Glenn Ordway: Coffee With the Coach, brought to you by Dunkin' Donuts. America runs on Dunkin' … Coach, how are you?
Bill Belichick: Good, Glenn. How are you doing? Pete, Fred, Steve. Good to be here.
[Crosstalk]
GO: Now, the team was in here today. You've given them the Monday off the last few weeks, right? The last couple weeks, after wins, they had Monday off?
BB: Well, yeah, we came in on Tuesday after the Indy game. But we thought it would be good to come in and watch the tape. If you go too long without doing that then you just kind of never see yourselves play. You're always working on the next team and kind of forget about how you're execution goes, other than in practice. But that, of course, is not quite the same. So we went over everything today and we'll come back in Wednesday and really hit the Ravens hard.
GO: Is there anything you saw differently on the tape today that you didn't realize last night during the course of the game?
BB: No, I don't think so. Of course a lot of little things. I think fundamentally we could have done some things better, but in the end it was a tough, hard-fought game. Good football team in Philly. They presented a few scheme problems. They have some veteran players that played well; they made some plays. We made a few more than they did, so that was good. But it was a tough, hard-fought game. Very physical. Even though there was a lot of passing by both teams, it was a very physical game on the line of scrimmage, and tackling and hitting receivers and that kind of thing. There were some hard hits.
Fred Smerlas: Now the in-routes. They were hitting a lot of the…[A.J.] Feeley played. I mean, he got an interception early, hit a bunch of times, and he still stayed poised in the pocket. For a guy that hasn't played much, it was a pretty remarkable performance on his part. And he threw the ball about as accurately as we've seen against you guys. Was it a lot to do with any breakdowns…
Pete Sheppard: Especially on third down.
FS: …or just Feeley playing above and beyond?
BB: Well, third down killed us. Really, our first down defense was good, but then we had them in quite a few second-and-longs, and some of those, they got into third-and-shorts and some of them they didn't. But they did a good job on third down. We need, obviously, to do a better job defending the inside part of the field, whether it be man or zone, and forcing them to throw the ball to the perimeter. That's what we were trying to do, but we didn't always get it done. And of course when he did throw it out there, three of them were for interceptions. So we just have to do a better job defending the inside part of the field. Simple as that. Do a better job of coaching and do a better job of playing.
Steve DeOssie: The pressure on Feeley wasn't as much as we've seen in other games. Was it something formation-wise or personnel group-wise, or did their offensive line just do a good job?
BB: Oh, I'd say all of the above, Steve. You know, they have a very good offensive line, no doubt about that. That's one of the best offensive lines we've seen. They mix in a lot of three-step drops, and they mixed in some seven-man protection where they kept a lot of guys in. We got some hits on them but a couple times we got there just a half a step late, or if our coverage had been a little bit better and just force them to hold onto the ball just a split-second longer we probably would have had them on the ground a couple times. But we didn't and they did a good job of mixing it up. They tried to keep us off-balance with the pass rush by throwing the ball quick and by using some max protection a couple times when they were sprinting out of the pocket and moving the quarterback.
SD: And he stood in the pocket real well, too. Even around him, when you had pressure, he was standing in the pocket real well.
BB: Yeah. You know, again, he did a good job and he's done a good job for them. He's done a good job for the Eagles when he's been called on to play quarterback, and of course we saw him beat us down there in Miami a couple years ago. So he's a good veteran quarterback.
FS: Now, in offense you came out with a lot of four…initially with a four-wide, no-huddle.
BB: Right.
FS: Seemed to be…they talk about holding the offense, but basically the offense moved pretty much at will. You only had the, what was it, eight possessions you had the ball…
GO: In the game. Three in the first half.
BB: We had three possessions in the first half and scored three touchdowns. Got one of them called back on a penalty, so…
FS: Was it a penalty?
BB: It was a tough call. Tough call.
[Crosstalk]
BB: Kind of looked like he just tripped there. But anyway, we moved the ball well but I kind of thought that by the end of that last drive the Eagles were starting to make some adjustments to the no-huddle. So we talked about it; [offensive coordinator] Josh [McDaniels] and I talked about it right before halftime. We decided we'd shift back into a little bit of a different mode in the third quarter and so that's what we did.
FS: Bringing them up and it seemed you hit a few screens off that nice screens and a couple of quick hits…
BB: Yeah, we got the ball outside a couple times and mixed in the running game. I think we ran the ball enough to keep them honest. But really a lot of our production came in the first half when we went down the field three times in a row. And then that last drive, that was a big drive, when they were up 28-24. We were able to drive it down the field, and then that third down conversion to [Wes] Welker enabled us to run the clock down to where they really only had one play there at the end. So that was a big third down conversion for us.
GO: Going into the game last night, they had not had a linebacker sack this season, and then Chris Gocong got one. Was he really a linebacker? How were they playing their defense? It seemed like he was up as a defensive lineman. As a matter of a fact, when he made that sack he was a defensive lineman in that play. Were they moving him around in different areas? How were they doing it?
BB: Well, they were using some three-man line and he was the fourth lineman, but he was standing up as kind of a floater and was moving around in different spots. Initially that caused us a little bit of a…we didn't handle it as well as we would like to, but once we kind of saw what was going on, then it wasn't too much of a problem after that. We just treated him as a down lineman and blocked him as such, and that was fine. But they, again, added a couple different wrinkles in there and we had to make a couple adjustments there in the first half.
FS: Now, [Laurence] Maroney didn't play that much I think. He didn't start the game but he played – how many snaps did he play?
BB: Well, most of his playing time came in the second half and that was situational.
FS: When you went to a more conventional offense?
BB: Well we used more three receivers. There was a little bit of two tight ends – or more two tight ends in the second half. The first half was almost all four wide receivers. We had a few plays in the red area that were just three, but for the most part it was four wide receiver sets.
FS: How active were…the defensive backs seemed to cover pretty well. I mean, Welker had a wonderful day but Randy [Moss], they were covering him, a safety over the top primarily took him out of the game, left Welker open for a lot of stuff?
BB: Well, they mixed it up. Again, they made some plays, they did a good job of mixing it up on us, but we threw for 380 yards, so it's hard to sit here and say Well, they really locked us down in coverage. They made some plays and we made quite a few. I mean, that's a lot of yards to throw for.
SD: Were you anticipating…I was actually anticipating a larger role by [Brian] Westbrook in their offense. He seemed to be the most logical threat coming into the game, as versatile as he is. Were you surprised that he wasn't as big a part of the game? You played well against him against the run, but he had a few catches.
BB: Yeah. You know, Steve, they hardly ran the ball at all in the second half. Just three or four times, whatever it was. And it was, you know, you had that one draw at the end of the half, which was kind of a nothing play. So they really didn't run the ball very much really from about the middle of the second quarter on. It was a passing game for them just kind of like it was a passing game for us. I thought that did kind of limit his opportunity to impact the game, but at the same time they threw the ball well. They converted quite a few third downs, and that was a problem for us. So we tried not to let him get outside. He got out there a couple times and hurt us, but for the most part the running game – I don't know, three yards a carry or something like that, whatever it was it wasn't that big of a factor. The biggest problem we had was our third down and red area defense.
GO: Were you surprised to see an onside kick that early in a 14-14 game?
BB: You know, not…we should have done a better job with it. We talked about it. It's something they had done in the past, and [David] Akers is very good at it. We talked about it, we just obviously didn't spend enough time on it in practice. Just pulled out of there a little bit too soon. So I guess I could have done a better job of coaching it, because we mentioned it, we talked about it, but we didn't emphasize it, obviously, quite enough. So it was a good play on their part, and those are plays we should make.
GO: So it is something that they've done, though, during the course of a season.
BB: Yes. Not this year, but they've done it in the past.
SD: Is there anything to the idea that teams will have a 'nothing to lose' attitude coming in here sometimes. And it seemed…I haven't seen enough Philadelphia film to know their blitz schemes, but it seemed like they were coming after the quarterback a lot. I'm not sure if that was their normal amount or not, but they seemed to have a little bit of a Hey, let's force the issue instead of wait for something else to happen.
BB: Well, I think that's basically what their philosophy is. I don't think there's too many times where they want the quarterback to stand back there and hold the ball. They want to force the ball out and sometimes jump routes and trap and that kind of thing. So they…it wasn't all blitz, but they pressured a decent amount. But they normally do that. Jimmy Johnson, the defensive coordinator, does an excellent job of creating different blitzes against different teams to try to stress the protection. And there were a couple that gave us problems, and like I said, there were a number of them that we hit and a couple of them that we just missed that had we hit them we could have had a lot more yards.
SD: Right.
FS: I find that interesting though, when you came in, Coach, and people are talking about the blueprint and they have your 400 yards of offense and 31 points. If that's going to be the acceptable limits to calling a team successful against another team, you're going to lose a lot of games if you let up 400 yards of offense…
GO: Well, Philadelphia lost that game last night.
[Crosstalk]
FS: They're saying that's the blueprint to stop the offense, is letting up 31 points for 400 yards of offense. It seemed a little unusual. You didn't seem to have any type of a problem with that defense; you went to what they gave you. But on offense, a couple times when the backers overloaded a few times, they missed…at any time were they confused about where to slide or where the strength was on that, on the defenses?
BB: Well, I think that's basically what the Eagles try to do. They usually try to overload one side or the other – make it look like they're coming from one side and then come from the other. And they try to bring one more than you can block from that side – whichever – to the back or away from the back, or to the tight end, however they set it up. But they basically try to overload the protection and get a free guy and force the quarterback to throw it before that guy gets there. And the defenders know that and they can squat on those routes and contest them a little more than they normally would. So that's what they try to do in their blitz game. It wasn't all blitz, they mixed in some coverages, but the more we spread out the more they pressured us. A couple of the quick screens, plays where we got the ball out to the perimeter, out to Welker, there were some good yards to be gained there once we got it outside.
FS: Boy, is he a hard guy to cover?
BB: He is. He sure is.
FS: He runs patterns so quickly, when he makes those cuts. And when you have Randy Moss, maybe, taking up your first corner, he has to have the second or third DB covering him. He was virtually open the whole day.
BB: Yeah. Well, Wes is very quick in there. He's got good hands, he's an excellent route runner and he's a tough guy to matchup against. Believe me, we know firsthand. We tried to cover him in Miami. We couldn't get him.
[Crosstalk]
PS: Why is it that a lot of local and national media don't understand…your balance this year between passing and running: 36 times average passing, 30 running. Pretty balanced attack as far as I'm concerned. You go down the field, in your first three possessions last night, get three touchdowns. Yet people are complaining that Laurence Maroney is not getting the ball enough, and it's going to get cold, and blah blah-blah blah-blah blah-blah blah.
[Crosstalk]
PS: And it's the same people that keep spouting the same stuff. How frustrating is it for you to keep answering questions about Laurence Maroney being in the doghouse, not getting enough playing time, you're not running the ball enough, it's not a well-balanced attack…
GO: You asked that question to Bill last night!
PS: Well I did because a lot of people are calling…I don't agree with it, I know why. If you're successful throwing the ball you should throw the ball. But will you start running the ball a bit more or is it strictly game-by-game: how the game is going, the flow of the game?
BB: It's definitely game-by-game. Yeah, I mean we're not going to sit here and say we're going to hand the ball off this many times to this guy or throw it this many times to that guy, a lot of that depends on what we're getting defensively, what we feel like are the best points to attack. Offensively, what we're trying to do is move the ball and score points; that's our objective out there. It's not to get stats for a certain player or anything else. Whatever we need to do to do that, then that's what we'll try to do. So as long as we're moving the ball and scoring points, I'm happy and our offense is productive. When we're not, I don't care if we're running it, throwing it, or what we're doing, then we're not doing our job offensively. And as we've said many times, the offense's only job is to move the ball and score points. That's what they're out there for.
PS: You try to tell people that, yet they still…
[Crosstalk]
PS: 'Maroney's not getting the ball enough.' 'They're not running the ball enough.' It's frustrating. It's frustrating as a broadcaster…
[Crosstalk]
FS: The highest scoring team in the history of football at this point and they're worried about not running the ball enough.
PS: These questions about running the ball keep popping up and I don't know how you do it, because I'd just say, 'You guys are stupid. You don't know what you're talking about. We're scoring 38 points a game and you're complaining about Laurence Maroney not getting touches.'
BB: Last night was a good example of a team like Philadelphia that had quite a few guys up on the line of scrimmage and they're blitzing them. Well, if you can't block them in the passing game, you can't block them in the running game, either. I mean, they still have one more than you can block in pass protection, they have one more than you can block in the running game. And again, a lot of times those blitzes were hard to…not hard, but they did a good job of disguising them. So, you know, you think they're coming from one side and then you run to the other way and they switch their blitz at the last second and you're running right into it. That's not really the answer, either. If a team's pressuring you, then every once in a while you might split them in the running game. But for the most part you got single coverage out there with a good quarterback and good receivers, I think it would be a mistake not to take advantage of those matchups.
FS: And that's primarily when you go against a team that penetrates like that, like you said, six or seven guys coming, your five guys to six guys blocking, somebody's going to be open, man-to-man or not coverage or sitting in the middle of a soft zone and gives an easy target for a first down. So when you're game-planning a blitzing team, obviously you throw over it. Why run into the storm?
BB: Right. Well, a lot of times we have plays that are checked that if the defense has a lot of guys up on the line of scrimmage, or if they're blitzing and we know we can't block them all, then we'd rather throw the ball – throw it outside or throw it quick – you know, get it out of there and get a positive play rather than run the ball into some unblocked defender.
FS: As a matter of fact, we were able to hear a lot of your audibles the other day on the NBC [broadcast]. You haven't hear that.
BB: No, I didn't see that.
FS: They had Brady…you could…the camera right on him, and you were having the audibles – Omaha, all the audibles, the talk of the receivers…
SD: It was the clearest microphone or boom mic that they've ever used, or parabolic mic, they've ever used…
[Crosstalk]
GO: Usually you hear him describing who the mike [linebacker] is and then you can hear a couple of other things. In this one, he was giving specific instructions to each one of the receivers. And you had a no-huddle, so everything was pretty specific out there. It was amazing to me that they had it…now, he wasn't mic'd up or anything for that game, was he?
BB: No. Not that I'm aware of.
GO: So that had to be coming from the sideline…
[Hosts banter back and forth]
GO: So you hadn't heard anything about that?
BB: No, I hadn't. No, I hadn't.
PS: Does it bother you that it could be that clear on a national broadcast, if it were the case?
BB: I'll check it out. We'll definitely check it out and we'll see what…
SD: It was just strange because in the hundreds of games that we've watched, I've never heard anything that clear.
GO: No, it was crystal clear. And the other thing is that there were people that were insinuating – and never proved – that the Patriots were mic'ing up defensive players to actually be able to pick some of this stuff up…
FS: To tape the audibles of the quarterback.
GO: In this case, you could hear it clear as day. If somebody's in the locker room, I gotta believe you could get that message out.
FS: But you get the visuals, too, because you could see where he's pointing…
GO: He did. Gotta get the visual with it.
FS: So if they were making a big stink about the Patriots mic'ing up D-linemen to get the signals…
BB: That's never been done.
FS: And here's a broadcast showing a guy calling his audibles the whole time…go into the locker room and you could have listened to the audibles and talked to who you want.
GO: When NFL Films wants to do a special project or whatever, do they ask for permission to mic players, or ask players or ask you guys to ask the organization?
BB: Yes. And not only that but by rule, if a player on an opposing team is mic'd, they have to tell you that. So let's say they had mic'd a player with Philadelphia last night, any player, then we would have had that information before the game, that so-and-so was going to be mic'd for this game.
FS: Do you have a right to say, 'I don't want him mic'd,' or do they just give you the information that he is?
BB: I don't know exactly how that whole procedure works. I mean obviously it gets done at some point in the year, probably with pretty much every team somewhere along the line.
GO: Well, the Game of the Week…
BB: It's not every game, but there are times at different points during the year when…
GO: But the Game of the Week they do a lot of that stuff where they've got the big boom mics on the sidelines.
BB: I thought you were actually talking about mic'ing a player.
GO: Yeah, yeah, I was.
BB: But if that is the case, then the other team knows about that, as well. You don't come out of the game and say, 'Gee, I didn't know Brian Dawkins was mic'd.' You're supposed to know that.
FS: But it's unusual for a quarterback. Do they ever ask for quarterbacks to be mic'd? There are so many audibles you could pick up and things of that nature.
SD: But that's NFL Films, and it's for post-game and…
GO: This was like he was mic'd.
FS: It was really weird.
GO: It was amazing. You should listen.
BB: No, I will. I'll check it out, Glenn.
GO: Let me ask you about Asante Samuel, because he's been a pretty big playmaker over the last couple of years. But now he just seems to be a much smarter player who seems to bait quarterbacks into doing certain things. Has this been a maturation process where he's taken it to a different level here?
BB: I think Asante's gotten better every year. He came in as a rookie five years ago and was a good playmaker and very instinctive guy. He's a smart player, he understands the passing game, understands route combinations, does a good job of reading the quarterbacks, does a good job of reading the receivers in terms of their splits and little things they might do to tip off routes and that type of thing. I think he's got good quickness. He's got excellent hands, plays the ball very well and I think that's an important thing for a defensive back to be a playmaker – or any defensive player for that matter, but especially a defensive back. You know, you get guys that have a lot of pass breakups and all, and they cover well and that's great, I'm not criticizing that, but there's a difference between a guy who intercepts passes and who breaks them up. And those are turnovers and those are game-changing plays. So Asante's very good at that. He's got good hands. And if a quarterback makes a mistake around him, a lot of times they pay for it.
FS: Now, that last interception he had on Feeley, was that…he was five yards ahead of the receiver. It seemed like he…
BB: Well, we were in a blitz and they ran a double move. The receiver ran a slant-and-go and Asante didn't bite too hard on the slant at all, he just kind of carried it in there. And then when the receiver ran the deep route, Asante was on top of him, and the ball, of course, was overthrown and he intercepted it. But they were trying to double-move him and that's something that Philadelphia did quite a bit of during the game, which was to take shots, especially when they cross the 50 – plays like the flea-flicker and some play-action passes where they were trying to get it all in one play. But that was a heads-up play by Asante and there was enough pressure on the quarterback where I guess he didn't feel like he had time to stand back there too much longer. He just made a quick decision and probably one that he wishes he had back.
SD: What was the thought process on the last drive, that you ended up punting with 16 seconds left? Was there anything particular that…
BB: Yeah. Well they had one timeout, so on third down we had third-and-one and I thought we had a chance to pick that up. We false-started – we had two of those last night, which wasn't good – so we ended up in third-and-six and we ended up hitting Welker on that for the first down, and that took it to the two-minute…no, it was under…they took the last timeout and there was like 2:15 or 2:20, whatever it was. So we ran the ball on first down and then ran it on second-and-third. And when we got to the punt there was a little over 30 seconds left, I believe. So when we punted the ball with like 30 seconds…
PS: Yeah, Westbrook fumbled it and then they got it back. It was 19 seconds…
BB: Right. But I think the punt maybe took place with…
PS: Yeah.
BB: …30 seconds…and no timeouts. I know they needed a field goal but we felt like at most they could get maybe two plays, and of course one play, if it was inbounds, that would be the end. So once we got that first down, then the decision was to run three plays and kick it back to them with 30 seconds to go. Well, you know, try to get the first down [inaudible] kick it back to them and not take a chance on stopping the clock with a pass, and knowing they were going to pressure. We tried to get a run where we'd be able to split the defense, but we just weren't able to do it.
FS: So the thought process was also a lot of consideration went into throwing the ball just to get the first down and kill the clock entirely.
BB: Right. Yeah, on the series before that, with like three minutes to go, or whatever it was, when we initially…after Asante's interception – how much time was left?
PS: Uh, 3…I want to say 3:52 or 3:02, I can't…
BB: Yeah, a little over three minutes to go, or a little under four minutes to go. So, right, the idea there was to run a couple plays and try to get a first down. And we did get the first down. Basically that secured the game, even though they had one more play it was…
FS: Unless they got the out-of-bounds pass. If they threw over the middle they couldn't have run up and killed the clock.
BB: Right. So we pretty much figured they had to take the ball out of bounds. James made a nice play over there on the comeback route. Westbrook was headed over there, too. I'm not sure if they might have had some kind of, maybe catch it and lateral it to him or, I don't know. But they might have had something else going over there, because Westbrook was on that side too.
FS: It must have been a weird feeling running off the field looking up at the…and pulling out one by the skin of your teeth for the first time this year. Was it kind of a…
BB: Well Fred, in Indianapolis we were down by ten with ten minutes to go, so these are the two-, three-point wins where we were behind in the fourth quarter in two of our last three games. That's not the position we want to be in, but I give the team credit, they made the plays in the fourth quarter that they needed to make in all three phases of the game to win. So that's good, but hopefully we won't put ourselves in that position this week.
FS: It really seemed extremely physical. I mean Philly, we don't get to see them much…
BB: It was a physical game.
FS: They really, they tackled hard…
BB: You bet.
FS: They didn't allow a lot of running after the catch and…they were a physical team! We watched…it's surprising, because being the year that Boomer had picked them to go to the Super Bowl…
GO: He did.
FS: …a bunch of teams thought they were … [Crosstalk] … and the players thought they were much better than they were, and yesterday, you know, that was a hard-hitting game.
BB: Yeah. You know, really when you watch them play, and watch them play last night, it's hard to imagine they're 5-6.
FS: Yeah!
BB: It really is. They're a good football team, and they showed that! And again, for as much passing as there was in that game – because they didn't run it much and we didn't run it much – I thought it was a very physical game for as much passing as there was.
FS: Andy Reid loves to throw the ball, too. Doesn't he? He's a wide-open coach…
BB: [Well,] they run it plenty with Westbrook. But not yesterday.
GO: Alright, let's get to this week. It's a Monday Night game in Baltimore against the Ravens. Obviously, the Ravens have been known for their defense over the last five, six, seven, eight years.
BB: Oh, still are.
GO: How good is that defense this year?
BB: The defense is good. They're right at the top of the league and they lead the league in red area defense. I think they're third or fourth in third down defense, they're second in the league in run defense. They're very good defensively. You know, they're corners have been banged up a little bit – [Chris] McCalister and [Samari] Rolle – so they've had to plug in some guys there, but otherwise they've been intact. They're big, they're very physical. [Haloti] Ngata and Kelly Gregg there at noseguard, their linebacker [Bart] Scott, and of course [Ray] Lewis and [Terrell] Suggs and Jarret Johnson – it's a very physical group. Dawan Landry's a 220 pound safety. Ed Reed – to me Ed Reed, I think, is as good a football player, defensive player, as we've faced in the league. The things that he enables them to do defensively are part of the reason why they're so good on defense. He's able to take so much responsibility himself that that enables everybody else to be more aggressive, play closer to the line of scrimmage, all those things. So he's better than a good player; I mean, he's really one of the best players in the league.
PS: A couple of weeks ago Ray Lewis, Adalius Thomas, seemed to exchange a few pleasantries. Are you worried about that kind of distraction, B.S., going on this week, at all? Bulletin board material?
BB: I think Adalius, whatever the situation is, he can handle that.
FS: They invented a position for him, they said. Outside linebacker.
BB: I'm sure there will be a lot of emotion running high on the field on Monday Night with Adalius and the team that he spent most of his career with. But, you know, we'll put all that aside. I'm sure he will too. He's very professional. The big thing is to go out there as a team and play well and try to get our 12th win.
SD: This is another large offensive line, too.
BB: Oh my god.
SD: You talked about Philadelphia's being large. This is another large offensive line, too.
BB: Yeah. No, these guys are just like Philadelphia: they block out the sun. You're always in the shade when you're behind them.
[Laughter]
BB: And again, that includes the backup guys, too; it's not just the starters. They're enormous. They're big on defense, too. I mean, they're big.
FS: Watching Baltimore, they are physical. They seem to play extremely well and then make a mistake. Prior to this year, they wouldn't make that dropped coverage like [we] watched against Pittsburgh. They held Pittsburgh to 23 yards rushing and virtually shut the passing game down, except for, I think, four plays on broken plays. They had [Ben] Roethlisberger just about down and…
PS: Yeah, but they were all touchdowns, though. … Five of them!
FS: But they dropped coverage when he was rolling out. But they seemed to physically match Pittsburgh. That's a very physical team that sometimes has mental breakdowns. But they can come up and pop you and put pressure on the quarterback.
BB: Oh, they sure can. They can do it all – they can stop the run, they can rush the quarterback, they can cover. They're fast, they're physical and they're good tacklers. I mean, they're a very good defensive football team. They've been like that for a long time, and they're right there this year.
FS: Tired of the night games yet?
BB: We'll rest up during the day.
[Crosstalk]
GO: Time for the MVP Volkswagen Coach's Question of the Week. And right now your seven MVP VW dealers can slide you into a brand new '08 VW – no money down, no down payment, no first month, no security, and zero due at signing. Just sign and drive.
BB: When do you have to pay for it?
[Laughter]
GO: Eventually, Bill, I think you pay for this. They don't tell you in the copy, though. This one's from Rob in Kingston, Massachusetts, who would like to know – this is a good question – 'Who do you turn to for advice or as a sounding board?'
[Hosts banter]
BB: Well, you know, in the National Football League there really isn't anybody that can help you except yourself. You can't call other teams and say, 'Gee, what's going on?' They're not interested in helping us. So we do a lot of self analysis and scout ourselves and talk about what we do and how we can improve it. So a lot of that comes from the coaching staff, or sometimes player suggestions, and we try to research things that way. In the offseason you can go and look at what other teams are doing or maybe if there's a coaching change. Or you get a player like Adalius Thomas or Wes Welker or somebody like that coming onto your team, you may be able to talk to them about something that they did at a different team or how they ran a certain play or a coverage or something like that. But for the most part, you have to do your own R&D, and that's what we do.
GO: Do you do a lot of those conversations during the course of the season, friends, other coaches – maybe they played the team that you're playing that week – and you have a little conversation and say, 'What did you guys do? How did you stop…?' You know?
BB: Sure. Sometimes you have those conversations, especially with teams you don't know that well. But the teams that…like this year we played, to start off with, the Jets, we played them at the end of the year; San Diego, we played them at the end of the year; Miami, those teams that we play on a pretty regular basis – Indianapolis, we played them twice last year – we know those teams probably as well as anybody else does, and we certainly know how they're going to play us, regardless of how they play some other team. But if you go up against a team like the Redskins or the Cowboys or somebody like that, a team that you're really not that familiar with, you haven't played for three or four years, then sometimes in the offseason, or even during the season, you talk to somebody that's played them, or somebody that's familiar them, and try to get a little more insight.
GO: Your question? Do you have any questions?
[Crosstalk]
BB: It's not really a question that's related to us, but just based on what you've seen of the Eagles, who would you start this week if [Donovan] McNabb was healthy, McNabb or Feeley?
GO: Feeley.
SD or PS: Feeley.
FS: You asked us about [Trent] Edwards before, now it's not Edwards it's Feeley. If McNabb's in the game and he throws an interception and gets whacked a few times early, he's throwing up on the field…
PS: He always takes off Thanksgiving week. Five years in a row.
FS: How can you not put Feeley…
[Everyone talking at once]
GO: And it's certainly not a knock on Donovan McNabb: is it fair to say that sometimes if you're together with the same people for a long period of time, sometimes they get tired of each other or it just doesn't work for both parties? … And maybe it's better for both guys to go into a different direction – team and the player. Is is fair to say that?
BB: Sure, that could be the case. I mean, I don't know that that's the case, but it's just interesting to…
[Crosstalk]
PS: Who would you start if both were healthy, knowing how they've played through 11 games this season?
BB: Well, that's a tough one, but probably whoever you feel like your starting quarterback is, in this case McNabb. I think if he's healthy…if you feel that way there's probably a good reason why you feel that way. But I thought Feeley did a good job last night, but he made a couple throws that I'm sure he would like to have back. But every player has plays like that.
GO: It's amazing a guy like that – and we've seen it before, you were talking about Miami in '04 – it's amazing that he could look so good, like he did last night, like he did in that game in '04 in Miami, and yet not be able to do it on a consistent basis. But when you look around the league, isn't that basically what we're seeing in the league? Eli Manning has looked spectacular at times and now yesterday looked like the worst quarterback in the National Football League.
BB: Well, that's the position; it's really magnified one way or the other. You make a bad play, or a bad play happens, and it's the quarterback. And a good play happens and it's the quarterback. So I think sometimes that position gets a little over-scrutinized, both good and bad.
GO: Yeah, but it also separates the Bradys and the other Manning, Peyton, probably from the rest of the pool. And those guys every Sunday seem to be pretty consistent with it.
BB: Well, you have elite players at every position – two or three guys you can put clearly above everybody else. But then after that it's probably bunched a lot more tightly.
FS: Like I was saying [about] the quarterback, Eli yesterday: one gets tipped for an interception, one bounces off someone's chest for an interception, and all you see when they're scrolling down is Eli with four interceptions. You don't see how they happened, but the quarterback gets the blame. Like when the show ratings are great, you get all the credit and we get nothing.
BB: [Laughter]
[Crosstalk]
FS: I think Pete did a nice job last night, too. Don't you?
GO: He's always good. He's always good. Spectacular.
PS: Thanks, Coach, for calling in last night.
GO: Were you in traffic or something?
BB: No, I was just driving home. But I love listening to you and Pete on the way home.
[Hosts banter back and forth]
GO: If you'd like to ask the Coach a question, swing by your local MVP Volkswagen dealers, like Colonial VW in Westborough or Wellesley VW in Wellesley. Make sure you ask about the nothing down, sign and drive. The coach is probably right, eventually you have to pay. [Laughter]
[Crosstalk]
GO: See mvpvw.com for more.
[Hosts banter back and forth]
GO: Here's the deal, the coach is going to be on Monday night with you guys on the Real Post-Game Show and not with us next week because he's going to be traveling real late. That's my understanding of it. Is that your understanding?
BB: Yeah, we'll do it after the game.
GO: There you go.
[Hosts banter back and forth]
GO: Alright Coach, congratulations – 11-0 and another AFC East title was won yesterday. Congratulations. We have a hat for you…
[Crosstalk]
BB: I'll wear it with pride. I'll wear it with pride.
GO: You should. You should. And we'll hear from you next week back here with these guys.
BB: Sounds good.
GO: Have a good week. Good luck in Baltimore.
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