Tom
Brady Press Conference
3 Oct 01 / by New
England Patriots
Q: How are you doing?
TB: I'm doing good, just starting the week. You know it is always a
long day for us getting the game plan, just the initial preparations. It is good
though. Last week is done, we've got to move on.
Q: Has Damon Huard helped you? He knows Miami; can he use that to help
you?
TB: Yeah, Damon is great helping with personnel. He knows their guys
better than certainly any of us. Larry Izzo is going to be a big help. Those
guys have a lot of familiarity with their style, the stuff that you can't see on
tape, that it's really good with.
Q: What makes Miami's defense good? What do they do well?
TB: They do, as coaches say, 'They do what they do.' They line up and
they play and they have a style and they attack. It looks like they have really
good team speed on defense. They have very good corners. Zack Thomas is a force.
That pass rush, Jason Taylor, he really makes that defense. So they put a lot of
pressure on the offense. Indy did it with more of a blitzing scheme and this
team does it with more just their style of play, their overall aggressiveness.
Q: Much harder to run against them?
TB: Yeah, they've got two big guys in the middle who take up a lot of
space, which allows Thomas to run around and make a lot of plays. They've got
seven guys up their in the front that they feel are comfortable against our
seven blockers. Any time they do that, they can commit another guy to pass
coverage, which just strengthens everything.
Q: Do you see a difference in your offensive line since training camp
started? There is some talk that they are starting to come together, do you
notice it?
TB: I think so, yeah. I think there is definitely more of a confidence
about them. They have been playing together. Mike Compton has been back. [Matt]
Light is starting to play better. Everyone is just feeling comfortable with each
other. And as an offensive line that is what it is all about. Last year, and I
don't want to get into last year too much, there just wasn't that continuity.
Anytime the offensive line could be together for a period of time, it just helps
with the comfort of being next to each other and the calls and the situations
that you are in, the help that you can get from another guy.
Q: Do you expect their defense to come out more aggressive with what
happened with them and St. Louis last week?
TB: Well I think you'd always kind of expect their best. Last year
they were division champs so we know what we've got ahead of us. It's going to
be a tough week, especially for our offense. They've got a great defense. They
proved it to us twice last year and it looks like they really picked up where
they left off, you know this year.
Q: What in your life has changed in the last seven days?
TB: There's just probably not as much free time, doing stuff like
this. I'd normally be down eating lunch right now. So just the phone calls and
they type of stuff, that is probably pretty much the biggest difference. When I
am here the preparation, like I said last week, is the same. Just more the off
field stuff, just a little less free time, which is fine because I like being
busy.
Q: If your success should continue, you've been in a quarterback
controversy with Drew Henson at Michigan, is that just another part of it to
deal with?
TB: As I said before, I never look at it like that. I just look at it
that I am preparing this week to play and I let everyone else talk about who
should play and who should not play. That goes on at every level and like you
said it has been something that I have been a part of. And the one approach that
has worked for me and why I continue to approach it the way I do is that I just
control my performance. If that is good enough, hey that's good enough. When
they say play, I play. When they say don't play, I don't play. So it is just
comforting for me, and I sleep better at night, knowing that I've done what I
could do and the rest is left up to other people who are making the decisions.
Q: Has some of the early conversation among the players today been about
building on what happened last Sunday, but it is a new week and you have to be
tested again and make sure to stay consistent?
TB: That is exactly what it is. That week is done. You learn more so
from the mistakes of what we had and you move on because if you don't, if you
are just going from week to week…I mean the Colts came in last week 2-0 and
you'd think they'd be riding high and we were looking up at the division. Now we
kind of put ourselves back in a better position. I think the approach we are
going to take is that we are going out to prepare just like we prepare every
week. Certainly there is probably a feeling of, a better feeling this week than
there was last week, but at the same time that was last week and you can't get
too excited knowing that you are going down to Miami for a team that's been very
successful.
Q: Haven any of the veteran leaders spoken about that this morning?
TB: I mean we just got in this morning so I'd probably know more
tomorrow. I mean I know everyone prepares hard every week. Everyone knows what
we've got. This is a great team and we are playing them on the road. Weather
conditions are going to be obviously a little different than the wind we had
last week, hopefully.
Q: How many games have you had in Florida?
TB: I played in the Citrus Bowl once. I played there three times, four
times…I played there about five or six times. College, three times.
Q: What was your record, in college games?
TB: I played there my last two years, in two bowl games, and we won
them both, once in the Orange Bowl and once in the Citrus Bowl.
Q: You are a California guy; do you like playing in the heat?
TB: You know it doesn't matter much to me, it doesn't matter. It is
nice from a standpoint that you are not all bundled up, but it is not like you
mind playing in the cold. You kind of just go out and play whatever it is.
Q: Do you have to guard against either trying too hard to make a play or
trying not to make a mistake, too cautious? Or do you just go out and do what
Tom Brady does?
TB: That's exactly the case. My style is my style. If I see a chance
to take a shot, I take a shot. If you don't see a chance to take a shot, you
dump it. You really take the approach…you try to dictate by formation and by
play what you want the defense to do, but how they react to that is something
totally different. Then that is when you are reacting to what they are doing. As
coach says, every play is always designed to score. So it is just a matter of
whether the defense takes that away or not.
Q: It sounds like they don't react too much to formations, it's kind of
like, 'we do what we do and you deal with it?'
TB: That's right. They line up and they have pretty much one or two
fronts and one or two blitzes and their coverages vary a little bit. They like
to match those corners up on the receivers and try to shut them down and let
their linebackers take care of the rest.
Q: For you as a quarterback on the road, it has got to be different with
the hostile crowd and all?
TB: A little bit, the communication is different. We get loud crowds
here so we're dealing with that type of communication stuff. I think the thing
that is different is the momentum changes. You can really get the momentum
quickly when you are at home, whereas on the road if they make a play they've
all of the sudden got the momentum back. I like playing on the road because
there are probably a little less distractions. You go down there and it's just
your guys and you know what you've got ahead, whereas here you are dealing with
tickets and family members in town and that type of stuff.
Q: When you were growing up in high school and college which quarterback
did you like?
TB: Probably someone who is not like me at all, Steve Young. I thought
he was just everything you could look for. I mean he's got great feet. He's got
a great sense of awareness. He makes the throws, leads the team. I was from San
Francisco so I grew up watching Steve Young and Joe Montana. My mom always loved
Joe Montana and I always loved Steve Young. We used to go back and forth.
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