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2006 quotes
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"I think the main reason for any success that we have is attributable to the
players who go out there and make the plays that enable us to win. Without good
football players, players who play well and who play in tough situations, and
being consistent, you can't win in this league. So I give the credit to whatever
games we've won, whatever success we've had, to the players that have gone out
there and made those plays to enable the team to be successful."
december 27 |
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after losing the AFC Championship
game to the Indianapolis Colts:
"It was a hard-fought football game between two good
teams. You just have to give the Colts credit they
made more plays than we did [and] deserved to win. It was about
as competitive a game as you could get. They just made a
couple more plays than we did."
postgame,
january 21 |
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talent/speed vs. experience, in
critical situations, this time of year:
"I'll go back to another saying that I think
would define my philosophy as a coach: 'In critical
situations, think of players not plays.' I think a lot of
coaches live by that motto, whether they actually want to
identify it or not. Rather than run some cute play that
involves a couple of guys that maybe aren't your top
playmakers. I think when it comes to a critical situation,
you want your best playmakers, your best players critically
involved in the play. Now you might have several of those
players, but I think that in critical situations, that's
basically for the most part, is the way I would want to
approach it. I've heard a lot of other coaches talk about
that same thing and I really think deep down inside that's
probably the way most of us feel."
january 18 |
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about the Colts' improved run defense:
"It doesn't surprise me to see them put a lot of pressure on the
passer, it doesn't surprise me to see them play the run
well, it doesn't surprise me to see them turn the ball over.
They have certainly done all those things against us in the
past. They are a good football team. They have a lot of good
football players. They are well-coached and they are tough.
Their run defense is good. Offenses have been 3-for-22 on
third down against them in the last two games. I don't know
how you could be much better than that. There's a lot more
to it than one man or one situation that they are good inor
anything else. They have been great in the red area, they
have been great on third down, they have been great on first
down, they turn the ball over. That encompasses a lot of
strong defensive principles there."
conference call with indianapolis, january 17 |
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playing the Indianapolis Colts in
the AFC Championship Game:
"We've had a great history with this team. It's gone in
different cycles as to who's had the upper hand and how the
games have gone and so forth and so on. But to me, I don't
think really any of that makes any difference. It doesn't
matter what happened this year or last year, or in some
other game or in some other situation. What is comes down to
is what's going to happen Sunday afternoon [with] these two
teams, and this group of players and coaches, and how it all
matches up on Sunday afternoon in
Indianapolis. I don't really care too much about what
happened in the pastgood, bad or indifferentI'm a lot more
focused on what we can do this week and how it's
going to play itself out. That's our outlook on the game."
january 17 |
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after winning the AFC Divisional Playoff game in San
Diego:
"I'm speechless. Really proud of our football team. I
thought that the players showed a lot of mental toughness
and physical toughness. San Diego is a great team. They have
a lot of great players. They're outstanding in every phase
of the game and I was really proud of the way that our guys
stepped up and just battled for sixty minutes. San Diego has
been a great fourth quarter team, and we certainly got
everything they had, which was quite a bit. It was just
every single phase. ... There were a lot
of great plays made both sides of the ball. It wasn't
perfect by any meanswe had some trouble with them, as we
would expect, and I think they had a little bit of trouble
with us somewhere along the line. We're happy to win."
his confidence in Tom despite the interceptions:
"I have confidence in this team. This
team's a good team. They play hard, they've won a lot of
games. I have a lot of confidence
in them. ... Tom's a good quarterback. There's no
quarterback I'd rather have. Nobody's going to play a
perfect gameit's just not going to
happen. As much as Tom tries and everybody else
tries, in the end it's making more plays than the other
team, and that's what it came down to today. I give Tom and
the rest of the offense a lot of credit for coming out here,
playing on the road, winning on the road, making plays when
we were down. That's what a winning team does. You can't
make those plays, you don't win. We made them today and
fortunately we're able to move on to next week."
postgame,
january 14 |
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if too much was being made about his playoff record:
"I'm not making anything out of it. I don't think
it really matters. I think this game will come down to
whatever team plays better on Sunday. I think that is what
is really important."
conference call with san diego, january 10 |
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if it was a bigger mental test to coach against the Jets:
"We get tested every week. Every team has good
coaches, good players, and tough
schemes, and they always matchup their best stuff and try to attack our weaknesses,
just like we do against them. So every week's a big
challenge. But any time you play a division team, a team
that knows you well and knows your personnel, and especially
a situation like the Jets where you get people working with
the same organization in the same system and all that, that
just heightens it, where you have to change some of your
calls because they know certain things that you call and
what they mean and all that. So that changes a
little bit. But in the end, still, football comes back to players executing and
making plays on the field, and ultimately that was the difference in the game.
It wasn't the matchupsalthough that was certainly a part
of itas much as it was, to me, the
line blocking and the receivers catching and the runners running and the pass rushers rushing,
and tackling. That's really what determined the game."
weei, january
8 |
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after beating the Jets in the AFC Wild Card playoff game:
"It was real good to go out there and win today. Real
proud of our team. I thought they stepped up and played some
of the best football we've played all year as a team. ...
The Jets are a good football team and I give them a lot of
credit. They certainly gave us all we wanted today, and all
three games were very hard-fought. They're a physical team,
they're a good football team. Eric's done a good job with
that team. We were fortunate to win today. I think our
players stepped up and just made a few more plays, and that
was obviously the difference in the game. ... A lot of guys
played well today, it would be hard to single anybody out.
But as a team, I thought they really played well as units,
and we executed thingsprobably
some of the best things we did all year."
postgame,
january 7 |
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if experience gives you an edge in the playoffs:
"I think experience is always important and it's good to
have, and veteran players are good to have, but at the same
time, to a certain degree, everybody is on their own.
Everybody has their own job to do. I can't do somebody
else's job; they can't do mine. That's true for each player.
Everybody has to, in the end, uphold their area of
responsibility and their preparation. As much as somebody
can provide experience and leadership and guidance, whether
it's a coach to a player, or a veteran player to another
teammate, it still comes down to each individual doing their
job and performing at their highest level at this point in
the year."
january 5 |
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being in the playoffs:
"This is what we've worked for all year. We've
been at this since the players started the off-season
program at the end of March. Spring camps, training camp,
two-a-day practices, preseason games, a demanding 16-game
regular season schedule, all to get to this point. So that's
what you do just to have the opportunity to be one of the 12
playoff teams, which we are, one of the six in the AFC. You work that hard to get to this point,
then you'd like to think that that's when you really want to put your foot
on the gas and try to take advantage of the opportunity. There's no
guarantee that this opportunity will ever be here again, for any of us.
Everything is year-to-year. And obviously it's a one-game season. You can
have a bad game, a bad play or a bad series earlier in the
year, in the second, third, fourth game of the year,
whatever [and] in the long run it might not make any
difference. If you have one of those plays now, one of those
series now, one of those games now, that's it. Everything is
heightened. It's more important. There's more attention to
it. It's more critical. There are no second chances."
january 4 |
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qualifying for the AFC Wild Card playoffs:
"This is an exciting time of year for all of us. You
think back to January, February, some of the team-building
that went on at that point, preparations for the season, the
off-season program, all the work and effort and energy
that's gone into the season to get to the point to get to
the playoffs, it's an honor to be one of the last teams in
the playoff hunt here after the regular season has
culminated."
playing the Jets for the third time this season:
"Obviously, it's a big challenge for us this week
against the Jets. It's one of the best teams in football.
They're very hot right now won
6 of the last 8, beat all of the division teams on the road,
and they're very good in all three phases in the game. They
have a lot of great players. I think Eric and his staff have done a great
job down there this year; they've gotten them to play very
well. Obviously they came up here and handled us, so we know
what kind of test we're in for. I'm sure it will be a tough
division game, like they all are. This being the third time,
it's about as well as you can know a team. When you play in
the second game of the year, right at the beginning, and
then in the middle of the season, and now in the post
season, that's spread out. That's a pretty good body of
work. We've seen all their plays this year; I'm sure they've
seen all ours, so I think these two teams know each other
well, have a lot of respect for each other, certainly at
this end. We know we're going to have to play our best
football of the year to be competitive with the Jets. That's
what we need to do. We need to have a good week, we need to
play well on Sunday. We know it's going to be a dogfight,
like it always is."
when asked how his relationship with
Eric Mangini has changed:
"I don't think this is really a game about
relationships. I think it's about two football teams. That's
what we are. We're trying to put our best game out there,
and I'm sure Eric
and his staff and his team are going to do the same on
Sunday. That's really our focus on the game, is to perform
our best."
when it was mentioned that he's played other coaches that
he knows:
"It's the same situation: it's our team against
their team. We played against Miami a couple weeks ago down
there with Nick Saban. I've know Nick for a long time. And
I've known Eric
for a long time. We're not playing, the teams are."
january 3 |
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if he sees similarities in the Jets under Coach Mangini:
"There are definitely similarities defensively.
The bottom line is, the Jets are a good football team, Eric has done a
good job with them, their staff has done a good job with
them. They have a lot of great players. This was a team that
two years ago was a field goal away from an AFC Championship
game in Pittsburgh. They're playing as well as anyone in the
league right now in the second half of the season. They lead
the league in a lot of defensive categories, special teams
categories. They're completing a lot of passes on offense,
high percentages, big time of possession, red zone
efficiency. They are doing a lot of things well. It's a
total effort and a lot of them deserve a lot of credit for
the success that they're having."
conference call with new york, january 3 |
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about finishing the regular season at 12-4:
"I'm proud of what the team did. I think they
work hard, they play hard. But I don't think that really makes
too much difference right now. I think our goals are what's ahead of
us, not what's behind us. That's what we need to do, we need
to get
ready for our next opponent, whoever that it, and be ready
to play our best football next weekend, against whoever that
is. That's really where our focus is right now. I don't
think this is any time to sit back and have a big
reflection. It doesn't really make any difference."
postgame,
december 31 |
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Tom Brady developing chemistry with the new receivers:
"I think any time there are changes, there are
adjustments to be made. I'm not trying to say that doesn't
occur. There are changes every week, though. We have guys
out there that have been here for years and years [and]
there are changes for them each week, too: running this
route differently, playing that play a little bit
differently, covering this pattern a little bit differently
that's part of the game planning. Even though you have the
same linemen out there playing, blocking Haynesworth is
different than blocking somebody else. Blocking LaBoy is
different than blocking somebody else. The blitzes and the
diamond fronts and stuff like that that Tennessee runs is
different than blocking somebody else's diamond fronts.
Week-to-week, it's a changing game. Every team is different.
Every player is different. Every scheme is, even the ones
that are the same, there are elements of differences in
them. It's just not a static game."
december 29 |
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total points allowed this season by the defense being on
the verge of setting a team record:
"Defensively, it is the most important stat, but I would say that
scoring defense, and also scoring offense...certainly that unit has a lot to
do with it, but I think those are somewhat team-related. I think some of our
success defensively this year has been as a result of the field position
that we've had. That certainly helps, and that comes from both the offense
and the special teams unit. To some degree it's also a function of the
score. It's a lot easier to play defense from ahead when it's kind of a
one-dimensional game than it is when they're ahead and they can do whatever
they want to do. That being said, I think our defense has done some good
things this year, but again, I think defense is still...it's team defense with that
unit out there, but also to a degree it's reflective of the overall
performance of the team. That's really what's important, is how many wins we
have and how many games we can outscore the other team in. Not what our
individual unit stats are."
december 28 |
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if he was sorry to see David Givens go:
"Player movement in the National
Football League is nothing unique to our team or to
Tennessee's team or any other team. You've seen plenty of
players down there leave the Titans over the past few years.
We're going to see it again and you're going to see it
again, everybody in the league's going to see it. There's
player movement in this league that's free agency and that's the National Football League.
I understand that. I understand that players make decisions
based on what's best for their future, and we have to do the
same thing. But I have a good relationship with David and I
have a lot of respect for what he did here. I understand the
way the league works and what the opportunities are in the
league."
conference
call with tennessee, december 27 |
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preparing to play the last game of the regular season
after clinching the AFC East:
"We're going to approach this game just like we do every
other game. We're going to prepare for it, prepare to win,
and go down there and try to play our best football game.
It's that time of year. Hopefully we can continue to improve
and keep playing well. So that's really all we have to talk
about, is Tennessee. The rest of it, whatever else goes on
next week, we'll worry about that next week."
december 27 |
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after beating the Jaguars in Jacksonville:
"I thought it took a real strong effort by our players.
In the end they went out there and made enough plays to win.
I'm real proud of them. Proud of what they've done this
year. We accomplished one of our goals today.... You just
have to give all the credit in the world to the players
today. They played their hearts out. It was a physical game,
a tough place to play, but they came down here and made
enough plays to win, so they certainly deserve it."
postgame,
december 24 |
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if things have been erratic for them:
"I think there are challenges every week. I think every
week. I can't ever think of a game where everything was
perfect. There's always something, whether it's a personnel
situation, the opponents are always challenging, your
matchups with them, how you're going to try to do the things
that you want to do but they do something to offset them and
all that. I've coached in many games where you might feel
like, 'We're okay here,' and by the second play of the game,
something happens and you have to deal with it during the
game. That's just part of it. Like I said, I just try to
make the best decisions that I can and try to be as well
prepared as I can. The things you can't control, I don't
worry about them."
if the results feel more erratic this season:
"I think if you can look back over our team, probably any
team's season, but I think back to us over the last few
years and I'm sure you'll be saying the same thing. Go down
to Miami a couple years ago and we were 12-1 and they were
2-11. So, I don't know. Is that another erratic year? Every
game is a one-week season. That's where we are with
Jacksonville it's a one-week
season. That's all we're worried about is Jacksonville and
how to make the most out of this opportunity."
december 21 |
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being one win away from their 4th straight division title:
"I guess at some
point you can look back and reflect on it, I don't know, but
right now the only I can think about is Jacksonville. I'm
not worried about all the rest of it, what happened two
years ago or four years ago or even last year. I don't care.
Right now it's just about Jacksonville. That's where our
focus is. I'm not being disrespectful or trying to push off
anything that this organization or this team has done,
because I'm proud to be a part of it, but at the same time
none of it really means anything. What means something is
what happens in the next four days leading up to the
Jaguars. That's really where we'll try to focus all of our
attention and energy. That's where we need to be."
if he thinks the Patriots are as good as they were a
couple years ago:
"I don't
know. I don't think anybody is what they were a couple years
ago. Every team in the league changes. You have different
players, some cases different coaches, and you match-up
differently against different opponents. Nobody stays the
same. Everybody is in a transition mode to some degree or
another, and how that stacks up against a team that you're
competing with, that's what makes the NFL so exciting and
interesting. You never know what's going to happen. I think
that's the case this year and I think that'll be the case
every year."
conference call with jacksonville, december 20 |
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if there is any logical way to explain some of the things
that happen in the league on a week-to-week basis:
"You guys are a lot more
interested in everybody's record than I am. I'm interested
in how it's going to be played this week. That's the only
thing that matters. Everybody wants to add up their wins and
losses and look at their stats, and then they [think they]
have it all figured out. I don't really think that's the way
you play the game. If you want to keep doing it that way,
then the results will probably come in inconsistently,
because it doesn't really matter."
december 18 |
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about the number of players they have out:
"There's nothing
more important to this football team than the health of the
players. Without healthy players, you don't have a team.
We're going to try to do all we can to get treatment in the
next couple of days and get extra treatment and come in here
Wednesday and be ready to start getting ready for
Jacksonville.... We'll just have to do
the best we can at this time of year, but everybody is
battling through that, too. You play 14 games in the
National Football League, everybody has some bumps and
bruises at this point. We just have to try to get as much
treatment as we can and get ready to go and tee it up again."
postgame, december 17 |
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after beating the Houston Texans:
"That was a real good, solid team victory for us today.
Real happy to win, happy with the way that we played.... Need to have a short memory on this
one and move on to Jacksonville."
postgame, december 17 |
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how they keep winning despite changes to their roster and
staff:
"It didn't work out that way
last week. I think that the majority of the credit for any
success that we've had goes to the players. They're the ones
that are out there. They're on the field making the plays,
making the adjustments, making the tackles, catching the
balls whatever they have to
do. All it comes down to is that it's a players' game. As a
coach you try to set up a few things and develop a system
and a format, but all the players have to go out on the
field and perform. They do well, then that has a lot to do
with it. Guys like Tom Brady, Troy Brown, Mike Vrabel, and
Tedy Bruschi and just go down the line, guys like that they
are the ones, and others, and [Rodney] Harrison, they are
the ones that are making plays, and when they make them we
win."
conference
call with houston, december 13 |
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about Doug Gabriel:
"I appreciate how hard he worked and what he tried to do
here. Unfortunately the way the whole thing came down, it
just didn't work out. I don't know if that's anybody's
fault, it's just the way it was."
about the Dolphins' claim that they were on to the calls
Brady was making at the line of scrimmage:
"Protections are called in the huddle. We don't call the
protections at the line. Rarely."
how those kinds of films could possibly be obtained:
"Satellite. [Laughter] Look, I'm just trying to coach
the team, make decisions during the game, [and] technology,
that's not really my thing. I can barely turn the computer
on and off."
about him saying they were 9-4 after last week's game:
"I didn't bring it up. I didn't bring that up ... I
don't care about last week. Last week's over. ... It doesn't
make any difference what our record is. We play Houston this
week. That's the only game we can do anything about; that's
the only game in our control. That's the only game we're
thinking about. That's it. It doesn't make any difference
what our record is; it doesn't make any difference what
their record is. This game will be decided by which team
plays better on Sunday, and part of that's the preparation
going in to the week. That's all I care about."
december 13 |
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if penalties and turnovers are a focus problem and why
they seem to be an issue every week:
"I don't know about that. I think it's
always a point of emphasis. In the end, most of those
things come down to one of two things: decision making and concentration. So
you work on making good decisions and work on concentration
to eliminate those kinds of problems. But
that's something you do every week. I don't think it's anything unique to
one particular game. We've emphasized it for seven years."
weei, december
11 |
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the team's ability, win or lose, to put the last game
behind them:
"We have to do that every single week. This week will be
another challenge for us with Houston. They bring a whole
different set of problems.... It will be a whole different
challenge this week, but that's the way it is every week.
You have to put that game behind you and look ahead to the
next one. We start getting ready right about now, at this
time of day on Monday is when everybody really starts to
kick it into gear. Players take tapes home and watch them
tonight and Tuesday [and then] come in Wednesday having seen
the team. We kind of have all the information in now from
their previous games including yesterday's game against
Tennessee. All of that is really starting to be compiled and
analyzed and looked at. We're rolling on it right now. This
is about where it kicks into high gear."
if he feels the team is getting better:
"I think in some respects, yes. Consistency is always what you strive
for. We can be more consistent. I think there are some things that we are
doing better. There are other things that have kind of been up-and-down."
december 11 |
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after being shutout by the Miami Dolphins:
"There's no doubt about who the better
team was out there today. Give Miami a lot of credit, they
did a good job in all three phases of the game. Nick had
them ready to go. They played well on offense, defense and
special teams. We couldn't really get much field position
throughout the whole game and hey took advantage of that, like
a good team will. We just weren't able to make enough plays
in any of the three phases of the game, and they made quite
a few of them. They're a good team. They played well. We
certainly didn't have our best day today, but I think you
have to give a lot of credit to the Dolphins. They just beat
us outcoached us, outplayed us. They were just the better
team today. There's really not much else to say. Pretty
thorough defeat."
postgame,
december 10 |
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winning and losing:
"I think any time you win, I always try to temper it with
some of the things that we could have done better. Any time
you lose, you try to keep everything from being a total
disaster, and recognize some of the things that you did well
in the game even though it didn't come out at the end right.
In this win there were some things that were good, there
were some other things that we certainly could have done
better. I think a lot of people kind of underestimated the
Lions. They're a pretty good football team, especially
offensively. But that notwithstanding, still, we have a lot
of things we need to do better, and we'll work to improve
those on a week-to-week basis like we always do."
weei, december 4 |
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after beating the Detroit Lions:
"That was an exciting ending for us. What was it, down
by eight with nine, ten minutes to go in the game? So you
just have to give our guys credit for stepping up and making
plays there at the end of the game that we needed to make.
Fortunately, we made some at the end of the half, as well.
We kind of got our two-minute offense going and were able to
produce something with that. As I've been saying all week,
the Lions are a good football team. They do a lot of things
well. There was a good part of the game where they did
things better than we did. Fortunately, we were able to make
enough plays there in the end to come out on top. It's good
to win. It's good to be 9-3."
postgame,
december 3 |
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how he feels about his job:
"I enjoy it, I really do. I enjoy
coming in here, I enjoy the preparation and the competition of the game.
We're going up against a great team every week, another great coach every
week, teams that I know work just as hard as we do or harder and we have
to try to find some way to be a little bit better than they are on that one
day that we compete against them. And that's invigorating, it's very
challenging, and it's a rush. It's a huge rush, the whole preparation thing,
because you
just can't wait until Sunday to say, 'Okay, well now let's start competing
on Sunday.' With football, it just doesn't work that way. There's
competition today for us to do more on Friday than they're doing. For us to
be better prepared for the game based on what we do in the meetings and
practice today than what they're doing with the same time that they have
allotted to them. That's the kind of competition there is every week from a
preparation standpoint. And then, of course, that carries over into the
game. There are a
lot of games that are really won and lost during the week as much as they
are on Sunday. That's the final picture, that's what everybody sees, and
that's what they should see, but a lot of times the things that lead
up to those things that happen on Sunday are in some part connected
to what happened on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, or even Tuesday, from a gameplanning standpoint.
But I enjoy it. It's not like I come in here in the
morning and say, 'Oh, man. I can't wait for this day to be over with.' I'm
excited to get going. I'm looking forward to whatever we're doing, whether
it's third down or red area or first down or punt returns or wrapping it
all up, trying to pull everything together and get it ready for the game, all of that. I enjoy every part of that. I enjoy watching film and studying
it, preparing a plan, working with the other coaches, giving it to the
players, seeing it on the field, coaching and teaching the players on the
field, and then seeing it happen on Sunday. I think that's like a lot of people,
if [you] love their job then you don't really think about the time or the work that
you're putting in. You think about the enjoyment that you get from doing it
and the satisfaction that you get from doing it. Now, if you don't like
it then, you know, some of the classes I took in college, if you don't like the class,
you don't like what you're working on, every minute seems like an hour in
that class. We've all sat through those."
december 1 |
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ball security:
"Ball security is a daily point of emphasis. I don't think
it's something that you wait until five minutes before the
game and talk about, it's a daily point of emphasis. And
anybody that handles the ball, in whatever manner they
handle it, whether they snap it, hold it, kick it, pass it,
throw it, catch it, run with it whether that's a defensive player after a turnover or
a returner anybody who handles
the ball, they carry the fortunes of the football team in
their hands. And if they have it at the end of the play,
then the team's fortunes, to some degree, are still intact.
And if they don't, then they've provided an opportunity for
the opponents that is going to put you in an unfavorable
position. So everybody who handles it, they have to
understand that. They're carrying with them a great
responsibility and that's the way I think it should be
treated. Do I think you could go through a 16-game regular
season NFL schedule and not have a turnover? That would be
nice; it's a nice goal. I doubt that if you ran 1,100 plays
or however many a team runs in a regular season [that] it's
probably not going to happen. But I don't think there's
anything wrong with having that as an objective and doing
everything you can to strive to eliminate all of them. Just
like penalties. Try to eliminate those, too. Unfortunately
they come up and they're a part of the game, but you want to
keep them as few and as less damaging as you possibly can."
november 30 |
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how they continue to win:
"I think the majority of
the credit on the success any success we've
had as a team goes to the players. They're the ones that
go out there and make the plays and prepare to play. I think
we have a group of players who work hard, they're unselfish,
and they try to do what we ask them to do, and for the most
part we well, sometimes it's better than others, but they
try to go out there and execute the gameplan to the best of
their ability. And they may not play to help us win.
Sometimes you get contributions from guys who haven't made
them as recently or from one phase of the game that offsets
another. I think it's important that you kind of are able to
play a complementary game so that you can emphasize your
strengths as a team and try to minimize the areas where
you're not as strong. ... I think it's a credit to the
players that they prepare themselves for situations, not
knowing when they're going to come up or if they're going to
come up. But when we call on them, for the most part they've
been able to step in and do a pretty good job."
conference
call with detroit, november 29 |
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Stephen Gostkowski's 52-yard field goal and Kenny Walters:
"It was a 52-yard kick those are hard to make in any situation. That was a big kick for us. He's
done a good job for us all year. We have a lot of confidence in him. He's
done well for us kicking, kickoffs, made a couple of tackles. I thought
Kenny [Walter] did a good job, too. All the way around. Both in
the holding aspect of it, which was important again, when you talk about a
kick that was as close as that one was to the crossbar and the upright, I'm
glad we had an experienced holder in that situation. And that 37, or
whatever it was, that we netted in the punting game against [Devin] Hester and that punt return group, that was good, too. I thought that
Kenny did a real good job of putting the ball up there and forcing those
fair catches and keeping them out of their return game. I thought our
kickers did a good job last night."
november 27 |
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games after Thanksgiving:
"Go back to the 2001 season where
we looked at the Breeder's Cup and kind of tried to see who was ahead
as the teams went to the three-quarter pole and headed for home. It really
didn't make much difference. It's the team that crossed the finish line
first. I think there's a lot of truth to that. The games at the end of the
season, at this point every one of them is a big game. There's a lot at
stake. Last night, this week against Detroit, each succeeding week they're all big."
november 27 |
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after defeating the Chicago Bears:
"Well that isn't exactly the way you draw them up, but
we're happy with the win. The Bears are a good football team
and it was good to come out on top. I'm sure neither team
feels like they played their best football today, but still,
all that being said, fortunately we were able to make more
plays than they did and that's why we won. There were plenty
of mistakes to go around out there, all the way around,
every phase of the game, both teams. But we had some guys
step up, make some big plays at the right time and that
ended up being the difference in the game. A lot of things
we have to work on, a lot of things we need to work
on, and that's what we'll do this week get back to work on it."
postgame,
november 26 |
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their record after Thanksgiving being the best in
the NFL:
"We'll
see how it is this year after Thanksgiving; that's the only
thing that really matters. I think that one of the ways we
try to approach our season is just improving every week. I
think if you can continue to improve, then hopefully you'll
play better as you move on. That's definitely a big theme
for us, not just this week or last week but every week.
After the first game of the season you improve to the second
week, and the second week to the third week, and keep
working on the things that we need to get better at and
really not be satisfied with any result, even if it's a
positive one, that there are still things you need to work
on. And certainly when you have trouble and don't perform
well then there are things that it's
obvious to everybody need to be improved, so we try
to emphasize those. I guess that's what I would say is the
common theme in our season and the way we try to coach and
play the games, it would be to continually try to improve on
a day-to-day and week-to-week basis. It doesn't always work
out that way, but that's the intent, that's the emphasis."
november 24 |
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Tom Brady's greatest attribute as a football player:
"He's
a winner. He wins a lot of games. He's very team-oriented,
unselfish, works hard, works well with his teammates, is
very dependable, demands a lot of himself. But the bottom
line is, he's won a lot of games and I think that's what a
quarterback really needs to do, is to figure out how to
manage the game. It's not about how many stats or yards or
whatever he has, it's about whether he can make the plays at
his position that your team needs to make to win the game.
Whether that's a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-one or
whether it's completing a pass at the end of the game to run
out the clock or whether it's a touchdown pass in a
two-minute situation to be the deciding points, it doesn't
really matter what that play is, but if it's the play that
helps you win the game then that's the one the quarterback
needs to make."
conference
call with chicago, november 22 |
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practicing in pads during the week:
"I think if that's all there was to
it we could have done that the previous week. I don't know
if that would have made the difference or not. I just think
more than anything, it was a good week of preparation and
good focus by the players, and then that carried over into
the game. Whether we were in pads, not in pads, inside,
outside, whatever, it was just a good focus week of
concentration in all three phases of the game. We
complemented ourselves well in that game, and that's the way
we need to play Patriot football. We need to play more of
that."
weei, november
20 |
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preparing Troy Brown to play on
both sides of the ball:
"We did feel going into this Green Bay game that he was going to start for us on the nickel,
which he did, so we wanted to make sure he got plenty of work and plenty of
time there. Basically, on Wednesday we work on first and second down. On Thursday, we
work on reviewing first and second down and adding third down and short
yardage and a couple special situations
two-minute, that type of thing. And then Friday, we get into the red
area and goal-line and things like that. So Wednesday's really a big third
down day for the defense, and the offense. And, of course, he's
involved in both of those, so that's a pretty big day for him he gets all those third
down offensive plays and then swings over and gets them on defense. But from a meeting standpoint, he spends a lot of meeting time on
Thursday with the defense so he can get caught up on all of the nickel calls
and adjustments and so forth. And then usually on Friday we can split it up a
little bit, depending on what the requirements
of the week are. So he has to get a little extra meeting time on
offense to get those patterns down and plays down, but again, he has such a
great background and so much experience over there that that's probably the easier side of the ball for him."
weei, november
20 |
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points of emphasis he was pleased to see executed well in
the game:
"Well I think
everything's important taking care of the ball on offense, not turning it
over, picking up first downs, finishing drives and getting in the end zone
and not having to settle for field goals. Defensively, stopping the run, not
getting beat on shot plays and then big down-the-field passes, getting off
the field on third down. Special teams...I thought we were pretty
competitive in all of the areas we talked about, and that's what we needed to
do, we needed to play a good, solid, sixty minute football game. We had a
good week of practice, it started on Wednesday and carried over today.
Hopefully we can have that same kind of week going forward. We'll need it."
postgame,
november 19 |
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changing from grass to FieldTurf at Gillette Stadium:
"I think I would speak organizationally on this one,
that certainly the preference of this organization has been
to play on grass. We've tried to do that. That's the way the
field was constructed. As everyone knows, we've had to
replace it pretty much every year, in some cases more than
once. That was done again a few weeks ago. By the middle of
the first half last week, we all saw what that looked like.
As much as everybody has tried to make it work, for whatever
the reasons or circumstances, it just hasn't been really the
kind of quality that I think we would all like it to be.
Organizationally, we made the decision to change it in the
best interest of the game, the league and the football
team."
november 15 |
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signing QB Vinny Testaverde:
"We just felt like at the quarterback situation, going
through the season with two quarterbacks, although it's been
fine to this point, it's kind of made us nervous in terms of
what would happen if we came down to two, if anything
happened to one of those two guys. So Vinny would be the
third quarterback. He has some experience in our system and
hopefully he'll be able to pick things up and we can have
him in an emergency role. Hopefully we won't ever need him
and I've told him that. I hope he doesn't play at all. But
if something happens, at least we have ourselves protected
there. We kind of have a little more insurance now at
quarterback and a little bit less at tight end, but I think
that given where we are at this point in the season, that's
probably the better way to go."
november 15 |
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if Tom Brady's shoulder is affecting his play:
"He's been able to
play in every game. There probably isn't a player in
the league that plays every week that's 100% today. He's
probably in that category, and so is everybody else. That's
pro football. ... I think Tom has played with a pretty good
level of consistency. In some games, some plays are better
than others. That's the way it always is, especially at that
position. He's made a lot of good plays; he's made some that
I'm sure he'd like to have back, like we all have. I don't
think there's anybody that's played that wouldn't fall into
that category. You'd always like for it to be better, but
we've won a few games around here. He's had a lot to do with
those wins."
november 13 |
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losing to the Jets at home:
"It was kind of a typical Jets-Patriots game there, you
know. It comes down to the last possession [and was a]
hard-fought game. They made more plays than we did. We had
some opportunities in the first half that we weren't really
able to take advantage of [like] good field position down
there. And of course that ultimately comes back to be a
problem. We couldn't make any plays there defensively to get
the ball back soon enough; just really didn't have enough
time there at the end. Like I said, they just made more
plays than we did and that's why they won. We just have to
go back to work here, keep working to get better at the
things that we're not doing as well as we need to do.
There's really no shortcut to it or no secret."
postgame, november 12 |
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their streak of no consecutive losses in 57 consecutive
games:
"I think
there's a point in time, maybe at the end of the season,
where you can look back at things and feel good about them.
But I think when you're right in the middle of something
[like] the situation we're in right now, you just take a
look at what you can control and what's at hand. That's where my focus is.
Not three weeks from now, not three weeks behind. Certainly
there are things we've done this year that we need to do
better and we can improve on, so I'm not saying there is no significance to them, but
that's already been identified, that's already been looked
at, that's already been addressed. What really needs to be
addressed now is taking whatever that information is [and] applying it to this particular
game. That's what we try to do."
november 10 |
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the assumption that Tom Brady will play well after a poor
performance last week:
"I don't assume anything, any week. I take every
week as its own week. [You] come in, you go through the scouting
report, you prepare for your opponent, you try to get your
level of execution at its optimum point by Sunday, whether
that's meetings, film, practice, individual work or whatever
it is. You go out there and try to play your best football
game on Sunday afternoon. That's the way you approach every
week. I don't think any week is any different. I would never
take anything for granted anytime in this league."
conference call with new york, november 8 |
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preparing to play the Jets, who are coming off of a bye
week:
"They have a big advantage on us this week.
I mean, just think about it, Glenn, each team normally has
seven days to prepare after the game's over on Sunday night.
So the challenge from Monday or Tuesday, whichever day you
want to say is your starting point, until let's say Sunday
at kickoff, is which team is better prepared? And one team is better prepared than the other. I don't know which
one it is, but one of them has to be better prepared than
the other based on their film study, their meetings, their
practice sessions and so forth. And then you go out there
and play the game. So you can gain an edge on your opponent
in those practice opportunities and meeting opportunities.
Again, it's hard to measure, but hey, they have the same
amount of time as you do; who is doing more with it? At this point the Jets are significantly ahead of us. They've had a lot
of time to work on things in the bye week. They're better prepared and
we have a lot of catching up to do."
weei, november 6 |
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about having to do a better job:
"We just have to do a better job of taking advantage of
our opportunities, and that's preparing the team, making the
right coaching decisions, executing the plays, blocking,
tackling, throwing, catching, covering, defending. We
just have to do a better job from top to bottom."
weei, november 6 |
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burying the last game and coming out new every week:
"We try
to prepare for every game independent of what happened last
week, last year, or what the records or anything are. Every
game's a one-game season. You just try to understand what
the opponents do, get a gameplan ready and go out there and
execute it and do the best you can when you have an
opportunity to play that week. So all the rest of it, we
kind of take that out and just isolate and focus on the
target. Like I said, it's a one-game season. All we're
concentrating on is the one week and doing the best we can."
weei, november 6 |
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after losing at home to the Indianapolis Colts:
"It's disappointing to lose, obviously. We just didn't
do a good job tonight. I didn't do a good job of coaching
and we didn't do a good job of playing. We're not going to
win many games that way. Giving up big plays on defense,
special teams, turn the ball over five times, third down
penalties we just didn't coach
well, didn't play well. They did a better job than we did,
simple as that. I don't really think there's a lot to make
out of it, they just did a better job than we did. So we
have to get back to work, be ready for the Jets. ...
Everybody's got to step up and play. ... It wasn't good
enough. We need to do better. We need to play better. We
need to play better more consistently. ... We weren't
consistently productive running the ball, we weren't
consistently productive throwing it, we just weren't
consistent in any phase of the game. We weren't consistent
covering kicks. We just didn't play well enough to win.
Simple as that. We just didn't play well enough to win."
postgame,
november 5 |
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if he's seen the Colts figure something out during a
game then go in another direction:
"I think the game is always moving.
Those things occur within games. We change what we're doing,
they change what they're doing, based on how the game is
going and what plays and formations are being run. That's
the game within a game."
if the Colts can just rally around
the confidence of the quarterback:
"...To be a good offensive team you
need more than one player, and they certainly have a lot more
than one player. Manning is a good player, don't get me
wrong. I'm not saying that. But he has good receivers. He
has a good offensive line. He has tight ends. He has backs.
They've been in the system a long time, so their system has
evolved into a very advanced stage. They do a lot of things
and they do them well. There are a lot of forces at work
there. They're well-coached. The offensive line is good.
[Tom] Moore is good as a coordinator. They do a lot of
things well. It's not just one guy or one thing."
why you wouldn't 'just run it right at the Colts'
given their run defense history this season:
"Well, that's what Denver tried to do at the end of the game
last week. Got nothing on two carries, missed it on third
down and ended up kicking a field goal. I think the Colts
have a good defensive team. They turn
the ball over, they can rush the passer and they have a very
active front. Last year we ran for 34 yards. I don't know if
you were at that game or not, but we had 34 yards rushing. I
didn't really think that was very productive."
november 3 |
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the opposing team's injury report:
"I don't look at it. We prepare for all 53 players. Whichever ones are
active for the game, then those are the ones that we compete against. We
assume that everybody is going to be able to play unless we absolutely know
100 percent for certain that a player is out and is not going to play.
Otherwise, if he has a five percent chance of playing, then we prepare for
him. If he plays, then we've prepared for him. If he doesn't play, then we've
prepared for whoever else is in there. We have no control over those things, so
we prepare for everybody. That's just the way we do it. So it doesn't really
make any difference to me if a guy is 25 percent or 75 percent I don't want
to be on the wrong end of either one of those percentages. I don't think it
would be right for me to not prepare our team for
even 25 percent is a high
percent chance that something could happen. If a guy has a 25 percent chance
to play, that's a lot more likely that we'll have to use our hands team on
an onside kick. That's about a five percent chance, but we prepare for that,
too. We prepare for everybody. I don't care who is on the
injury report. It doesn't make any difference to me."
november 2 |
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how they are successful executing a new game plan from
week to week instead of sticking with what they do:
"We just try to do the things
within our system that we feel like will be the best things
we can do against that particular opponent for that
particular week. There is really nothing, a set magic about
it or anything. We try to do what we think is best, and the
players try to execute it the best they can. It's not
anything that's all that calculated on a week-to-week basis.
It's calculated based on each opponent and each game, not
something that we want to do different this week because we
did something else last week. It's more of how to play that
particular team with our team."
conference call with indianapolis, november 1 |
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the effect of crowd noise when playing indoors:
"I think
there's certainly an element of momentum, or whatever the
word is, but I think that's really a function of your
performance. If you play well, then you have a lot more
ability to control the whole situation on the road than when
you're not playing well, whether you're playing in Denver or
Kansas City or Miami, or wherever you're playing. It could
be an outdoor stadium. Those stadiums Washington and FedEx or RFK when we were at
those fields they were...I could feel my head, even talking about it, I can
feel my head ringing in those situations at certain points in the game when
it gets going. The best thing to do is to play well and to have some kind of
control in the game. And then it's bad, but it's not as bad as when
they're ringing up points and negative plays on defense and
all of that stuff on you. That's not where you want to be."
october 27 |
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preparing for the Vikings:
"As I've said, I'm glad we have the extra day. They have
a lot of things to get ready for. They're pretty good at
everything. If we weren't playing them, they'd be fun
to watch."
october 26 |
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after beating Buffalo for the second time this season:
"I thought that the players came out and played with a
good, competitive level of play and made enough plays in all
three phases of the game to win. There are still a lot of
things that we need to work on, but it's good to win a
division game on the road. It's always good. ... I thought
it was big that we got off to a good start. ... It's good to
start well and try to get the upper hand, and try to get
into your game and not have to react to some
situation that you don't really want to be in. ... There's
been improvement in, I think, every aspect of our game, and
that's what we've got to keep building on. ... We've only
played six games. Right now we're just trying to get better
and try to improve on the things that we can do better.
That's really where our focus is."
postgame, october 22 |
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if he can gauge during the week how the team will play on
Sunday:
"I wish I could. It's
hard, but I do believe in practice and preparation. I think
the better that is, then I know the better chances we have
for success. That doesn't guarantee anything. The other team
is practicing hard. They're working hard, too. But I know
when it's bad during the week, it's never great during the
game. It might be, you might get by with one every now and
then, but long term that's not the way to do it."
how close Chad Jackson is to making an impact:
"He's the same as every
other player on the team. He prepares every week. He's ready
to play. I couldn't tell you what any of our players are
going to do this week. That's why we're going to play the
game. He'll be ready to go."
october 20 |
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giving the team four days off during the bye week:
"I trust our team, I trust our players. I know they want to
win just as badly as I do or as anyone in this organization
does. They work hard at it and it's important to them. I
believe in going hard, giving them a break, coming back and
going hard again."
not overworking the players:
"I think I was guilty of that mistake a few times in
Cleveland, where you just kind of get to the point of
diminishing returns. Hard work is good, but quality of work
is probably more important than, sometimes, the quantity. If
you can get high-quality work then that's really the closest
you can get to game performance. So there's something to be
said for that."
weei, october 16 |
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what he does during the bye week:
"Today is really one of my favorite days of the year. We
have a little bit of extra time to really just get in and coach solid football. It's not really a big
game-planning day and you don't feel like it's the normal
kind of rat race that you kind of have on Wednesday when
you're trying to get a lot of stuff ready and get a lot of
things done. You feel like you can take a little bit more
time and really be thorough and do a good job of explaining
the points you're trying to get across, and really improve
your football team here today and tomorrow and heading into
next week."
october 10 |
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the team's chemistry:
"I think people that have some common threads...tend to
get along well together. Players that work hard and are
team-oriented and football is important to them, they have a
tendency to blend with other players who work hard, football
is important to them and are team-oriented."
if he wants a certain mix of personalities on the team:
"I don't want them all like me. I don't think you want
a team that's just a bunch of clones or that all have to be
a certain way. I want players to have their own personality
and individuality. I have no problem with that. I just think
it needs to fit within the team framework, and that there are
certain criteria that have to be met for us to be successful
as a team, and that's for the players to be in condition,
the players have to work hard, football has to be important
to them, and they've got to put the team first. It's a team
game. I think that criteria needs to be met. Now,
some guys are quiet, some guys are more out-spoken. Some
guys like one kind of music, other guys like another kind of
music. Some guys come in early, some guys stay late. There
are all different styles there. That's not really
that important to me. I don't think I'd want them all the
same, I don't think they should be the same. None of us are the same. But I do think you have to have a certain framework for a team
to be able to function. For a large
group of people to be able to function efficiently, I think
you do have to have a certain structure. So that's
what I try to provide."
october 9 |
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beating the Dolphins and heading into the bye week:
"It was a good win today. It's always tough
against the Dolphins. It always is. It was a hard-fought
game. Luckily we were able to come up with a couple of
turnovers and able to capitalize on them offensively. But
they're a hard team to move the ball against. They can move
it offensively as we saw there, especially in the second
quarter. We had a hard time with them. [They're] a good
football team. It was a tough game and I'm proud of the way
our players played. We came back off of a couple of tough
weeks here with Denver and Cincinnati, and then Miami in
town. They've worked hard, they've prepared well, and I
thought for the most part we got a competitive level of
execution. It certainly could have been better but it was
pretty competitive. It's good to win. It's good to win in the division. We
have a little break here coming up, so hopefully we can get
some things improved and corrected that we need to and be
ready to play a better football game against Buffalo."
postgame, october 8 |
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if it was a surprise that everything
came together so well last week:
"Believe it or not, we try to have it come together every
week. I know it doesn't look like that, but I think we go
into every game, at least I do I think the players do,
too, because I talk to them every week you go into the
game feeling like, 'OK, this is what we want to do,' and,
'Yeah, I think we can do this, and we can do that.' You
expect to go out there and play well and have your best
game. I think that's the attitude you go into every week.
Now, does it always happen that way? Of course not, but I
think that's what you work for and that's the attitude you
want to go in with. It's nice to see it happen that way, put
it that way."
october 5 |
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about not having lost back-to-back games in 4 years:
"When you win a game, it comes down to the players going out
there and making more plays than the other team. That's
why you win. Right now our biggest focus is to try to get on
a 2-game winning streak. That's really what we need to do.
Whatever happened in some games in the past, that's great,
we respect it, but right now we just want to get on a 2-game
winning streak. That's the only streak we're really
interested in."
if it's something that he's proud of:
"Sure, but I don't want to think about
that now. What difference does it make? We could have lost
10 in a row, right now it's Miami. That's it. And whoever
plays better on Sunday, that's who will win the game.
Records mean nothing. Go back to 2 years ago: We're 12-1
going down there, and they're 2-11. And everybody in here
already had the story written. And we get beat 29-28. So,
don't tell me about records, don't tell me about streaks,
don't tell me about last week. None of that means
anything. It doesn't mean one thing in a football game.
The only thing that matters is which team goes out there and
plays better on Sunday. It doesn't matter who has more
talent, it doesn't matter what anybody's record is in the
standings, the only thing that matters is how you play on
Sunday. That will determine the winner out here in 5 days.
That's the truth. That's all it is."
october 4 |
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giving all the credit to the players:
"You've got
to give a lot of credit to the players. We were banged up,
we had kind of a tough week here, but they really battled
through it, had a great week of practice, and transferred
that over onto the field today just really stepped up and
made a lot of big plays ... I
was really proud of the way they played, the way they
worked, practiced all week. They stepped up and made a lot
of positive plays ... It was good to have balance. I thought
we made some plays in the passing game a couple of those
were set up off the running game. The team complemented
itself well ... It was a good team effort. I'd be reluctant
to single anybody out. I think everybody had a lot to do
with our success, but they all played together. It was good
team defense. Cincinnati is a hard team to stop, one guy
can't shut them down. They have a lot of receivers and backs
and a great quarterback and a good offensive line, so
everybody's got to do their part, do their job, and I
thought our players did it today. You've got to give them
all the credit in the world. They played well against a good
football team."
postgame,
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