Q: Any special thoughts going against the Patriots?
A: They're a good team. You always have to expect, when you play New England, that they're going to have a great game plan. They're going to be prepared. They've been a top team for as long as I've been in the NFL. They're going to be well coached and we have to make sure we play a flawless game, especially when you play them in New England. They always play tough.
Q: Does it make a difference when the other guy is a guy like Brady?
A: I think you just know that their offense is high-powered. They have the ability to score a lot of points. We go into the game thinking we have to be smart, we have to take care of the ball, you can't give [Brady] a short field, give him more opportunities. You have to try to keep the ball in our hands as long as possible. When we get opportunities to score, when we get into the red zone, we have to get touchdowns.
Q: What was the biggest memory you took away from the Super Bowl?
A: Just the fact of being a champion and winning a championship as a team, everybody coming together. Those are always fine memories of just knowing that we stuck together, we fought through, we were able to win a championship. That's the ultimate goal every year.
Q: How many times do you think you've seen that pass to Tyree?
A: You see it a number of times. For whatever reason, it comes up with great plays or a great play by him. I don't know if there's a number on it, but it's always a good play to watch.
Q: Every time you walk into the lunch room you see a picture of yourself at the Super Bowl. It's hard to get away from it here.
A: Obviously it was an important play in our success that year. I think that season, that will be one of the plays you always remember, is David making that catch and that drive to go down and win a championship.
Q: Passing so much is not the formula that this team wants to have.
A: It depends on what the defense is doing. There's probably five or six runs that we did have on that I should have checked off and checked to a pass just because if teams are bringing certain blitzes or having seven, eight guys down there near the line of scrimmage. You can run just to get runs in, but if you want to have success later in the game – they're playing two-high and I check to a run and we get twelve, thirteen yards. It's my job to put us in better positions to get us out of runs. Sometimes you want to keep runs on so the defense can't pass rush every single time. Our offensive line did a great job in pass protection. Baas did a good job picking up blitzes. Part of the reason that we weren't running, that we didn't have the success that we had, was we were running into some bad looks. That's on me.
Q: What do you want to keep doing in regards to the passing game?
A: I think guys are making good decisions. We're not having negative plays. We don't get too many holding calls. We're not turning the ball over. We're making some big plays, but we're also more consistent in hitting the seven, eight-yard completions, also, than we have in the past. I think we just have to keep improving on decision making. Offensive line is doing a great job in protection, giving me time to go through my reads and guys are getting open.
Q: Will you take a moment to reflect on the Super Bowl?
A: No. I don't think so. I think this is a whole new environment, whole new situation. Obviously an important game, we have to have a great week of preparation. We know we're going against a great team, a Hall of Fame coach, a Hall of Fame quarterback down the road. We just have to go in there expecting to play sound football like we've been doing. Eliminate the mistakes, try to execute the game plan, try to get into the fourth quarter and win the game.
