Tom Brady Post-Game Press Conference
21 Oct 01 / by New England Patriots 

TB: That is the way he comes out to practice every day. He is an excitable guy to be around. It was funny when we put that double pass in and Troy threw the first one and he threw it to David and David said, 'I want a shot at this, I want a shot at this' so I said, 'All right David we'll throw you one.' The first one he threw was just like the one he threw today and Coach kind of looked at him and said, 'David is throwing it.'

Q: What day was it?

TB: I think it was Thursday, Wednesday or Thursday.

Q: Do you know the percentages of completing that play, first of all you have to complete the pass to him, he has to catch it and throw it deep to Troy?

TB: Yeah and it was coming in a situation where, I was telling David, 'Hey if it is not there just throw it away. We don't want a bad play, you don't need to make a great play. If the safety is over the top throw it out of bounds.' So he got out there in practice and he kind of looked out there and gripped the ball and I said, 'Just throw it up in the air' and what do you know he put it right in Troy's hands.

Q: Do you realize how accurate you were, seven for seven in the first half?

TB: Yeah that was good. Guys were getting open for me. That is what it comes down to. The second catch of the game by Charles [Johnson], he makes a great play, a great catch. When it comes down to it those guys get open. When they get open it is just my job to put it there. You can't say enough about, especially those guys up front, I mean they protect. They have been awesome, all the way up and down that offensive line.

Q: That 91-yard bomb you completed, awesome?

TB: Yeah it was, it was. I was kind of licking my chops coming out of the huddle and I saw a guy pressed on David and I knew right where I was going. I kind of gave the play-action look to the safety to make sure he wasn't running over the top and just laid it up and David made a great play, ran right by him and made the catch. Once David gets by you, you are not going to catch him.

Q: How does it feel to come in here and finally win one on the road?

TB: It is a great win. Once again it is a regular season game and it is a league game so that's important. We were 2-3 and now we are 3-3. I don't want say it is a new season, but it is a breath of life for us. This is something that we have to keep building on. It has got to be week after week that we have to play like this if we want to get to the ultimate goal and that's starting winning the AFC East and then moving on to bigger and better things, but at this point it's about going out and executing our plays and we executed them really well today.

Q: How much is Drew Bledsoe helping you on the sideline?

TB: He is great. He is great. That would be the word to describe him. He is such a calming…I am kind of an excitable guy, he sees me and...I came out to today and I said, ' Man I am excited today' and he said, 'Let's just talk about some things' and that is what I need and he is great. He has never once not been at a meeting helping out or not once given us input. He is so helpful. Not only is he a great player, but he is a good friend of mine and he's awesome.

Q: After the two touchdowns, you came back and kept the ball for a little while longer than you had and got a field goal out of it, how important was it to sustain a drive and not score as quickly as you had before?

TB: Yeah and I think that is tough on the defense when you score as quickly as we were because they are right back out on the field and we saw that they continued to move the ball because I think it gets to a point where that defense on the field for 22 minutes in the first half I heard. That is a lot of time for them. You love to score that quick believe me and I think they love us scoring that quick, but at the same time it puts a little wear on those guys as well.

Q: Coach Belichick made a point to mention Dick Rehbein and his influence on you and David Patten. Do you have a comment on him?

TB: Yeah he was...in training camp when this all happened it was real hard for myself and Drew especially, because we were the ones that were with him every day. In pro football you really deal with your position coach and you deal with your offensive coordinator and the head coach and not too much with defensive coaches, but that being our coach no one else really knew Dick, except for David of course, because he was at his position when he was coaching at the Giants. He always had something great to say. He's helped me out so much, how to get motivated every day and he had me doing book assignments reading Dan Fouts books and Ken Anderson books. I can't say enough about that man and his wonderful family.

Q: How do you ever check off on a call that Charlie makes after he has had that kind of a game?

TB: It was a great day for all of us and it is hard to call a bad play when we were running the ball as well as we were and the offensive line was picking up the blitz and the receivers were getting open. So kind of look up and down that call sheet and he said at halftime, 'Son what do you like?' and I said, 'Well we have only had 19 plays, I like everything.' It was a good day.

Q: Was the noise, the crowd ever a factor?

TB: No I wouldn't say it was. We kind of got up on them early and they get loud. I am sure you guys can hear, they were pretty loud, but it was something we had worked on during the week so it was really not as much of a factor as it could have been.

Q: Were you at all in disbelief that all of those three plays worked?

TB: Yeah that is the way we kind of drew them up so I mean we draw them up and we expect them to work. They were working in practice and we just assumed that they would carry over to the game.

Q: Figuring that they probably expected you to come out with some runs and some short passes, was that your thinking behind it?

TB: Every week you could draw up 15 kind of special plays and it just so happened that these three plays we really liked in certain situations. First play of the game we ran the reverse and that same look, that same play we had run against them, we were real successful against them the first game so they may have been overly aggressive. That is the stuff you try to take advantage from an offense and it comes down to execution. Guys making the blocks and David seeing the right hole to run through and his speed just takes over after that.

Q: What other keys have you seen since the 0-2 start of the way this offense has come around?

TB: I think we are just playing better. The offensive line is really comfortable with each other, the receivers are finding their roles and the running backs find their roles and quarterbacks we do what we expect to do and tight ends have found a role. So it is just about working together and when that happens you see the kind of things we can do out there on the field.

Q: You had to assume that it was going to be tough to throw the ball out there without Terry?

TB: If there is one thing that I have learned as a player is I go out there and I make the reads and I throw to the guy that is there. The second play of the game I throw to Charles and he makes a great catch. I have got 100 percent confidence in Charles and I have 100 percent confidence in David and Troy and Curtis Jackson today and up and down the roster. Believe me I am not worried about those guys. I know those guys are great, Charles Johnson is awesome.

Q: What is it about the Colts defense that makes you feel pretty comfortable out there?

TB: I don't think it is so much what the Colts do, from an offensive standpoint it is what we do and we know that if we go out there and execute our plays, if they tell you to block the middle linebacker and you block the middle linebacker you are going to be successful regardless of, unless you have Mike Singletary in there and that type of thing. So it is just about us going out there and making the right calls and the right plays and then executing them.

Q: Can you talk about Patten's effort today?

TB: It was great, it was great. At halftime he has thrown for a touchdown, run for a touchdown and caught a long touchdown. So it is a great day I am sure. He was in here probably bragging about it. Probably wants more passes in the playbook for him.

Q: It was a pretty tight spiral too?

TB: It was perfect, it was perfect. I ran over to the sidelines and myself and Drew and Damon [Huard] and I said, 'Did you see that throw?' and they said 'I know that was one of those NFL Films' throws.'

Q: How strange it is to see Bryan Cox in the offensive huddle?

TB: I know he gets in there and he loves being in there.

Q: Does he talk?

TB: Yeah he does, he does. He gets in there and says, 'All right guys you know' and he is making sure that he knows who he has got, 'So I got this guy right?' He comes in there and he is ready to hit someone. If there is one thing Bryan is going to do he is going to hit somebody. So that is why he is in there.

Q: On the long pass did see something in the Colts defense?

TB: It was kind of a full field read that we have. We play-action to the left and I knew we were in man coverage and I had David over there on the corner all by himself and that is as good a chance as any, just throw it up to David. Like I said David has got such great speed that once he gets by the guy, it is just a matter of putting it in his hands. Once he caught it I knew he was gone, there was no one that was going to catch him.

Q: That whole thing about them having confidence in you, that is the big question, how long can you keep up with what you have been doing? Do you have any sense that the players are wondering what you will do over the long haul too, that this may not be a two game wonder?

TB: I think initially, they never know what they are going to have when you put someone in there that hasn't proved anything. I still haven't proven...this is my fourth game and I have got hopefully, like I said, a long career ahead of me. So it is a good start and it is a good feeling to come out on the road and you are in a dome, you take the crowd out of the game and you win the game, that is what it all comes down to.