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BB: We're winding up our preparations today. We'll have a light work out at
the stadium. I think we have had a couple of good workouts down here, and
Monday was a review day for us. The team is excited. We're looking forward
to the challenge of playing the Panthers. We have a great respect for John
Fox's staff and the entire organizations and the football team. It's been a
tough week in terms of preparation, because they do things well, and they're
a physical team. We're excited and looking forward to the opportunity to
play, and putting the finishing touches, and walk-through tomorrow, and
should be ready for Sunday. Questions?
Q: I was wondering if the players have a different feeling about the
pressure this year as opposed to two years ago, and how they might approach
the game this year.
BB: I don't think so, I think the main focus is on the Carolina Panthers,
but what we have to do as a football team about what we have to do to
compete, and I think that's where the focus is, and it's not about external
or internal pressure or anything else like that, it's what we need to do to
play well in the game. And that's where our preparation has been, and that's
where we need to be in terms of execution on Sunday.
Q: I'm just curious, your players talk about how well you prepared them
situationally. Can you talk about a time this year where something came up
that you hadn't prepared for?
BB: There's always things that come up from time to time that maybe are
close to but not exactly the same as something you worked on or talked
about. So you just try to take the situation that you have and modify it a
little bit. I'd say the play at the end of the – I forget which playoff,
the Tennessee game, where Brady threw the long pass with 3 seconds to go in
the game, threw it up to run the final seconds off the clock, was a little
bit of a modification of the things we had done in that situation, but we
hadn't done that exact play.
Q: Off the game, but in relation to Elway probably going in the Hall of
Fame tomorrow, can you recall what it was like for a quarterback of that
stature?
BB: John was a player that literally could – was truly a dynamic threat.
Every time the ball was in his hands, he could take broken plays and turn
them into big plays, he was a great athlete, great scrambler, could throw
the ball anywhere on the field. He was an intelligent, smart quarterback,
saw things, saw them quickly, was decisive, was a real competitor, was a guy
that had tremendous sense and feel for the game, in terms of his decision
making, game management, and being able to play under pressure. Of course he
had a tremendous arm, accuracy. He didn't always have the – I would say the
greatest core of receivers throughout the course of his career. But they
always had a great passing game, and he could always get to the ball to
whoever it was, whoever was using his backs, tight ends, receivers. He was
very adept at seeing the field and getting the ball to the people who could
be productive and make the plays. Certainly one of the toughest quarterbacks
I had to coach against.
Q: I was wondering about your approach to the pregame speech and what
you're going to say to the guys before they hit the field.
BB: A lot of times the pregame, what I'd say in the pregame and what my gut
feeling or instinct is at that particular point in time. Leading into a game
there are a number of thoughts going through your mind, but sometimes you
can nail down one specific thing, and sometimes there are a collection of
thoughts and you pick out one based on the way you feel at that particular
point in time or maybe it's combining a couple of things together. There's
no set formula. It varies in every situation, and I just take it as it
comes.
Q: Bill, how important do you think it is that you've kind of drilled
home a consistent message all season? You stand up here and answer the
questions about being favored, you kind of stuck to that. All season it's
been the same message. How important is it that you do that to us as well as
to your players?
BB: Well, I just think that's what our mentality is, that's the way we're
thinking. I don't think it's any put on, anything that we're trying to do
for somebody else or for show. That's the way it is. The only thing we can
control is the next practice, the game that's at hand. And what's
immediately in front of us, what happened in the past, and what could be
going on in the future really is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is
this game and this week and today's practice. So I think that our short-term
approach is, in my experience, through the NFL and pro football, 29 years,
it's been the most successful one. All the successful teams I've been around
have had a good element of that, one game at a time, one week at a time, one
practice at a time, and one play at a time in the games. And everything else
would have a chance to take care of itself. But if you start putting the
cart before the horse, you don't go very far.
Q: You've personally had a great deal of success in Super Bowls defending
great quarterbacks. How has it been different for you getting ready for a
physical running game and getting your team prepared for that?
BB: Well, I think Carolina has a balanced offense. They have a strong
running game. They're well-coached with Dan Henning who I've coached with
and against for the last decade. They have good backs that run hard, they
have good lead backs with tight ends. The backs are productive and they're
efficient. But in the passing game, this has been a big passing game all
year with the decision-making that Jake has, the ability to throw the ball
down the field, and particularly Smith and Muhammad, the leaders in the
league. A lot of them are catch and run plays, where they get open
underneath and make people miss and go for the long yardage. Defensively you
have to be able to defend them all the way vertically from the line of
scrimmage down the field. And it's a well balanced attack, it's well
contrived and well executed.
Q: In the Super Bowl two years ago, can you recall how you adjusted on
the fly and deviated from your original game plan?
BB: That's a tough one. I can't hardly remember what happened two weeks ago,
let alone two years ago. You know, I really haven't given that game too much
thought in a long time. I'm better off taking a pass on that one.
Q: With the two weeks, is there never enough time or can you wind up
over-thinking?
BB: I think in this case two weeks is the right amount of time. I think
we're ready to go. Certainly there's a lot to get ready for. Carolina has an
extensive scheme, and they're very good at what they do. Two weeks has given
us enough time, meeting time, film time to see them and to be able to
prepare for them. I think that we've tried to schedule it and have the
timing so that we'll be ready to go Sunday afternoon, that's the idea, and I
think we will be. I think at this point we probably could – Carolina is the
type of team you could prepare for 8 weeks and still need time. I think
we've condensed the amount of time so that we've tried to use our time in
practice perhaps efficiently, and so we should be ready to go.
Q: It seems that all the players on your team have gotten your message
and buy into the system pretty much across the board. How much have you
enjoyed coaching this particular group?
BB: This has been a great group to coach. I think the players have responded
well on a consistent basis, in other words day after day, week after week,
to try to follow the game plan, to take care of their job, to handle their
responsibility. And that's really what coaching is all about, if you can get
your players to do what you want them to do from a scheme standpoint, from a
preparing standpoint, then when it doesn't work, at least you have an
opportunity to make changes and make adjustments to see if you can get it in
the right spot. If you can't ever get to that point, and you can't get it to
where you want it, all you're doing is coach it to get where you want it not
to modify it. I think these guys have done a good job, they've been
unselfish, they've worked hard. I think we have a tough group in the locker
room. I think we'll need to be at our very best on Sunday against Carolina.
That's what we're shooting for and preparing for, and hopefully that's where
we'll be.
Q: That trophy to your left, I know you've held it before. What does that
mean to you, the significance behind that?
BB: I think what that stands for is the team that played the most
consistent, toughest, smartest football for that season.
Q: Another Hall of Fame question for you. Harry Carson is up again
tomorrow. Do you think it would be fitting that he join Lawrence Taylor in
Canton?
BB: Harry was a tremendous player. He was consistent through all the years
that he played with the Giants, not only as a player, but as a leader, and
as a guy that I think was totally respected by his teammates, by his
coaches, by his organization, and by his opponents, in every phase of the
game and every step that he took. When I got there he was very young in his
career, and of course retired as I was leaving the Giants, the year before.
So I was there, I was fortunate to be there for the majority of it, and he
was a tremendous asset to that organization, both on and off the field and
is very deserving of the honor.
Q: After your opening game this year, did you write that off as a bad day
or any concern on how good you were going to be this season?
BB: The opening game this year, we didn't play very well. If we hadn't
played better than that I'm sure we wouldn't have done much better than we
did that day. We improved. We were able to improve our coaching, our
playing, our overall team execution on the field, and that helped us the
next week against Philadelphia and so forth through the season.
Q: You've made a couple of references today about how balanced Carolina's
offense is, but their image is pretty one dimensional. Have you had to pound
that into your team to respect their passing game?
BB: No, not at all. Just watching them on film, that's pretty evident. The
Dallas game, they throw a three-yard out and Smith takes it for 70 yards.
St. Louis, they threw the ball well, they ran it, too, I thought they had
good balance in that game. I thought they had a lot of balance, had a lot of
points. In watching their games, I thought that there's I good balance to
the team. And again, if there's one particular area that you're not very
adept at defending, then naturally they'll favor that and make you pay for
it, and St. Louis is a good example of that. They got those counters going
and weak side plays going, and ran them all day and ran them with a lot of
success.
Q: Bill, I know most coaches don't like to talk about themselves, but a
win in this Super Bowl to you, there's already discussion talking about
placing you among the elite coaches that have won multiple Super Bowls. What
are your thoughts on that one?
BB: Not much. My thoughts are on Carolina, and I think that there's always a
point later on to reflect on things that have happened in the past, and
that's great. But right now I don't think this is anytime on reflection on
anything, I think this is time for performance. This is the biggest game of
the year. It's what we've worked for from the end of the last day of the
season in 2002, the day of the Miami game. It's been put to winning playoff
games to getting to this point, and I think at this point anything anybody
is thinking about is playing the Carolina Panthers. That's what is at stake,
and we haven't accomplished what we're out to accomplish this year until
we're able to perform on Sunday. I appreciate the compliment, don't get me
wrong.
Q: I'm sure that the guys who were here – that you have a half a dozen
guys that this is their third time and they've been here and lost. Is that
message as important as the one from the guys two years ago coming and
winning?
BB: Well, I think we mentioned it briefly. When you get to this point in the
season and two teams play in the final game, I think there's a big
difference in the end of the season for the two teams, for the winner and
the loser. And I've been on both ends of that, and some of our players have,
as well. And it's certainly – the moment of truth for the whole year is
right here in one game. That being said, the point has been made and we
moved on and addressed really the bigger point, which is how to play against
Carolina and how we can beat Carolina and that's what we've really been
talking about, but we're aware of that. |
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