BB: A day later, I think we're
kind of at the same point that we were yesterday. It was a good win for our
team. That was a big field position game, just the exact opposite of what we
saw down there in Miami. It was a good win. We're on to Jacksonville. I
think we all know what kind of football team they are. They do a lot of
things well. Real good on defense. A real physical team. It will be a big
challenge going down there this week. We have a few guys that are banged up.
We'll give them a little extra time off today and tomorrow, and come back on
Wednesday and be ready to roll. That's where we're at today.
Q: Have you watched the game film
from yesterday?
BB: Yes, we've kind of gone back through the Houston stuff and closed the
book on that.
Q: Did anything stand out to you?
BB: There were some good things and there were some other things that we
had problems with that I think we need to go back and take another look at
and fine-tune them a little bit. But I thought the players played hard and
made plays in all three phases of the game. They made some early in the game
and that certainly pushed things in our favor, being able to get ahead early
and kind of play the game on our terms. That was certainly a favorable way
to approach it.
Q: With the guys who have been out, been injured, been unavailable, in a
perfect world, would you like to have them back out on the field as soon as
possible?
BB: We'd love to have every player, that can play, that can help us be
able to help us. Absolutely.
Q: How many times did you mention to the team leading up to the game that
there was only one team in the league that hadn't scored a touchdown on
defense or special teams?
BB: I don't know. A few. We've been talking about for a couple of weeks,
but we were kind of the last Mohican there. It's always good to get and we
almost had a couple of them with Asante [Samuel] there getting pushed out
there on the five [yard line]. The kickoff return was a big play, similar to
the Minnesota game after they had scored on the punt return, and yesterday
after Houston scored being able to answer that and kind of take that
momentum back from them kind of quickly. That was a big play. Everybody did
it at some point this year, so I'm glad we were able to kind of join that
group. I think we've earned it.
Q: Were you always aware of what Ellis Hobbs could do with the ball in
his hands?
BB: He returned kicks for us last year. He's done well returning
kickoffs. He's fast. He's tough. He has good run vision. We could've used
him a little bit this year, but with the hand situation, that kind of slowed
that down a little bit. There's been a lot there for him the last few weeks.
Q: It seems like he's pretty aggressive in there.
BB: Absolutely. Ellis is a tough kid. He plays hard with or without the
ball. He's a good tackler. He's a strong runner and fast. We've seen the
last couple of weeks how he can accelerate through an opening and stick to
it. It takes some speed, but it takes some courage to accelerate in there on
those return teams. You have everybody after you and you have to hit it and
he does. He's very aggressive and that's what a kick returner does.
Q: How gratifying was it to see him respond the way he did from last
week?
BB: Ellis is good for this football team. He does a lot of things to help
us win, in both phases of the game, in practice. He's a good, solid player
for us.
Q: Did you see during the week that he needed encouragement? Was he
getting mentally down during the week?
BB: I think Ellis has good confidence. I really do. He has good
confidence and I think he always has. And he should. He has good skill and
he's been successful. I think he's confident.
Q: Ellis said he wasn't playing as well as he could. Obviously he had the
injury problem.
BB: I think we all feel like that. I don't think any of us feel like
we're doing perfectly as a coach or a player. I just don't think we feel
that way. We're always working to improve. I don't know. I don't really know
what that feeling is like, coming out of a game feeling like everything was
perfect or out of a practice or anything else. I would imagine most players
who have that same competitive spirit don't feel that way either. There's
always something you can work on or something you can do a little bit better
job of. I think that speaks for the competitiveness that Ellis has.
Q: It was impressive, too, some of the tackles that he had on André Johnson yesterday, just because of the size difference. It has to show you
something about Ellis about being able to pull someone down that big.
BB: This game isn't all about size, it's about leverage and it's also
about strength, pound for pound strength, playing strength.
Q: And Ellis is up there in those categories?
BB: Yes. I think he's like Troy Brown, like Kevin Faulk, like some other
guys that aren't physically the most imposing guys on the team, but pound
for pound or from a playing strength standpoint, they play strong, even
though they don't necessarily measure or weigh a lot.
Q: What kind of progress has David Thomas made?
BB: Good. David has come quite a ways this year. For the most part, he's
missed very little time. He's been out there on a daily basis. David is
smart. He works hard. Pretty much any time a player does that, they can't
help but improve. I think Pete [Mangurian] has done a good job with all
those guys. Pete is a really good coach. He has a lot of experience and has
a lot of experience with tight ends. Coaching tight ends, they're involved
in every phase of the game. There's no play that they're not involved in,
usually very directly involved in it. So a lot of different things can
happen against the running game, the passing game, play action, protection,
routes, goal line, third down. They're pretty much in there on everything,
so there's a lot of different things for them to do and learn — situations,
little coaching points here and there. A lot of things to pick up. Like I
said, David is a smart kid and he's done a good job with that and Pete has
done a good job with him, as he has with Ben [Watson] and Dan [Graham] and Garrett [Mills] before he got injured.
Q: How does David's skill set compare to Ben Watson?
BB: Again, I think that both of those guys are smart. They catch the ball
well. They're athletic. They run well.
Q: Yesterday's Jacksonville/Tennessee game, which obviously will be of
interest to you, what did you see from Tennessee defensively?
BB: We haven't got that film in yet. I haven't seen any more of it than
you have, just a couple of highlight plays. That film won't be here
until…maybe when we get done here, some time here later. So I haven't seen
the tape.
Q: How much do you pay attention to the other games on a Sunday? Do you
watch the highlights and look at score?
BB: Yes, I would say I watch casually. I don't get all caught up in it. I
don't care about any of that stuff. One week you could be cheering for one
team and the next week you're cheering for another one. That really doesn't
matter too much. It's hard for me to cheer for any team in our division
because I know we're in direct competition with them. As the rest of the
league stacks up, I try to be concerned more about what we're doing and
that's definitely where I am right now. I'm worried about how we're going to
play against Jacksonville. I think that's what we really ought to be focused
on. I wouldn't worry too much about how everybody else is doing.
Q: Is there any way logically to explain some of the things that happen
in this league on a week-to-week basis? How do you reconcile that or do you
even try?
BB: I've tried in here every week, but nobody really cares, so I'd just
pretty much leave it at that. 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. But everybody wants to add up
their wins and losses and look at their stats, and then 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.
Q: You said you watch the highlights casually. Have you been able to keep
up with what LaDainian Tomlinson has been doing?
BB: Yes, it's hard to miss. That's hard to miss. Yes, it's been pretty
impressive, especially when I'm sure that's a guy that, every team that
plays them, sets their defenses for him and keys on him and all of that, not
that they don't have a lot of other good players, which they do, but you get
a guy like that that everybody is trying to stop and still, week in and week
out, he has a lot of production. It's pretty impressive.
Q: Marty Schottenheimer has said that he's the best back that he's ever
seen. Does he stack up with everyone you've seen in the league?
BB: I really haven't seen that much of him this year, just those
highlight plays and all of that. Playing against him a couple years in the
past, yes, he's pretty good. He's pretty good. Marty is out there with him
everyday, so I wouldn't argue with Marty. He sees him on a daily basis. He's
obviously a great player.
Q: Did you ever think there would ever be another player worthy of being
called "LT"?
BB: I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it.
Q: Do you sense that Stephen [Gostkowski] is getting more comfortable,
just on a daily basis of being in the NFL?
BB: Yes, sure. I think for a young player, each game is a learning
experience, provided they approach it the right way, which I think that Stephen does, it's a positive experience and it's something that you can
continue to build off of, both for this year and career-wise. He's kicked
well for us this year, not perfectly, as no player has played perfectly, but
he's done a good job all year. I think he's had a good level of consistency
both on place kicks and kickoffs. He's made a couple of tackles for us. He's
had a solid year.
Q: Does that cause your confidence to grow with him as his kicks continue
to sail through the uprights?
BB: Sure. I was confident in preseason when he made all of those kicks.
Every time he's had a chance to kick, for the most part, he's done a pretty
good job. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's been pretty good. So yes, I
confidence in him. I definitely have confidence in him and deservedly so.
He's kicked consistently.
Q: After having 11 turnovers in the past few games, how important was it
for the team to get through a game without turning the football over?
BB: That was great. That was great. We didn't really have one ball on the
ground. We had two kind of catches that weren't catches, so they were never
even catches to be called fumbles. The rest of the time, a lot of times
sometimes you have balls come out even at the end of the play where they
rule a guy down by contact, or whatever, the ground caused a fumble or that
type of thing. So there weren't any of those plays. That was good to see. Houston didn't get their hands on balls and we kept them pretty tight. That
was great, not turning the ball over, didn't have many penalties. Special
teams did a great job on field position. Defensively we got some turnovers.
We were able to convert those into points on offense. It goes without
saying, but that's the way you kind of want to play the game, play on their
side of the field, take care of the ball. If you can't move it, punt it and
put it in bad field position and make them go the full length of the field
and play good defense and take advantage of your scoring opportunities.
That's a good way to play.
Q: With Vince [Wilfork] out yesterday, how important was it for Mike
Wright to have the kind of game that he did?
BB: That's why we have a 53-man roster. Everybody has a job to do.
Everybody has to be ready to go. You never know how those responsibilities
are going to play out from game to game or even within a game. It could be
the first play of the game and something could change and shift somebody's
role or amount of playing time or whatever. That's what every player has to
do, be ready to go, prepare to be ready to play the whole game and every
situation. And the ones that they're called on, step in there and do their
best. Mike is a hard working kid. Nobody works harder than Mike. He works
hard in the offseason. He works hard on training. He's a well-conditioned
guy. We use him on most all of the special teams, which is unusual for a
defensive lineman. He plays hard and he's had a good, productive year. His
second year here, he's really made a big jump from last season, starting in
preseason and training camp, and then the opportunities he's had to play
this year — he's played at end, he's played at
nose, he's played in some four-man line stuff, he's played on special teams.
He's been asked to do a lot of different things. He has some versatility.
He's tough. He works hard. He gets better out there every day. He's the kind
of kid you love to coach.
Q: You talked about leverage in regards to Ellis and I know it's vital to
playing the nose. How good of an understanding of leverage does Mike have?
How well does he use it lacking the girth that some of the other nose
tackles have?
BB: Mike is strong. Mike is one of the strongest players on the team.
It's something that he's getting better at. I'm not saying he's a finished
product. It's only his second year in the league and he hasn't played a lot
of that position. He's certainly a lot better at it than he was last year.
He's a lot better at it now that he was early in the year. If he keeps
working at it, I'm sure he'll continue to get better as time goes on. The
ability to use your hands in there and recognize blocking schemes and play
with good pad level and leverage and at the same time attack the line of
scrimmage and pick up little things when you can anticipate passes and runs
and double team blocks kind of seeing where the back field sets are and
knowing where some of that stuff is coming from. There's a lot a little
things that go into it. It's a tough position to play and he's definitely
getting better. Like I said, Mike works hard. He's tough. He's strong. He's
the kind of kid that you love to coach. He's the kind of guy you'd love to
have on the defensive line. He's a high-effort player. I thought one of the
best plays that he made in the game was on that screen pass yesterday where
he rushed, he was about four or five yards in the backfield, and he ran the
play down for about a five yard gain on a screen pass. That's a typical Mike
Wright play, a lot of effort, toughness, determination, just getting to the
ball.
Q: Is he the typical you don't have to tell him twice type of kid?
BB: I think from an experience standpoint, you can always help him see
things better and recognize things better. You don't have to tell him too
often to work hard or hustle or if you get a chance to hit somebody unload
on them. You don't have to tell him that twice. Kickoff team, you don't have
to tell him too often how hard you want him to hit the guy with the ball,
but there's reading the blocking schemes, there's sorting out stuff that
happens in front of you. That's part of what a defensive or special teams
player does. They have a lot of stuff to sort out in front of them before
they get to the ball. They're not just going to let you run in there and
make the play. You have to figure it out and beat somebody and defeat a
blocker, defeat somebody, before you can make the tackle. Those are things
that he can definitely improve on and learn, but he's getting a lot better
at them. He blocked a punt a couple of weeks ago. The guy has done a lot of
different things for us this year – field goal, punt, kickoff, kickoff
return.
Q: How much has it helped you guys this year to have a guy like Jabar
Gaffney with his versatility and his ability to play all of the receiver
positions?
BB: Well Jabar, that was a good addition for us. That was a guy that
earlier in the year we had a number of people that were playing different
spots and really trying to make progress in those particular positions and
Gaff was able to come in and through his experience and kind of
understanding the passing game and a little bit of the terminology
background that he had in Houston, really was able to pick things up very
quickly and learn every receiver spot and a couple of times he got in
practice where we were caught a little short with depth at those positions
and Brian [Daboll] would toss him in there, 'Go to Z on this play. Go to F
on that play. I want you over at X at this play,' just to see how he was
picking it up and he makes very few mistakes. He knows assignments and he
understands passing concepts and what to do against different coverages,
kind of when to settle down, when to stair-step, when to come back, when to
fade away from the ball and things like that. I think he's a guy that the
quarterbacks like to throw to. As a coach, you really appreciate some of the
decision making that he exhibits in the passing game, like Troy, like Kevin
Faulk, guys like that that kind of do the right thing to help the play out
even though sometimes it's not exactly the way it's diagramed or the way you
think it's going to unfold. It happens a little bit differently and they
usually make the right decisions on what to do in that situation.
Q: Were you kind of happy for him that he was able to make that touchdown
catch after he had the drop earlier?
BB: Yes, of course. It's a couple of weeks now he's been behind the
defense and nobody is more disappointed than he was that he didn't come up
with that ball. Those kinds of things happen unfortunately. Hopefully it
won't happen too often, but it was nice. He ran a nice route down there in
the red area and made a good move on [Dunta] Robinson and kind of kept him
trapped inside and then broke it out to the corner and Tom [Brady] made a
good throw. Jabar did a good job on the route against a good player, against
a good corner.
Q: Charley Casserly commented yesterday on TV and said you had been
warned by the league not to film from your own sideline. How do you respond
to his comments yesterday?
BB: I haven't heard anything from the league.
Q: Are you allowed to have a camera on the sideline?
BB: Why don't you go talk to Charley Casserly? He seems to have all the
answers on everything, so why don't you go ask him?
Q: Would you request that a team allow you to shoot from there to shoot
your quarterback?
BB: Go talk to him. I haven't heard anything from the league.
Q: Do you anticipate any roster moves here if Kevin's injury looks like
it's going to be a long-term thing?
BB: We're barely 24 hours after the game. We'll see how everybody is
doing and as always, we'll make the decisions that we feel like are best for
our football team. It's a day after the game. They come in and get treatment
and we'll see where we're at by Wednesday. If something comes up before
then, it comes up, but I wouldn't count on it before then.
Q: Just with Patrick [Pass] on IR, it wouldn't seem like you have a lot
of options there.
BB: As always, whatever the situation is, we'll evaluate what our options
are and try to make the best decisions for the football team. That's the
only thing I can tell you. I'm not going to try to hypothetically guess who
will or won't be okay and who will or won't play or whether we will or won't
get somebody else on the roster. I have no idea. |
