"On behalf of the team and the organization it's an honor to represent the
AFC in the Super Bowl this year. Watching the Carolina Panthers this year, I
have tremendous respect for that organization, the coaching staff, the job
that John Fox did and his players. This is an outstanding team that we are
facing and we expect it to be the toughest game of the year, there's no
doubt about that. They won three very important playoff games, a couple on
the road against teams that are well coached, tough, against a couple of
teams that we're familiar with. We just have a tremendous amount of respect
for them. As far as our team goes, the only thing we are concerned about is
our performance a week from tonight. We don't really care about what
happened last week, the week before or any weeks before that. It really
doesn't matter at this point. It just matters how well we prepare and how
well we can play Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. That's really all
we're focused on. It's kind of the mentality of our team, what our
expectations are this week. We're excited to be here. We're looking forward
to it and it's a business trip. We have a lot of work to do."
(on the Carolina defense) "The Carolina defense – I would start with
the coaching. I think they are well coached, they have an excellent scheme.
They give you a lot of problems offensively. They play a lot of different
coverages; they give you a lot of different pressures. They have a lot of
outstanding players on their team. There front four is very active, very
athletic. They've got some very powerful guys inside like (Kris) Jenkins and
(Brentson) Buckner. Their linebackers are fast and athletic. Their corners
cover well and their safeties have a lot of range and are both good hitters
in (Deon) Grant and (Mike) Minter. They are a very solid team with a very
good scheme and they're well coached."
(on matching up with the Panthers) "I think any time two teams that
haven't played each other match up, you never know how those match ups are
going to go. I'm sure both teams will try to create favorable match ups on
their side. I've seen the Carolina Panthers play just about every game this
year. I've seen almost all of their snaps defensively. They are very good
all the way across the board. They have good players in all positions. They
are well coached, they have a good scheme and that's why they are here. They
have played very well and they have played very well lately. They scored
touchdowns on defense, created turnovers, created a lot of positive field
position. They are hard to move the ball against and hard to score against."
(on Tedy Bruschi's progress) "I think Tedy is a lot better than he
was last week. We'll take it day to day. We're not practicing today. Our big
work day starts on Wednesday so we'll see where he is then. He's been
getting treatment three, four times a day. He's doing everything he can to
be ready. Tedy is a great competitor and a real good football player. I know
he'll do everything he can to be there Sunday night. We'll just have to see
how that progresses, but he's made a lot of improvement."
(on what Bruschi's injury is) "He's got a sore leg. But it's getting
better."
(on keeping all the team's attention on Carolina) "We don't care
anything about what happened in the past. All of our focus this week is on
Sunday night's game against the Panthers. Nothing else means anything to us
– not last week, not the regular season schedule, not two years ago, not one
year ago. The only thing we care about is the Carolina Panthers."
(on making decisions on game day) "When you get into game conditions
one of my jobs is to try to make good decisions for the football team. What
I try to do is calculate the situation, listen to my assistants and my
coordinators, and sometimes to the players, depending on what the situation
is, and try to do what's best for the football team. It's hard for me to be
real emotional and still be able to what I feel like is make good decisions
in that situation. I try to analyze what I have to work with and again
consult with the people I have a lot of confidence in and we make a decision
and go with it. That's kind of the process. It's really not about getting
caught up in the emotion. It's getting caught up in the decision making
process."
(on Tedy Bruschi) "Tedy's a really good football player. I don't
think there's any question about that. He's played well in all areas of the
game this year. He's played well against the run, good against the pass.
He's been an important player for us in the kicking game. He's had some
defensive touchdowns and those are always big plays. He's made big plays in
the running game like that short yardage stop against Dallas on fourth and
one. He's a real good football player. He's our signal caller. We have a lot
of other good football players on our defense as well, but he's had an
outstanding year and he's a good player."
(on Tedy Bruschi's style) "Tedy's a high energy player. He's a very
positive player – a high energy player who's always hustling and always
thinking positively and thinking in terms of team football not what he can
do but what the team needs to do based on the game or the situation or the
play. He's a very positive influence on the team. He's one of our team
captains and has been. I think he's tremendously respected by our other
players and other people in the organization. He's a real leader."
(on the extra week between Championship game and the Super Bowl) "It's just different. This is my fifth one (Super Bowl). Two have been two
weeks and two have been one week games so it's just a different pace, a
little bit different timing in terms of your preparation. It is what it is.
We're comfortable with it and we'll try to make the best use of our time
that we can."
(on Tom Brady's development) "I think Tom in the last two years has
improved significantly as a player. He was a good player two years ago, but
he's got more experience. We've asked him to do more things. He's got more
command of the offense. He certainly has a better understanding and more
experience working against the different defensive systems in this league.
He's one of our leaders. He's one of our captains. He's one of the guys that
the people on the team look to and deservedly so. He's an outstanding player
and a very unselfish one."
(on what Rodney Harrison has brought to the team) "Rodney has come in
and I think that our system is a little bit different than the one he was
used to in San Diego. He's worked hard to try to adapt his style of play to
fit in with the rest of the team. He's a player who was recognized as a
captain about the third or fourth week of the season. Players came to me and
said that they would like to see him included in that group. I think that
speaks to the leadership and the respect that he has on the team. Again,
Rodney has played well for us in all areas of the game. He's had big plays
in the passing game in interceptions. He's been a productive run player.
He's been in on a lot of tackles. He kind of quarterbacks the secondary back
there in terms of making calls and making adjustments to different
formations and situationally. He's had a very good year for us in all
aspects of the game and he's had a strong leadership role on the team as
well."
(on the veteran players on defense) "A couple of players like that,
like Roman Phifer or Bobby Hamilton or Anthony Pleasant – guys like that are
players I had background with in other organizations. You know those
players. Certainly our experience level on defense is a positive. Those
players have found a way to work well together and complement each other.
But at the same time we have a lot of young players on defense too. We have
a lot of guys who are in their first year, a couple in their second year and
they have been able to fit in well collectively as a unit. It's an
interesting mix. Certainly the veteran guys carry the ball and provide a lot
of the leadership and communication, handle a big part of those roles. But
when the younger guys are in there they have to do it too. It's kind of
blended together well. But those veteran experience guys have given us a big
lift and it's allowed us to do things and allowed Romeo (Crennel) to do some
things defensively that we probably wouldn't be able to do as readily
without a group of players like that."
(on the Patriots team defense) "Defense to me is all about team
defense. One guy can't stop an offense in this league. I don't care how good
he is. There are other good players on the other side of the ball and other
great coaches that will scheme and try to neutralize them. Any success that
we've had defensively starts with Romeo and the scheme and play calling he
puts together and it extends to the players who do their job. That means
being good against the inside running plays, being good against the outside
running plays, being good against the long passes, the short passes, the
play action passes and so forth. It needs to be complemented across the
board and I think our players collectively as a team for the most part that
has been a relative strength of ours."
(on preparing and focusing on Carolina) "The thing that I have
addressed with our team is what our challenge is this week against the
Carolina Panthers. I really don't know or care about what happened in other
games with other teams in other years. It really doesn't have any relevance
to us. What we can control is our preparation and our performance on Sunday.
That's what we're going to do. We're going to try to put everything we have
into playing our best game of the year against our toughest opponent of the
year. That's really what our concern and where attention will be this week."
(on Adam Vinatieri) "I've been around Adam since his rookie year in
'96. I've known him since that time – I haven't been around him every year
but I've known him since that time. Adam's a very steady guy. He's a
football player. More than a kicker he's a football player. He does
everything with the team – the offseason workouts, the training programs and
all that. He does everything everyone else does. He's very well prepared. He
works hard. He's very focused. I think all of those things contribute to his
success. We have a lot of confidence in him and I think he has a lot of
confidence in himself and that shows based on his performance in some clutch
situations. That kick he had against Tennessee was probably the best kick of
the year and it was at a big time."
(on how different this week will be from the others) "Every week is
it's own week. The way we match up this week against the Carolina Panthers
will be different than any other match up we've had all year. We haven't
faced any of these players and they haven't faced us. The schemes haven't
meshed. Nobody knows how this is going to come out until Sunday. What we're
going to have to do is work as hard as we can in the previous week and this
coming week in our preparation, making sure we know our game plan, our
responsibilities, our assignments and we know as much as possible about the
team we're playing, how Carolina plays, how they play situationally and what
to expect. And then we'll have to go out and execute that on Sunday. But
this week is unlike any week we've had all year. It's totally new and we'll
be in a situation this Sunday that we won't be able to relate to directly as
we have with some other teams we have played twice in a season." |
