PATRIOTS LEON WASHINGTON PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Can you talk through the appeal of picking the Patriots versus other teams you may have talked to since you have been a free agent?

LW: Obviously Tampa was interested and Detroit was interested a little bit but when you get an opportunity to play for a coach like Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, and just looking at the history, the way those guys perform on the football field and the way they carry the organization is something that a leader like myself, I want to be a part of, something that can push me and make me a better person and a football player. When I became a free agent, that’s one thing I wanted to look at: to go into an organization that believes in winning, who wanted to win the Super Bowl – that was everything – and did things the right way. When I had the opportunity to go to New England, I jumped right on it because they’re a perfect fit for being a better person and football player.

Q: Kick returning is something of a younger man’s game. How have you been able to excel at it at your age after this many years in the league?

LW: 30 is the new 20, I’m a young man. In all seriousness, it’s just something, when it comes to the kick return game, I take it very seriously because I understand how important it can make an impact on the game. If you just think about it, the kick returner is the first person to touch the ball at the beginning of the game or at halftime or after the opposing team scores a field goal or touchdown. You have an opportunity to instantly change the momentum of the game. As a young football player, high school, I knew that and I understand that, so whenever I had the opportunity to return kicks, I took it seriously, from little league football to high school and college. Then I got to the National Football League, the natural running skills of being a running back actually gave me an advantage in the kick return game. I’ve had some great kick return coaches, special teams coaches throughout my career: [former N.Y. Jets special teams coordinator] Mike Westhoff, [Seattle Seahawks special teams coordinator] Brian Schneider. Coach [Scott] O’Brien, having an opportunity to play for him, he can definitely make my game better also. Just added to going out there and wanting to be the best football player at whatever I do kind of gave me an advantage for me to excel in the kick return game.

Q: Do you look at this as an opportunity to step into a role that the Patriots may have needed to beef up this offseason?

LW: Yeah, you hit it right on the head – the opportunity to help this team out, win football games by returning kicks. The one thing I did know about New England talking to Coach Belichick and talking to Coach O’Brien, they take special teams extremely serious. They feel like if you play special teams in the return game and the coverage part of it, you could actually win the football game by doing it well. By playing against those guys in the AFC East early on in my career when I was with the Jets, I had tremendous respect for guys like Larry Izzo, Kevin Faulk, watching Wes Welker return kicks and stuff like that, I had tremendous respect for those guys. I knew how seriously they took special teams so that was one of the things that helped me make my decision easier because I knew New England took special teams seriously.

Q: Do you have any memories of playing at Gillette Stadium or against the Patriots that stand out?

LW: The big one would be with Brett Favre and company, we came in there in that overtime game against Matt Cassel, we pulled it out. That’s a vivid memory – having a good game. I think I actually returned a kickoff return to the house that game. That was pretty special. Joking around with Coach Bill Belichick yesterday, he was like, “Man, whenever we played you guys at the Jets, I used to be like, ‘leave Thomas Jones on the field.’” That was pretty funny. Memories like that, at Gillette Stadium. Now I have an opportunity to go out there and help this team win; be on the same side.

Q: You did not see a lot of action as a running back last year. Where do you consider your game to be at as a running back at this point?

LW: I don’t have the pounding on my body. I feel great, I feel healthy. Like you said, I haven’t carried the ball much out of the backfield the last two years so if it comes to that, that’s what I definitely want to do. I’m a running back at heart. That’s something I want to do, but at the end of the day, it’s about team football. It’s all about the team. I know the way the Patriots do things around here. It’s all about the team because if you play as a team, you actually win as a team. When I come in, my role is to come in and help this team out in any way I can, whether it’s returning kicks, returning punts – I haven’t covered kicks before in my career – or even carrying the ball in the backfield or catching the ball in the backfield. Whatever my role may be with the team, I’m going to do my best and do the best job at it.

Intern Steve’s Initial Reaction to Patriots vs. Texans, Plus 3 Positives and 3 Question Marks Heading Into Next Week’s Match-up vs. the Ravens

Hi BSD readers – my name is Steve Falzone and I am a junior Communication major at Stonehill College. I will be interning as a sports writer for BSD this semester and am excited to hopefully provide you guys with some pretty good articles! Now, let’s talk Patriots.

…..Well that just seemed way too easy, didn’t it? After the 42-14 shellacking New England put on the Texans in week 14, it was hard to think that a team led by the league’s best coach in Bill Belichick and arguably one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, Tom Brady, would somehow manage to squander this one away. Even with the loss of Gronk, the Patriots offense clicked as we have seen it do the entire season, with players stepping up for a 41-28 win at Foxboro. The Patriots are headed to their 7^th AFC Championship game under Belichick, in which they hold a record of 5-1 – not too shabby huh? Brady and Co. are set to face-off against the Ravens on Sunday at 6:30, let’s take a look at the 3 positives and 3 question marks the Patriots are facing as they head into Sunday’s match-up.

POSITIVES

1) BRADY BEING BRADY – Tom Brady showed up to play on Sunday, to nobody’s surprise. The polished QB went 25/40, throwing for 344 yards with 3 TD and 0 INT. His accuracy was pinpoint, showcased by his perfect throws to Gronkowski and Vereen for big gains. After this performance, you can’t help but feel good having the NFL’s most winningest QB in the playoffs on your side going into next week.

2) THE EMERGENCE OF SHANE VEREEN – With Gronkowski out, the Patriots needed someone to step-up and have a big game. Not only did Shane Vereen step-up, but he went OFF for 41 rushing yards with 1 rushing touchdown, while also having 5 receptions for 83 yards and 2 TDs. If this is any indication of things to come, Vereen should play a large role in the upcoming games. Either way, I am sure his emergence is somehow messing with the Ravens’ game plan heading into Sunday.

3) HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE – In the history of the Patriots, their all-time winning percentage at home during the playoffs is .813, tied with Denver for the best in the league. The Pats have won 13 of 16 playoff games at home, and on Sunday, all 68,756 seats will be rocking…need I say more?

QUESTION MARKS

1) CAN THE PATRIOTS OVERCOME THE EMOTIONAL OUTPUT OF THE RAVENS? – Let’s face it: Ray Lewis and the entire Ravens team for that matter, are absolutely insane. Besides that, Terrell Suggs could be one of the scariest human beings on the entire planet – he’s pretty damn ugly, isn’t he? Anyways, before I get off-track, the Ravens are as determined as any team out there right now with the announcement of Ray Lewis’ retirement. Especially after their performance against the Broncos on Saturday, it is clear that this team refuses to give up. They want to win one last one for Lewis – and they’re hoping he doesn’t do anything to kill their chances (was that in poor taste?) However, according to ESPN, out of the QBs that Ray Lewis has faced 5+ times in the regular season and 1+ in the playoffs, Tom Brady is the only one vs. whom he has 0 INT and 1 or fewer sacks. The Patriots are grinders who are always fired up for competition, but will it be enough?

2) WILL THE LOSS OF GRONKOWSKI HAVE A LARGE IMPACT ON THE PATRIOTS? – Before Gronk got injured this season the Patriots were 7-3; however, without him, the Pats have kept a highly respectable 4-1 record. Not bad for a team who is without one of their main stars and one of the best targets in the league. We have obviously seen that the Patriots can be successful without Gronk, but there is no denying that the team is much scarier and better with him on the field. New England has kept up a good reputation without their star off the field, but they need somebody to step-up and have a big game in order to not feel the effects of an absent Gronkowski.

3) CAN THE SECONDARY DEFEND THE DEEP BALL? - Two names: Boldin and Smith. Joe Flacco has one of the strongest arms in the league, and as we saw last week, he is not afraid to throw the deep ball to these two lethal targets. Last time the Patriots played the Ravens in week 3, Flacco has 382 passing yards with 3 TDs, 2 of which found themselves in the hands of Torrey Smith. The secondary needs to step-up and have a big game or else the Patriots will get burned down the field all day.

Either way, Sunday is measuring out to be a damn good match-up. Stay tuned this week on BSD for my AFC/NFC Championship picks, plus more!

ROB NINKOVICH CONFERENCE CALL: HOUSTON

Q: How is your hip?

RN: I’m not going to get into it. Practicing and getting ready for this game.

Q: What are some of the challenges of facing a zone blocking scheme?

RN: You know, this team does a good job of moving together. All the offensive linemen are athletic and they can move. The challenges for us as a D-line are to play strong, be fast and kind of reset the line of scrimmage. That’s your job really, is to get those guys knocked back and not be run into the sideline.

Q: What kind of scouting report do you have on Derek Newton, who missed the first game against you guys?

RN: You get to watch tape. You know, we watch tape a lot. That’s really kind of where you get a lot of your things that they like to do, type of player that they are, just watching tape throughout the year. It gives you the things they do well.

Q: Any kind of impressions of him so far?

RN: Yeah, good player. Obviously we have to do a good job on him.

Q: In the film that you watched of the Texans losing three of their last four in the regular season, what if anything did you see? What was their Achilles heel in those games?

RN: They’re a good team. You have to look at the whole body of work for the things they’ve done throughout the year. They’re a very tough team. The last time we played them, I don’t think that they were at their best, so this game we’re about to play here, we have to be on our best to come out there and match the energy that’s going to be out there because it’s definitely going to be a high energy game.

Q: It has been a while since the Patriots last won a Super Bowl and very few of the holdovers from those teams are left. There is a rich tradition here. Do you feel like you guys are as hungry as you used to be? Do you feel that hunger since you have never won one?

RN: Everyone in the League is hungry for a Super Bowl. I want to get back there just like everybody else that’s in the playoffs. That’s the number one goal in your head coming into training camp is, ‘Let’s get to the Super Bowl.’ So, everybody’s hungry and you know, this is what we play the game for.

Q: Do you feel like a part of that rich tradition that is here even though you have not won yet?

RN: I think that I wasn’t here with them in the past for all those Super Bowls. I was blessed to be here last year, came up a little bit short and want to get back there.

Q: What are the challenges for playing a team in the playoffs that you have played in the regular season?

RN: Just, they’re obviously going to do something different. They’re not just going to come out there and run the same stuff that they ran the first time they played us. You know that they’re going to change things up. The things that they didn’t do well they’re going to try to correct and it’s on us to make sure that we’re out there doing the best that we can to stop everything that they throw at us.

Q: Is it really a matter of just playing your game?

RN: You have to do your job first. You have to go out there and play tough football. In every phase of the game, you have to go out there and do your job.

Q: What do you tell the rookies on defense who are getting ready for their first playoff game?

RN: It’s going to be a little bit different. Every playoff is. The whole atmosphere kind of jumps up a little bit just because of the fact that you’re in the playoffs and everyone’s doing everything they can to win the game. It’s really just that you have to be out there and stay mentally tough and not get caught up in emotion at any point in the game because you really have to stay focused and play four quarters.

Q: Have they used Owen Daniels more later in the season as opposed to the beginning of the year?

RN: I think Daniels has played well all year, so he’s been involved highly throughout the whole year and I suspect they’ll probably use both of those guys just like they have pretty much throughout the whole year.

Q: This is more for the guys on the back end, but how do you stay disciplined when they try to operate out of play-action?

RN: Really the play-actions just come down to doing the best to stop the run first and foremost so they can’t set that up. When they do throw in the play-action, you have to move quick to get up and pressure the quarterback.

Q: Is play-action really predicated on the run? They could run play-action without having to run the ball.

RN: Well, they do a good job of running the ball, setting up their plays to where you’re ready to stop the run and then they throw in that play-action. So you really just have to do a great job of reading your keys and funneling to the ball as fast you can.

Q: You guys talk about how creating turnovers is kind of a springboard situation. Does it change in the playoffs at all because it is a one-game season and you have to be a little more conservative?

RN: You always want to be out there as a defense and be around the ball. That’s what creates turnovers is guys swarming to the football and that’s one thing I think we’ve done great all year is getting hats to the ball. Guys running to the football and when the one guy does get the ball out, there’s another guy there to scoop it up and fall on it. I think we’re going to continue to play like we have all year and that’s physical and running to the ball and everyone just getting after it.

Q: Jake Bequette said that he has leaned on you and learned from you this season. What kind of growth have you seen from him this season?

RN: Yeah you know, Jake, a young kid, kind of reminds me of myself coming into the NFL. It’s definitely a big difference from college to the pros and it takes a little bit of time to adjust, so I think that he has all the skills and tools to be a great football player. It’s just transitioning from college to professional, just to kind of get adjusted to the game and the way things are out there on the field.

Q: What was your initial reaction when you went down with the injury against Miami?

RN: I mean, that’s in the past. I want to just move on from that. I’m focused in on Houston right now

KEVIN HARRIMAN

JOSH MCDANIELS CONFERENCE CALL: HOUSTON

Q: Is there a consistency in how J.J. Watt is used on the defensive line? Is it hard to track a pattern or can you count on him being in certain spots based on the situation?

JM: I think more of the prediction of where he may be centers around what defense they are actually in on the field at the time. He plays the strong side end – a four or five-technique end – when they’re in base defense most of the time. You have an idea of where he is going to be when they sub that base group out and go to sub nickel or dime packages. You have an idea of where he is going to be more based on the personnel than you do [based on] anything that we would be doing or any guessing on when they’re going to move him around and so on and so forth. They do happen to displace him some, but based on who they put on the field, he generally lines up where you would expect him to. But because he plays to the strength of the formation sometimes, that’s why our guys on the right and on the left will both be challenged with handling him along with the rest of their great front on Sunday.

Q: What is it like working with Tom Brady around this time of the year? Is he still the same guy or is there something different about him when the playoffs come around?

JM: Tom has a great approach and demeanor about his work every day. I think that’s really a great thing to have as a quarterback. If you can be consistent with the way you approach your job – how hard you work and the intensity with which you prepare for each opponent – I think that generally that sets a great example for your teammates and for anybody who is looking at you for leadership, in terms of how you would expect them to do their job too. We all get excited when you’re in the postseason, I mean this is really what we play and coach for, is to try to have an opportunity to play in these types of games and to coach in these types of games. I’m sure Tom is no different than any player who is really excited for our opportunity this week. But I think that Tom is a pretty consistent guy who has a great approach to doing his job every day as well as he can do it.

Q: The Texans’ front seems to be better with Brooks Reed back on the field. Can you assess how he makes that group different?

JM: Brooks Reed is another young, talented edge guy that plays with a great motor. [He’s] certainly been disruptive when he’s been in there and gives them another guy to play on the edge. I thought [Connor] Barwin and [Whitney] Mercilus, who we saw in the first game, did really good job and I think they do a great job. I think Reed just comes in and really provides some explosiveness off the edge. [He’s] a guy that can pass rush, can really play in the running game, has a great playing style about him and he’ll be another big challenge for us that we didn’t see a few weeks ago.

Q: What do you see out of the Texans’ secondary? Can you assess some of the players they run out there?

JM: This defense in general really does a great job of playing complementary – the parts of their defense play complementary roles to one another. It’s a secondary that’s asked to play man coverage. They pressure a lot, so they’re asked to play some coverages where they’re in single coverage when they blitz. They ask them to play in the slot some, depending on the formations and the personnel that you have on the field on offense. I think that [Johnathan] Joseph has really done a good job of matching up on some specific receivers during the course of the season. He’s really a talented guy and is worthy of all the accolades that he’s received and has done a great job of really competing well in some of those games where he has been matched up [with] really top notch receivers. The safeties are asked to play a lot of different roles too. [Danieal] Manning plays down near the front in some of their man coverages and is asked to cover the tight ends and I think he’s really competitive in that situation. He does a great job of getting the ball off of people and stripping the ball away and has had a history of that over his career. [Glover] Quin plays safety and also has played down in the front and blitzed and been a disruptive guy in their dime package. So there are a lot of talented players back there. The scheme, like I said, they have to hold up sometimes when they pressure and then other times they do a good job of really shutting things down in the back end and giving the front an opportunity to get to the passer. I think all of them will come up there in run support; they’re good tacklers. It’s a really good defense and there’s no question that the secondary plays a big role in that.

KEVIN HARRIMAN

PATS SWITCHED TO 4:25 ON SUNDAY

SportsHub: Patriots’ regular-season finale vs. Dolphins moved to 4:25 p.m.

TOM BRADY PRESS CONFERENCE FOLLOWING WIN OVER JAGS

PATS ESCAPE SLOW START

QB TOM BRADY

(On overall performance)
“We played pretty terrible out there. It came down to the wire and the defense made some plays but it was a bad sixty minutes of football. We got out competed, out fought and we’re lucky to win.”

“We started slow and couldn’t do anything offensively, couldn’t make any plays. They made plenty of plays and we were lucky to be in it at halftime. We didn’t do a thing in the second half, running game or passing game. Just a poor effort overall. We just didn’t play well, didn’t compete. If you don’t compete in the NFL, it’s going to be close. Execution was terrible. They didn’t give us anything we had to fight for it. It just wasn’t a very good performance.”

KEVIN HARRIMAN

BELICHICK PRESS CONFERENCE: JACKSONVILLE

New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick addresses the media at EverBank Field following a regular season game versus the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, December 23, 2012.

(On the game)
“It’s always good to win. We got off to a slow start, but we made some plays to get back into the game right before the half. There’s always more work to do, but we have another week to work on things before we head into the playoffs.”

(On the defense)
“We had some pressure and we had pretty good coverage. We didn’t want to put ourselves in that situation, but fortunately we were able to bail out of it. It was a lot like the Denver game—similar situation–but we made the plays we needed to make to win. Defensively, we had good compound coverage and prior to that were able to knock the ball out a couple of times.”

(On the defensive backfield)
“They did a good job. Marquis Cole played the inside nickel position for us, Devin McCourt moved back to the outside and Patrick Chung and Tavon Wilson moved to the inside, so we had a lot of moving parts in the secondary back there. Overall I though they did a good job back there.”

(On the team’s slow start)
“Obviously, not what we wanted. They gave us a little different approach offensively, but we made some adjustments. Once we kind of saw what they were doing, our players and coaches got a better look at it and I think they did a good job. They started the game off with a little different style. They got the advantage on us, but eventually we settled down.”

(On the Patrick Chung penalty)
“I’ll have to take a closer look at it, I don’t know what he could’ve done.”

(On Tom Brady’s protection)
“We don’t design plays for him to get hit, we try to protect the quarterback. That’s part of football, guys get hit.”

KEVIN HARRIMAN

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NFL SUSPENDS PATS CUNNINGHAM

WEEI FLASH: Patriots DE Jermaine Cunningham suspended 4 games for violating the NFL’s PED policy.

JOSH MCDANIELS PRESS CONFERENCE

JM:  Happy Thanksgiving to everybody who’s on. I know it’s a day late, but playing on that day, which I’ve had the chance to do a couple times now in my career, it’s always a special event. I thought our players and coaches, starting with Bill [Belichick], and all the work they’ve put in this week in a pretty short period of time coming off of a big game last week against Indianapolis, really showed last night in their performance the complementary game that everybody turned in yesterday with the kicking game and the defense and the protection that we were able to try to capitalize off of. I thought it really gave us a big boost there last night. I’m really proud of the way the players played, how hard they played and really just the preparation they put into it. It felt great to get a win and a chance to get a little bit of rest.

Q: This is your second time working with Tom Brady and Brandon Lloyd. As we approach Week 12 of this season, do you have a better feel for the strengths of those two players and how all the pieces fit together?

JM:  I think that, obviously, the more time we spend together and the more you get to learn about different phases of each player’s game and how they all work together collectively and in terms of the performance that we’re looking for from them, I think is all packed together. Really, what we try to do now is try to hone in on some of those things that either we feel like are strengths of those groups of players that are working together, whether that’s throwing the ball between Tom and Brandon or a certain blocking combination on the edge with the tight ends or whatever it may be. We’re trying to maximize the strengths of their games and work on the weak points that we’re maybe not doing as well, but we need to improve on moving forward. I think with Brandon and Tom specifically, I think there’s definitely some real good and we’re always going to try to find a way to make some things that we didn’t hit positive as we go forward. And I know that those two guys have worked extremely hard to try to get that done and hopefully we’re going to see more and more results as we go down the stretch here.

Q: At this point in the season are you still adding things to the playbook or is it more of a fine-tuning effort at this point?

JM: I think that the core of our offense is always going to be kind of what we came out of training camp with. The core of the offense has to maintain itself as you go through the season, but I always think there’s room for improvement and you need to take and add to it as you go based on the defense that you’re seeing that week. And it may not be a brand new protection; but maybe a it’s a route combination we’ve never used off of a formation we’ve used previously. Those are the little things that we try to make sure we’re sensitive to and you’ve heard the term and the phrase ‘self-scouting’. A lot of that has to do with looking at yourself and see what other teams are seeing and try to go forward and either protect things that you’re doing well or give them something new to think about as you go forward. I don’t think that ever stops. I don’t think there’s ever a period of time where you just come to a point in the season where you start doing that. I always think you can make yourself better by complementing some of the things you do well and hopefully that’s what we’ll continue to do here the last five weeks of the season.

Q: This team has shown an ability to force turnovers on defense and convert turnovers into points on offense. Why do you think it is important to validate turnovers by scoring points?

JM: First of all, the defense has done an incredible job of turning the ball over this year. Anytime offensively that we can get an extra possession that way or a possession that starts in positive territory where we don’t have to move the ball 70 or 80 yards to score, I think it’s a great advantage for any team. And I think you are right: when the defense creates a turnover or special teams creates a turnover, some of the time this year they’ve actually scored with the ball, which I think the offense gets a tremendous amount of energy from. Your sideline gets a lot of life thrown into it and then other times they create the turnover, whether it be an interception or a big hit and a fumble and without question, that puts a spark into not only the offense, but the entire team. We always take the field with the mindset that we want to score touchdowns and maybe there’s a little extra incentive to follow through on a great defensive series that resulted in a turnover with six points. But, I think our guys have really tried to respond to those quick changes where all of a sudden we’re on defense and then, bang, we’re on offense right away in great field position. They’ve gone out there and done a great job of executing in those situations and really trying to cap off those turnovers with scores.

Q: What have you seen from Julian Edelman that has allowed him to break out recently?

JM: Julian has really had, I would say, a strong overall year where he’s really tried to continue to work hard and get better, starting back in the spring and then in training camp and then he made a few plays for us there in the early portion of the season before he had the hand injury. Now he’s really kind of working back into things. Julian’s work ethic is obviously a very big positive for our offense. He goes to practice every day and does everything we ask him to do with great effort, pays attention to detail. I think as young player, he’s getting better and better. I think this is just a simple case of that he’s had some opportunities based on the way the defense has played our offense and when the ball has come his way, he’s surely done a nice job of taking advantage of those opportunities.

Q: Now that Shane Vereen has been able to contribute in games, what does he do to improve the complementary level of the running back corps?

JM:  Shane is another young player that has been patient, continues to work extremely hard and prepare each week. His opportunities have picked up in certain situations or in certain games, based on either what the defense is doing or what our plan was going in. I think he’s taken advantage of the opportunities he’s been given. We have a lot of confidence in the entire backfield. The group that is in that room, there’re a lot of young players that we know will continue to work hard and try to get better. But they have all kind of have carved out roles for themselves. I don’t think anybody on our team feels bad if any one of those players has the ball in his hands on any play, whether that be Stevan [Ridley] or Shane, Danny [Woodhead] or Brandon [Bolden]. They’ve all done good things with it this year and we would expect that they continue to work hard and improve going forward.

Q: You replaced Rob Gronkwski with Aaron Hernandez last night. How good was it to have him back?

JM: It was certainly good to have Aaron back and I was pleased with the amount of snaps he was able to play. I thought what was interesting was that for being off for such an extended period, I thought he hung in there and tried to fight through it and give us everything he could give us. It’s great to have a guy like that back. It’s a guy who can do a lot of things with the ball. He made some key plays for us last night and hopefully we can build on that as we go down the stretch here with Aaron as he plays more and more each week. I thought that was good.

Q: Can you talk about Daniel Fells stepping in and taking the bulk of the snaps in Rob Gronkowski’s role?

JM: Daniel definitely did a nice job of his role in the game plan. We asked a lot of different things of Daniel last night. Asked him to do some different things in the running game. Asked him to pass protect at times and made a big catch there for a big chunk gain there in the third quarter, I believe. We have a lot of tight ends that are capable of doing different things. The way we played them last night, we had two of them on the field, predominantly, most of the game. I thought those guys gave us some protection and allowed us to play the game we wanted to play.

Q: When you get a big lead in a game, does that allow you to experiment with the playbook in a way that you would not if the score was closer?

JM:  No I don’t think so. I think that when you’re fortunate to enough to be in a situation where you have a big lead in the second half, I think you’re balancing a couple things. Certainly, I think you want to try to play the game that you set out to play until the decision has been made to change that. Our mentality is always going to be to try to go out there and try to score. That’s what our job is. That’s why we’re on the field and I think our team knows that. We respond best to that. I think that’s what our mentality is. I think that you also have to make sure under those circumstances, that like you do on every other play of the game, but maybe even more so at that point is take care of the football, make smart decisions and realize that you don’t want to put yourself in jeopardy of doing anything to put them right back into the game. As far as plays or specific things are concerned, you just call the game the way we would call it, be aggressive and go down and try to score points and finish every drive with a touchdown if we can and I think our guys respond to that. They did a decent job of that last night.

Q: On a lighter note, has Rob Ninkovich lobbied you for any time at tight end with those hands he has?

JM: I think we have enough tight ends. Rob’s doing a good enough job on defense and he should stay over there

“If we don’t give up big plays, the defense can be very, very good”….VINCE WILFORK

Vince Wilfork Patrriots Media Picture

Q: What did Bill Belichick say to the players at the start of the week meeting to set the tone for the Buffalo Bills?

VW: Basically, not much because for one, this is a division game. Every division game is tough. So we understand that as the players and we go over the things we need to do to hopefully win the ballgame. It’s always tough against a division opponent, no matter what the guys’ records are. Division games are always played tough and we understand that. Our main thing is how well we can prepare for Sunday. So we’ll see how that goes. Hopefully we can get a good week of practice in and things work out for us later on down the road.

Q: OK. But did he say anything specifically about Buffalo in the initial team meeting?

VW: He told us what we need to do to be successful for any opponent, not just the Buffalo Bills. That’s how we start all of our meetings – what we need to do to be at our best come Sunday and then from there we go onto a game plan. There’s no magic wand he waves over us. It’s basically talking about things we need to do to be successful and if we don’t get it done, we’re going to have problems. That’s how all of our meetings start.

Q: Last year the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl with the 31st-ranked defense in the league. Is that amazing to you?

VW: We don’t even pay attention to last year. Every year is different. 32 teams in the league every year change personnel, change coaches. You’ve got players new on this team, so we try not to dwell in the past. Just like the Super Bowls we’ve won – just keep the past in the past and the future in the future. So moving forward, that’s all you have to do. It’s a one-week game every week. This week it’s the Buffalo Bills so all of our focus has to be on the Bills and the Bills only.

Q: Right now the defense is ranked high against the run. How do you think the defense is playing?

VW: As a whole I think we can play a lot better. But our goal is to get better each week. That’s our goal. Buffalo has a great ground attack and their offense is very explosive. They are one of the teams in the NFL that can put up some points and put up some big plays, through the air and on the ground with the backs they have. We’re going to have our hands full defensively to try to slow these guys down, but we’re up for the challenge. Hopefully it will work in our favor but they definitely cause a lot of problems we have to deal with.

Q: Buffalo had a lot of long plays against the New England defense last game. Has that been a topic of discussion this week?

VW: If we don’t give up big plays, the defense can be very, very good. That’s one of the things we have to get better at – stop giving up big plays and stop hurting ourselves. And like I said, they’re a team that can strike from anywhere on the field – in the air and on the ground. We have to do a better job of that this time around because that game was close. We got a couple turnovers in that game that basically led to points on our end. But without those turnovers, you’re looking at a different ballgame so we definitely have to minimize the big plays on our defense.

Q: What do you think the reason for the Patriots defense is for giving up so many big plays?

VW: That’s our focus, our focus. The times we give up big plays, we are not on the same page and our focus level is not where it needs to be. That’s one of the areas we need to get better and I think going forward, we’re going to have to get better in that area. If we don’t, we’re going to continue to have problems. But I think the guys are working hard to fix those problems. In the past few weeks, we’ve kind of moved in the right direction with that, so hopefully it will continue this week.

Q: What do you see from Brad Smith and the Bills running the Wildcat?

VW: Yeah, they run some. Whatever we have called and whatever our checks are, we’ll check to and everybody has to be on the same page. It really hasn’t been a problem ever since the first time we saw it against the Dolphins. But Buffalo, they do definitely run that and they have the personnel to actually run that so whenever we see it, we just have to react and play to it.

Q: Can you comment on your viewpoint on how tough it is to cover Wes Welker and how he keeps rolling along?

VW: Well, I don’t know how tough it is to cover him because I play with him and I don’t have to play against him so that’s something you’d probably have to ask one of the Buffalo Bills, seeing as how they actually have to cover him so that’s better for those guys.

Q: How much do you appreciate how he is able to continue play at a high level?

VW: We have a lot of playmakers and he’s definitely one of them. For both he and Tom [Brady], the more they’re on the same page, the better it is for all of us. But, Tom has a lot of outlets, not just him. So we try to play team football, but those two alone can ruin the game for anyone so I’m just happy to be playing with both of them.

Q: If they dropped you into a zone dog could you cover him?

VW: Absolutely [Laughs].