Glenn Ordway: Back down here at Gillette Stadium. It is indeed Patriots Monday. I'm Glenn Ordway, along with Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie and Pete Sheppard. It's time for Coffee With the Coach. It's brought to you by Dunkin' Donuts. America runs on Dunkin' Donuts. Hello, Bill Belichick.
Bill Belichick: Glenn, how are you doing?
GO: I'm doing fine…
BB: Steve, Fred, Pete, how's it going?
GO: Anything been happening around here? Has it been kind of quiet, nothing really going on?
BB: Big win last night. Big win last night. Fans were rockin' and rollin' and…
Steve DeOssie: That was as long an ovation for you as I've ever seen.
BB: Thanks, Steve.
[Laughter and crosstalk]
Pete Sheppard: Funny, they left that part out of the broadcast. I don't know why.
SD: Oh, on the TV broadcast.
GO: Interesting week, but Saturday night we heard that you brought in our buddy Lenny Clarke…
BB: [Laughter]
GO: …to break the ice, motivate the players. Can you tell us how that went, because we love Lenny but Lenny must have…
BB: Well we all love Lenny.
GO: Lenny must have taken some shots at you, I would think, in his little comedy session.
BB: Pretty much of a roast on me.
[Laughter]
SD: Which the players love!
BB: Oh, they did. They did.
GO: So, in other words, you had a roast here on Saturday night with the players.
BB: Well, he got a few shots in on some other people, too. But Lenny, he's been a good friend and he's a huge Patriots fan, just a huge Patriots fan, and he was pretty pumped for the game. And it was his birthday Sunday.
[Everyone talking at once]
BB: So he went to the Red Sox game Saturday and then came over and saw us Saturday night, and then Sunday went to the Patriots game. So it was a big 'Lenny Clarke, Happy Birthday to Me!'
[Laughter and crosstalk]
BB: But anyway, I talked to him, and he has a tough schedule, he's always on the go out doing stuff…
SD: Big star.
BB: Yeah, sure, shooting TV shows and doing stuff. So it just worked out that it was his birthday, he was in for the game, so I asked him how he felt about stopping by Saturday night and he was up for it. He had a routine that just happened to be ready.
[Laughter]
BB: He was rippin' 'em. Oh, he was awesome.
[Crosstalk]
GO: Let me just throw this out to you and then we'll get into all the stuff about the game—and I know you want to move on and everything else. There's one thing about media people saying things, people writing certain things about people. I wonder in any way whether it bothered you that there were people within the game, within the industry, that I know you value the history of the game and how the game is played, whether any of that stuff bothered you this past week. Because there were some, I would say, pretty nasty comments made about you in the past week by some football people, people who play the game.
BB: Well, I'd say for the most part, Glenn, I didn't spend too much time reading all the material that I guess you did, or whatever. And I'm not being disrespectful, it's just [that I was] trying to work on the Chargers. I'm sure everybody has an opinion of this and everything else.
SD: Did you feel that your team was rallying around the cause at any point? Did you feel any extra motivation on their part?
BB: Well, I thought that the team prepared very well for the game all through the week, had good practices, really turned it up a little bit at the end of the week. On Friday, Junior [Seau] got up and gave a pretty moving speech to the team about just the position that we were in and, you know, the Chargers are a good team, what we need to do to be ready to win, that kind of thing. It was very good. And Lenny contrasted that Saturday.
[Laughter]
BB: He came from a little different direction. But I think the team had a good week. I think they were focused on the Chargers. You know, it was early in the season but it's a big game, and we had a big game with them last time we played them. So I think everybody was excited and ready to go, and I think that was really the main thing.
SD: So does this put an end to all the issue as far as you're concerned, or is that something that the team's still thinking about?
BB: Well I think that pretty much everything that's been said, that we're going to say, has been said. And as Mr. Kraft said last night, it's being handled as an internal matter, what's left of it. So I think I'll just leave it at that.
Fred Smerlas: Coach, when you're looking across the field, and they are, right, 53 yards from you, how many guys are usually giving signals? Two, three, in general? One? For the most part, how many guys? And there's always a 'dead' guy, two dead guys…
BB: Yeah, I'd…well, usually one, usually the coordinator. Or if the coordinator's up in the box he calls it down and that person signals it in. Occasionally there's another one.
GO: Are those signals disguised and changed on a regular basis?
BB: They certainly are. They certainly [were] when I was doing them…
[Chuckling]
BB: …let's put it that way.
FS: Because how easy is it to get…you were giving signals for the Giants for so many years and you have a pattern to it. Obviously you have to break the pattern or everyone in the league…it's right for public consumption…
SD: And what do you do when you have really slow and stupid signal callers calling your huddle for you?
[Laughter]
SD: What do you do in that case? You can't change them that often, you'd get confused.
BB: Well, I think it's just like baseball. I mean, there are only so many situations in baseball. Guy's on first, what are the options? Bunt, hit-and-run, steal. You know, you just have a few things so you protect those signals with however you code them to protect them. And I'm sure football signals, most teams would handle it the same way, they find some way to make the signal but then whether you change them or use wristbands or have an indicator that makes this a live signal and makes something else a dummy signal, or have more than one guy do it. I mean, there are a number of ways to do it but I think most teams use some element of that in some way. I certainly did when I was signaling. We do it and any signals that we use in our game is just to protect them.
GO: Terry Francona brought up an interesting point. I know you guys in this sport use some dummy guys, he of course uses an indicator, you know, going through a series of touching various parts of his…
BB: Sure.
GO: But he brought up a point that if somebody's figuring it out, you have to change up. I mean, would you change up in the middle of a game if you figured, 'Hey listen, I think they're on to us here'?
BB: Oh, at times we have multiple signals, so four or five signals all could mean the same thing. Something that's a common call or there's…sure, you definitely change something up or give dummy signals, give a signal that looks like the same signal as you gave before but somehow or other it's different, it doesn't mean anything—you know, however you set it up. But yeah, I mean I just think that if you're signaling you better have a way to protect those signals, because if your guys can see them somebody else can see them. So that's the way we handle it. I don't know how other teams handle it but I would think that they use some element of that.
FS: Now if someone is dumb enough to start using what they perceive as your signals, how easy would it be to, like you said, trap them into playing the wrong offense or defense if you've given them a dummy signal call they're biting into?
BB: I think that's just part of it, part of the signaling process. But I would just say overall though it's a lot more important to play well and have good players and execute well than it is to…I mean, a lot of times you know what teams are going to be in anyway. They just do certain things in certain situations. You don't need…even if you saw the signal it wouldn't necessarily…you wouldn't even need it.
FS: We had a game that…we found someone's gameplan before. I won't tell you how we got it but we lost 28-0…
[Laughter]
FS: …because they were going to go right or left or straight on punt return and they ran in for a touchdown, or they had a cover-two with a base 3-4 and we couldn't get through it. So, I mean…
GO: Fred, you could look at it the other way—you would have lost it 44-0 if you didn't have that book.
[Laughter]
SD: Coach, have you been contacted by the NFL about any further investigations or anything to that point?
BB: You know, there's nothing…I don't have anything else to add to the situation, Steve.
SD: OK.
GO: Alright, let's get to the game. Pretty impressive. I heard your comments earlier today and then last night. Obviously you found a couple things, I guess, in the videotape. But overall, as you like to say, in all facets of the game, that was pretty impressive for game two of the season.
BB: Well, I thought the players played well. Like I said, they had a good week of preparation, they played with a lot of energy and played pretty consistently all the way through the game, all the way to the fourth quarter. You know that 10-minute drive, to be able to put that together at the end of the game, drive the length of the field, not have any mistakes and be able to punch it in. So, you know, that was good. It was good. Yeah, a lot of things we could have done better. San Diego gave us some problems. I mean, [Antonio] Gates obviously gave us some problems with a couple hits on the quarterback in pass rush, turned the ball over a couple times, so yeah, there are certainly a lot of things we could work on, but I thought it was a solid effort by the players and we played consistently in all three phases of the game.
PS: You were in full pads this week a couple of times and players said that had a lot to do with it. Was that specifically because you were playing the Chargers and wanted to get that feeling built up?
BB: I'd say a combination of both, Pete. One was the Chargers, and they're very good in the running game, very good run defense, so it's hard to just talk about it, you have to get out there and do it. But also it's early in the season. You know, it's only the second game of the year and we're still getting our timing and our technique and our execution on plays. And yeah, we've run them through training camp and all that but I wouldn't say we're exactly in midseason form. So we can use those practice opportunities. In football, it's a lot different than baseball and some other sports—we only play once a week, and the only way for us to get better is to improve on the practice field. You take a baseball team—they don't practice during the year, but they play every day. So they can get better in games but we really can't, we need practice. Once a week just isn't enough for our team to improve. So that's why practice is so important to us. And we try to balance off not beating the players up, not doing too much to set us back or getting worn down or being tired going into the game, with a good dose of work at a good tempo that we can improve and get better.
FS: Coach, the escapability of the wide receivers, it seems that they don't get tied up at the line of scrimmage whatsoever. Randy Moss they highlighted a few times, you know, with the swim move, or Wes Welker going underneath. Does it seem like they're…obviously they are getting off the line much quicker this year than the previous receivers last year.
BB: Well I think that Randy is very good against press coverage, and he's seen a lot of it. And so is Wes. Wes is quick and he's got a good acceleration. And Kelly [Washington]'s a stronger guy, [Jabar] Gaf[fney]'s got a little bit of elements of both in there, Donté Stallworth's got some strength and quickness and speed, so each guy maybe has a little different way of dealing with it. But in the end they all have to be good enough to get away from it because that's something that we see in the NFL a lot more than you see in college, is guys getting right up, line up on the receivers close to the line of scrimmage, and if you can't get off the line then you can't get in the route and there's no passing game.
FS: Have you seen a quicker move than that Wes Welker when he stopped, backed up and turned and went up there? I've never seen a guy back up on the same plant.
BB: Yeah. Well, Wes is quick, and unfortunately we'd seen too much of that when he was at Miami. We had too hard of a time tackling him and catching him. So it's good to see him doing it for us instead of doing it against us.
SD: When they recovered that fumble on the kickoff your defense came in and just seemed like they were hell-bent on making a statement. Were the calls as aggressive as they seemed, and was that part of the thinking—you wanted to make sure they had no thoughts of getting back in the game?
BB: Well at that point it was a three-score game, and obviously a score there would really tighten it up with almost a full quarter to go, but as it turned out we put in our nickel defense which we really didn't use very much last night until that series, you know, with the two down linemen, the four linebackers and the five defensive backs. And [defensive coordinator] Dean [Pees] called just really two straight cover-three zones, just normal three-deep zones, not anything fancy. We got real good pass rush and the coverage matched well in the patterns and there really wasn't a whole lot of space there for [Philip] Rivers to throw and we were able to get him and knock them out of field goal range. I thought those were big plays. But the pass rush was good and the coverage matched the routes that we had. It was a good call by Dean. We were kind of maybe in the right thing at the right time at that time.
PS: You guys were up 24-0 at the half. The start of the third quarter they get the ball. Were you surprised at how conservative Norv Turner was—eight minute 17 second drive, 16 plays, 73 yards? I mean they scored but there goes the whole third quarter. Were you surprised at some of the play-calling there?
BB: A little bit, Pete. But I think that what he was probably trying to do—and I can understand that—is when things aren't going well you just want to run your offense and get your confidence back and get your team back on track. I think that's what he was probably trying to do, was just run the stuff that they felt the most confident with and start executing that before you try to get into something else. I mean, I know what you're saying, at that point in the game you don't have all day to have…
PS: I'm not saying to throw bombs four times in a row…
BB: Right.
PS: But I was surprised at how often he ran the ball on that clock.
BB: I was a little bit surprised, too. But as I said, I think that probably what he was trying to do was just get his offense and get his team back into some kind of rhythm. And believe me, I can certainly understand that; I've been in that situation myself. You're not looking to make five plays to get back in the game, you're just trying to make one. And then, 'OK, made one,' and then, 'Alright, let's see if we can make another one.' And then just start stringing them together. And I think the best way to do that is to run things that you know how to run, you're familiar with.
FS: Run us through the Adalius Thomas interception. He was obviously…looked like a fake. He came up, dropped into a zone?
BB: Yeah, it was the same thing, it was just a basic three-deep zone. He and Junior were up on the line, kind of fakin' around there, and he dropped out, read the quarterback—and that's something that our linebackers have been working hard on the last couple weeks, is really getting a good read on the quarterback, seeing his eyes and recognizing when he pulls the ball up in his delivery and the angle of his shoulders and so forth. And Adalius got a great jump on it and showed his hands or reached up, plucked the ball, and he can run.
FS: The receivers couldn't catch him.
BB: I'm telling you, he's a big man, he was moving fast.
[Crosstalk and laughter about Steve DeOssie]
GO: Bill, how do you deal with an Antonio Gates? He's basically a wide receiver. They list him as a tight end. He's a wide receiver—he'll come out in the slot, he'll come out in different positions. How do you treat him, do you just ignore the fact that he's a tight end and treat him like a wideout? How do you deal with him?
BB: Well, it depends on what the defense is, number one. But yeah, when he lines up as a split receiver then, at times, we would treat him as a receiver. If he lines up in the tight end position, then we treat him as a tight end. And they move him around a lot and they make it hard to find. And he's very good. He and Rivers have a good chemistry. There were a number of plays where the coverage wasn't that bad but he stuck it in there to them and Gates made a good catch. So I think we just have to do a better job against a player like that. I think we could coach it better than we did looking back on it. I mean I felt like it was OK going into the game but then after playing against him, there are a couple of things that we could have emphasized more and we should have done differently. And I'll take responsibility for that. I don't think we just were as close to him as we needed to be; we just gave him too much space to operate in. I think we just have to make it tighter for him. Because he's just too slippery.
PS: But Rivers did get off a couple of passes. I don't know how he did.
BB: I don't either.
[Everybody speaking at once]
BB: …no, I thought we had good pressure on him, we were hanging all over him and he stepped up and made good plays. But like I said with Gates, I think just at times our coverage wasn't as close to him as it needed to be. And part of that's the design; it should have been designed to be tighter. I have to do a better job with that.
FS: You set your defense according to offensive personnel, when they make their move and/or on down-and-distance. So it's virtually…that's what you do it on, you wait for them to make the personnel change and then you set your defense?
BB: Well the two things you can control on defense when you make the call in the huddle is down-and-distance and personnel. So you know what the down and distance is, you know what personnel they have in the game and so now you make your call. Now, at that point you could have a call that just plays against everything—as you know, Fred—or you could have a call that maybe plays like this against one set and like something else in another set. Like if they lineup one back in the backfield you play one thing, if they lineup two backs in the backfield you play something else, or if they lineup in a slot formation you play one coverage or one deal and then if they lineup at something else you play something else. So there could be an element of that where even once you see the formation then you check the defense based on formation. So really the two elements you always have are down-and-distance and personnel, and then once you see the formation you have some ability to adjust your defense at that point.
GO: You seemed to get great protection again for [Tom] Brady, and with the blitz other than [Shawne] Merriman a couple of times. Kevin Faulk did an unbelievable job with with [Stephen] Cooper on that one play where he came in. You have to be happy with that in that they seemed to pick it up very, very well last night.
BB: Well San Diego is a good pass rushing team, especially their…well, their whole front's good—their ends are good, and [Jamal] Williams is tough inside, and their outside linebackers are good. They do a lot of combination blitzing—two outside guys, an inside/ an outside guy, things like that. They give you a lot of different combinations. So the ability to number one, get everybody blocked and get it sorted out, and number two, actually stand up there and block them, it was challenging. You know we opened up the game with I don't know how many straight passes and empty formation and all that. They knew we were throwing but our linemen did a good job of standing up to them, Tom was getting the ball out of there on time, but that's what you need to do in the passing game, you have to be efficient and quick.
GO: Did you ever get a clarification when Ed Hochuli called…there was a holding call, apparently, a flag out, and then he [inaudible] before the microphone and said the defender simply got overpowered.
BB: I didn't get an explanation on that, no.
FS: Your face explained everything on TV when they showed a closeup. Because usually that's what they call all the time—if you pancake a guy usually you have a piece of them and they'll call that more often than not. You know, if you have a guy turning him and when he come off and excuse that, it was like usually it doesn't happen.
BB: Yeah, I think a call here or there aside, I think that overall that Ed's one of the best referees in the game. I think that he does a good job of keeping the game under control. Once again…
PS: Because he could beat up half the players.
BB: Well, that might be a part of it, too.
[Laughter and crosstalk]
BB: You know, the last time we had him was in Tennessee, and we all remember that game. It started early and it was a very…there was a lot of chippy and pushing and a lot of stuff like that, [crosstalk] a lot of personal fouls, and I thought that he did a good job of keeping that game under control even though it was a very competitive game. And the same thing last night. There was a lot of back-and-forth and some stuff marginally after the whistle and all that. I thought he did a real good job of keeping the game under control. You know, there are always going to be a couple of calls in every game that we thought could have gone this way, somebody else thought it could have gone another way, but what I respect about Ed is his ability to keep the game under control and not let it get away from the officials, and that hasn't happened. And he's been in a couple tough situations. I'll tell you another game that he was in that was a tough one was the AFC Championship in 2001, when [Bill] Cowher and I both used all our challenges up at the beginning of the third quarter, and then it was about another four or five plays after that that were very, very close plays that could have gone either way, and you know, you get one challenge a game and that's probably a lot. In that game we could have had a lot of them and it was…so, he's had some interesting games with us.
GO: Do you think the league looks for stuff like that? I know you've had a lot of communication with them during the course of the week. Do you think there's a possibility that they looked at Ed Hochuli and they said, 'This is the type of guy—we know this is going to be a chippy game based on the emotion from last year in the playoff game—this is the type of crew that we want to have for a game like this'?
BB: I don't know how the crews get selected. Mike Pereira, the head of officiating, does that. We usually get notified, Glenn, about three weeks before the game as to who the crew's going to be. Like I think the other day we got the crew for the Cleveland game, things like that. So they stay about two or three weeks ahead just to let you know who it's going to be. How it's selected and all that, I don't know, but I do know that at the most you're going to get one crew twice in the season. You're never going to get more than that. Most of the time you only see the crew once during the year.
PS: I didn't realize this until last night—John Madden brought it up—that Hochuli did not get a playoff assignment last year, which I thought was…I was shocked when I heard that.
BB: Yeah, and again, I don't know exactly how all that works either, but I know that…of course, he had our Super Bowl, Super Bowl XXXVIII, and he's been in them many times before. I think he's one of the most respected guys in the league. He keeps the game under control and he lets you know what's going on. I'm sure if I had asked him about that call, Glenn, that you were referring to, he would have given me and explanation. To be honest with you, I didn't ask him.
GO: I'd just never heard of that before, and he was trying to explain it to the teams and to the crowd.
BB: See, to be honest with you, on the field you can't…I can never hear those.
GO: Oh, really? You can't hear?
BB: I've had that frustration with the referee before, is that he'll make an announcement about, let's say somebody challenges a play, he'll make an announcement and you're not sure what he's saying, is he announcing a field position, what down is it, what's going on, and maybe you can hear it or the fans can hear it or the TV can hear it but I'm standing down on the field [and] I can't hear anything. All I hear is the fans yelling or booing, depending on where you are and what the result of the call is. And so they really need to come over and say, 'OK, this is what was challenged, this is what we decided, this is what the new situation's going to be.' 'OK, great.' But when they announce it they kind of think that they've informed you. But the truth of the matter is I can't hear anything that's announced down there.
FS: Maybe you should try to read their signals.
BB: They're facing the other way, Fred.
[Laughter]
GO: I have to tell you, I find that to be very strange, Bill, that they're cutting you out of that element of the game. The fans sitting in the stands can all hear the explanation by the official, and you can't hear that. Why wouldn't they…
BB: Glenn, it's very frustrating…
GO: Why wouldn't they put a speaker on the sideline? Is that against the rules, too? I'm afraid to ask.
BB: I don't know. But I think I would say looking back at my career here with the Patriots, in eight years the times that I've been most upset on the sideline have been in those situations where I didn't know what the situation was. And I want to know! It's not like I don't care; I want to know what the situation is. It's not that it's a bad call that they see it one way and I see it another—I know that's going to happen. But to not know what the situation is and for them not to tell me, 'OK, here's what it's going to be,' and you're out there saying, 'OK, well is it second down or is it first down?' You know, whatever it is. 'Wait, what's going on here?' You know, we had a situation a couple weeks ago in the preseason game where we…it was down in Carolina. It was fourth down and short, it was about a yard to go, but we asked for a measurement and I felt like we should have gotten a measurement in that situation. I knew it was short of the first down, but is it six inches, is it a foot, is it two feet? With my eyes and as far away as the ball was, I can't really see that—and it affects our call—and we didn't get it, so I took a timeout and I made them make that measurement there. But that's one of those things where when you feel like you're going to get it called one way on mechanics and then you don't do it, then that upsets me. And I'm not saying I'm right or I'm wrong, I'm just saying that whatever the understanding is on how it's going to be done, and then it's not done that way, then that could mess up your thought process and your timing.
GO: And if it's a regular season game you're burning a timeout. Maybe late in the game for something like that…
BB: Oh, absolutely. They're valuable. You don't want to do that. But that's…
FS: But then again, you don't want to let a play go by where you could make a decision to run it or kick it.
BB: Third and fourth down, those are critical decisions, especially if it maintains possession of the ball. So, is that worth a timeout? I mean, in the first half to me it probably is.
FS: What would be a solution to that?
BB: I just think that it's a…the problem is that the officials want to keep the pace going at a good pace so the games get done in that three hour window that there's pressure on them to get done, and communicate with the sidelines and the people in a timely fashion. If they came over and explained everything, I'm sure it would take too long and it would drag out the game, and nobody would be happy about that. But then when you miss a situation, that's…and I'll say this: Ed's one of the best in the league at communicating with the sideline. He'll always come over and tell you what's going on, or, if you ask, he'll come over and give you an answer. Like I said, on your question, Glenn, I just never asked him. But had I asked him, I'm sure he would have come over and said 'Hey, here's what we saw.'
GO: I just never heard of that before, what he said…
[Everyone speaking at the same time.]
GO: Alright, let's get to Buffalo. That's this week. One game at a time. We'll get to Buffalo. I guess let's start—because there's a lot to talk about them—they've struggled here in the first couple weeks. But their special teams and Terrence McGee, that's always, I guess, a concern.
[Everyone speaking at the same time.]
BB: [Inaudible] and [Roscoe] Parrish, yeah.
GO: You're going to spend a little extra time this week, I would think, on special teams.
BB: Well, their return game is very good. It's probably the best in the league. But this is a big challenge for us this week because Buffalo's style of play is so much different than what we saw from the Jets and San Diego. You know, the Jets and San Diego were both 3-4 teams—similar to what we run. Not exactly the same, but similar, from training camp and all those preseason practices. Now we're going up against a team defensively, in Buffalo, that's a four-man line, they stunt a lot, they're very quick—they're not the biggest team on defense, but they're fast and they're quick and they move, so they're almost never where they lineup. Whereas against San Diego and the Jets, if you came off and hit the guy, he was basically going to be there. Well now, he's not going to be there—it's all moving targets and a lot of lateral movement and stuff like that. You know, same thing Indianapolis and other teams in the league do. So that will be a big challenge for us. And then offensively they've got very good skill players: [Marshawn] Lynch is an outstanding back that has a lot of quickness and versatility; they have a very good group of receivers that have given us a lot of problems in the past. So, we're going to face a downfield passing game similar to the Jets but probably with another receiver in the mix. You know, instead of just [Jerricho] Cotchery and [Laveranues] Coles kind of thing, now you add Parrish and Peerless Price and Lee Evans and [Josh] Reed. You know, those four guys are hard to matchup with, and plus you get Lynch in the game or [Anthony] Thomas, whoever the back is. So, there will be some different challenges as well as the return game. Just things that we haven't really seen very much of so far this year.
FS: We were talking about [J.P.] Losman, who is their triggerman. Last year he looked dreadful in some games, then in some games he threw some unbelievable passes. I think the third- or fourth-to-last game he hit a couple of passes that won some games. He has a nice arm, he has good control with it—you know, sometimes he gets mixed up in the pocket, but he's a guy that can, in one of the five games that he plays well, he can tear you apart with the speed of the receivers and the strength of his arm.
BB: You know, I think, Fred, that's a good point and it's something that he's been like from Tulane. I think he's a little bit of a streaky guy, you know. And hey, he can get on some bad streaks and he can get on some good streaks, too. And I think the other thing that Buffalo's done that nobody's really talked about—but they've done a good job—is they've rebuilt that offensive line. They're a veteran team now. They brought in [Derrick] Dockery, they brought in Langston Walker, of course they had Jason Peters in there, [Jason] Whittle as a backup, so they have some depth on the line and they're much better than I would say what they were last year, or two years ago, up front. So that's a big factor, too for them. It's a good offensive football team. They have a lot of skill, they have a good line, and an athletic quarterback, and he can get hot. We've seen him get hot.
PS: They seem to play much tougher here than in Buffalo. In Buffalo [you've] pretty much had your way with them, really, over the last few years. But here they always seem to play tough.
BB: Well, it couldn't get any tougher than it was last year. That was a [tough game], and of course the game started off badly and we had our hands full. You know, I think that that's the kind of thing that can happen against Buffalo if you're just not used to their speed and quickness, which clearly we weren't. To start the season last year they surprised us on a few plays and…not surprised us but it just happened so much faster than we were used to seeing it and we weren't able to quite get it done. So I have to do a better job preparing our team for that, and then our team has to do a better job of understanding that or it's going to get us into trouble.
SD: Well, your team's done a great job at not just giving it lip-service but living by the motto of one game at a time. This past week was a very big game against a foe that had a lot of reason to come in and play well, even though they didn't. How do you get that excitement level or the enthusiasm level up from a big game against a very talented San Diego team on a Sunday night to playing a team that's struggling like Buffalo?
BB: Well first of all, they're in our division. But second of all just, as I said, the style of play, I think, is going to be a big challenge for us. And I think our players, they may not realize it now, but I'm going to tell you, by Wednesday they're going to realize it, I don't care what I have to do. Because I didn't do a good enough job of that last year. As I said, we started out the game and we couldn't get Lee Evans, we couldn't get [Willis] McGahee, they blitzed us and strip-sacked us for a touchdown, we couldn't block [London] Fletcher, they were just…and it took us a while to get into any kind of real rhythm in the game. They're a different type of opponent than what we've played. And like I said, I think it starts with the coaching staff doing a good job of preparing the players, and even though we've seen it before, we have to do a better job of preparing for it this year. And I think going back to what Pete said, in some cases it's…I don't want to say it's easier but when you play them the second time around at least you've been through that experience of how fast they are, how quick they are. You're just a little more prepared for it. And we have to do that the first time.
GO: Alright, time for the MVP Volkswagen Dealers' Coach's Question of the Week. Visit any of the seven MVP VW dealers, fill out a question for the coach and be automatically eligible to win a February vacation in Miami. No purchase is necessary. Alright, Coach, Ellen from Kingston asked this question: 'What are the top two books you'd recommend for someone with head coaching aspirations?'
[Crosstalk]
BB: Book #1 would be Bill Walsh's book on a championship organization. And I would say book #2 would be—it's an old one but I think a good one—George Allen's Complete Book of Football Drills. Probably about 350-400 drills in there. All different positions, situations and so forth. It's very comprehensive because it takes things and breaks it down to a small group and how to improve in certain techniques and things. And how by doing those drills correctly, that will help you improve and become a better football player when the big picture, when all 11 guys get involved. So let's take those two.
GO: OK. If you'd like to ask the coach a question swing by your local MVP Volkswagen dealer like South Shore VW in Hanover or Patrick VW, they're in Auburn, where Jetta Wolfsburgs are just $199 a month with sunroof, heated seats and alloy wheels.
BB: My question of the week?
GO: Go ahead.
BB: Pete Sheppard.
PS: Yes, sir.
BB: You know, now that we've had a few games here at Gillette Stadium…
GO: Hold on. I have to towel him off.
FS: He's shiny.
SD: He's nervous.
BB: No, now that we've had a few games here [on] the new stadium turf, how do you feel about us playing on the new turf in there as compared to the old grass or lack of it?
PS: I think it's obvious that it's much better playing on this surface, particularly with the speedsters that you guys have added this year. I think there's no question about it that it helps your team, offensively and defensively. No doubt about it. We all saw what happened last year in the mud, how many games we saw…I think it hurt your team in a lot of ways over the years here, and how you saw immediately the correction last year when it happened. It's like night and day.
BB: I think it's been interesting over about a three or four year period that I think we are, we're a faster team. We're quicker than we used to be.
GO: So in other words it's suited for the personnel on this team and maybe the teams of four or five years ago were suited more for natural turf or, as we like to call it, mud in November. Right?
BB: I think there might be something to that, Glenn.
GO: [Laughter] There you go. There you go. Alright, Bill, congratulations on your phenomenal win last night. It would be nice if you could go, Freddy's got you for 16-0 this year, but even better if you could win every one by 38-14. That would be kind of interesting.
BB: Well, you know, you go into every game expecting to play well and do your best and come out on top. I mean, every team in the league goes into a game like that. And when you do it that way then you feel like you can win that game. Realistically that's all we can think about right now. And that's all we're going to think about, is trying to play better against Buffalo than we opened against them last year. I hope we can do that.
[Crosstalk]
GO: We'll see you here next Monday, Bill.
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