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[Overall take on the Panthers]
BB: We have an awful lot of respect for the
Panthers. Starting at the top of the entire organization, the way the team
is run with Marty Hurney, John Fox, and the entire coaching staff who I
think we know pretty well. I think that it is a very talented team across
the board. The Panthers have a real good offensive line, a lot of running
backs that are productive, good tight ends, a good group of receivers, and a
good quarterback. They are a team that moved the ball very well against us,
and against a good defensive team in 2003, and in the preseason game the
following year as well. Special teams, John Kasay is a guy we have a lot of
respect for, the return game with Steve Smith is very dangerous, a good
coverage team, of course led by Karl Hankton. They use their linebackers
well and they are very aggressive in coverage. Defensively, they have three
good young cornerbacks, Ricky Manning [Jr.], Chris Gamble, and Ken Lucas,
and of course Mike Minter has been the rock back there for quite awhile.
Their linebackers are very active and productive particularly as blitzers in
the passing game. Will Witherspoon and Dan Morgan make a lot of plays on the
ball in the passing game, and they make interceptions, which is what you
don't see from a lot of linebackers in the league. Their defensive front is
very good, it's hard to block. Their big, their physical, athletic, and they
cause you a lot of match-up problems. Obviously Peppers is a very unique
player, one of the top players in the league which you certainly have to
game plan for. You have to know where he is on every single snap because of
the damage that he can do. Obviously, they had a tough game against New
Orleans, had the field been two or three inches wider it would have been a
whole different story. As it was, it ended up coming down to a field goal on
the last play of the game being the difference between those two teams on
that day. I think that Carolina has a good football team, they are well
coached, and I'm sure they will be ready to go. We'll expect their best, and
we know what they are capable of as well as anybody. We played that same
kind of game with them a couple of years ago, and it came down to the last
play of the game, and you can't get it much closer than that.
[On Panthers defense without Kris Jenkins]
BB: They played a lot last season in that same
situation and they played very well on defense. They had a ton of turnovers,
and were very productive up front. Unfortunately, that is something that
every team in the league has to go through one way or another, some type of
personnel adjustment during the season with a situation similar, or like
that. But that's a veteran team and a well coached team, that's what they
do, they make adjustments and they move on. It's a tough break. Jenkins is
an outstanding player. But you know there are a lot of other guys down there
besides him, and I'm sure that they will all be ready to go.
[On the Patriots with new members, and
coaches]
BB: I think that there is going to be a certain
amount of change every year with every team. Pro or college, it's always
different. We've been in this situation for quite awhile now, the coaching
situations happened last December, and early February, we've now been
through mini-camp, training camp, preseason games and one regular season
game. Whatever that was, it took place along time ago, and the people who
are here now have been here for a while. This year's team is this year's
team, so that's where our focus is, and we're not too concerned about what
happened in 2004, 2003, 2002, or 1987 for that matter. We're just trying to
get our team prepared for the challenges that we will face this week against
Carolina.
[On trying to make history with a
three-peat]
BB: Right now we're just trying to beat
Carolina. We're just trying to win one game and that's it. The rest of that
is so far away, so far down the road that it isn't worth thinking about or
talking about. It couldn't possibly come into play for so long that we're
not wasting any energy on that one.
[On looking back at what they have
accomplished]
BB: Right now we got our hands full with
Carolina. We can barely handle that. The problems that they present, and
everything they do, you know going down and playing on the road against a
good team is difficult at this point in the season when every team is trying
to find a bit of its identity. There's so much on our plate and that is
where our focus is. Look, I respect what happened in the league, and what
this league is about, and what accomplishments teams have made, be it ours
or anybody else's. You know now is not the time to deal with that, now is
the time to deal with the challenge at hand, and it's the [Panthers].
[On keeping his players focused]
BB: That's all there is. Nothing else has
happened in the past that has any bearing on this game. It comes down to the
preparation that these two teams have during the week, and then the
execution on Sunday. That's all that matters in this one, and I don't think
anything else has anything to do with it. We will try to focus on what we
can control and do the best we can to get ready to go, and on Sunday play as
well as we possibly can. We can't worry about anything that has gone on
previously. It just doesn't have any bearing on where we are at right now.
[On TE Ben Watson]
BB: Ben's had a good camp for us. He was here
last year, and he gained some experience just in terms of exposure to the
system and pro football. But this year, he's been able to spend a lot more
time on the playing field and I think his preparation for the season has
made a world of difference for him. He's a very talented player, but you
know as he gains confidence and a better understanding of the system and
what his role and responsibilities are he'll be better. He's gotten better,
and I think that he has a real good future in front of him as a football
player if he can continue to work hard and benefit from the experience that
he has had and will have in the future.
[On using the tight end against Carolina]
BB: I think the Panthers are a very good
defensive football team. I think they give you a lot of problems and until
you can handle those, it's hard to do a lot of attacking. I think that is
going to be the first thing for us. We have to be able to deal with the
talented players that they have on the defensive side of the ball.
Particularly the front seven, as it relates to pressuring the quarterback
and stopping the run. We're going to have to do a good job in blocking, and
creating some seams in the running game, and not letting them knock us back
in the pocket and hit the quarterback before he can even have a chance to
throw the ball down the field. I do have a lot of respect for their coverage
players. They are a talented group, and I have been impressed with their
cornerbacks, and of course [Mike] Minter at safety and Thomas Davis. Davis
is an outstanding player. We thought a lot of him coming out of Georgia.
He's a terrific athlete and a big hitter. He's a physical guy that can
really run. Marlon McCree is an experienced guy and both of them do a very
good job. I don't think that you can just go in and play Carolina and say
that we're going to do one thing. I don't think that's anywhere near enough. |
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