Projo Pats Blog

January 2006 Archives

Tom Brady RSVP'd "no" to the people at the Pro Bowl this week, begging out to rest a collection of injuries that dogged him through his most productive and painful NFL season.

Bothered by a tender right shoulder, an injured calf and a nagging lower abdominal injury for much of the season, the New England Patriots quarterback was advised to sit out the Feb. 12 all-star game in Honolulu. He'll be replaced by Kansas City's Trent Green.

Brady hasn't undergone any surgeries during this offseason. None of the injuries is expected to affect his off-season work.

-- Journal sports writer Tom Curran

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How much responsibility did you have in this past year in terms of carrying out the coordinator duties? Did it grow as the season went on?
Our offensive staff has been together for a while. We split up the different responsibilities amongst ourselves. My role didn't really change all that much from the beginning to the end. We kind of set a standard in place at the beginning of the season and carried that through. All of the things that I was responsible for at the beginning are pretty much the same things that I was responsible for towards the end of the season.

So is there going to be a big change now in your responsibilities, being the coordinator?
Obviously, there are some things that will change, but I think that as a staff, we go into each week looking to give ourselves the best opportunity with the game plan that we come up with. That's not going to change. There may be a few things here or there that I may be able to have more input into. That's something that will come with this position.

Did you call all of the plays last year?
Bill [Belichick] is responsible for whatever ends up being given to the quarterback and goes into the game to be called. We worked together on that as a staff. However it ends up getting in to Tommy [Brady] or the quarterback that was in the game, Bill is responsible for that. That's about all I can say on that.

Is that going to be the same case this year?
We'll do it like we've always done it. We'll come up with a game plan together and whatever we feel like is going to give us the best chance to win or the best chance to succeed on that particular play, that's what will be called. There are a lot of people who will have a say on that, including myself and including Bill.

Josh, did you see this coming? Was this something that maybe you knew was going to happen eventually?
I wouldn't say that I saw it coming. As a young coach, it was something that obviously I would aspire to become at some point in my career. But, I wouldn't say that I saw it coming. Ever since I've been here - and this will be my sixth season -- they've always given me an opportunity to perform a lot of things. The one thing that's been consistent with me is that if you've done those things well, they've given you an opportunity to move forward and accept more responsibility. That's kind of how I looked at this last season.

How old are you? Do you think your age may help you associate with the players a little bit better than maybe an older coordinator?
I'm 29 years old. Maybe there's some truth to that, but we have players that really can relate to some of the older coaches that we have on the staff, too. It's not really an advantage for me. I don't really look at it as an advantage or a negative for me. The guys that I work with in my room, I had two of them who were younger than me and then I had [Doug] Flutie, who is in his 40s. You just coach them all the same and coach them all to try to improve every week. That's how I look at it. I don't really look at age as being a factor one way or the other.

Can you talk a little bit about your relationship with Coach [Dean] Pees? It sounds like you guys go back a little ways.
Coach Pees recruited my brother [Ben] to play for him to play at Kent State. He recruited multiple players from my father [Thom] when my dad was [head coach] at Canton McKinley [High School in Canton, Ohio]. I didn't really have a strong personal relationship with Coach Pees because I was already done and gone from high school when he started that recruiting class. All I can say is that everything I have heard from my family -- my father and my brother -- has been completely positive. He's a very good football coach and obviously is deserving of what he received here a few days ago.

Do you see the irony in the fact that halfway across the country a few years later you and someone else who's a little bit your senior have both been named coordinators for the team that's been the best in football over the past five seasons?
I don't know if there's irony there. I think it's just two guys who just happened to get to this piece in their career a little bit differently. Coach Pees is deserving of everything he's done and has been fortunate to have in his career. I feel the same way about myself. The age difference or how we got here is irrelevant. I think you guys have known from this organization that we're just going to try to do whatever we think is best for the football team. At this point, hopefully that's Dean and myself making this transition.

Had you received any calls with all the coaching changes going on right now? Had you or your representatives received any feelers from any other organizations about an offensive coordinator position?
No, I had not. Our season just ended and there's nothing to report there. I hadn't received anything.

Can you at least tell us how terrible it was to have to work with Brady all the time?
My relationship with him is probably one of the most positive things that I come to work looking forward to every day. I think that we've grown over the last couple of seasons and it's really a privilege for me to coach him, and to try to improve a player of his caliber every day is tough. I look forward to that challenge and I really enjoy our relationship.

Is he a guy with whom you need to give very little prodding in terms of preparation? You must have to challenge yourself to challenge him.
You kind of hit it on the head there. He's extremely diligent about his own preparations and that kind of forces you as his position coach to demand a lot of yourself in order to challenge him even more than what he does himself. He's going to really be prepared when he comes in here on Wednesday mornings during the season and I kind of see it as a challenge to me in those days leading up to Wednesday to really take that opportunity to find things to really challenge him. I think that's what's going to make him better. He's really receptive to that, and that's been the way we've done it the last two seasons.

Will you stay on as quarterbacks coach, or will somebody else be filling that role?
I will maintain all of my responsibilities relative to the quarterbacks.

How important is it that you guys keep the same people in place and promote from within rather than going outside the organization? Does it make it easier on you guys since you've grown as a staff and some of the other guys on the offensive staff have worked together for a while now?
I think it's important, but our system has been in place for a while now. We're fortunate to have the people here that we have. I feel like we have a very strong staff offensively and defensively. We're just going to try to maintain that system and the say we work it and try to improve it as much as we possibly can in the offseason. The fact that it's not going to change all that much is probably an advantage to us and probably gives us whatever advantage that can give us.

How nerve-wracking was it at the start of the season with Charlie [Weis] gone and your responsibilities increasing?
I wouldn't say it's nerve-wracking. It's kind of the natural progression as a coach. First of all, I owe a lot to Charlie Weis. He was really the person that gave me my foundation in this offense. He spent an incredible amount of time with me in the offseason before my first season as the quarterbacks coach and really took a lot of time out to try to improve me as a coach. He did that, and I really owe a lot to him personally. Coming into this season without Charlie, we knew that it was going to be a little different, but we didn't really look at it like it was going to be something so drastic that people's jobs were going to be totally different than they were the year before.

Dean had mentioned that they were in the process of adding another assistant coach behind him. Will you do the same offensively or will you stick with the assistants that you have?
I really don't know that. That's really a question that Bill would probably have to answer. At this time, I really don't have the answer to that.

What was your general assessment of the offense heading into next year, just coming out of last year? How does it stand? What has to be done?
I think that there were some things that we did well this year and obviously there were some things that we would have liked to do better. We're going to do exactly what we do every offseason. We're going to go through it with a fine toothed comb and try to take all of the things that were positive and build on those, but also at the same time take everything that we feel like we came up short on and try to improve every aspect of our offense. That's what we've tried to go every offseason. We're going to try to do it this year and try to be as good as we possibly can - better than we were this year - next season.

Are you concerned about the level of production that the running game -- and Corey Dillon in particular -- had this past year?
The running game is going to be an important part of our offense. It wasn't quite as productive as it was the year before. That's definitely going to be something that we're going to address just like everything else in our offense. We're going to address it in the offseason and try to figure out a way to try to maximize our running game next season.

How valuable is David Givens?
David does a lot of things for us that help us win. He's a tough kid. He's one of our top receivers that we have had on our roster for the last few seasons here. He's done a great job for us. Any time you have a number two receiver that can give you production like David, that's a good thing. That's what I'd say about David.

What role has being the son of a coach played in how quick your ascension to this position has been?
That would probably be the biggest thing in my entire career and life. I learned more growing up as the son of a football coach than I think I could have learned from a number of different sources. Those experiences have carried me for a long time, not only in my professional life, but in my personal life as well.

What do you think makes a good offensive coordinator, with all of the elements that go into the job?
I think that with the coordinator thing, our staff is going to make some decisions based on what we feel like is the best way to attack a particular defense that week. Being a coordinator is just trying to finalize things and make sure that our approach is the best possible approach we can have that week. I think that would be the biggest challenge week-in and week-out for me.

Is there a part of you -- you're 29 years old and you're the offensive coordinator of the three-time Super Bowl champions -- is there a part of you that is just amazed that this has happened so quickly?
No. Every job that I have had here Bill has given me because he felt like I was ready for it. I trust his judgment and have faith in whatever he tells me that I'm ready to do. If he feels like I'm ready to do this, then I do too. I would say that I'm not really that amazed.

SOURCE: New England Patriots

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I was just wondering if you could walk us through how this all went down? It obviously happened very, very quick.
Bill [Belichick] had come in and told us that Eric [Mangini] had accepted the job. I think it was Monday and there was going to be a press conference. He and I then had a meeting after that and he offered me the job and I accepted it.

Were you under contract at that time or were you finishing up your contract?
No, I was under contract. I had a couple more years actually on my contract.

Was it at all a surprise to you? The conversations about Eric Mangini possibly going to New York were in the air for about 10 days. Had anything been mentioned to you previously?
No, not at all. We were too busying getting ready for Denver. Our whole focus was on that and on nothing else. So, nothing was ever mentioned until it was finally finalized that Eric had taken the job with the Jets.

Why did you come to New England and leave a head coaching position at Kent State when you seemed to be having pretty good success there relative to what that school has done?
This was a situation . . . I mean New England. I don't know who wouldn't give up what they had to come here and be a part of this organization. In talking to Bill [Belichick], I just felt like it was a good time for me professionally and also just an unbelievable opportunity to come to what is considered a very special organization.

How much does your experience as a defensive coordinator in college prepare you for this?
I think any time that you are put in charge at any level, especially at least at the major college level . . . I think when you have to stand in front of a defense and a team and present ideas and teach, I think there is certainly some carry-over. You are right, there is always a difference no matter what level you climb to. There is always going to be change, but I think anytime, even being a head coach, you have to make hard decisions and tough decisions and trying to get the respect and have the respect of the players; I think that all comes into play. Hopefully all of that will help me do a good job here.

How big of a role did Nick Saban play in getting you into the NFL and his relationship with Bill?
You would have to ask Bill. I did not ask Nick to call Bill. I didn't have anybody call Bill. I actually called Bill asking him a football question when this all really came about two years ago. Having my background be with Nick and Nick's connection with Bill, you would have to ask Bill that question.

What was the question you were asking him when you called him?
Actually, I had seen him do something in one of the ball games, a certain coverage and it was something we were trying to do. I was actually asking him an X and O question and I was hoping that he would call me back and he did to give me some insight into how they did it. It was really just an X and O question.

Had you guys had many conversations previous to that?
I don't know that you could say many. We had had some. Certainly my connection with Nick [Saban] . . . I had gone over, even after Nick had left Toledo and I was still there, I used to go over and visit the Browns and watch camp. Bill and I knew each other. Were we close? No, but I think then going back with Nick to Michigan State, I think Bill at least knew a lot about me.

What kind of things did you take from your experience with Eric Mangini and Romeo Crennel and how are you going to apply them going forward?

I think it is the whole organization that we have here. Both of them are two different types of people, but we ran the same scheme and do the same things. All I'm going to try to do is continue to do what we do. It is really Bill's scheme and that is what we are going to do. Both of them have different personalities, like any coach that you work for. I have worked for a lot of different head coaches. You take a little bit from everybody, but the bottom line is when it is all said and done you have to be yourself because that is what the players are going to respond to.

Moving forward I imagine you are looking to fill a position under you now? Can you talk about where that stands and will you keep Pepper Johnson with the defensive line or will he move back to linebackers? How will that process work?
The process of evaluating everything will be ongoing here in the coming weeks and maybe even months. What ever we think is best, is the way we will go. At this point, I couldn't say for sure either way. I really don't know how it will be organized. It will be something Bill and I will sit down and discuss. He will be the guy that will give the most input. Right now, I don't know how that will go.

Is that something you are working on right now because you do see a lot of coaching openings? There seems to be an urgency to get the staff set.
It is something we are working on. It will be something we will continue to work on. There really isn't any timetable. It will be something that we will evaluate as time goes on.

Could you give us a quick state of the defense looking ahead to next year?
I have written on my board sitting in front of me right now all of the things that we have to evaluate here in the offseason, just like you do every year. Every place I have ever been, but especially here, I did it with Romeo [Crennel] and I did it with Eric [Mangini]. The state of the defense is that it is a brand new year. We just have to sit back and look at and evaluate everything we did last year from top to bottom, which we always do and I have always done with Bill. We will sit back at that point and time and then decide where the state of the defense is. Every year is a new year. I don't think how you leave the previous year is anything. You just have to start over and build from there. We will evaluate every player, every play and see how we can do things better.

Is it valuable at all to you having seen Eric Mangini go through that process and transition, as you are about to do it?
Certainly. It is always a great experience to watch anybody go through any process, whether it be Eric coming in as a coordinator or seeing how Romeo worked things as a coordinator. I feel fortunate that I have at least been in that position, even though it is not in the NFL. It has been in college. At least I have an idea of how that process goes, going from being an assistant to being a coordinator. Certainly, it will advantageous for me to have watched Eric go from an assistant to a coordinator here.

What was it like working with the current group of linebackers? You came in out of college to find a very experienced, veteran group. Was there any trepidation on your part that they would look at you as a college coach?
This group from day one, from the minute I walked into this office was special. Guys like [Mike] Vrabel who are from the area that I was at around Akron. I knew some of these guys. Ted Johnson I coached against in college. Rosevelt Colvin I coached against, so I knew a lot of these guys and I think they knew at least a little bit about me. I can't say enough about how the players, the coaching staff, Robert and Jonathan Kraft have treated me since the day I got here. I have never felt like 'oh boy, this was a move that was tough from college to the NFL.' I can't say enough good things about from top to bottom how I have been treated here.

What are your impressions of the other two units on defense that you are going to be in charge of?
It is the same thing. We will sit back and evaluate everything. Sometimes I think when you make an evaluation it is more of an assumption. You look at a couple of plays, whether they be good plays or whether they be bad plays, and that is how you may categorize a player. I think that is really sometimes unfair, especially right after the season. That is why these next few months, sitting back and watching every play of every player is really important for us as a staff because then you really understand ... sometimes a guy makes a mistake, but it may have been a mistake because someone else made a worse mistake that he has to make up for. You don't always know that. I just think it is an ongoing evaluation of every player. To say anything about any particular group or any particular player is really unfair now. We will really evaluate it closely and all of our decisions will come off of that.

How long have you been a base 3-4 coach in terms of defense?
You'd be surprised. How about 1974? When I was a high school coach that's what I ran and when I went to the University of Findlay I ran the 3-4. I got hired as a defensive coordinator at Miami of Ohio because they ran a 3-4. So I'd say my background in the 3-4 goes back quite a few years.

What is your take on the defensive resurgence over the second half of the year?
A lot of things I think come into play. This is going to sound simple, but it's really two things: the players played better and the coaches coached better. I really think, just as an entire unit, we did a better job all the way around in the second half of the year than we did the first half of the year.

You've got an interesting situation with [Mike] Vrabel. He did so well on the inside, yet up to this year he's been a monster on the outside. Moving forward, where would you like to see him settle in?
I'd just like to see him. That's all I care about. That's again part of the process in the offseason. We will sit down and there are two things you always evaluate: you evaluate your own players and one thing that coach Belichick has always done extremely well and I've really taken from him is evaluating our opponents that we play against. And so we will always do personnel-wise whatever is best for us -trying to put the players in the best position-and also what is the best position to put them in to defeat our opponents. Where Mike ends up I really couldn't tell you right now. Again, that will be an evaluation we'll make in this offseason.

A perception that we in the media have is that the Patriots ask so much of their linebackers that it's very difficult for veteran guys to get a handle on it quickly or for college kids to come in as rookies and pick it up right away. How difficult is it to play linebacker for this team?
We ask a lot out of all players at all positions, whether it be linebacker, secondary or even the defensive line. I think we have a good scheme. We expect our guys to know a lot about a lot of things. It's hard for me to say. You're probably better off asking a linebacker that question than you are the linebackers' coach or now the [defensive] coordinator because he's a guy that can tell you how difficult it is. All I can tell you is we try to put guys in positions where they can have success, and for the most part I can say that Bill [Belichick] has been very successful doing that.

How many hours would you say you work a week? And does it ever get old?
I don't know. I've never sat down and counted up the hours. The thing about it is that there are places where the more hours you put in the better you are. Here is I think Bill [Belichick's] simple rule: do your job. Whatever it takes to get your job done, get your job done, and you are held accountable. That's kind of how I've looked at it. Some nights I might be here late because it takes me a little longer to do something. Some nights I might not be here quite as late because I got it done on time or maybe there was a little more carryover from the week before. I really can't put a time on it. And does it ever get old? No. That's one of things about this job. You can't do it if it's not something you have a passion for. And I certainly have that and so does the rest of this staff.

What are your thoughts about Josh McDaniels? He's been promoted to offensive coordinator. I don't know how close you've worked with him, but what are your thoughts on him making this next step in his career?
Anybody that Bill [Belichick] chooses for any position I wholeheartedly endorse because he does a heck of a job picking coaches and he knows what he's doing, so if Josh is the guy I couldn't feel better for Josh. He's a heck of a guy. I go a long way back with his family and his father. His brother played for me and I recruited about eight players from his dad's high school football team. I have close ties with Josh and I wish him the best and congratulate him. I'm very excited for him.

-- SOURCE: New England Patriots

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The New England Patriots announced that they have named Dean Pees as the team's defensive coordinator today. Pees, who served as New England's linebackers coach for the past two seasons (2004-05), will fill the role previously held by Eric Mangini, who has accepted the head coaching responsibilities with the New York Jets.

''Dean Pees has done an outstanding job coaching our linebackers," said Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. "When he joined us, Dean brought a wealth of experience into this system and has been a significant part of our success over the past two seasons."

Pees, 56, has 33 years of coaching experience, including 15 seasons as a defensive coordinator and six seasons as a head coach at the collegiate level. He joined Bill Belichick's staff in New England in 2004 and mentored a linebacking corps that produced three of the team's top four tacklers on a defense that ranked ninth overall and sixth in the league against the run in 2004. His unit was also credited with 27.5 sacks that season, led by the 9.5 of Willie McGinest. The Patriots won 17 of 19 games in 2004 and won their second consecutive Super Bowl title. In 2005, Mike Vrabel transitioned from outside linebacker to inside linebacker and finished with a career-high and team-leading 114 tackles, including 4.5 sacks. As a unit, the defense jelled late in the season and finished eighth in the league against the run.

"I am very appreciative and grateful for the opportunity that Coach Belichick, Mr. Kraft and the entire Patriots organization have given me," said Pees. "I am extremely proud to be part of a first-class organization from top to bottom. I will work hard to continue the standard of excellence that is expected as a New England Patriot."

Prior to joining the Patriots, Pees spent six seasons as the head coach at Kent State (1998-03). From 1995-97, Pees was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach on Nick Saban's staff at Michigan State. The Spartans qualified for a post-season bowl game following each of his three seasons at Michigan State, and in 1997 the defense finished the season ranked 13th in the nation.

The Dunkirk, Ohio native began his coaching career in 1973 at Elmwood High School in Ohio. In 1979, he was named defensive coordinator and secondary coach at the collegiate level. His career then took him to Miami of Ohio (1983-86), the Naval Academy (1987-89), Toledo (1990-93) and Notre Dame (1994) before Saban hired him at Michigan State in 1995.

After the Jets formally announced the hiring of Eric Mangini as their new head coach, Belichick offered the following comments:

"For over a decade, I had the pleasure of working with Eric Mangini, who is an outstanding coach and an even finer individual. I will always appreciate Eric's contributions. I value our friendship and look forward to supporting Eric's commitment to youth football in the future. Eric worked his way from the most entry-level position to a position of great responsibility during several successful seasons. The opportunity Eric has now earned is truly an example of good things happening to a good, hard-working person and I wish him well."

(New England Patriots press release)

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The Patriots will move quickly to replace defensive coordinator Eric Mangini, who was hired today as head coach of the New York Jets.

Leading candidates include Dean Pees, the team's linebackers coach, and Jim Bates, who stepped down earlier this week as defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers.

An announcement is expected by the end of the week.

-- TOM E. CURRAN

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DENVER -- With left tackle Nick Kaczur down, Tom Ashworth figures to get the start across from Broncos defensive end Trevor Pryce. Kaczur had a shoulder injury during the week and was presumably was sat down for that reason, though there's no confirmation of that.

Ashworth is not as fast and powerful as Kaczur. Ashworth does have good feet but he can be beaten by quickness. Expect New England to devote extra blockers to the left to aid Ashworth.

-- TOM E. CURRAN

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DENVER - Some pregame droppings from the press box....

I just spoke with former Patriots middle linebacker Ted Johnson and he said that, in his opinion, the entire game tonight comes down to one matchup: Broncos center Tom Nalen and Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork.

"Nalen is so quick," Johnson explained. "They only run one running play (the stretch) and if the nose tackle is in a zero technique (his helmet lined up on the center's) all Nalen has to do is get out and wall off Wilfork and that walls off the rest of the defensive line.

So it's Nalen's quickness that makes him so good?

"And he's mean, and dirty and he'll pull you down, gouge your eyes, get in your head. The whole game comes down to that matchup."

BREAK

There was some conversation last week about Eugene Wilson's fumble-causing hit on Alvin Pearman being a helmet-to-helmet hit and deserving of a penalty.

That's not right. These are the instances in which helmet-to-helmet hits should be penalized:

-- Defensive players who use the facemask, crown or any one of the four "hit points" on the helmet to strike a specific player under one of six "defenseless" conditions

1) a quarterback in the act of throwing
2) a wide receiver in the act of catching;
3) a punt returner in the act of catching
4) a player who is down (spearing)
5) a running back who is in the grasp of a defender and has lost his forward momentum or has stopped
6) a quarterback on change of possession (fumble/interception).

-- TOM E. CURRAN

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WR Bam Childress
WR Bethel Johnson
LT Nick Kaczur
DT Dan Klecko
OL Gene Mruczkowski
RB Patrick Pass
DL Santonio Thomas

Matt Cassel is the third quarterback

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Temperature in Denver currently sits at 58 degrees. The forecast is for the temperature to be at about 54 degrees for the 6 p.m. MST kickoff, and it will drop into the 40s as the night progresses. Still, the average high for Denver at this time of year is only 43 degrees (the average low is 15), so the weather won't be much of a factor tonight.

As it turns out, the Pats and Broncos are playing on the right night. Were they playing tomorrow, they'd be running up against a snowstorm that's expected to drop 3-6 inches on the Denver area tomorrow night into Monday morning.

More to come . . .

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ROSEVELT COLVIN, LINEBACKER
Do you get antsy during the week?
RC: For me it's an exciting time because you know you're playing for something different than what everybody else is playing for in the regular season. We have eight teams left in the playoffs and this is an opportunity to advance yourself to a position to qualify for the Super Bowl. We have to make sure everybody focuses and make sure we're ready to play.

ADAM VINATIERI, KICKER
How well do you know Jason Elam?
AV: He's a good guy, I know him pretty well. He's been a very good kicker for a long time and he still is. He's one of those guys that like you said before I expect him to make all his kicks and hopefully it doesn't come down to him having an opportunity because he's pretty good.

Do you feel comfortable kicking in Denver?
AV: Everyday is a different situation. The weather should be all right. The ball travels a little bit further in Denver sometimes. You never know what your opportunities are going to be, if it's a bunch of extra points, field goals or kicking off. You just have to be prepared for whatever is there and do your best.

ARTRELL HAWKINS, DEFENSIVE BACK
Do you feel like you are more comfortable with the defense?
AH: I think the front seven has played very good ball. It's probably attributed to that. The coaches have done a good job preparing us for games but I think when the front seven plays well, the whole defense has the opportunity to make plays and allows us play well.

Based on your experience playing with other teams, is the level of expectation different here?
AH: The level of expectations is high everywhere you go, whether you're winning or losing. The first person who holds you to high expectations is your head coach. Your coaches are going to be competitive and the guys are going to be competitive whether you're winning games like you want or you're not. The expectation level is fairly the same everywhere you go.

After coming to this team during the middle of the season, does coming into a situation like this make you appreciate it even more?
AH: Yeah it does. The hardest part about me being out of football was that I couldn't play because of an injury. You know that you're getting to a point in your career where you have to kind of get it done right now. So you miss it completely and I joke with my wife all the time and tell her that, I was married to football way before I was married to her. And I missed her a lot when she was gone and now she's back and I'm not going to let her go.

What type of problems does Jake Plummer present to the defense?
AH: He obviously gets out of the pocket. The primary reason for their success is the fact that Jake hasn't made a lot of mistakes. He controls the tempo of the game, makes the right decisions and he doesn't force it maybe like he has in the past.

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Does having two kickers the caliber of Jason Elam and Adam Vinatieri change the equation at all with your offense and how you prepare?
I think I've said this before, I'll put it this way. I think when you send a kicker out on the field you have to have confidence that he is going to make it period. We know everybody doesn't make all of them, but if you don't have confidence he's going to make it, then he shouldn't be your kicker. I don't think you can coach the game saying, 'Well, gee, this guy might miss. We are on the 25 yard line. We can't try a field goal. I don't think he's going to make it.' You just can't coach like that. And that goes for every player. If you put them in there to do a job and you don't think he can do it, then you probably shouldn't put him in there. You should probably try to find either another player or another scheme where you don't have to do that. Even though you may not be in love with the alternative, but I think you have to have confidence in him. No matter who your kicker is, if it's a field goal situation and you put the guy out there, you have to feel like he is going to make it, even though you know they're not going to make every single one of them. But I don't think you can coach [that way], 'Well, here's what he's going to do. Now we're going to put him in. But we don't really think he can do it.' You can't coach like that.

What about on the flipside of that with a guy like Elam who hits 53-yarders?
Well, there's no question that he has range and that stretches it a little bit and he's an accurate kicker. I think distance certainly plays into it and it gets to a point there where you feel how far do you want to try it with certain kickers based on their [range]. That's legitimate - when do you really feel like you have a chance to make some of those kicks based on distance or field conditions. Now that's a different story.

Like an end of the game situation, they only have to get to your 43 yard line.
Yeah, the end of the game situation, that a little bit . . . for that one situation that's an advantage, but there's really pretty few of those. How many game-winning kicks are going to be between 55 and 60 yards? Hey, if it comes up then that can be a great play, but the chances of that happening are probably once every couple of years. It's the more important situations, the more frequent ones, kind of the normal field goals, 50 and under, the kickoffs, the situational kicking, as it applies to conditions, score and so forth. I think those are much more common factors.

Is there more of a conscious effort to attempt less field goals this year? Adam Vinatieri seems to be the forgotten man.
No, not at all. Those are game situation decisions.

On Denver's defense, is one guy you have to be really sure of where he is John Lynch?
They involve John in quite a bit of their pressure defense, so they probably blitz him out of the secondary more than any other player. So from that standpoint you've got to be aware of him. Now, he doesn't always blitz. He probably blitzes, I don't know, four or five times a game. Like in the San Diego game, if he blitzes and you don't account for him then there's strip sacks and hits in the backfield and all of that. Those can be huge plays. I think John is definitely a guy you have to account for, but it's hard to get past Al Wilson. It's even harder to get past Trevor Pryce. You've got to be real careful with Champ Bailey. And all those linebackers, as blitzers, are very fast. I'm talking about [Ian] Gold and D.J. [Williams] and Al, when they blitz him. So they're all problems too. I definitely don't think you can say, 'Well, it's just one guy.' Lynch is a good player, he's certainly a problem with the things that he does. I think [there are] a lot of other guys that are a problem too. And the way they play their defensive line, which is very unusual, really. A lot of people rotate - five or six guys through there, they really rotate eight. They have two full sets of linemen. Not only are they fresher and they're playing fewer plays, but the matchups from one player to the next is different. You take a guy like Trevor Pryce who literally can play all four spots across the line and he's an outstanding player. This guy is as good as anybody we've played. [He] can play end and tackle and plays both sides. He's a tough matchup for everybody, and they've all got to be ready for him to know exactly how that one's going to unfold, where he's going to be. But he's a problem no matter where he is.

How does that rotation go? One at time? Two at a time?
For the most part it's two groups, but within that players like Pryce play more than some other guys. [Michael] Myers, [Ebenezer] Ekuban, [Courtney] Brown, [Gerrard] Warren, they're deep and they're good.

In a typical regular season, what percentage of your playbook do you use?
Well, the whole body of the regular season, you're talking about 16 games? Probably most of it. Probably 95 percent of it. But within any given game that would get scaled-back. Basically, what we try to do at the end of the year, between the end of the year and the beginning of the next year, is to go through the playbook and say, 'Okay is there anything in here that we really don't want? Is there anything that we don't use or the reason why we're not using it is because either a) the situation isn't coming up any more like it used to or b) we've actually shifted from this over to something else that we think is a little bit better for these type of situations?' So when you get to that point, to me, I say get rid of it. There are other people that say, 'Well, look let's keep. We know it. We've coached it. Maybe we'll have a use for it later,' so you kind of keep it alive. But we kind of have a spring cleaning so that when something comes in, really something else should go out. Otherwise the volume, it just keeps expanding. I'm not really a big proponent of that. I think it can expand a little bit. [But] when you just add, add, add, pretty soon it just becomes an unmanageable amount. That's kind of the way we look at it.

Do you save anything specific for the postseason?
No, oh no. What we have we have. Every game is important. We try to win every game. So if there is a play that we think can help us win a game, then it's going to be in the game plan regardless if it's the first game or the last game or anyone in between.

In terms of coaching challenges as the year unfolded, is there anything that you had to do as a coach? Were there different areas you had to go to more so than you had in recent years? Different emphases?
Yeah, sure. I think each year is different from the next and even though, generally speaking, I am in a lot of the same areas. I would say this year I've probably spent, time wise, a little more time with the front seven than say last year.

Does Champ Bailey have uncommon ball skills as a corner?
Outstanding. Outstanding ball skills. He's a smart player. He anticipates well and I would say that he has a number of interceptions where, what does he have this year, like eight or nine this year? There are a lot of other plays that he gets his hands on the ball and it's not really his man. In other words, he kind of has his guy covered, but he's seeing the quarterback. He sees the ball thrown and then he breaks on the ball. Like if they're trying to high/low him or if they're trying to run a guy outside and then hook up a guy inside of him and he has the outside guy but he sees the quarterback kind of come off that one and look inside, then he'll cheat to that and he'll make some plays on passes that really it's not his guy, but he has his area under control and he has the anticipation and then the speed, the quickness and the ball skills to close to the ball and then be a factor on those plays too. So, even though they're not throwing to him, a lot of times when they're throwing around him, he becomes a factor on those plays, when most corners wouldn't.

A guy like that who played receiver in college, does that knowledge help a corner with his ball skills
Oh, sure. Sure. I say this in jest to the defensive players, especially the defensive backs, that if they were really good offensive players, they would be on offense. Their coaches would have left them on offense, whether it be high school, college or whatever it was. If they were that good of a receiver or that good of a running back or quarterback, whatever position those guys play, if they were that good, it's hard for me to imagine a high school or college coach saying, 'Well, we don't want that 150 yards of receiving this guy can produce,' or, 'We're not really interested in that 130 yards this guy can run for. Let's get him over there at safety.' Usually they're on defense because they don't quite have the skill to play offense. Not always, both for the most part. Now when you get a player like a Champ Bailey, who has exceptional ball skills, then that's what you're going to see. You going to see a guy that has superior talent and then has those seven, eight, nine interceptions, whatever it is, that another corner is going to have four, but he's going to drop those other four that Bailey is going to catch. That's where a lot of those guys get those big numbers because they have the ball skills to go with their coverage ability. That's what really makes an exceptional player an exceptional defensive player because now those result in turnovers and those change games, etcetera. Again, it's hard for me to imagine a high school coach who has the best receiver saying, 'You get over there on defense. We have a couple of other guys that are better than that.' Hey, you run into the Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas every once in a while, that type of a set up and you keep them there. Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams. But in a lot of cases when you have a Ronnie Brown and you have another guy who is not in that category, then you get him over there at safety or you put him over there at corner because he just doesn't quite have the skill. Now those defensive backs don't want to hear that. I think there is something to be said for that.

You hear about college players, 'Oh, they take their best options and put them on defense,' and it has kind of become cliché. Should we dismiss that notion?
From my experience, that happens a little bit if a guy, early in his career, the guy comes in as a freshman or a sophomore and they have pretty good players at that position and he's going to play two or three years behind them, then a lot of times you say to that player, 'Hey, we're not going to really be able to get you on the field because we have these two guys playing in front you and they have two more years left and you're not going to beat them out, but you could start at corner.' And a lot of times, that is where the conversion comes. But I'm telling you, if you're a college coach and you're sitting there and here comes this freshman and he's better than the two junior receivers you have, you're not going to kick him over there on defense. You'd have to be crazy to do that. You work him into some kind of three receiver set and you bump somebody else out of there, if he's that good. That's what I would do. I think that's what most coaches would do. But a lot of times you do see guys that come in and were recruited as big-time running backs or big-time receivers and then they get there and there's already a couple of guys there, you're playing behind LenDale White and Reggie Bush, and okay you have two or three years behind those guys. And they say, 'Okay, we think you could start at corner next year.' Maybe the kid, in that scenario, [says], 'All right. I'll think about that.

What goes into your decision whether you go shotgun on first down?
I think there are a lot of factors. It changes your protections. It gives you the ability to change your protections some when you're out away from center. When you're under center and they walk people up then you just can't have the backs come up and get those guys because they can't get them, so the linemen have to take them. Whereas when you're in the shotgun, you can have backs come up and take guys that are blitzing in the center/guard gap or sometimes the guard/tackle gap. You can handle those protections a little bit differently. I think the timing of the passing game is affected because it does take you a certain amount of time in the shotgun to catch the ball, get it handled and then look downfield and throw it. Versus when you're under center, as soon as you have the ball, your eyes are immediately down field and you can get rid of it a lot quicker. The shorter passing game is tougher to execute out of the shotgun because a) it takes longer, but b) I don't think the quarterback sees it quite as quickly because he does have to handle the ball and get a grip on it and be ready to get it into the technique of throwing it. Now in terms of the down the field throws, I think that those can be timed out. We have plays in our passing game, like a lot of other teams do, that it doesn't matter whether we're under center, in the shotgun, we could do either one and be perfectly comfortable with it. There are other plays that I think you would only want to run under center and other plays that you might rather be in the shotgun, but you could run them under center. Like for example, like when there are no backs in the backfield. Most teams go to shotgun on that just because it gives them a better view of the field and it's easier to see where the defense is deployed. But you don't have guys right on top of you, like you do when you're under center and there are no backs in the backfield. You know they are rushing because you really don't have any run threats. I think those are some of the things that you go through. Sometimes it's a technique thing between the center and the quarterback. Some quarterbacks are more comfortable in the gun. Some are more comfortable under canter having the ball in their hands. Some centers, it doesn't take very many bad snaps to chase you out of the shotgun. I could tell you that from experience because you don't know when they're going to happen. It happens on third down or it happens in the fourth quarter, it happens in the two-minute drive, that's all it takes. You're done. If that's a concern at that position, then sometimes you go ahead and push them up under center.

Is there anything the quarterback needs to do in a shotgun specifically with the center? Something the quarterback needs to do really well?
Again, I think it just gives him more separation from the line, I think it's easier for him to see the entire field. Because when you take the ball and turn and back out, you lose some vision over here. Now if you back out and take it back out like this, you're not backing away from the line of scrimmage as quickly. Quarterbacks that back out have better field vision. They don't have as much depth from the line of scrimmage. Quarterbacks that turn and drive out, can get away from the line of scrimmage quicker. They don't have quite as much vision on the entire field, teams that will corner blitz and things like that. It's harder for them to see. They can still see it or a lot of times you'll see a quarterback come back and he'll actually look back there to check it. Whereas when you're standing in the shotgun, like right now, you can see everything here. But when you turn you're going to lose some of it.

Do you see that anymore? I know Dan Fouts did it.
Yeah, some quarterbacks do it. You'll see [Doug] Flutie back out. There's one. A lot of times they do that, based on the coverage, they know they're going to throw to their left. So if it's a normal play then they would just turn and drive out. But okay now they see the rotation or whatever their coverage key is that tells them, 'Well, I'm going over here.' Then they back out to it. That now becomes the primary side. The defenses can kind of key on that too. A lot of times a good safety, a good linebacker, when they see the quarterback back out, that's the tendency which some of them have, then they'll start to cheat back to that way, because now they know that his primary side.

Would you say you have trick plays per se, like the passes to [Mike] Vrabel and throws to [Tom] Ashworth?
No.

It's just part of the offense?
Well, it's kind of X's and O's. When we put the play in, whatever play is called, '137-Cross,' if that's the name of the play. Here's what we're running. It's not, 'Well, we're running this play and this guy is going to be here.' That could be Ashworth. It could be Vrabel. It could be [Daniel] Graham. It could be [Christian] Fauria. It could be [Benjamin] Watson. It could be [David] Givens. It could be a lot of different guys. And we just learn the play. Then whoever is playing that position, then that's what they do. You might not want to call that play if it's a certain player in there. I'm sure if you asked our linemen on plays like that, they wouldn't be able to tell you who that player was. It doesn't matter to them. They just hear the play and they run it.

So the idea of saving stuff to shake things up, kind of like Pittsburgh last week against Cincinnati . . .
Well, I don't know. I heard [Bill] Cowher talking about it. He said that that was a play that they've had in for quite a while. I think that's true of a lot of deceptive plays like that, is you have you have those plays in. It's not really very time efficient to put in a triple reverse pass. 'Okay, we're going to run the triple reverse pass this week against Houston.' Now the game is over and you haven't called it for whatever reason. The situation hasn't come up and all of that. 'Let's throw that out and next week let's work on the double flea flicker.' You can only practice those plays so many times in practice. You have a lot of other stuff to work on too. It's a lot easier if you just say, 'Okay here are some deceptive plays that we have. We have a halfback pass. We have a double reverse pass. We have some other lateral play.' Whatever it is. Okay, you put it in. You kind of work on it every week. 'Okay, we don't want a call it this week. Let's work on this other one this week.' Then eventually you get to it, but your players have some familiarity with the play because, again, when you call that, you don't know exactly what's going to come up. It could be man. It could be zone. It could be blitz. It could an over/under. So, if you run the play once a week for five, six, seven weeks cumulatively, now you've had some experience with the play and then probably whatever happens you have a pretty good chance of handling it. If you put in the triple reverse pass and think they're going to be in two-deep zone and, uh-oh, now they're coming with Sam-Will blitz and you lose 13 yards, that's the kind of stuff that happens because you've never really seen that. I think you're a lot better off with those plays if you just kind of have them in your offense and you have a familiarity with them and then when the right time comes to call them maybe you say, 'Hey this week, that halfback pass looks pretty good. We're going to run it a couple of more times than we normally would.' Then it comes up in the game and then you call it.

How would you know when that was?
It's like Cowher talking about the play. They've been running it every week. It's been in their offense all year. That makes perfect sense to me. Okay, now you run it. No, you don't know what it's going to be, but each of those weeks that you practiced it, you practice it against a blitz, a zone, a man-to-man call, or whatever. So now by the time you finally get around to running it, it doesn't really matter. You think they're going to be in this, but okay if they're in something else, we'll here's how we're going to handle it. We've already coached it. We've run it. We know what to do. And they work a lot better like that. Boy, I'll tell you, when you put in plays and say, 'Okay. We're going to run this play and here's what they're going to be in and this is going to score a touchdown.' Every once in a while that might work, but it's so hard to know that that's exactly what they're going to be in and if you're going to get that perfect look. Then you get something that's a little bit different and then the play gets blown up. Then you come in here Monday morning and say, 'We can't do that. We've put all of our eggs in one basket and then they do something a little bit different and then you're dead.' You guys think we just have a million chances out there, but honestly in a game you don't have that many plays. When you take out the goal line, short yardage, third down situational plays, red area plays, you take all out all of the two minute, you take all of those plays out of the game, which are all very situational specific and say, 'Okay, well here's the plays that we have to call.' Maybe you have 35 plays. Whatever it is, 40 plays if you're lucky. You start throwing plays away. You throw one away here. You throw one away here. You throw one away...those are drive stoppers and those are lost opportunities. So when you call something, you want to feel pretty good about it. You don't want to let them just do something that's a little bit different that shouldn't be any big problem but because you have such a gadget going on, you just can't handle it.

You said you ended spending more time with the front seven. But your secondary had far more issues, injuries, turnovers, new personnel, etcetera. How did it end up you spent more time with the front seven?
Well, I spent time with them too. There was a point in the year where I met with those guys on a regular basis and I still do meet with some of them individually on a weekly basis. I think the question was from more of a time commitment standpoint, I would just say this year I've spent more time with the front seven than I have in the last couple of years.

How did that play out? Was it because until those guys are coordinated up front, it doesn't matter what's going on behind them?
Well, for a combination of different reasons. I just felt that that was going to be time well spent. Let's put it that way.

How has Ty Warren been doing?
Ty has had a good year. Ty has had a good year. I think he's improved a lot through the year. I could say that about just about everyone of our defensive players, that every one of them, no matter what their experience level has been, that they've played better as the year has gone on. But, I would say it was particularly true for Ty, that he's really made some good strides say from where he was in the first third of the season to maybe the last two thirds. I think he's been a very consistent player for us. With him and Richard [Seymour] or him and Jarvis [Green], however it works out there, that we've gotten good balanced play from both of those ends, as we have from outside linebackers with Willie [McGinest] and Rosie [Colvin] or even Mike earlier in the year. So I think being balanced on defense has helped us. Where there's not a big imbalance, where they are going to run the plays away from this guy and that type of thing, that we've been pretty consistent across the board there.

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(Opening statement) One thing I've really been impressed with watching Denver the last few days is how well they play together as a unit. All of the different units. Of course, the offensive line functions very well together. They truly do play as one. They do a great job of taking over blocks for each other, helping each other out. They're very good with their footwork and technique. [It's] the same thing with the defensive line, the linebacker unit is very good, especially in pass coverage, and the blitzes and their disguises and all of that. I think that as a team they're probably as well coordinated in all of the phases of the game and compliment each other as well, probably, as anybody we've faced this year. It just really grows on you. The more you watch them, the more in sync they seem to be. There are very few spaces in their plays. Everything is pretty tightly fit together. I think that's a real credit to, obviously the coaching staff, but also the players. They're real good at that though.

That first game in the second quarter you gave up three big plays. Has that been a big point of emphasis for you this week?
Sure. You can't win giving up plays like that. We couldn't move the ball, other than a screen pass. We gave up big plays. They had almost 300 yards in the second quarter. All of the things that we don't want to do what we did.

Has one of your improvements maybe been your ability to give up fewer big plays?
We've given up fewer. We'll see how we do against Denver. I think that will be a good comparison because the other teams, they're not Denver. Nothing against them, but they're not Denver. We'll see how we doing against an offense like Denver's. Again, they can play however they want to play. I think they've had more 80-yard touchdown drives than anybody in the league. [Ashley] Lelie is a big play guy. Rod Smith is a big-play guy. [Tatum] Bell can take it the distance. Their tight ends are productive. They can play the game however you want to play it. If they want to control the ball and march it down the field, they are good at that. You want to get up there and play them real aggressively, they can take it down the field for big plays. They're good at that, too. We'll see how we do against them this time.

Going back to that second quarter, was that just communication breakdowns?
I don't think it was nearly as much of a problem as just bad coaching and bad playing. A guy takes the ball and runs it right up the middle. I mean, it doesn't get much worse than that, unless they throw it straight over your head, uncontested. Twice.

How much do you take from that game?
How much do we take from it? I think that game is a good example of, as I said yesterday, Denver playing real good football and us not doing anything we needed to do in any phase of the game by really anybody, other than maybe the punter. When those two forces collide that's about what you're going to get, 28-3. They were running out the clock for the last quarter-and-a-half of the game. Really, we weren't even really competitive in the game.

What is the thinking in regards to using players in different roles, [Mike] Vrabel at tight end, [Tom] Ashworth at fullback?
We're just trying to win. Whatever we think is the best thing we can do, that's what we're going to do.

Is it stretching the roster in a sense?
We're just using the players that we feel like are the best combination or the best roles for them in that particular game. It's not always the same in every game. It varies from time to time and from game to game. If you carry, for example, more linebackers and fewer tight ends then maybe you use a linebacker at tight end and it gives you another guy on special teams or your defensive backs and more receivers, like last week, Troy [Brown] played some defensive back for us. Again, it just varies from game to game, but it's just to try to get the people on the field that we need for those situations. They don't necessarily have to come from their respective side of the ball, but they have to be able to do the job. That's really what it comes down to. So wherever we get them from, their on our roster, then we use them.

Vrabel's first game at inside linebacker was the Denver game. Can you talk about the progress you've seen him make since then and what qualities did you see in him to think he would be able to play there?
Well, Mike worked in there going all the way back to mini-camp. But he kind of made more of a full-time commitment starting that week. Mike is strong. He's physical. He can hang in there against offensive linemen. He runs well. He's a strong tackler. He's a real smart guy. Mike is one of those guys that there are a lot of things that linebackers have to do inside. He sees a lot of different things. He has guys coming at him from a lot of different directions. He's involved in every single play. It's a lot different than being on the outside looking in at everything as opposed to being in the middle and having a lot of stuff going on around you. Mike is very intelligent and when you tell him something, that's pretty much it. He has it and he can process it and he can apply it the next time that situation comes up, whether it's the next play or it could be two weeks from now. He can recall that and put it in application, whereas, sometimes you're repaving those roads all the time. You go over something and then a week later it comes back up and then you go back over it again and then two weeks later you're sort of starting over. Mike is not that type of player at all. Once he understands something, maybe if he hasn't seen it before, he might miss it, but once he understands it he's not going to get fooled by that one again. There are a lot of plays that are tough in there. One of the things about a 3-4 defense is they scheme those inside linebackers in the running game and in the passing game and try to make a lot of plays look the same but they're really not the same. They try to have them misread them. But Mike is, again, progressively, week by week, has been done a really good job of sorting those things out and taking things that are a problem one week and getting them fixed the next week and actually then it becomes a strength of his game rather than a problem for him.

In terms of having Tedy Bruschi back and having that continuity, that has helped as well?
Well, yeah. [We've had] a lot more continuity with our front seven in the last third of the season. No doubt about it. That always helps. I think more importantly than that, I think the players that are playing have played better.

What has having Tedy back meant?
I think Tedy has gotten better every week. He's a good football player. He brings a lot of positives to our team. The running game. The passing game. Leadership. Communication. Experience. He is a very instinctive player. A lot of times things happen out there that you don't practice or they haven't shown before and Tedy is the type of guy with his experience and his instinctiveness that he can really pick up those plays. He's a good football player. He helps us when he's out on the field.

Rod Smith has had some of his best games against you.
I'm sure he'll be thanking us when they induct him in Canton. We've had a lot to do with it. So has he.

What kind of routes do they tried to exploit with him?
He's killed us on pretty much everything. He's a great player. A good route runner. Strong. Good run after the catch. Makes a lot of yards after the catch, after he gets the ball in his hands. They've used him on punt returns in the past. He runs short pattern and goes a long way with them. He can run deep patterns. He runs good intermediate routes. He's a tough guy. He can come inside and catch the ball in traffic and break tackles. He's a good blocker. They run him on reverses. It's easy to say, ''Stop him.'' It's a lot harder to do. He's a real good player and Lelie is really coming along. He's had an outstanding career. He leads the league in yards per catch. He is a big play threat, so they have a good complement of receivers, tight ends, and backs. They have a lot of weapons on that offensive unit, a lot of guys you have to defend and a good offensive line and a good quarterback and a good coach and a good scheme. So they present a lot of problems for you offensively. They're a hard unit to deal with.

In their passing scheme, do they tend to get those guys a lot of space? They get a lot of run after the catch yards.
Sometimes. Right, and Mike [Shanahan], his foundation, it has a lot of elements of the West Coast offense. I wouldn't say that he runs the West Coast offense, but the passing game does have some elements of that which are crossing patterns and slants and catch and run type of plays. He's definitely modified that to, it's really more of Mike's system. I wouldn't call it a West Coast offense. I'm just saying there are some elements of that in the passing game. Sometimes they bunch them out. Sometimes they spread them out. Sometimes they motion to things. They line up in them. They try to get the defense to declare. They overload formations. They balance you up. They have a very good, diversified attack. They give you a lot of different problems, a lot of things to get ready for and then they pick their point of attack in any given game, you better be able to deal with those things or it's going to be a long day. We've been on that end.

Is Denver one of the best teams in the league at playing with the lead? With that said, how important is it for you not to let them get out to that type of lead that they usually get by halftime?
Well, it's important. They're very good at playing from ahead. They have a great running game. A good play action passing game, offensively. Defensively they can rush the passer. They have a good front four, it's really a front eight because they play all of those linemen and they can pressure. They have a lot of good pass type of blitzes, bringing secondary guys, inside corners, safeties, all of that type of thing, which is hard on your pass protection. They do a real good job of that. I don't know. I don't know how they would play from behind. They've never been behind. The first game against, who was it, Kansas City or somebody, but they've never been behind. You look up, watch the Philadelphia game, it was 21-0 at the end of the first quarter. We were 28-3. They're ahead of everybody by two or three touchdowns. Being able to withstand the onslaught in the first quarter, the first half, whatever it is, it sure is going to be important. You definitely want to at least keep the game competitive to halftime. They're very good at it. They get off to a fast start and they keep it rolling and they just run out the clock in the second half. I'd bet that they had probably eight or nine games like that.

Do you spend your time this week trying to figure out where they're going to attack your defense as opposed to being able to dictate what they're going to do?
Well, I don't think we really dictate much of anything. I mean if they have the ball, they can do with it whatever they want. We have to defend the plays that they run. No, I think you just have to make sure that you are sound in the things that they can put out there. First of all you know who their go to players are and you're sound so that the formations and the sets that they put out there, that you feel like you can adequately defend. Then, you have to stop the plays that they runs from those sets, obviously. But at least you have to be in a good position where your players have a chance to defend them and they have to have some type of leverage or some type of position where they can realistically do what they need to do in those sets on those plays. Again, that's easy to say, but there's a lot of things that can get you in trouble. No matter what you're trying to do, Mike does a good job of a constructing formations and personnel groups that really put you in positions you don't really want to be in when you're in that kind of a set and then you either have to change it or you have to play through it. There are problems with both of those.

Against that stretch play, does your nose tackle have different keys or different responsibilities? Is he an important guy on that play?
Sure. He's an important guy on every play. There's no play that the nose tackle is not involved in. It's not like a corner where you can run away from him. No, he's a point. But I think we play the stretch play the way we've played it all year. We've seen it from a lot of different teams. Denver does a great job at it. They run it probably as well as anybody in the league. But I mean the fundamentals of the play are still the fundamentals of the play. The backs, the way they run it is similar to what we see from a lot of other teams. They're probably just a little better at it than other teams. But I think we have to play it the way we've played it all year. I don't think we want go into this game and say, 'Okay fellas, let's forget all that stuff we did these last 17 weeks. Here's what we are going to do this week.' I don't think you can really win playing like that.

All of those plays, almost all of them seem to be back towards the middle. It seems like most of them are going towards Vince [Wilfork].
Right, but it's pretty easy for the back if the blocker is on one side of the defender, then you cut on the other side. If the defender is on the other side of the blocker, then you cut on this side. And you just have to be coordinated defensively to handle all of those spaces.

But on that same play, it seems like the linebackers were flowing, and they were always just a little bit off of the guy. There was even one play where one of the linebackers was trying to kick the guy to tackle him. Is not being in coordination with Vince or with the other guys?
Well, that's the whole philosophy of the play, is they line up in one place and then after the ball is snapped then everybody is over here, so all of those gaps move. All of those gaps that started out in one place when the ball is spotted, by the time the running back gets it, all of those gaps have now moved over here. So defensively you have to match those gaps across the board or vice versa. Then as the runner starts, then he sees how the defense flows with that action and wherever there is a soft spot in the defense then that's where he hits that gap. It's really pretty simple. It's hard for a defense to line up here and then as the whole play unfolds everybody get to that same exact spot five yards over that way, or five yards over this way, and then as the runner is going to it, as something opens up, then boom, that's where he hits it and enters the defense. That's what you're trying to do. You're trying to match that play with them, but it's not that easy to do. You have guys that are getting cut. You have guys that are getting double-teamed. The linebackers sometimes they have guys on them. Sometimes they don't. How they fit relative to the players in front of them, that's how you try to coordinate it.

For your linebackers, is the more of a natural feel and not all technique?
All of those responsibilities are well defined for everybody. So if the defensive lineman is out of position, then it's really impossible for the linebacker to be in position because whichever way he goes, the back is going to go somewhere else. On the other hand, if the line is in the proper position and the linebacker misreads it or isn't quite in the right spot he is supposed to be in, then it doesn't matter what the defensive line does. There's still going to be a gap there and the linebacker has either overrun it or isn't over there fast enough, whatever the case is and then there is a space there. It comes down to team defense. It's not, 'Well one guy is going to stop the running game.' They have seven guys blocking and one guy running. No one guy can stop that. That's ridiculous.

How come no one has been able to stop it? They've been running it for years.
It's because they do it well. Just like anybody else. You take a look at any sport and any team that does anything consistently well, first of all they're winning. That's why they're still there doing it. They're able to execute it on a consistent basis and that has a lot to do with them winning.

What might be one or two areas that Troy Brown has improved in at cornerback from last year when he was out there for the first time?
Well, I think number one he is more confidence because he knows more of what the scheme is and what the adjustments are. But I think just his experience. He is a smart guy and again kind of like what we talked about with Vrabel. When you tell Troy something and you show him the situation that maybe hasn't seen before, just because he hasn't played there that much then once he sees it and understands it, then the next time that comes up, that won't be a problem. His experience not only as a defensive player, but in seeing certain patterns or certain relationships between receivers. And it's easy for him to understand because he knows what they're telling those guys on other side of the ball, so it really adds up pretty quickly for him. He's just reading it backwards.

Do you want penetration on that stretch play from your defensive line?
It depends on what everybody else is going. It's how the whole defense is coordinated. Yeah, you can penetrate it or you can try to flatten with it. I don't think you want one of each. You don't want one guy up the field and another guy flat or you would create what I would call a vertical gap in the defense. In other words, if the defense plays the stretch play this way, and there's an opening in a horizontal gap, then the runner is going to hit it. But if there is a vertical gap for example on a draw play where you have linemen up the field and linebackers in pass coverage and there's maybe four or five yards of separation, well then there is a vertical gap in the defense that the runner gets through and then the linebackers are too far away that they can't close it. Vertical gaps in the defense really it's just as big of a problem as horizontal gaps in the defense. You don't want either one. But there's a lot of different ways to play it. I think the big thing is, the most important thing is not a right or wrong, but just making sure that everybody is totally coordinated on the play, so that you don't have a soft spot in there, wherever it occurs.

How does Richard Seymour do against the stretch play, against teams like the Colts and Denver?
Richard is a good football player. It would be hard to say how he's done against Denver because he hasn't played against them. He's a good football player. Again, we've played the plays before. It's not really a question of that. It's matching up against Denver and the way those guys do it and the specific one-on-one matchups in the back and all of that stuff. It's not like they're coming out with something that we've never seen before. It just comes down to really us executing our defenses against them executing their plays. Again, the thing I would emphasize is that's not the only play that they have. The boot that comes off of it, that's really just as big of a problem as the stretch play because it's like running the reverse on every play. You can flow with the stretch play, but if you flow too fast with the stretch play, you have problems with the boot.

Since Richard hasn't played against Denver and the stretch play . . .
Well, he's played the stretch play.

But not theirs.
Yeah, that's right. Okay.

I'm just wondering how he would do.
Well, hopefully we'll find out Saturday night. I think he'll show up for the game. We'll get a chance to look at it and see it goes.

Do many of their big plays come from the backside? The big running plays.
Well, they're almost all cutbacks.

Is there a bit more space over there with guys flowing?
Well, because you know they are going outside there is a tendency to put somebody out . . . I mean in the worst thing you want to do is let them just hand the ball and walk outside like they do in high school, where the guy just takes the ball and runs out to the end and there is nobody out there and he gains 20 yards. You and I could make yards on that play. So you definitely have to stop that, but once that is taken care of, then it's the guard/tackle gap, the center/guard gap, the backside center/guard gap, the backside guard/tackle gap. It could hit anywhere in there. And that's usually where it hits. It usually hits from tackle to tackle, unless you just totally misplay the play on the perimeter, then it can go out there. But I would say probably 90 percent of the time, the play is not going to actually get outside unless you just misplay it, which sometimes happens because the way they change the formations and all of that. If you end up with not being coordinated on your run force out there then they walk out there like they did against the Redskins. I'm not saying they won't run out there, but for the most part the plays cut back because the defenses take that away and you have to take that away because of the amount of boots that they run. Even if you thought the stretch play might not go out there and that's what you're thinking was, the boots are definitely going to go out there, so you have to have somebody to play those. It just doesn't make sense to play Denver without having some type of good perimeter force.

You talked earlier in the year about how the timing on the pass defense was off and how the pass rush wasn't getting there. Was part of that some of the coaching deciding how to use the personnel? Just so it all works as one?
Sure, I think coaching is definitely a part of it. Everything is a part of it. Everything is important. The playing is important. The coaching is important. The understanding between the players of each other and what their teammates are doing on that play in conjunction with what they're doing. All of those things are important. And the timing varies from game to game. Like what we saw 10 years ago, the difference between [John] Elway's passing game and [Joe] Montana's passing game, both great passing games, but you can't defend them the same. They're totally different. That changes from week to week too with an opponent, from the Jets, to Miami, to Jacksonville, to Denver. You have different types of passes, different styles in the passing game and then that's all related to your coordination and timing of your rushing coverage. I just think collectively we've done a better job and we're playing better and we are doing it better. I think there's still a lot of room for improvement, but we are a lot better now than we were eight or nine weeks ago. We should be, but I think we are.

A guy like Rosevelt [Colvin] does he change the timing just because of the way he comes off the edge?
Again, it depends on the type of passing game you are facing. If you're facing a quick throw game then you know you have to change your pass rush and your pass rush moves and your pass rush mentality versus a team that drops deeper, versus a team that moves the pocket and some of that is situational. Some of it is the team does all of those things but they do more boots in the red area, more deeper drops obviously on third-and-long yardage, things like that, so you have to alter your pass rush to fit that. You have to alter your coverage to fit those situations. Again, to me, it just comes back to playing good team defense. Really a guy could have the best pass rush move in the world, but if it's against a three-step drop and he's beating the tackle on what he thinks is going to be a seven-step drop, then it's not going to be any good. In fact it's actually going to be bad. It's going to put him in a bad position or vice versa. If he is running some quick move to try to beat a quick throw and the guys is back there standing there holding the ball because he's rushing where the quarterback is three yards behind line of scrimmage instead of nine yards behind the line of scrimmage. That's not going to be any good either.

Can you confirm that Eric Mangini will be interviewing with the Jets on Sunday?
You would have to talk to the Jets. I have no comment on their job or their situation or anything else. Anything they have to say about it, I'm sure they would be more than happy to give you that information.

Your reaction with Eric after Asante [Samuel's] interception on Saturday, was that appreciation?
No, I was happy that we just intercepted a pass and scored a touchdown. We won a playoff game. We are fighting for our lives out there. It's a one game season. It's single elimination. To make a play to help win a game, that's what we have been working for since last February. The offseason. Team building. Offseason programs. Mini camps. Meetings. Film sessions. Practices. Press conferences. Really, all it comes down to is we're playing single elimination football. To make a play at this time of year, to help the team win, that excites me. I think it excites a lot of people on our team.

Do press conferences really help?
It's part of it. It's a part of the whole process. I can't get through one day without them.

[Laughter] With so much change in personnel on defense, did it take a while for the coaching to adjust to the new personnel?
No. There are always adjustments. That is what football is. It's not like baseball where you have a pitcher out there on the mound and a batter in a batter's box. I mean, you've got different formations, you've got different down and distances, every game is different. Every play is different. It's not static like that. So, that's part of it. If you can't do that then you're not going to be any good. Can you say, 'Well, did the changes, did that affect...' of course. All changes affect you. Either you can deal with it and get it done, or you can't. It's as simple as that. But whatever happened, happened. We didn't do as good a job at times as we thought we should have, or I felt we could have, and that includes me. There's plenty of bad coaching to go in there with that bad playing, now. It's not all just bad playing. There's a lot of bad coaching. You just try to do a better job and hope you can eliminate as much of it as possible. There are times when we did okay and there are other times when we didn't. If it's not good enough then you better find a way to make it better.

Who is playing the role of Jake Plummer this week on your look team?

Doug [Flutie] and Matt [Cassel]. The same as it always is. Those guys kind of split the reps with the scout team.

Didn't you use Bethel [Johnson] for Michael Vick?
We've used some other guys. Maybe for a play or two, but no, for the most part, the quarterback is running the [scout] team. Yeah, we might put somebody in to run a particular play, but no, for the most part, the quarterbacks handle that.

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You didn’t play at all during the preseason. Here after 16 regular season games and a playoff game, would you say that helped or hindered you? How do you feel about having that break early on?
I think it helped. I wouldn’t say it was my decision. I would have loved to play during the preseason, but my job was to get prepared for the game in practice. That was Coach’s decision and that is what I went with. Overall, I feel good and I think it helped.

How comfortable does Tom [Brady] seem to you in that spread offense or shotgun?
Tom loves to throw the ball. Our main objective… we love for him to throw it as well. When we practiced, that was one of the main things we focused on a whole lot in practice, during mini camp and during training camp, [we focused on] spread and also when we go to our regular set, our regular pro formation. We just don’t focus on one thing, but we try to rep at it at practice to make it good, so that when we do it in a game it is going to be okay.

Troy [Brown] has been around here for a long time, how much did he help you particularly in your first year or two? What did you learn from him?
I think most of the stuff that I learned from Troy, that you all wouldn’t understand or know, is the stuff that we do off the field: the classroom work, basic techniques as far as how to set guys up, and watching film. When I was in college I would jus