well. And then
having guys on third down that you have a lot of guys on the field
on third down that can convert them. Tom picked up a couple himself
yesterday, which he's done in the past couple weeks, too. When they
have everybody covered, and there's a gap there in the middle, he
can go up there and pick up the first down. Again, it's like having
an extra receiver. It's kind of a bonus conversion that he wouldn't
normally get. So you take those and put the offense back out on the
field, call a couple more runs and keep pounding away."
weei, december 12 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
controlling the game with offense
"I think it's a complementary game. I think that
any time you have a high time of possession then that's reflective
of your
ability to stay on the field offensively, but it's also reflective
of your ability to get off the field on defense. Those two go hand
in hand. When they work together, then you can have a bigger time of
possession. When only one of them is working, it's probably going to
be about even. And when they're both not working, then...they've got
the ball all day and you don't. We've been in that situation, too.
But converting those third downs is big. Ultimately it comes
down to points, though. So moving the ball's good, having time of
possession's good, but that doesn't really win any games. What wins
games is points. Just like when we beat Buffalo in the first game,
even though the time of possession was so dramatically against us,
we were still able to win because of other factors. So, ultimately I
don't think time of possession is...it's certainly not the
bottom line, but it helps to have the ball more than they do. That's a step in the right direction."
press conference, december 12 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
beating buffalo week 14
"I thought that was a good win for our football team today. I
thought we came in and played pretty solidly in all phases of the
game. It was a good effort. Defensively, I thought we did a decent
job on the running game and played better on third down.
Offensively, it was better on third down, we were able to run the
ball a little bit and have some balance. But I thought it was a
solid effort, so hopefully we can build on that. We've got a short
week this week against Tampa, and come in and see if we can build on
these last couple and get ready to go against a good team from Tampa
Bay that's playing very well. So we'll have a big challenge this
week. But it's always good to win in the division, good to win on
the road, and I'm proud of our team and the way they played today. I
thought they played hard and made some plays. Played better on third
down, got the ball in the end zone, kept them out, so, it's better
than it's been."
postgame, december 11 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
how Buffalo played them week 8
"They did everything. Everything. They killed us. It was
third-and-10 and they ran a draw and they picked that up. They hit
the receivers on vertical routes. The first one was like
third-and-15, third-and-16, something like that. They hit [Roscoe]
Parrish up the seam for a first down. They hit [Eric] Moulds on an
angle or a slant route, ran a draw on third-and-10 for a first down.
You could go right down the line. We had a hard time and couldn't
pick one up. The only one we converted was on a quarterback sneak. I
don't think you're going to pick up too many that way, so you better
find something else to do besides a quarterback sneak."
press conference, december 8 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about J.P. Losman
"We saw him earlier in the year, a
few weeks before we were getting ready for our game, and then
more recently. I think that he's certainly improved his play from
the early part of the season, although he had some productive games
there, as well. But he's a very athletic guy. If the receivers
aren't open and he's got the ability to pull the ball down, it makes
it like a sixth receiver, another guy to cover on defense. They also
use him on a little bit of moving pocket and bootlegs and stuff like
that, so that's a problem. And the receivers with the addition of
Parrish just adds another weapon to the mix of receivers and tight
ends and backs that they have. Very good skill players. They're a
hard team to match up against, especially because their skill
players are very diverse. And Losman can get them the ball, like he
did last week with Evans. But if you put too much coverage on him,
you still have Parrish and Moulds and Reed and Aiken and everybody
else to worry about, plus, obviously McGahee. So I think he's done a
good job of finding the open receivers, taking care of the ball for
the most part, and just performing with more confidence than he did
earlier in the year."
conference call with buffalo, december 7 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if holding the Jets to 164 yards and 3 points helps to build the
confidence of the defense
"We've done some things that have been
heading us in the right direction and hopefully we can take
yesterday's game and continue to build on our ability to stop the
run, our pass rush, our third down conversions, and be solid at that
going forward. We need to be. Now we're in December. It's the last
quarter of the season, so we need to be playing our best defense."
weei, december 5 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
this being a "season of truth"
"I think every
season has its own personality so-to-speak, but I think it's a good focus for our team, therefore it's been an emphasis point.
Next year it could be another... Last year it could be something
else. But I think if you can focus on something that keeps
everything in perspective, I think in the long run that's probably
good. In this case, I think that being realistic and being truthful
and being factual is a lot better for our football team than it is
talking about perception and what everybody else thinks we are or
aren't or can be or should be or whatever. I don't think that really
has too much bearing on it."
what he has with this team
"I don't think we've been able to consistently be the
same team. I think a big part of our season has been defined by our
lack of consistency in all three phases of the game. I think if we
could develop a more consistent pattern, then there would be a lot
better barometer on how the team is going to perform on a consistent
basis. But we just haven't been able to do that."
press conference, december 5 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
beating the Jets week 13
"I don't think there was a whole lot that
we haven't been able to do, I think we just did some things better, and that was
encouraging. That's really what the emphasis was this week. What I think our
team needs to do is we just need to do a better job of what we are doing. I
don't think it's some magic play that we can run, I mean that stuff doesn't last
too long, anyway. We just need to do a better job of executing the plays that we do call, and I thought we did better on that, especially in the third down area.
Came up a little short in the red area offensively, but we were certainly able
to move the ball, and that was good. A couple of times we were able to change
field position when we were backed up. They did a good job of punting it and
backing us up down there a couple of times, so digging it out off our goal line
was important, too."
postgame, december 4 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
team defense
"I think it comes back down to team defense. I don't
think it's about this group of guys, I think it extends to the whole
team. When you call a defense, you have 11 guys to deploy. You could
put more here, but that means you have to put fewer there. And you
could put more there, but that means you have to put fewer here,
whether it's by alignment or by what their responsibility is after
the ball is snapped. Or, you can just try to balance it off the best
you can and be relatively thin or
however you want to look at it but
have the same relative numbers across the board, which might lead to
some unfavorable matchups. Or, you could try to put more guys here
or more guys there, but that leaves fewer guys somewhere else.
That's just fundamental defense, it's not us trying to create
anything here, but those are what your options are. When you're
having trouble on defense, it's probably not necessarily one thing.
If you feel like you're strong in one area, then maybe you lighten
the load there to spread it out somewhere else, which means that group might not look as good as if you put more strength into that
area. Again, I think it comes back to team defense, I really do. I
don't think you isolate it to one guy, 'Well, how come everything is
not great there, because it's the same guys that it was some other time.'
It's how the 11 matchup against their 11."
if the defense lacks confidence
"I don't think we lack confidence, but I think we can have more,
let's put it that way. I don't think we lack confidence, but the
more successful you are the more that builds, so it could be,
certainly, to a higher degree. I've been around a lot of teams, and a
lot of players, that really don't have any confidence they're just
hoping for the best. I don't feel that way at all. And I don't think
our defensive players, or team, feels that way at all. But, if we
were to play better, I think we would have more confidence."
postgame, december 2 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
his evaluation of a particular player
"I think I'd say pretty much the same thing about just about any
player you could ask about. There are some things that are good,
there are other things that could be better. I don't think we've had
the kind of consistency, at any point, that we really need, or that
we're capable of. So I think all of us that
includes me, it includes the coaching staff, it includes the
players, it includes all three units that we all need to perform
better and perform more consistently. So I'll put everybody into
that category. And they're all different circumstances that go
around each position and each player and each unit. But
still, all that being said, my expectations are still higher than
what we've achieved. Hopefully we'll be able to get to that point,
but I don't think we're there yet. I don't think we've been there on
a consistent basis. I think it's been there from time to time,
pretty much within every game, at some point, for a decent amount of time, but not really a sustained effort over the course of
60
minutes. It really hasn't been there."
press conference, december 1 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
coping with injuries
"It's the NFL. You look at any team. Every week you take what you
have and put it up against what the other team has and try to set it
up the best you can. Every team goes through that. We're part of the
NFL. There are going to be issues to deal with every week. I've got
confidence in our players, I've got confidence in our team. I need
to do a better job. I need to coach them better. And hopefully we
can play a little bit better and we can be a little more consistent
than we've been the last few weeks."
conference call with new york, november 30 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if the offense is under pressure to score more points
"To me, I think the offense should go out there and try to score
every time they're out there. I don't see what difference it makes. I mean,
don't get me wrong, the whole game is interrelated offense, defense, and special teams. But when that offensive unit goes out on
the field, they're only going out there for one reason. And defensively, when we
go out there, they're only going out there for one reason. So, I think
it's really a bad way to put it. I think it's a pretty feeble excuse, really, if
anybody ever even looks at it that way.... When you're called to go out
there, it doesn't make any difference whether it's on your 1-yard line or their
1-yard line, you're going out there to stop them. You don't think about whether
they returned a punt, whether they got a fumble, whether you punt wherever you are, that's where you are and you go
out there and you compete defensively. It's the same thing on offense. You can
have the ball in bad field position, then the first thing you want to do is
drive it into good field position, and then you want to score. So why
else put them out there? ... Same thing defensively you're going out there
trying to shut out everybody you play. You're not, 'Well, we're scoring
40 so let's give up 35.' I don't think a good football player, or a good
football team, or a team with a good football attitude, I don't see how it could
ever look at it that way. I know I never have. To me, the group that you're
putting out there, you're putting out there for production, and that's
definitely the reason they're out on the field."
weei, november 28 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about their loss in Kansas City
"I'm sure there are some throws Tom would like to have back.
I think there are some catches the receivers would like to have
back. I think there are some calls the coaches would like to have
back. There are some tackles that the linebackers would like to have
back. There are plays there for everybody. I wouldn't single anybody
out, and I wouldn't leave anybody out, either."
press conference, november 28 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
why they lost in Kansas City week 12
"We spotted them a big lead early too much to make up against a good team. They just
got too far out in front too early, and it was too far to come back from...We didn't play well enough.
I think that goes across the board. We didn't play well enough on offense, we
didn't play well enough on defense, we didn't play well enough on special teams,
need to do a better job of coaching, so I think it's across the board....We spot a team a 26-3 lead in the third
quarter it's just like Denver. We spot them a 28-3
lead on the road. You're not going to win a lot of games against a good, quality
football team, which the Chiefs are and which Denver was. We have to find a way to
make it a little bit more competitive than that."
postgame, november 27 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
evaluating the team
"Ultimately, it's how the teams in totality play on Sunday. Not
what their stats are, not how many all-stars they have, not what should happen, but what actually happens based on the way those
teams perform on Sunday. I think in trying to evaluate your team,
both in the long-term and at the end of the season when you make
those kind of evaluations, you want to see how you do competitively
against overall league competition, but then also against some
exceptional competition."
press conference, november 25 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
beating New Orleans week 11
"I thought overall that we played a pretty competitive football game.
Unfortunately, later in the game they kind of got a good comeback and made it
closer at the end. But I thought we had some balance to ourselves offensively.
We definitely wanted to try to get the ball down the field. We hit some. We
missed some. But it was obviously a significant part of the game plan. Defensively, I
thought we played the run pretty well and, for the most part, contained (Aaron)
Brooks. They have a really good group of receivers and they ended up making
some plays on us. They threw the ball pretty well, which we knew they were capable of
doing. Overall, though, we have to be happy about the win. It's the first time we've
been able to string a couple together all year, so that's satisfying. We're in a little bit of a short week now
with Thanksgiving and all that, so I think it's just important to be able to maintain
our focus, come back and get back to work here this week and get ready for Kansas
City."
postgame, november 20 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
coaching "overachievers"
"I think that's what any coach, whether it's high school, college, pro, whatever it is, any coach's
job is to try to maximize the potential and the abilities that a player has. I
don't really understand what the word overachiever, I don't really know what that means. To
me, what everybody is trying to do is do their best. If somebody's doing
their best, I don't see why that really should be regarded as something that
they shouldn't be able to achieve. Frankly, that's what they should be
able to achieve. It's the ones that don't that...I mean, to a degree nobody's ever
perfect. So in a way everybody's an underachiever, even some of the highest
achievers. Every quarterback's thrown an interception. Every running back's
fumbled. Every receiver's dropped a pass. So, it's never going to be perfect. I really think that's a
misnomer. I
think what a coach tries to do is maximize the performance of his players within
the team context. That's really what it's about. Any time you have an
offensive line, again, the context there is the performance of the entire unit.
One guy could block great, but if it's not coordinated and consistent with
the other guys, then you're not going to have any production, and it isn't going
to be any good. All five guys have to function as a unit, function as one. And
that's where your production of that unit comes from." |
|
| |
good coaching
"Being a good coach or a bad coach, I don't think that's correlated to being
a good or bad player. Being a coach is about whether or not you can help the
players on the team play better. If you can help them, then you have value. If
you can't, you could be a 20-time All-Pro and have 50 Hall of Fame rings, but if
you can't help somebody else be a better player, or help the team be better,
that's what a coach does.... If you're coaching defense, you can't really be a
good defensive coach until you understand offensive football, and vice versa.
You have to understand what the other guy's doing to try to attack it, or defend
it, as the case might be. I don't really understand how you could be a good
coach, regardless of if a guy has spent his entire career on one side of the
ball, he has to understand what is going on on the other side of the ball to be
able to coach the players that he's coaching."
press conference, november 18 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
injured players who have been upgraded
"We upgraded
them because their condition's improved."
if those players will be back this year
"Right now they're doubtful. If their situation improves,
we'll upgrade them and maybe they will. If it doesn't, then we won't. I mean, my
crystal ball is kind of cloudy today. I just can't see exactly where
everything's going to happen in the next week, two weeks, three weeks. I just
don't know. I do know, though, from past experience, when you try to say,
'Well, this player's going to be ready to play for this game 'x' number of weeks
from now,' or 'This injury's going to be healed 'x' number of weeks from now and
here's when he's going to come back,' that those are wrong a lot more often than
they're right. You go day-to-day. If it's better today, than you do a little bit
more than yesterday. If it's better tomorrow, then you do more the next day and
you keep going. If it doesn't, then you pull back and reassess the situation on
a daily basis."
press conference, november 17 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if he has any sense why the Patriots have suffered so many injuries the last couple
of years
"No. They're all different." |
|
| |
about the division still being attainable
"I don't really care about what the
other 31 teams are doing other than the one that we're playing. It's where we are and where our opponent is for that week. Those are the only really
the two teams that you're thinking about. What difference does the rest of it
make? I'm just saying, there's nothing you can do about it. It doesn't make any
difference if somebody else is 10-0, or whether they're 0-10, 5-5, whether
they're on a 5-game winning streak, what difference does it make? There's
nothing you can do about it. All you can do is control your situation, which is
right in front of you, and that's your team, your game, and how you
matchup against that opponent. The rest of it, to me it's irrelevant. I can't
say that nobody else thinks about...whatever. I'm not saying that that doesn't
occur. But I try, I would say, less than one-tenth of one percent of whatever however small I can make it [Laughter]
that's how I try to make it." [Q: If you were 4-4 in Miami and someone else was 7-1?] What difference does it
make? What do you want me to do?" [Q: It would make a hell of a
difference I think, for me, knowing, 'We're still alive,' as opposed to, 'We're
screwed.'] "There are seven games to go in the season. Nobody's
clinched anything in the NFL, have they? I mean, I missed it if they did.
Nobody's clinched anything. So what can you do anything about? You can do
something about the next game. You can't do anything about the ones you've won
or lost, you can't do anything about anybody else's record, and you certainly
can't do anything about however many games come after this one you play. You
deal with them when they come. That's the way I look at it. I might be screwed
up I probably am. [Laughter] But
that's the way I see it." ... "We're going to be sitting here at the end of the
year and you can go back and take a look at the teams that had a record at one
point in the year that was this, and then a record at the end of the year
that was something else, and they won't correlate, I promise you that.
They won't correlate. So, it doesn't really make any difference where anybody is
in the middle of the race, it's where you are at the finish line."
press conference, november 16 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
playing physical
"Football is a contact, physical game. I think you've always got to play it
that way. We try to emphasize that every week. We knew it was a division game,
and Miami, down there, was going to be tough. That's the way they want to play,
and we felt like it was the way we needed to play. It's always the way we
need to play. But the players really did a good job, I think that's what it
comes down to. They played with a lot of toughness and a lot of heart, both
mentally and physically. It was back and forth there, and there were certainly a lot
of times where you could get down or get discouraged, but they just hung in
there and kept battling, and they kept hitting them. So that was the way we felt
like we needed to play that game. It's really the way we need to play every
game."
weei, november 14 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
whether film depicting their body language during games
had a positive effect on the team
"I think the reason why we won the game is
because the players went out and made the plays they needed to make at critical
situations. Hobbs broke up a couple passes, Brady hit Watson on a couple key
touchdowns, Neal and Mankins and Kaczur made key blocks, McGinest knocked down a
pass that's the reason why we won the game. The players made the plays they
needed to make to win, at critical situations in the game. And that's the way
it'll always be. When the players make the plays that we need to make to win,
we'll win. If they're not made, we're not going to win. It wouldn't have
anything to do with showing some film, or breaking chalk and smashing a
projector and all that. I wish that was all there was to it, just kick a
couple chairs."
what it really comes down to
"I think it just comes down to every unit making plays at critical times in
the game. You never know what it's going to be. Red area defense. Two-minute
offense. Run defense. Pass defense. Special teams. Field goal. Kickoff return.
Who knows? You never know what it's going to be. You just hope that you're
prepared for those situations, and then you can go out there and execute that
play, in that situation, when it's called upon. When you get into it
late in the fourth quarter, like what happened yesterday, whether it was us
having the ball when we were behind and coming back to score, or us being on
defense when we were ahead and ultimately being down in the deep red area on the
goal line, it's being able to execute those plays in critical times in the game
when they come up. Who knows which ones they're going to be? 58, 59 minutes of
the game ends up getting decided on two or three plays based on those crucial
situations. That determines the outcome of the game. We all know that's the way
it is, so that's what we try to prepare for."
press conference, november 14 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
beating Miami in Miami
"As usual, it was a hard-fought, tough game down here. Seems like it's always
a dogfight in Miami. Just one of those great games, went back and forth
several times.... I was really proud of the team. We fought through. It's tough
down here. It's tough to play. They're a good football team. They're
well-coached, they're physical. They gave us all we wanted. Just proud of the
guys to be able to hang in there and make some big plays when we needed them. I
thought we played more competitively on defense, but we still had trouble with
them. Fortunately they had a little bit of trouble with us at times, too."
postgame, november 13 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
playing Miami in the past
"We play very competitively with them. We've had some great games with the
Dolphins. Especially the last two, you know, have gone right down to the last
couple plays, overtime. It's like that in this division, though. All those games
are usually pretty tight. They're hard fought, they're tough, and it usually
comes down to a couple plays. Sometimes those plays happen a little bit earlier
in the game, so it's not the final play of the game, so to speak. But it's very
close, very competitive, and the game's kind of back and forth until very late
in the game. In the Miami games, both games with them last year came right down
to the wire, so. That's what we always expect. We expect it to be that kind of
game, that's what we prepare for, and then if it's anything else then you adjust
along the way. But that's the way we expect it to be."
press conference, november 11 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
whether or not to play a guy
"I think you look at it as to what the player's availability is and
what he can do and then decide on what role you want to put him in and what role
he can be in and whether or not he can perform that role effectively. I think
that's really what it really comes down to.... If you can tell me what's going to happen, then I guess we'd go on
that forecast. But nobody knows what's going to happen. There are a lot of
players that, say they're playing at 90 percent. They play in the
game and they're fine, and then next week they're 95 percent. Some guys play the
game at 90 percent, and something happens. Maybe the next week they're at 80
percent. Some guys play the game at 100 percent, and the next week they're at 50
percent. I have no way of being able to tell you what is going to happen. It's
hard to predict. I think what you do control is what the situation is going into
the game, based on the way a player has practiced talking to him, especially if
he's a veteran player, what he feels like he can do and how effective he is
doing it, and what you're going to be asking him to do and then decide how you
want to do with those situations. We've gone all different ways on those kinds
of things. It just depends on each individual situation."
press conference, november 10 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about Nick Saban
"I think
that's very much a sidelight of the game. Nick and I won't be making any blocks
or tackles, or gaining any yards. That will be up to the players. Ultimately it
will come down to the team that prepares the best and is able to execute and
play the best on Sunday. That's where my focus is. I'm sure Nick's is there,
too. We've had a great relationship together. I consider him a very good friend
and a great coach. I learned an awful lot from him when he worked with me in
Cleveland. I wish him the best, except when he's on the other side of the field,
and that's the way it will be on Sunday. But I think we both understand that,
that's part of it. And after the game, we'll move on."
if the team lacks passion
"I
think what's lacking as much as anything is just our ability to execute
consistently. There are times when we take the ball and go right down the field,
or make plays, and then there are other times when we don't. When you're
behind 28-7, not that you don't keep fighting and you're still working, I'm
not saying that, but you're probably not going to have quite the same energy
as you do when you're on the other side of that score. Again, that's not
saying that you are throwing in the towel, I don't mean it that way at all,
because that's not the case. But you just have a lot of positive energy going
with the flow and when things are going well. And in order to get them flowing
you've got to make those plays to create that situation and that environment. I
think that's what we need to do a little bit more of."
why he threw the red flag
"In a nutshell, basically what happened was we just couldn't get the right
personnel on the field – we had a couple guys banged up and we were short. So,
we could have taken a time out there rather than take the time out since the
ball hadn't been snapped. We were going to use the time out anyway, so I just
went ahead and challenged the play. I mean, I thought he caught the ball, but
you never know."
if he was surprised Indianapolis went for a 2-point conversion with only five
minutes left
"No, I don't really worry too much about what the
other team does. If they make a decision, then we play based on what the
situation calls for."
if what they'll see against Miami will look familiar
"The thing about
Nick [Saban] is that he's a very creative coach and he does a lot of different
things. So sure, there are some things you recognize there, but he really is a
good game planning coach. They change a number of things from week to week. They
do what they need to do based on the team they're playing and the challenges
they face. So how they play us I'm sure will be different from the way that they
played other opponents, like Atlanta or Denver or the Jets or Buffalo, whoever,
going right down the line. Because they are very much of a game plan team that
tailors what they do specifically to their opponent. So I think the things that
we'll see are specifically designed for us, not the team before, and not the
team after."
weei, november 8 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
losing to Indianapolis week 9
"Obviously
tonight we just didn't match up very well to the Colts in any aspect of the
game. And this football team, they just completely outplayed us tonight, so I
don't know what else there is to say. Give them credit, they made the plays they
needed to make, and we certainly didn't make enough of them."
postgame, november 7 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
film study for this game
"I think from a scheme standpoint
you can go all the way back to '03. Really you can go back to '01 if you want
to. There are a couple of games there, from a scheme standpoint, I mean that's just x's and
o's. Now you have a lot of people doing it, but for example, if you want to see
all of their three-by-one passes against us, like what are they running out of
three-by-one and how is it going to adjust against two deep? Against three deep?
Against blitz? How are those patterns going to play against our different
coverages? Well there you go. You tee them all up there, you look at all of
those three-by-one passes, you sort them out by the coverages and you see how
they run those plays against those different looks. You still have to teach your
guys how to do it, I mean there's a lot of different people here. There's
application there. That's what the assistant coaches, each of them would do. They would look at whatever position you're coaching,
the tight ends or whatever
the thing is, and where does a guy line up. 'Okay, when he's outside, gee,
against us he's never come inside. We've seen him come inside against a
bunch of other teams, but they don't bring them inside against us. Okay, when he lines
up inside how many times does somebody come outside of him? Maybe it's only
against certain formations that that happens.' So you kind of really get a feel
of how they're playing you as opposed to, like I said, these guys, we've seen
them play every game in '03, every game in '04 and seven games this year. So
that's what? Almost 50 games? That's a lot of games. And they don't do everything
against everybody, just like we don't do everything against everybody. So trying
to really figure out what they have, and then what they really want to do against
you, and how they want to do it or when they want to do it, that's what the game
planning and all of that is."
press conference, november 4 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if other teams have tried to do schematically what they have had success with
against Indianapolis
"I don't really look at it that way. I just look
at what other teams are doing and how they're attacking the Colts, how the Colts
are attacking them and then try to figure out if there is any application to
that for us. Again, a lot of teams play well. They play very good on defense.
They play differently than we do or we play differently than they do and some of
those things are good, it's just that I don't think we would be good at doing
them. I think we'd be better doing things that we would be comfortable doing.
But there are a lot of other good defensive teams out there, and there are a lot
of good coaches and they have a lot of good ideas, and they play well on
defense. But I think in the end, when you set up your game plan, whether it's
offense, defense, or special teams, you have to take into account what you can
do, what your system is, and if you want to deviate from it dramatically, 'Well,
we're going to do something we've never done before,' you've really got to take
a long look at that and figure out whether or not you're actually going to be
able to get it done. It might look good on paper, but what you can actually go
out there and execute it on the field, that's a big step to take. I'm not saying
you can't do it, but it's a big step. I think Jacksonville plays Jacksonville's
defense. I think Cleveland plays Cleveland's defense. I think Houston plays
Houston's defense. However they've defended the Colts, they've done it within
the framework of their system."
press conference, november 3 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
impressions of Indianapolis' defense
"They're very active,
disruptive. They're hard to block. They're fast. They get to a lot of balls,
they've had a lot of turnovers, a lot of sacks, a lot of negative plays. They're
fast and they're active. They're hard to get away from. They don't give up many
big plays and whoever has the ball has a lot of people chasing them and a lot of
people to deal with. So, I think they've been a good defensive football team,
and they've been a good offensive football team. That's why they've won a lot of
games recently. They're a good, solid team. (DE Dwight) Freeney's been a big
part of that, but they have a lot of other good football players on the
defensive side of the ball as well."
conference call with indianapolis, november 3 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
injury status
"The
status is based on the criteria of those categories. That's what it's based on.
It's not based on, is he improved, is he not improved, is he the same.
That's
not what the injury report is. The injury report has different criteria you
look at the player and you try to put him in that criteria. I wouldn't exactly call
it an exact science. We do the best we can. It is what it is. If the guy
practices, he practices. If he misses part of practice, then he misses part of
practice. That's on the injury report. If you want to change the injury report,
you're talking to the wrong guy. You need to go to the league, because they're
the ones who set the criteria for that." |
|
| |
about Peyton Manning
"He's completed plenty of passes against us.
I'm sure he probably had to ice down his arm a couple extra days after the
opener last year, he got tired of throwing those 60-yarders. I'm just saying,
it's not like the guy hasn't completed a pass against us. He's thrown for plenty
of yards against us.
if there's something they need to negate in Manning's game
"No,
I think it comes back to team defense. I'm not saying you could take anything
away, but you could probably, if you played well, you could probably take
something away. The question is whether or not you're going to give up something
else in doing that. That's the problem. They have good receivers. They have good
tight ends. They have good running backs. They have a good quarterback. They
have a good offensive line. They don't give up many sacks. They don't give up
many negative plays. They don't turn the ball over very much. They don't make a
lot of mistakes that just go out there and beat themselves. You have to go out
there and beat them and they're well balanced. They execute well and they have a
lot of good players. They have a good scheme. There very experienced. They're
good. They must be, scoring about 35 points a game here in the last few weeks.
When people say they're slowing down I don't know what games they're watching.
I'd like to be able to go out and average 35 points a game."
press conference, november 2 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
delay of game penalty before field goal attempt
"We had the field goal team out there in time to make the kick, there's no
question about that. We were lined up and ready to go, and we didn't get the
ball snapped in time. Certainly that wasn't what we were trying to do.
Ultimately I think the responsibility falls on me. I've just got to do a better
job there, all the way around. We've got to get that play executed, and if we
can't get it off for whatever reason, and we had a time out, then we should have
used the time out. I thought the ball was going to be snapped. I thought we had
enough time to snap it. I think we were trying to get it snapped, but
everybody wasn't quite ready and that's why there was a little bit of delay in
snapping the ball. And then it was just a split-second too late. We shouldn't
have those kinds of mistakes, or those kinds of errors, and like I said,
ultimately I think it comes back to me. I've just got to do a better job of
making sure that we get the play executed."
weei, october 31 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
Indianapolis being "the
best team in the league"
"They're 7-0. They're undefeated. So until somebody beats them, I don't see how
you can say anybody's any better than them. They haven't lost a game. It's more
than anybody else can say."
press conference, october 31 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
beating Buffalo week 8
"It was a good win for our football team. We're
really proud of the guys, they hung in there. You're down by
nine with, whatever it was, eight minutes to go in the game or
something like that, and to come back and then get the lead, and
even have the ball with a couple of minutes to go, a lot of
things went in our favor. Made some big plays when we needed to
and it was a good win for us. We played a little better in the
different areas, better in the red area defensively, but it was
kind of a sloppy game. There were a lot of mistakes out there on
both sides, certainly a lot of things we can clean up and do
better. But the bottom line is...tough division game like it
usually is against Buffalo, or anybody in this division for that
matter, and it's good to win. Good to win."
postgame, october 30 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
whether Tedy Bruschi will inspire the other players
"Right now I think everybody's focus is themselves. I don't think anybody
can do anything for anybody else. I think each one of us, each one of the
players has to do the best they can to improve their situation, work hard
to play the plays better that they're involved in, and not worry too much about
anybody else."
what he thinks of Halberstam's book and whether he's read it
"No, I haven't read it all. I've read a little bit of it. Read some
excerpts. I think David is certainly a superstar in what he does. It was a great
experience to spend time with him, get to work with him and know him. He's a
very interesting, very smart and perceptive man. Pretty much everything he does
turns out great and I hope I'm not one to break that streak."
if he's flattered that "the greatest reporter of our time"
chose to write about him
"Absolutely."
conference call with buffalo, october 26 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
bye week comments
"Ultimately, it's a 16-game schedule. It will be the team that performs
the best over that long haul those 16 games not
any one or two particular spike weeks, either up or down. There's a lot of
football left to be played basically two-thirds of the
season, or about that, left so there's a long way to go. We've all seen teams
start fast and not even be in it at the end, and other teams start slow and come
on strong and end up being one of the best teams, or sometimes the best team, at the end, so...there's a long way to go. I think it's important
right now for any football team, ours in particular, to continue to improve. You
don't want October to be your high-water mark in terms of execution and your
playing performance. You want that to continue to build and grow as you go into
the second half of the season your last four, five, six games, whatever it comes
down to. So it's an important time to, a) keep winning, but b) keep improving,
and keep your team getting stronger and more efficient in the plays that you
call and situations that you encounter."
boomer esiason show, october 21 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the changing personnel factoring into the team's inconsistency
"I think that
it's always favorable the more you can keep your people together doing the
same thing the better off you are. But there are always going to be a certain
amount of people that are out for a game, or two games, or whatever it is.
Every team in the league has that. You just have to deal with it. The thing
that works well is when you have people in your system who can come in and do
it. What's harder is players who aren't familiar with what you're
doing that you have to plug in in the middle of the season. But in a couple
of situations where that has come up for us, I think that we've been
fortunate that the guys have really picked up things quickly like Zereoue,
or Freeman, guys like that. They pick things up pretty quickly, they're
experienced, and they've been able to go out there and handle it pretty well in
a hurry. So that's been good."
the drive with michael felger,
october 20 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the need for consistency
"I think that everybody in that
room, every player, every coach starting with me feels
accountable for what we've done some good, some not so good and is committed to
making it better. We need to take that and make those appropriate changes and
improvements, and they need to transfer to the field. I think that's what we're
all trying to do.... We've been inconsistent. We've done plenty of good things and not so good
things in every game. We just need to do them better. Need to do them on a more
consistent basis."
press conference, october 20 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
regarding one player's performance in Denver
"There
are 11 guys out there, there's a coaching staff, there are a lot of
people involved. Any time plays don't go well there's usually more
than one thing involved in the play. And those plays are certainly
no exception."
press conference, october 19 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
why Tedy Bruschi was
put on PUP
"The list and the procedures
that Tedy went on, they were almost automatic. I mean, they really were, they're
almost automatic. I can't think of a player that would be in his situation that
wouldn't have gone the course that he went....If a player's not ready to go to
training camp, you put him on PUP. There really is no Injured Reserve for a
player like that. Where Injured Reserve comes into play is once a player is
cleared to play, passes his physical, and then gets injured. Now, at some point
the PUP would revert to IR, but that wouldn't be until six weeks from
now....You can look at other teams with similar situations, and that's the way
those players were categorized as well. Again, Injured Reserve is for a player
who comes to camp, passes the physical, is out there practicing, gets injured,
can't play the rest of the season. That's an Injured Reserve category. But a
player who's not ready to practice at the beginning of the season almost would
automatically go on PUP just because that's the classification that he belongs
in."
the 21-day period
"Starting
tomorrow, he can start to practice with the team. At whatever point that
begins, let's just say it was Wednesday hypothetically, then we would have 21
days. And at the end of that 21-day period, then the decision would have to be
made to either activate him onto the 53-man roster or place him on reserve,
which would then put him on Injured Reserve. If we decided to practice him let's
say a week from Wednesday, the Wednesday prior to the Buffalo game, then that
21-day window would begin starting the following Wednesday, the 26th. So it's 21 days
from when he begins.... Once that clock starts, then you have 21 days to make
that decision. At the end of that period you've got to call it one way or the
other. Either you activate him or you put him back on reserve, and then he is
out for the season."
weei, october 17 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
opponents scoring over 20 points per game
"I
think what we have to do at this point is really take advantage of the extra
time that we have this week and do a good job trying to solidify everything in
all three phases of the game as much as we possibly can. Some of the things that
came up in the past may not come up again. Other things are going to come up in
the future that we probably haven't even seen yet. I just think fundamentally we
have to try to tighten everything up as much as we can. Knowing what some of the
problems have been, and how to get those corrected and also anticipating what
some of the challenges are going to be in future weeks and trying to get a
little bit of a head start on those. Now I can't sit here and say it was this
thing or that thing. It's been a combination of things. I think you could point
to several areas that, just statistically, aren't very good, not that stats are
the answer. But when it relates to points, they're significant. We have to
defensively do a better job in those areas."
press conference, october 17 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
losing in Denver week 6
"I thought that we played a good football
team out there today and obviously we weren't able to make enough plays. We
certainly gave them too big of a lead there in the first half, and it was too
far to come back. Give them credit, they are a good team and they played well.
We just didn't make enough plays to win. We can play better, but that's what
happened today. We just came up short early, fell too far behind and couldn't
make it all up." ... "We'll work every week to get better.
Every week we'll do the best we can. That's what it's been every week. That's
what it's been every year. That's what it will be going forward." ... "We had
some opportunities to make more plays than we did. You have to take advantage of
those opportunities against a good team like Denver and we weren't able to do it
all the time, in all three phases of the game. There were plenty of plays all
the way around that we have to do better. Obviously they are good and they gave
us some problems, and there were some things that we didn't handle well enough
that they did."
postgame, october 16 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if it's tougher for a guy who is trying to replace
a good player
"I think it's the same challenge for everybody. It's hard to play
linebacker. It's hard to play receiver. It's hard to play offensive line. It's
hard to play tight end. It's hard to play everything. There are specific
techniques and nuances to each spot, and again, it's not just the system that
you're in and the play that's being called, but it's also the guys that you're
working with. Even though it's the same play, it sometimes plays just a little
bit differently in terms of timing and execution with one guy than the next...even though as a coach you want
all the techniques to be the same. Realistically, you understand that no two of
us are the same. We're not going to do it the same way. You want to do it as
much the same as possible for the sake of consistency, but realistically that
just isn't going to happen. That's always a part of it for every player, for a
10-year veteran or Tom Brady or whoever. Even guys who have been in the system,
they still have that because they have to work and get used to different people
and get their timing down with them. It's a challenge for every player and every
new player."
press conference, october 13 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about Mike Shanahan
"Just
from a coaching standpoint, I've had the privilege of coaching in this
league for a long time, and against a lot of great people, especially
offensively, and I think I've got to put Mike right up there with any
of them I've ever coached against. He does probably as good a job I
don't think there's anybody better at game planning and creating problems for
the defense. He takes a look at what you do, and then he presents a situation
for you that's tough to deal with. There's always something that's a little bit
different, but it always kind of hits right where it hurts the most. He's done a
good job of that in the past. They've got a lot of good players to work with,
but I think he really does a good job. He puts a lot of pressure on you."
press conference, october 12 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about the Hagler vs. Hearns fight he showed the team
"I don't
want to make a big deal out of it. I really don't. I don't think that really
affected the outcome of the game. I think what affected it was how the players
performed and how they played under pressure. I was just kind of reinforcing the
message a little bit about what a fast starting team Atlanta was and is, and for
us to try to match that same kind of start and intensity early in the game. It
was a great fight. I don't know, what did they say, it was a 12-round fight and
the first nine rounds were in three minutes and then they fought the last
couple. It was 160 punches in the first round. It was a pretty good fight....I'm just saying that if that's all
there was to
it, we could just take the week off and come in and show somebody or other doing
something. If that would take care of it, great. I just think there's a lot more
to it than that."
press conference, october 10 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
winning in Atlanta week 5
"That was a heck of a football game. A lot of our
players, they stepped up when they had to. Atlanta is a really
good team, they do a lot of things well. We certainly had our
hands full with every aspect of their game. I have to give all
the credit in the world to our players, they played their hearts
out. They played in a lot of tough situations the crowd was a
big factor at the end of the game they withstood the assault and
made enough plays to win. It's a team that believes a lot in
itself, even if other people don't. They believe in themselves
and you have to give all the credit in the world to the players.
They came down here and beat a good team. As good as they've
played in this building the last couple of years, this is a good
win for us."
postgame, october 9 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about Tom Brady's comments
"In terms of us taking care of ourselves, worrying about our team, and
doing what we need to do, that's all I've ever talked about. I couldn't agree
more. I don't think that's any big deviation from the way we normally approach a
game or a week. That's what we do, is we try to concentrate on what we can do
and do as good a job on it as we can. I think that's what you should do. You
can't worry about a bunch of other stuff you can't control. There's 31 other
teams out there. I'm sure they all have their own issues this week. We have to
just deal with ours."
press conference, october 7 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
where he ranks Michael Vick
"I don't really rank them. What we deal with is the team.
It's not like it's just one player out there, but a lot of other good players,
too. What we have to contend with is the entire football team. I think what
they're doing offensively pretty much speaks for itself. They're at the top of
the league in scoring, they're at the top of the league in rushing, they're high
in time of possession, they're high in points, they're high in a lot of those
categories. It's a combination of a lot of things. It's not just one player out
there, there are 11 of them."
press conference, october 6 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if they will prepare for Atlanta's backup
quarterback
"We get ready for every player. We get ready for every
player that's on the active roster that they have. We need to know them. Whichever ones they elect to use, or how they elect to use them, we should be
prepared for them and know what their strengths and weaknesses are and what
ramifications that would have in the game if they were in there. Some guys you
have more information on than others, but we should be prepared for every single
guy. We never go into a game saying, 'Well this guy's not going to play.' If
he's on the active roster he might play, and we need to know what he can
do."
press conference, october 5 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the defense being a work in progress
"There's no question, that's
part of it. We're
a team that's in transition from where we were three weeks ago, or four weeks ago,
or even one week ago. That's something that's just more part of the
challenge. I think that collectively we just have to come up with those
answers. I'm not saying it's any one thing, but collectively that's how we have
to do it. What we have is going to still have to play within the framework of
our overall system. Just go out there and do a better job of it."
weei, october 3 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
comparing the team to
the other AFC East teams
"I think it just starts for us
with going back to work here, like we do every week, correct the
mistakes, starting at the top with me. I have to do a better job
of coaching and getting the team ready to go. We need a good
week of preparation and a good week of work. We have to play
better. We have to execute our plays better and we all just have
to do a better job. I know we're capable of playing better than
that, but that's what it was yesterday. It's certainly not what
we're looking for and not what we think we're capable of. We
didn't play well against a good team and they played very well,
so that's the result and probably about the way it's going to go
when those two forces collide."
press conference, october 3 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
losing to San Diego week 4
"There's no doubt about it, out there
today San Diego was the better team. They outplayed us, they
out-coached us, they played extremely well. We didn't make any
of the plays we needed to make and they made an awful lot,
especially in the second half obviously. I don't think there's
much to say. They did a good job. They did a good job in every
area better than we did and I think the score reflected
that. They're a good football team. We didn't play our best, and
you have to play better against, and be competitive against, a
team like the Chargers, because that is a good football team.
They were the better team today."
postgame, october 2 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
using two rookies side by side on the
offensive line
"In the end, I think it
just comes down to doing what you think is best for your
football team and whether it's two young guys, two old guys, two
medium-size guys, two-whatever they are, you work your people.
You know your personnel. You do what you think is best for your
team. I don't think you can be too, 'This guy is tall. This guy
is short. This guy is young. This guy is old.' If there's a good
reason for not going at that way, then don't away. But unless
you can really come up with something that says, 'Well, here is
why this group should be out there instead of this group,' or,
'This is why a guy should be in this position instead of that
position,' unless you have a really good reason for it, it's
hard for me to be prejudiced on that based on any factors. Like
I've always said, I'm prejudiced towards good players. The best
players, those are the ones I want out there, whatever school
they're from, whatever round they were drafted in or whatever
contract they have, all of that stuff. I don't really care about
any of that, it's just what can they do for your team, what can
they produce and how can you get your best team out there."
press conference, september 30 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
what makes a good safety
"What makes a good
safety a good football player, first and foremost, is his
instinctiveness, and his ability to find the ball and be around
the ball. In the end, that's probably more important than
anything else. Just like the quarterback, it's not whether you
can throw the ball through that wall or not, it's whether or not
you can read the coverage, make good decisions and execute the
plays. On defense when you're the last line of defense, which a
safety generally is, then [it's] his ability to make good
decisions, not give up big plays, cover people in the deeper
part of the field, tackle the runner, take proper leverage and
take proper angles to get to the guy and then actually
physically be able to do it and finish the play and complete the
play. Whether it's intercept the pass, make the tackle, knock
the ball down, whatever it is, that's all important too. But
just to put an athlete out there that isn't instinctive, that
doesn't really understand the game or doesn't react as quickly
to the game as what the offense that is running the play, he's
probably not going to be a very good safety and probably not
going to be a very good linebacker, because that is what two of
the big requirements of those positions are, is to sort out
everything that is happening, figure it out and then do the
right thing."
press conference, september 28 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
preparation being
cumulative
"Preparation is a
cumulative thing. We don't just walk out there tomorrow and
say, 'Okay, here's what you're going to be doing.' There's a
very high probability that those things have been practiced, repped in practice, corrected on film and run again multiple
times before those happen. That's what training camp is for.
That's why players play other positions in training camp and
preseason games, is to build our depth so that they not only can
give the team depth, but also give themselves more value and
also to have an appreciation for some of the other positions
that are close to their positions, so they understand what the
other guys are doing because they've played that spot."
press conference, september 26 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
after the bloodbath in
Pittsburgh
"It was a heck of a
football game. It was tough. But in the end Tom made some
good throws, we had some protection, and we got a little field
position in the kicking game. I thought we were more competitive
there but we still made more mistakes than you'd like to see.
But hopefully we can get those corrected off a win instead of
off of what happened last week. Extremely happy to come out of
here with a 'W.' It was a hard-fought game. The players really
deserve it. They did a good job."
postgame, september 25 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the importance of every play in the
game
"We believe
that every play is important. Every offensive, defensive and
special teams play, every single play of the game, is important.
So we try to emphasize each play and try to play each single
play the best that we can, regardless of what it is. There isn't
any play where we say, 'Well, you know, this isn't really a big
deal so let's don't worry about it.' We just don't look at it
that way. There's no play, whether it's a punt, whether it's a
third down play, whether it's a goal line play, whatever it is,
there's no play that we take that attitude on. So whatever's the
best we can do I know
it doesn't look like it out there all the time we're
trying to do it. We're really trying to play every play the best
that we can, regardless of the score, situation, conditions or
anything else. So whatever it takes to do that, that's what
we're going to try to do."
press conference, september 23 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the approach each week
"You've heard me
say here a thousand times, every week is it's own week. That's
what I believe. I know a lot of you don't believe it, but
that's what I believe and I think that's what the players, if
they don't believe it, that's what they should believe. Last
week doesn't mean anything. Next week doesn't mean anything.
Right now we have a one-game season. Pittsburgh. That's it. When
that game is over, then we'll worry about the next one. I think
we should approach it like that every week regardless of whether
it's snowing, raining, 90 degrees, win, lose, tie, play on the
road, play at home, have a circus in town, don't have a circus
in town. I think we should approach all of the games the same
way, get ready to play. Take the seven days or six days or eight
days or whatever it is that we have to prepare and make the most
out of that time and get ready to go. I don't care what happened
last week, last year, last month, what the overall record
between the two teams was going back to 1947 or whenever they
started playing each other, who wins at home, who wins when the
wind is blowing from the north and all of that. You guys have
all of those stats. Do whatever you want with them. I'll tell
you what I'd do with them."
press conference, september 21 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the running game
"All aspects of it need to improve. We have to coach it better.
We have to block it better. We have to run it better. We have to
complement it better with the rest of our plays. I don't think
there's any one shortcut to it. In order to develop more
consistency, we just have to do everything better. That's the
play, that's the execution of the play, that's the running,
that's the perimeter blocking on the force it's everything.
That's what a good running game is and what a good running team
does, is you execute the play in it's entirety. And that ties in
with your play action plays or your misdirection plays that
complement each other so that they're not just stopping one
play. They have to worry about two or three things in those
situations or in those formations, and it all needs to be tied
in together. I don't think there's any magic about, 'We just are
going to run this play. Gee, this guy is going to block a little
bit and take a different angle and that's going to take care of
the running game.' There's a lot more to it than that. It
extends to everybody. It extends to all 11 guys on the field.
The running game, it's a team play."
press conference, september 19 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
what he says to the team after losing a game
like this
"That we need to play better. [Q: That's it?] What else
is there? Do you think we are going to win any more games
playing like this? We can't play like this. We have to play
better. We have to coach better. We have to do a better job.
This won't be good enough. It wasn't good enough today. It won't
be good enough against anybody else either."
postgame, september 18 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the first game of the season
"There are a lot of things
happening on opening day that you can anticipate, but you anticipate
them along with a lot of other things, so you can't zero in. You
think, 'Well, one of these ten things is going to happen,' and
probably one of them will, but you've got to prepare for the
other nine, too. And that's the hard part. But we ended up playing
more 4-3 in the game than we probably anticipated. Oakland played
almost a whole three quarters in a nickel defense I can't imagine that's what they thought they would end up in. So,
you know, that's opening day. You look around the league at some
games and you see some unusual things happen until teams start to
get a better feel for each other and you can put your preparation
time in on things that you are more confident are going to happen." |
|
| |
the 4-3 defense
"We've used it every year since I've been here. We've used
both fronts the 4-3 and the 3-4.
Everybody always makes a big deal about it, but for us it's really
just a substitution of a lineman for a linebacker. Everybody else's
responsibilities stay pretty much the same. So it's no different
than going into a nickel defense or a dime defense. It's just a
little different utilization of personnel. But for the most part the
other ten or nine guys pretty much do the same thing....That's part
of our package. Of course, we played it against Green Bay a couple
weeks ago in preseason, so yeah, we're comfortable in that. I'm sure
there will be times when we'll use it again. We'll see the 3-4 as
the year goes on, as well. We'll do whatever we think we need to do
based on game conditions."
weei, september 12 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the blocked punt
"It was just poorly executed on our part. It was obviously poor
coaching, poor playing, poor execution, poor awareness, it could
have cost us the game. And at that point that's about the only
thing that could have cost us the game, is getting a punt
blocked, or having a major turnover. I did a poor job of getting
the team ready in that situation. We didn't execute it well. It
was bad coaching, bad playing, just bad football. You can't do
that."
press conference, september 9 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
after winning the first game of the season
"Overall, it's the
first game, we've got a lot of work to do in all areas playing,
coaching, just general execution, you name it. There are just things that we
need to do better, and I need to do better, we need to do collectively
better as a football team. And I think we're capable of it.
We've done it before. But we kind of stumbled around there on a
few things tonight that it's going
to catch up with us if we don't get them fixed. But it's a good
win, give the players a lot of credit they played hard. A lot of
them went the whole way pretty much every snap out there opening
night after not doing that in preseason. I think that's a real
testament to their conditioning and their hard work getting
ready for this game physically. We've just got to do a better
job mentally and play better situation football."
postgame, september 8 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
football being a team sport
"I think that a lot of
times people try to compare one year to the next, one player or
one coach what does this guy mean, what does that guy mean.
But in the end to me, the way I see it is still it's a team sport.
It's more than one player, it's more than one coach. It's five
or six assistant coaches on one side of the ball, it's 22, 23,
24, 25 players they all have a role, they all have an important
job to do within that unit and within the team. It's how that
group of, let's say, 30 players offensively and coaches how that group of 30 people works and functions
together. It doesn't all revolve around just one, like the Solar
System. It's not like that. It's truly an integrated operation one
side of the ball, the other side of the ball, special teams and
then it all comes together as a team. And each person has one
specific job to do within that. It's how it all works together, not
just what one guy does."
weei, september 2 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
comments after the last preseason game
"We had a chance to
look at a lot of our younger players tonight, and we'll take
a look at the film and see how that looks. We've got a lot of
decisions personnel-wise to make in the next couple days. And we
have a week from tonight, so we will start getting ready for the
Raiders here this weekend and make those decisions, get
organized, and get it moving. I think it will be tough to
comment on any of the people out there. We'll take a look at the
tapes and try to use that. Then we'll make our personnel
decisions as we head into the weekend."
postgame, september 1 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
where you want depth
"There haven't been many years, there
certainly haven't been many times in the last few years,
where you release a player and say, 'Well this guy couldn't help
us, this guy just couldn't do anything.' It's more a case of, you have a few spots and you have more people than you do spots.
So then you have to make a decision as to where you want your
depth. Do you want it on the offensive line, do you want it in
the kicking game, do you want it in the secondary, do you want
it at tackle, do you want it at receiver, do you want it at
quarterback where do you want your depth? You just can't have
it everywhere. If the roster was 60, we'd carry 60. And I think
all 60 of those players would help us."
press conference, august 29 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
good defense
"Those defensive players, they have to know what
they're doing and they have to be smart football players. You
guys think it's all about offense, but when you're trying to
stop a good offensive football team, or a team like the Packers,
a good West Coast team that has a lot of misdirection and
counter plays and a lot of variables, for the defensive players
to all be in the right spot at the right time and recognize it,
it's definitely challenging. But that's what team defense is.
It's not about one guy being freed up to make every tackle. That
concept I don't think really exists."
conference call, august 27 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
focus
"The only thing that matters is how we do this year. That's what we're trying to focus on."
postgame, august 26 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
team defense
"There are 11 people out there playing
defense. What makes a difference is how those 11 people play.
That's what defense is about. It's about team defense. You're always trying to isolate it into one player, or one situational,
or one thing. It just doesn't work that way."
when you know where your team is
"I don't think anybody knows where their team is
three weeks into training camp. I think you have a lot better
idea after six regular-season games. That's when I think it
starts to really and I've said that a thousand times that's
when it really starts to declare, is when people game-plan you,
when you try to use your strengths, when you try to deal with
their strengths and try to compensate for areas that you may not
be as strong in."
press conference, august 23 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
after their third preseason game
"There were some moments out there that looked
okay, and then there were plenty that didn't. I would say that
is the way it often goes in preseason, this is no exception....
We need to keep improving on a weekly basis. That's where we
are. We've been in training camp three weeks. I think your team
should improve through the middle of the season. I would hope
that we would improve in all areas."
postgame, august 18 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the purpose of preseason games
"That's part of what preseason games are for the coaches, they're for us to sharpen our game identification, and management, and communication, and
decision-making skills, and all that. We all need to do that, starting with me and everybody else. We
haven't played in a while and haven't coached in a while in that type of setting. Coaching a practice is one thing,
but doing it in game conditions is another. So it's something
that we all have to work on. And we have to redo it every year
because there's always a big gap between the last game of the
previous season and the first game of this season."
press conference, august 13 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
after their first preseason game
"There were some good things out there I
thought that we played with some effort, there was some good
contact, some good physical play. We've got a long way to go.
There were a lot of things we got away with tonight that,
execution-wise, they won't happen three or four weeks from now.
But it was good to go get on the field and go against somebody
different. We've been banging against ourselves here for a while
and it was good to see some different colored jerseys and match
up against some different people. I thought it was a real
competitive game, I think we got a lot out of it. The Bengals
are a good team. They're an experienced team. We got a lot of
good learning, and we'll get some teaching done off the tape. So
we'll start moving on and get ready to do it next week against
New Orleans. We held a lot of guys out. We had a number of
people that didn't play. I think everyone is still pretty much
in that same day-to-day category."
postgame, august 12 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
what a player should focus on
"I don't think a player should worry and
I tell them that they don't need to worry too much about the
competition. What they need to worry about is what they can control,
which is their preparation and their performance. That's really the
only thing a player can control. He can't control playing time, he
can't control opportunity, he can't control the plays that are
called and a lot of other stuff. What he can control is his
preparation for the game, and then he can control his performance
when he gets an opportunity, whether it's practice or play. That's
really what I think a player's focus should be. That's what he
should put his attention on, the things that he has control over,
and not coaches' decisions, or general managers' decisions, or a
referee's call, or any of that other stuff. There's nothing they can
do about that, so I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it.
I'd concentrate on what they can control."
press conference, august 9 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
when things get hard
"A lot of guys can go out and look good for a
couple days early in camp when their legs are fresh, or before
you really get into the grind of it. Now that pretty much
everything's in, we're into kind of the dog days of camp, now
we'll see who's got the staying power, who's got the
consistency, who can handle multiple situations, multiple things
being thrown at them."
press conference, august 5 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
good decision making
"I think preparation has a lot to do with
good decision making. That's one of the things we harp on from a
team standpoint, and I think Tom [Brady] is a good example of
it. The better prepared you are then the more likely you are to
make the right decision, and make it quickly. Because as we know
in football you don't have a lot of time to have a board meeting
and all that. You have a split second to figure out what it is
and what you're going to do, and then you've got to pull the
trigger. And preparation if you can anticipate what's going to
happen, or you know it's one of two things, and then you can
eliminate one or you can identify the other, however you want to
call it then it gives you a chance to
be more aggressive and pull the trigger on the decision that
you've got to make."
press conference, august 4 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about Steve Young saying the Patriots have it figured out
"I wish
Steve would come here and tell us what we've figured out. Maybe he
could tell us what we need to know because it doesn't look to me
like we got it figured out. I don't know. I mean, I don't know what
he's talking about. I have no idea. We go out there last night,
fumbled a snap, give up 30 yards on a simple screen pass, drop
balls. We've got plenty of things to work on, plenty of things that
don't look like they're figured out to me. Hand the ball off to the
running back, he runs 20 yards right up the middle. I think we got a
lot of things that aren't figured out."
press conference, august 3 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
what training camp is for
"It's getting a little bit harder every
day. I think that's what we need to do as a team is to go
through this stretch. And if we get through it, it'll make us
stronger. ... Every player that comes to training camp is in
the exact same situation they have
to establish their level of play and their skills for a 16-game
regular season. That's what training camp is for, that's what
preparation in camp is for, all the way going back to the
spring. There's no shortcut to it...playing football is playing
football, and you just can't simulate it until you get the other
21 guys out there, and you're reacting to them and seeing
different things and seeing a lot of people moving at the same
time. That's what football is."
press conference, august 2 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
the players collectively as a group
"Every backup position is important. Every
player is important. And that's why, in those 45 players, what
we have to identify as a coaching staff is not who's the best
player, but who are the best 45 players collectively as a group
to play against this specific opponent that we have to play this
day. Doesn't mean that somebody else wouldn't be useful if they
were there, but you have to pick the 45 that you think are going
to give you the best chance. And part of that is depth.
Sometimes a player that can play two or three spots who isn't as
good as somebody else, who's better at one spot, is more
valuable because of versatility and the depth that he gives you."
press
conference, august 1 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
exposing players to "more pounding in games
that don't count"
"Those games only don't count for the
people that aren't playing in them. For the people who play in them,
they count as part of the preparations. Just like last year, opening
day. I don't know if [Edgerrin] James had played in preseason, maybe
he wouldn't have fumbled. I don't know, maybe he would have fumbled
eight times, who knows? But there's preparation for the season and,
what is the right amount? What is the right thing? You just have to
do it based on your experience, what you feel the needs of the team
are, and based on the individual player, and put all those
together." |
|
| |
what the most important thing is to being a good football coach
"I'd say the most
important thing is to hire a good staff. Not just coaching
staff, but the other people that work with the football players
the
trainers, the support staff, the weight coach, all those things
the group of people that works with the
players on a hands-on daily basis, that it's
important for that group of people to be strong. Because as a coach
you're one with let's say 90, and it's impossible to deal on a very
close basis with 90 people every single day. There's just no way. So
you need a lot of people in there that can represent what you're
trying to stand for, what you're trying to provide to the team, and
be able to take that and actually employ it and institute it and get
the players to understand it and respond to it."
press conference, july 31 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if the goal is to "threepeat"
"We're not defending anything, we're not repeating anything, we're just
trying to put together some good practices and get a competitive football team
out there to compete in a 16-game regular season schedule, and to be ready for
the opener against Oakland. That's what we're trying to do. Nothing that
happened in the past really has any bearing on that. We don't really care. I
mean I'm respectful of it, don't get me wrong. I'm respectful of what this
organization has accomplished, what the previous Patriot teams have done, and
what that means in terms of the league and league history and all that. But as
we stand right here, now, and our team downstairs, none of that really has any
bearing on anything we do. It'll be what we do on a going forward basis."
press conference, july 29 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
if there's anything different about this year
"Each year is it's own entity what we
start with and where we build it. There are new people and there are changes every year.
You have to build or rebuild your team. Every team in the league is going
through the same thing. We are part of it, it's unique. Some of the same people
are out there, but its different from last year just like last year was
different from the year before. It will always be different. There are new
opponents. There are new things to address. Even if they were the same people,
there would still be changes. That is just part of the process."
press conference, june 9 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
bringing guys in for tryouts
"We have so many spots on the roster
and we bring in people that we think would be competitive for roster spots. You
can't sign everybody. Some places, you have two, three or four guys in for one
spot because you are not sure how that is going to go. If you think you know how
its going to go, then you go ahead and pick the guy and try to sign him and get
him in here ahead of time. Some guys, for one reason or another aren't with a
team or are out of football, that you think might have some strong points and
have something to offer, then we've looked at them."
press conference, april 30 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
competing for a roster spot
"As I told them...you are in competition with a lot of other guys who want
to do the same thing that you do. There are only so many that can have those
spots. So, it is going to come down to whether you can raise your performance
level above the guys that you are competing with. So, if you have a lot of
distractions and a bunch of other things that are holding you back, it is going
to hurt your chances."
press conference, april 29 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
rookie mini camp
"We're just trying to get one foot in
front of the other without falling down."
press conference, april 29 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
play calling responsibilities
"Believe me, every play that happens out there on the field every
play that's happened for the last five years I've
had the final say on. If I didn't
like the play, or if I wanted a different play, then I had the opportunity to
change them. And the ones that didn't work out, believe me, I've thought many
times about whether or not I should have done something differently, or called
something differently."
weei, april 25 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
selecting players in the draft
"In terms of needs and all that, I'm sure that everybody's going to have
the same questions they usually have today. Whatever players we pick, whatever
positions we pick, then there's always some that we didn't pick. That's the way
it goes. We took the players that we thought gave us the most value and were the
best players for our team at the point that they were selected. And we'll do the
same thing tomorrow. And however that turns out, it turns out. That's just the
way it is. We just can't go into a draft saying we're going to take this guy,
that guy, and that guy because we want guys from those positions. We feel like
we need to take them based on what their abilities are, and what they can do
when they come on to the team."
press conference, april 23 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
deciding to release Troy Brown
"I've been in this business for 30 years, and I have feeling for a lot of
players Troy Brown being at the top of the list. But I have
to make decisions in the best interest of the football team. I can't answer to
any one particular constituency, like the linebackers or the cornerbacks. I have
to make a decision. Whether the players understand that or respect that, I don't
know. I hope they do. I think they do."
philadelphia inquirer, march 23 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
about all the changes this offseason
"There's change every year. We don't have a game next week, and neither
does anyone else. The goal is to have a team ready to play when the season
starts, and then into the season. That's what we're working toward."
new york times, march 22 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| home | about | books | drafts | honors | merchandise | off the field | press conferences |
| quotes | search | schedule | stats | stories | super bowls | tv & radio |
|