BB: We're back in the division. It's been a little while since we've seen Miami.
It's been a couple months. But it looks like they're playing very good
football right now, one of the best teams in the league. They do a lot of
things well. Defensively, it looks like they've kind of transitioned a
little bit into more of a 4-3 defense, playing [Jason] Taylor a lot down,
and rushing him. He's having a tremendous year. I'd have to think he'd be
the defensive MVP. He's made so many plays, playing so well. He's always
been a problem for us, but he's even more of a problem this year. It's a
very good team on first down. Defensively, they're very good on third down.
You definitely don't want to be in long yardage against the Dolphins.
They're by far the best in the league in real long-yardage situations. They
turn the ball over. So they're doing a good job there. Offensively, they
have the big four in the receiving group – three receivers and a tight end.
They've had a lot of production. They've done a good job throwing the ball,
not taking many sacks, not having a lot of negative plays, getting the ball
down the field. Of course, we know they're a very good coverage team, which
they've always been. [Wes] Welker is dangerous on the returns. We've got a
lot of work to do this week on the Dolphins. It's always been tough down
there. We haven't done particularly well. The couple that we have won have
come down to the last play or last series, and we know it will be a
dogfight, like it always is against the Dolphins. We need to play our best
football. That's kind of where we are heading into this week. We added a
couple of players to the roster over the last couple of days and placed Eugene [Wilson] on injured reserve. That's disappointing for, obviously, him
and all of us, but we just didn't feel that situation was improving much. So
that's pretty much where we are here.
Q: What do you remember about Ray Mickens?
BB: He's an experienced corner. He's played in our system before. He's a
real smart kid. Has played inside. Has played outside. Like I said, he has
some experience in doing what we do. We felt like at this time he would give
us a little depth in the secondary.
Q: At this time of the year, when you need to get complementary players
like a Mickens or someone else, do you first look at players that have been
in your system or does it not matter?
BB: I think you always have your list of players and depending on what
you're looking for in a player, what the highest priority is, whether it's a
certain situation, a backup situation, experience, special teams, what have
you. The last player that we added there was Rashad Baker and he wasn't in
our system. Ray was, so I don't think it's necessarily any criteria. It's
just based on what you feel like you need or can use and what's available.
You make the decision that you think is best for your team, but it could go
either way on that. It's always nice if they have been in your system, or at
least know the terminology. A lot of times that's the advantage of bringing
guys up from the practice squad. They've been with you on a daily basis and
they know what you're doing. They're familiar with...even though they
haven't been playing, at least they're familiar with all the things that
you're doing. Sometimes that's an option.
Q: Ray is not the biggest back in the world. What has he done to
compensate for that?
BB: He's smart. He's quick. He's a good athlete. He has a lot of
experience playing corner in this league. He was a man-to-man corner at
[Texas] A&M. He had a good background in pass defense and pass coverage
coming into this league. He's played for a number of different coaches and
been in some good systems and been well coached. I think he's a guy that has
some experience and has some savvy and has some quickness.
Q: I know you never want to see guys get hurt, but with Eugene and Rodney [Harrison]
out how much better equipped do you guys think you are this year for those
types of situations because Artrell [Hawkins] has a year in the system and Chad [Scott] has a year in the system and James [Sanders] isn't a rookie
anymore?
BB: All of those guys have done a good job. Chad has done a really good
job for us at corner and Artrell has done a great job at safety. He's a
great communicator and really understands the game well. He makes good
adjustments on the field. James has continued to play better and better each
week. Nobody works harder than James does. He's very dependable and
studious. He spends a lot of time trying to study and get things right, be
on top of the situation. He's improved on a weekly basis, almost on a daily
basis, and every time he comes off the field, he is doing something better
than he did the day before. He's really done on nice job for us.
Q: When things do happen, because those guys have the experience to draw
on from last year, do you feel a little more comfortable now because Artrell played safety last year for you and Chad play safety last year and in the
preseason?
BB: Those guys have been with us all the way through camp. They've taken
just about every rep from the beginning of training camp for 90 practices or
however many it's been. I don't know if more 'comfortable' is the right
word, but they've been here. They've been doing it and they know what to do.
They're working hard at it. We have a lot of confidence in them.
Q: You've been playing without Wilson for six weeks. Does anything change
now in terms of thinking he was going to come back or how you do things?
BB: I don't think so.
Q: You said a few weeks ago that you don't put expectations on rookies at
all, but when your rookie is the placekicker how is it different? Is it
different?
BB: It's a good point because at that position you know he's going to
play. There's no backing up. On the other hand though, from the other
players, they could be one play away, like Ryan O'Callaghan or [Laurence] Maroney. Those guys are one play away from getting all the snaps. Even if
you were going into a game thinking, 'Well they're not going to be playing,'
they could be playing in a play and your whole team rides on their
performance at those critical positions. I think that Stephen [Gostkowski]
has shown us a lot of things in a day-to-day working relationship, in terms
of training camp and preseason games that gives us a confidence to feel that
he's a consistent kicker in all of the things that we've asked him to do. He
did a good job on kickoffs, field goals and different directional kicks and
stuff like that, some of the other specialty plays that come with it. We
have a lot of confidence in him. I do. I think the team does as well. He's
been solid. He's been consistent. He's been here from day one. And we had
good competition in camp too. It wasn't like there wasn't anybody else here.
There was good competition and he stood up to it.
Q: What makes Corey Dillon so effective down in the red zone? Also it
seems that he's asking out of the game quite a bit. If something were to
happen to Maroney, is he able to carry the ball 20 to 25 times a game for
you?
BB: I think Corey has good stamina. He's been pretty durable for us. The
red area, those are tough yards. The secondary is close to the line of
scrimmage. It's hard to take them out of the play because they're not going
anywhere. You have to deal with them. I think that is one of Corey's
strengths. He is a strong, physical runner and he runs with power and can
churn out and get that extra yard or two after contact. That's important
down there. There are not many easy yards in the red area.
Q: Does it make it tough to get the message across to the team when you
say to them one week, 'Look, this is a good team and we can't afford to have
turnovers. If we do, we won't win,' and then you have a handful of turnovers
and you still win the game?
BB: I think each team we play is a competitive team in this league every
week. They have good players, good coaches, they work hard. They have good
schemes and so there are challenges every week that we have to meet.
Whatever those are, we try to step up and do our best. Each week there are
certain things that are always important and then there are other things
that may be more or less important depending on the particular style of play
that opponent brings or the matchup that we have with that opponent. I think
that's pretty much the way we approach it every week. Every game is
important and every aspect of the game is important.
Q: What have you seen from [Joey] Harrington since the day he played
here?
BB: I think he's gotten a little more comfortable with the offense. He's
spreading the ball around well. All four of those receivers I mentioned have
had a ton of production in there. They have like over 2,200 yards between
them – [Marty] Booker, Welker, [Randy] McMichael and [Chris] Chambers. He's
getting rid of the ball quickly. He doesn't take very many sacks. He's a
hard guy to get on the ground. He picks out his receivers and gets the ball
to them in a hurry and gives them a chance to make some plays with it.
[They're] an athletic group, a good running group. They're hard to tackle. A
lot of their plays are catch-and-run plays. They're all good after the
catch. Welker is a returner. Booker has one of the highest averages in the
league after the catch and we all know what Chambers and McMichael can do.
He does a good job of getting the ball out there. He also uses his backs
well. [Ronnie] Brown and [Sammy] Morris both have good numbers in the
passing game. Spreading it around and getting it out there quickly and he
has some quickness in the pocket. At times guys break through and it looks
like they have a little bit of a shot at him but he's quick enough to avoid
them and find somebody and get rid of it.
Q: Against a team like the Dolphins and a coach like Nick [Saban], are
your weaknesses maybe a little more likely to crop up because they work to
find them the way they play and the way they scheme?
BB: Well, yes, I think they do a good job of...you always come out of
the game with Miami feeling like, 'They gave us some problems when they did
this. They gave us some problems when they did that.' You can kind of see
what they're after and what kind of matchups they're trying to create or how
they're trying to either cause you a problem or take advantage of something
that they think you might not be able to handle that well and then you have
to make some kind of adjustment to compensate for it. I think you always
feel like that coming out of the game with the Dolphins. They do a good job
of it and they have a very flexible scheme. They do a lot of different
things and there's really no telling exactly which bullets are in the
holster this week, but you know the gun is loaded.
Q: In a way is it a challenge for you because Nick coaches a little bit
like you?
BB: I think you deal against that type of scheme to some degree every
week. Every team is always trying to attack your weaknesses and play into
their strengths and try to change formations or change personnel or do
something a little different that will make it hard on you and better for
them. I think that Nick does a real good job with that. There's no question
about that. He gives everybody trouble in all three phases of the game, but
I would say particularly on defense. They're very good there.
Q: What are the differences between McMichael and [Benjamin] Watson?
BB: Well, they're playing in different systems. That right there makes
them a little bit different. They're both athletic. They both run well. They
both catch well. Both competitive on the line of scrimmage. There are a lot
of similarities, but they're used differently in the offense. McMichael,
most of the time he is the tight end and when they have another guy in the
backfield, whether it's a second tight end or fullback, then he still kind
of stays as the wide, where a lot of times that is [Daniel] Graham for us
and Watson is more of the second tight end or fullback type of role, slot
receiver, that type of thing. I'm not saying Watson couldn't do what McMichael does. I'm not saying McMichael couldn't do what Watson does. I'm
just saying that their roles are little bit different in the two offenses.
Q: Miami obviously has different coaches and the players have changed,
but the Dolphins always seem to be able to cover your receivers well. Is
there a common thread between [Sam] Madison, [Patrick] Surtain and who they
have now and that coach and this coach?
BB: Both teams play a lot of man coverage. Both systems do. The whole
secondary has turned over in Miami the last two years. I don't think there's
anybody there that was there in '04. At least I don't think there is. The
Dolphins are a man coverage team. They're a press team, with their corners,
which is what Dave [Wannstedt] did when he was down there with Jim Bates. I
think there's some carryover in terms of the coverage techniques. The
schemes are little bit different. Nick certainly blitzes a lot more than
what Dave and Jim did.
Q: This goes back to an earlier question, I haven't seen the injury
report...
BB: That's because there isn't one yet. We'll have it for you right after
practice.
[Laughter]
Q: Right. If Maroney can't go, is Dillon up to a bigger workload or would
you spread it around more to the other backs?
BB: Well, I think all of our backs are going to play and contribute as
they did last week and as they have all season. I think that Corey is more
than capable of carrying whatever load we give him.
Q: How have you been approaching games with the running backs? Do you go
in with a set idea of, 'I want to try get him x amount of touches, and him y
amount?'
BB: It has been a combination of things. I would say that sometimes it's
just rotating players by series. Other times it's by certain formations.
It's usually not by play. Like, we want this guy in for that play and that
guy in for this play. It's more by personnel groupings. I think it's worked
out in a fairly balanced way for Kevin, Laurence and Corey. It's not like
anybody is sitting there charting and saying, 'Okay, this guy has caught
three balls and now we have to throw them to somebody else and this guy has
carried five times and this guy has only carried once.' We just kind of do
what we do. I think it's just kind of turned out that way. It's a
combination of those things. Sometimes it's just by series. Other times it's
by personnel grouping and sometimes it's a combination of the two.
Q: Where is Doug Gabriel at this point?
BB: I think Doug has made a lot of progress through the course of the
year, like all of our receivers have. The only guy that's really had any
history here has been Troy [Brown]. All the rest of them – [Jabar] Gaffney,
Gabriel, [Chad] Jackson, Reche [Caldwell], they've all, at some point or
another this year, have come in and had to pick up the system and make our
adjustments and change our formations and do all of the things that we do. I
think that Doug has made good, steady progress in that area. I think all
four of them have.
Q: What makes one guy able to grasp it a lot quicker than maybe somebody
else?
BB: Sometimes I think a little bit of...it could have something to do
with what their background was, what kind of adjustments they've made on
routes before, or what coverages they're reading and whether you're reading
the safeties, the corners or sometimes it's a combination of blitz
adjustments, sight adjusts and hots and things like that, how to treat
certain patterns and different coverage techniques – zone, man, combination
coverages, rolled up, soft corners. There are a lot of variables in the
passing game, especially in our passing game. I can't speak to everybody
else's, but there are a lot in ours. Some guys have done more of that than
others. Some guys it comes more quickly to than others. We have a way of
calling our passing game that's different. Some teams call it by numbers. We
call it by names. There could be a different sequence of lettering there,
too. So there are a lot of different moving parts there that a receiver would
have to adapt in this offensive system, or a quarterback, or a running back,
protections and all of that. Those things are all interrelated and they all
have to be understood and at some point they're going to be a factor in the
player's performance and his ability to carry out his assignments, his
understanding and knowing all of those things.
Q: Was Sunday the first time Daniel Graham was a captain on the field?
BB: Yes. Dan, he is now one of our captains. We announced that to the
team Friday after practice.
Q: What went into that decision?
BB: Dan's leadership, his toughness, both mental and physical toughness,
on and off the field. His dependability. I think the respect that he has
from everybody in this organization – all his
peers, coaches and everybody connected with the team.
Q: Is that something that you decided or did the other captains come to
you about it?
BB: I made the final decision. There were other people who had input in
it too, but I made the final decision.
Q: Had you done that before this late in the season?
BB: I've done it one other time since I've been here and that was
[Rodney] Harrison. Sometimes you just feel like something is the right thing
to do and you're the coach and ultimately it's your decision and you can do
it. There's no set formula or criteria. I just thought it was the right
thing to do.
Q: Speaking of Rodney, do you remain confident he'll be back before the
end of this year?
BB: He's doing better. He's day-to-day.
Q: What is your philosophy when a guy is making mistakes, whether he gets
pulled from the lineup?
BB: I don't have a philosophy. I do what I think is best for the football
team. Every decision I make is what I feel is in the best interest
of the New England Patriots. Draft day to fourth-and-one. Whatever I do,
that's the only thing I'm really concerned about. Any decision we make,
that's the criteria.
Q: When you're missing people in the secondary, what kind of matchup
problems does that present if the opposing team decides to spread the field
and put five receivers out there?
BB: I think anytime you have an
offensive team that feels like they have a mismatch at whatever position it
is, then they're going to probably try to exploit it; and if you feel
defensively that there's an area that maybe you don't quite match up as well
with the opponent as you would like to, then you'd want to think about
giving that guy some help – or that position, or
that area – some help. There are a number of different ways you could do it,
especially if you're in man-to-man coverage. If you're in zone coverage then
you want to try to call some type of zones that will either a) stop the
scheme plays that they're running, or the patterns that they're running, or b) try to take away the receivers that you think they're most like to throw
to. So, some combination of those two things.
Q: It seems like the word out of Miami is that Ronnie Brown is probably
not going to play. Do you still prepare for him?
BB: Sure. Absolutely, he's on the active roster. Until he's declared out,
we'll absolutely be ready for him. He's a good player. A really good player.
I'm sure it won't be too long before he's back in there, whether it's this
week or whatever week it is. If he has something on his hand, then that
might affect him catching, but I don't think it will affect him carrying the
ball. Just put it in the other hand.
Q: How does Morris compare?
BB: Morris is a good back. He's been very productive for them. Given Brown's speed and explosiveness and all of that, Morris actually has the
longer runs this year. He's a good inside runner. He has good vision. He's
tough. He's good in the passing game. He's good in blitz pickup. He catches
the ball well. He's an elusive guy after they catch because of his quickness
and his body lean. He breaks a lot of tackles. He's had a couple of big runs
the last couple of weeks when he's gotten an opportunity. Whoever it is,
we've known he's been a good back. We've had trouble with him all through
his career. He's a good player. He's done a good job for them, as has
[Travis] Minor. This is a team that has a lot of good skill players now.
There's no shortage of talent at the skill positions. They have trouble
getting them all on the field at the same time, but there are plenty of them.
Q: Your run defense this year, the numbers say that it's been productive.
What has made it that way?
BB: I think our players have done a pretty consistent job of playing the
techniques. For the most part not giving up a lot of...we haven't given up a
lot of big plays in the running game, which that is obviously the worst
thing that can happen. When a team averages four yards per carry, they have
to run the ball 10 times to gain 40 yards. If you start giving up a couple
of 40-yard runs, those numbers go up in a hurry. So, not giving up many big
plays, which is also a good credit to the secondary because they're really
the second line of defense. Artrell and James and Rodney, those guys coming
in and making tackles after five or six yard gains and not being a 60-yard
run like we had in the Giants preseason game [or] like we had last year in Denver. Things like that. The guys up front playing good technique and
playing their responsibility, being where they're supposed to be. Run
defense is team defense. You can't count on one guy to make the tackle.
Everybody has to be in their area of responsibility, and if they do a good
job, then that'll push the ball somewhere else. If somebody else does a good
job, then that'll push the ball back to you. That's kind of the way we play
it. I think it's a credit to all of the players who are part of the entire
unit. There's no one-man band.
Q: Even though it's not a one-man band, has Ty Warren been your best
defensive lineman this year?
BB: Warren has had a good year. Ty has played well. Vince [Wilfork] has
played well. Really all of those guys on the front seven have played well. Tully [Banta-Cain]. Jarvis [Green]. Richard [Seymour]. Vince. Mike [Wright],
when he's had an opportunity to play. Junior [Seau]. We've had a number of
different people in there. I think they've all contributed well. They've all
made plays. We've seen them all show up at different points from time to
time on a pretty consistent basis. That's the key to any good defense – good
players playing well.
Q: When you do have moving parts at linebacker the way you guys have, how
much does that help the defensive line mitigate any problem you might have?
How much does it help those linebackers, particularly the inside guys, to
have those guys in front of them?
BB: It definitely all starts up front. It all starts up front. If you're
playing linebacker, for you to play consistently, the guy in front of you
has to play consistently. If he doesn't do his job consistently, then you're
always kind of playing off of him. Do you go wider? Do you go tighter? Do
you back up? You never really know where the guy is going to be on different
blocking schemes and it's hard for you to play consistently. If you know
where that person is going to be, then it allows you to play aggressively
because you're confident in where he's going to fit on different running
plays and you can attack your responsibility. It starts on the defensive
line and it works back to the next level at linebacker and it works back to
the next level in the secondary. In order to be consistent and be good on
defense, it has a start up front. It has to start up front. If it doesn't,
if you're not consistent there, then it's just going to roll down hill and
pick up speed. If you're good up front, then that gives you a chance to be
consistent in the areas that play behind you. Just like the secondary when
they come up in their run force, they're depending on the outside
linebackers. If they know where the outside linebackers are going to be,
then they can fit off of them and play aggressively in the right spot. If
they don't, they always have to wait and see where the linebackers are going
to show up and they can never really go where they're supposed to go because
you can't count on linebackers to be there. So it's the same thing. Anytime
you're playing behind somebody, it's hard for you to be consistent at the
second level until they're consistent at the first level. That's just
fundamental football.
Q: Would it also be wrong to say that some of the injuries that you guys
had last year are helping the team now just because guys have the
experience...
BB: Is that the big story for today?
Q: Yes.
BB: All the guys that got hurt last year, that's been great...
[Laughter]
Q: I mean you look at [Mike] Vrabel having to move inside with Tedy [Bruschi] out.
BB: I don't know. Guys get experience from playing. I understand that.
We've been practicing a long time this year. I think this year is more
important to this year than last year. I would always feel that way. We've
had 90-something practices this year. We've had, whatever it is, 16 games.
That's a lot of snaps. That's a lot of repetitions and that's a lot of
people playing together. Now, do I think experience is important and has
some value? Yes, I definitely do. But I think it's a lot more important for
the guys that have played together this year and are playing in the system
that we're playing in this year with the calls and the adjustments and their
refinements and the things that are unique and particular to this particular
season and the plays that we've seen and the learning experience from game
to game, I think that is really worth a lot more than some plays last year,
or a year and a half ago, or whatever against some team that isn't even on
our schedule this year that might not even be running the same plays that we
had to defend. Sometimes that's just the way it works out. I'm not saying
it's insignificant, but I think this year has a lot more to do with it. I'm
not trying to blow your story up there.
Q: Did Tedy have a different brace on his wrist this week?
BB: I don't know. Why don't you ask Tedy that question?
Q: I figured you would know.
BB: Do you think I taped it? I have no idea.
[Laughter] |
