Q: Are you surprised that Tom
Brady did not get into the Pro Bowl?
BB: There is no quarterback I'd
rather have than Tom Brady, but all of those things are out of our
control so there isn't really much we can do about it or worry about it.
We're just trying to focus on Jacksonville and that's something we
can control is our preparation and performance against them. But there are a
lot of great players in this league and the voting process and all that is
done through a number of different ways and I don't really understand all of
it, but whatever it is, it's handled outside of anything we have any control
over so we try not to worry about it too much.
Q: Do you think Brady is
playing as well as he has in past years?
BB: I said there is no quarterback
I'd rather have then Tom Brady.
Q: Do you think Brady is
having an off year?
BB: I don't think any player is
playing perfectly and I don't think any coach is coaching perfectly either,
so I think there is room from improvement from all of us. There are
certainly plays that Tom has had this year that I'm sure he'd like to
have back and there are calls I'd like to have back and there are tackles
that I'm sure Richard Seymour would like to have back. So that's just
part of football. It's never perfect. You're always working to get better
and improve and we're all trying to do that, so that's always going to be
the case.
Q: [On the development of Asante
Samuel]
BB: Asante has had a very
productive year in the passing game. He's had his hands on a lot of balls.
He's read the quarterback well. A lot of times the defensive back gets their
hands on balls but doesn't catch them and leads to interceptions and those
kind of turnover plays behind but that certainly hasn't been the case with
Asante this year. He's made some real nice catches and big plays and read
some patterns and read patterns well and anticipated what was going to
happen and that half a step or a step is the difference between turning the
ball over sometimes in a knock down or even a completion. He's improved
every year, worked hard, has been pretty durable, has been out on the field
on a consistent basis so he continues to get better. He's had a strong
season for us.
Q: What does he need to do to get to
that elite level?
BB: I think there is room for
improvement everywhere. Physically, technique-wise, recognition, there is
always room to improve in every one of those areas. I would say that for
probably every other defensive back on the team.
Q: Have you ever had to go through a
year where you have had to replace more than one punter?
BB: No, I think this is the most
punters we've gone through in my career, certainly in the last month. It's
all happened pretty quickly too.
Q: Returning to Jacksonville for the first time since Super Bowl XXXIX, do you think that will
stir any memories amongst the players or be any factor at all
confidence-wise?
BB: I don't think it'll be any
factor. I think anytime you have an experience like we had down there, it's
not one you're ever going to forget. It's one of the most memorable weeks
and games of our lives for those of us who participated in it but I don't
think that really has anything to do with this game. We're playing a
different team, obviously, and we're playing them in their stadium as to
oppose to the other situation. It's a big game. Jacksonville is a
good team. They're tough, they're physical. We had a real tough engagement
with them last year that was 7-3 in the middle of the third quarter. I think
really this game is all about our match-up with the Jaguars and trying to
come into their stadium and play a competitive game. I don't think we'll get
any hospitality down there. I think we got a lot more last time we were
there than we're going to get this time. So, it'll be tough, it'll be
hostile. They have great fans, it's a great football environment there and
it's a real good football team, so it's a big challenge for us.
Q: Is the key match-up being able to
do something offensively with the Jaguars defense?
BB: Absolutely. They've been stifling
on defense and they're good at everything too. They can stop the run, they
can rush the passer, they can cover, they can blitz. They're good tacklers.
They're tough. They're a physical football team. They're hard to block and
they're hard to get open against. They're real good in the passing game.
They have a strong front with good tacklers in the secondary. Everything is
the problem — third down, first down, red area.
Statistically and on film, you can see their efficiency in all those areas
but I think probably the most impressive thing of all that is their size and
their physical toughness and how aggressive they are and how they just beat
teams up. It's definitely a problem and we're going to have to be ready to
play that type of a game because that's definitely what they're going to
give you.
Q: Tom Brady said last week
the players should to listen to what the coach has to say. Do you think they
were not?
BB: I don't know. I think you'd have
to ask Tom about that. No, I don't think that. Look, I respect Tom
Brady and what he says so I'm sure anything that he says he has a reason for
saying and his perspective is important, but I'm just a lot more concerned
with trying to coach a team and trying to get our team to play as well as it
can and compete against a good football team like Jacksonville. I
think Jack [Del Rio] has done a great job with that team. I
think they have a terrific playing style, a tough physical playing style. I
admire the way they run the ball, how well they play defense, how tough they
are with the kicking game. I hope we'll be able to be competitive with them
this week, but it'll take our best football, I know that.
Q: What do you see when the Jaguars have Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew in the
backfield?
BB: They run the ball better than
anybody in the league, not even close. I know Atlanta has some more
rushing yardage but we all know that's the result of the quarterback. I mean
just in teams of running the ball, Jaguars do a great job and it's all the
backs. Obviously, Drew and Taylor are outstanding but they
have great backs on that team. [Greg] Jones when he was in
there, [LaBrandon] Toefield, [Alvin] Pearman,
they're all good, and I think what [Derrick] Wimbush has done
for them at fullback has been really impressive too. He's probably does the
best job of any fullback we've seen in a long time of reading the blocking
schemes in front of him and getting to the right place and those backs
follow him into the hole religiously which they should because he makes a
lot of great decisions for them in the running game. They have a great group
of players, they really do. Taylor and Drew, they can beat you a lot of
different ways. They have speed, they have quickness. They make some cuts in
the line of scrimmage that very few players can make. They're powerful, they
run over guys, make secondary guys miss, come up and get them right up in
the hole and they run right by them, spin around them, stiff arm them. They
have a lot of different skills as runners. I swear sometimes it's hard to
tell who's in there. You see a guy break a nice run and you're not sure
which back it was. You have to go back and look at them because they all are
very skillful. It's not like it's just one guy that is quick or fast. They
can all run. They're powerful and they're quick and they have great run
vision. That's a good a group of backs as I've ever seen collectively from
top to bottom in that unit. They're a very talented and tough group too.
It's not just the skill level, it's their toughness that impresses me.
Q: [On the Jaguars being 6-6
in the last 12 games]
BB: You can ask the Colts how
it went. They take two or three big plays and we all know what can happen.
That's what happened to our game last year. It was a couple big plays in [Benjamin] Watson's catch and a [Asante] Samuel interception and
that turned the game around. Tennessee, a couple plays there turned
it around. That happens to all of us. I'm just telling you what I see on
film. They're a good football team. They lead the league in field position.
They're at the top of the league in defense. They lead the league in
rushing. Don't tell me they're not a good football team. I've watched them
play. I've seen them play every game. They're pretty good.
Q: Are the Jaguars any
different with David Garrard than with Byron Leftwich offensively in the way they attack teams?
BB: No, I think they still pretty
much run the same things. This kid [Garrard] is athletic. Those plays
he made last week against Tennessee, running back and forth across
the field and then finding [Reggie] Williams down there on the
sideline. He has good vision. He sees the field well. He's athletic back
there. He's hard to tackle. I think that Jacksonville kind of has its
own way of passing the ball. They throw a lot of balls up to their big
receivers and let them go up and take them away from the smaller defensive
backs and then they go out on big plays like that. Play action…they can get
the ball down the field and then…If you drop off and take those guys, really
their backs have been their leading receivers and they're very dangerous
with the ball in their hands whether it be on a running play or a passing
play including screens. They stretch the field vertically and the receivers
all can go up and take the ball away and they also can take some of the
short passes and turn them into long catch and run plays. So, they present a
lot of different problems for you defensively. You're trying to stop the
deep ball, you're trying to stop the short run and catch plays, you don't
want to see the backs get it. [Marcedes] Lewis and [George] Wrighster have given them production at the tight end spot. There are
a lot of different things you have to worry about when you play Jacksonville
but obviously it all starts with the running game. If you can't stop that,
as the Colts found out, you don't have to worry about anything else.
Q: You're one win away from your 4th
straight division title. How difficult is that to do and what does that say
about your team and where you're at?
BB: I guess at some point you can
look back and reflect on it, I don't know, but right now the only I can
think about is Jacksonville. I'm not worried about all the rest of
it, what happened two years ago or four years ago or even last year. I don't
care. Right now it's just about Jacksonville. That's where our focus is. I'm
not being disrespectful or trying to push off anything that this
organization or this team has done, because I'm proud to be a part of it,
but at the same time none of it really means anything. What means something
is what happens in the next four days leading up to the Jaguars. That's
really where we'll try to focus all of our attention and energy. That's
where we need to be.
Q: Do you think your team is as good
as it was a couple years ago?
BB: I don't know. I don't think
anybody is what they were a couple years ago. Every team in the league
changes. You have different players, some cases different coaches and you
match-up differently against different opponents. Nobody stays the same.
Everybody is in a transition mode to some degree or another and how that
stacks up against a team that you're competing with, that's what makes the NFL so exciting and interesting. You never know what's going to
happen. I think that's the case this year and I think that'll be the case
every year. |
