BB: That was a pretty good football
game out there today. Real physical, just like we expected it. Jacksonville is a real good football team, they play well here. I
thought it took a real strong effort by our players. In the end they went
out there and made enough plays to win. I'm real proud of them. Proud of
what they've done this year. We accomplished one of our goals today. We
still have a lot of work to do, but that was very satisfying to come down
here and win. It was pretty ironic, of course, that the last time we were
here would be the same score with [Rodney] Harrison getting
the ball at the end of the game and all that. But regardless of how it
happened, we're happy with the result. You just have to give all the credit
in the world to the players today. They played their hearts out. It was a
physical game, a tough place to play, but they came down here and made
enough plays to win, so they certainly deserve it.
Q: How sharp was Tom [Brady]
today?
BB: I thought offensively we had
pretty good execution for most of the game. We tried to mix some runs in
there to keep them honest but made most of our yards throwing the ball, and
a lot of them on fairly short throws. It's hard to get the ball over top of
these guys; they do a good job in the deep part of the field. I thought we
had a pretty good day offensively. Defensively, we gave up a couple of long
plays that marred otherwise a pretty solid performance there. But you have
to give them credit, they have some good players and those guys make those
plays.
Q: This is the first time I remember
you wearing a hat. [Laughter] Does that mean anything like exactly how
gratifying this one was?
BB: I'm happy to win. I'm always
happy to win. I'm happy to win, happy to beat Jacksonville, and happy to win
the AFC East. Proud of what our players did. They've overcome a lot
this year to have the record that we have. I'm proud of what they did today.
It's a tough place to play, a tough team to beat down here, so I'm happy
that we could come down here and do it.
Q: Tom [Brady] spoke
out a couple weeks ago after the Miami loss and you guys win two
games since then, what effect do you think his words probably had on the
team?
BB: I don't know. You'd have to ask Tom. I think Tom's a great leader, I think everybody respects Tom.
He's a great leader. He has a lot of toughness. He's a great player. I'll
stand behind whatever Tom says, but I don't know, I'm just trying to coach
the team.
Q: How has he changed as a leader in
that way?
BB: He's been a great leader ever
since he's been here.
Q: Did you heart skip a beat when
he went down there in the fourth quarter?
BB: Well sure, you don't want to see
any player go down. Luckily he bounced back. Like I said, he's a tough kid.
That was a big first down he got; ultimately that led to the final points
that we were able to put up there. But I think that reflects his toughness
and his competitiveness and how bad he wants to win and what a great player
he is.
Q: Could you talk about [David] Thomas's touchdown catch?
BB: They were in split safety
coverage and we were kind of overloaded to the right side there. Nobody came
over to get him and so Tom made a nice throw – threw it over the top of the linebacker. Thomas laid out and
made a tough catch. Well-executed play. There was a little window there to
get it in and Tom got it in and Thomas made the play. Dave stepped up and
had a couple big catches for us today. Those were important. We spread the
ball around pretty good – it wasn't any one-man
band out there in the passing game. We spread the ball to a lot of different
receivers in our passing game; we were really able to really move the ball
pretty consistently for most of the game.
Q: Were there similarities to the Minnesota game?
BB: They play a different scheme than Minnesota.
Q: Tom threw passes to ten
players today, is that a necessity for your team or is that a luxury that
you guys have?
BB: I think Tom tries to do the same
thing [which] is throw the ball to the guy that's open. So whoever's open,
that's who's going to get it. We used a lot of different players and had a
lot of different formations and looks and that kind of thing so, the guys
who were open, he tried to get the ball to them. I thought he did a good
job.
Q: Maurice Jones-Drew, the
first touchdown that he scored – obviously your
team thought he was down and he took it for 74 yards.
BB: Well, he was down. He made
a play, we didn't make the play. That's what happened. We all saw the play.
I don't know what else I could say about it.
Q: What kind of impact did you feel [Rodney] Harrison had?
BB: Rodney's a good football
player. It's good to have him back, it's good to have [Laurence] Maroney back, it's good to have Eric Alexander back, it's good to
have everybody back. We want to be at full strength and get every player we
possibly can healthy and back out on the field. So it's always good to see
them come back out there. |
