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October 11, 2007

Transcript: Bill Belichick's Thursday press conference, Tony Romo 'can beat you a lot of different ways'

We’re moving right along. We’re getting into some situational stuff today and more of it tomorrow. The more I look at Dallas the better they look. They’re very good at everything. They have a good third down package on both sides of the ball. Good punt return. Good punting game. They’re pretty good. Pretty good.

Jason Garrett is new as a coordinator for them. How do you go about preparing for him since you only have a few game tapes on him?
You go by those games. We know a little bit about him in the past from other people who have been with him. It’s a little bit of a Norv Turner system, not completely, but there’s certainly a lot of elements of it. They’ve played five games. They’ve played against a couple of real good teams. I think they probably went with their best stuff. That’s the good thing about the regular season – after four, five, six, seven games, you get a pretty good look at whatever they got. There’s nothing to save it for. It’s not like preseason.

With [Laurence] Maroney and [Marion] Barber, was it impressive to see those two out of the backfield in college?
Absolutely. Yeah, you could see why they won. Those two guys, two [one] thousand yard backs, yes, they’re both very good. Barber has done a great job too in the passing game, he did in college and he’s been very good for Dallas. He has great hands, a good route runner, real instinctive in the passing game, hard to tackle. Those are two good backs, to have them be on the same team, there are a number of examples of that – Thurman Thomas, Barry Sanders and that kind of thing, but those two guys are really good, playing on the same college team.

How did they play off each other?
What they did at Minnesota was in Barber’s senior year, Laurence’s sophomore year, Laurence was more of the tailback. They split time, but when they were in there together, Laurence was tailback and Barber was flanked out. The next year, Laurence’s last year, in that same situation, Laurence played more at the extended back and they had another kid in there that was the I-back. So they kind of used the more experienced veteran player to be more involved in the passing game – split out, get involved that way, when both guys were on the field. Now there’s a lot of times where it was just one of them. That was pretty impressive. You’re watching Barber and you keep saying, ‘Who is that guy?’ It’s Maroney. It’s unusual to have two backs of that quality playing the same position in basically a one back offense.

What the mot dangerous part of Tony Romo’s game?
All of it. He can beat you a lot of different ways. I think you have to be careful about saying, ‘Well, we’re just going to take away one thing,’ because he’s good at everything. He can throw the ball down the field, make the intermediate throws, get the ball to his receivers on catch and run plays, he can stay in the pocket, he can get out of the pocket by design or not by design. He can beat you throwing on the run and he can beat you running. He does everything well.

Do you see any parallels between Tom Brady and Tony Romo as far as how quickly they’ve had success since they began their careers?
Well, Romo has only played how many games? 15 games? Whatever it is. But, yeah, he’s done well. He’s gotten in there and they’ve won. That’s the quarterback’s job is to win, to me. It’s not about stats. It’s not about quarterback rating and all of that. It’s about winning and doing what you need to do to win. Romo has done that. Tom did that. From that standpoint, I think there’s certainly a good comparison. In terms of style of play and all of that, I’m not sure that there are a lot of similarities. I think there are some, but they both definitely have a different style of play, but they are both very effective at it.

Do you see any parallels between Tom’s career and any other quarterback?
I don't know. I’m just a lot more concerned about trying to get our team ready to go and trying to improve it rather than try to make parallels to every other team and player and stuff like that. I’m sure there are some, but really I’m a lot more focused on trying to our team ready to go, get our players to play their best and try to do a good job of coaching them.

What are your first impressions of [DeMarcus] Ware?
We saw a lot of him in college when he came out in the draft. I thought he was probably the best player in that draft. He’s certainly a dynamic player in all phases of the game. He can rush. He can cover. He can play the run. At the point of attack he can chase it down from behind. He has power. He has speed. He’s hard to knock off his feet. He’s quick. He’s a tremendous athlete. He’s a good pass rusher, but he does a lot of other things well too. He plays the run well. He’s good in coverage when he’s asked to do that. He can play on his feet. He can play in a three-point stance. He’s a force.

You mentioned a few weeks ago that it helps your DBs in practice to go up against a player like Randy Moss because it helps them prepare for similar receivers. Would Terrell Owens fall into that category?
Into what category?

Like a Randy Moss.
No, I think they’re different. I’m sure there are some similarities, but I think they’re different receivers.

Can you use Bill Parcells at all this week?
I haven’t talked to Bill.

Are you happy with the offensive ball security?
I think the numbers are okay. I think we could do a better job of protecting it though. I really do. I don’t think we always have as much awareness and a conscious security of it as we should. Therefore, I think if we continue to do that, it’s just a matter of time until we lose the ball more frequently. That’s a point of emphasis, especially this week with Dallas being such a good turnover team. I think we have to do all we can to take care of it. The numbers are okay, but I think we can do a better job of protecting it.

So you’ve seen examples of where you haven’t lost the ball, but fundamentally it could be held on to better?
Yeah, right, the players that are handling the ball they don’t secure it as well as they could, let’s put it that way. So, if nobody is pulling it out, then you might be okay with it, but if somebody is, then you probably wouldn’t be. Dallas does a good job of it. They rake it out. They turn it over on interceptions, strip sacks, stuff like that. They do a good job of it. They’re looking for it and they get them. Now they haven’t recovered them all, but there are a number of times where they’ve gotten the ball out and it’s come back to the offense or they called the play dead and the whistle blew or whatever. But you can see them getting the ball out. They’re good at it.

Can you pick one word to describe Mike Vrabel?
How about two? Tough and versatile. Different in a lot of ways, but similar to Pepper [Johnson]. Buckeyes. Do a lot of different things. Tough. I don't know if either one of them would take that as a compliment or an insult. I don't know. Having coached both players, in the systems that we’ve been in, they’ve done a lot of different things. They’ve done it very well and they’re both tough and durable.

Do you challenge your linebackers with references to those Giants teams that you coached before?
No. When we’ve talked about the Giants’ linebackers, it’s been more in terms of teaching and instructional. Again, those guys were not only good players, but they were good players within our system and doing the things that we do. So I think there are good examples of the techniques or the anticipation or the way that certain things that they did them that has application to what we do. It’s been done more with that type of theme in mind because each player is different. Every guy has his own style of play. I don’t think one guy has to play like another, but if we make a call and we get a certain look from the offense and then it’s easy to say, ‘Well this is how that plays. This is how we’re going to handle that situation, just like these guys handled it.’ It’s done more in that way.

Is that applicable to every linebacker though? Is that something you maybe couldn’t have done with a guy like [Junior] Seau or Adalius Thomas?
They weren’t here two years ago.

Could you reference that?
Sure. I’m just trying to coach the team and get them better. I don’t worry about all of that. If you have an example of something that you can show the team, ‘Hey this is how we did it. This worked. I think it will help make you a better player,’ I wouldn’t hesitate to do that for a second.

Have you seen Brandon Meriweather get more comfortable in the defense?
I think his production has been better on a per play basis both in the kicking game and on defense. He’s shown up on more plays, made more good ones, fewer that aren’t as good. That’s also been true of practice.

Is his versatility one of his strengths?
Sure, it definitely helps him. It probably helps him and it helps us.

Because of his role being a backup?
Right. We’ve gone through a couple of transitional things in the secondary since the beginning of camp, including last week with Rodney [Harrison] coming back. We’ve had a number of different personnel situations in the secondary and he’s been a guy that has been one of the more versatile players and he’s been a moving part in that entire group.

Has he struggled with that at all?
Well, I think there are always challenges with it. I’m not saying it’s perfect. He makes mistakes and then we correct them and hopefully he doesn’t make them again or grabs it a little bit quicker the second time or third time that he sees it. He has a lot of learning to do because he has played so many different positions through the course of camp. Again, I think in the long run, that’s good for him. It’s good for us and he can handle it.

Are there any plays that have surprised you this year on offense where you call the play, the defense shifts and then you think to yourself that the play won’t work? Has that ever happened to you?
Sure. There are a lot of times where you want a certain look for a play and you don’t get that look and then you’re thinking, ‘Well, this isn’t really what we were hoping for,’ and it turns out okay. There are plenty of times where it doesn’t turn out okay too. In the end, like we always talk about, it comes down to execution. X’s and O’s and all of that, it’s only so much of the game. It comes down to blocking, tackling, throwing and catching and execution. Sometimes you can be in a good defense and not stop a play. Sometimes you can be in a defense that’s really not that great and be okay and vice versa. When you call plays you can get a great look. X’s and O’s you can say, ‘Wow, we should have a big play here,’ and you end up with nothing. Then you can look at it and say, ‘Well, this is tough. We really don’t have the leverage,’ or, ‘We really don’t have the numbers,’ and a couple of guys make a good block and the runner makes a good run and you get a good gain. Or a guy runs a good route, even though the guy is playing inside technique and you have an inside route. You know it’s going to be tough. The player runs a good route and the quarterback hits him and you have a good gain. It really comes down a lot more to execution than it does to a scheme, other than you have a play where you just don’t have a chance on it because you’re running into a buzz saw or something. That’s a little different story. There’s not that many of those, hopefully.

Are there many surprises when you coach against Wade Phillips?
I think in Wade’s case, those teams are pretty fundamentally sound. He’s done basically the same thing through his entire defensive career as a defensive coordinator or a defensive coach – whether it be a head coach or coordinator. They basically play the same scheme. They’ve done the same thing and kind of follow the same pattern and it’s been very good for them. I wouldn’t expect him to deviate too much from that because of the amount of success that he’s had. He’s been successful every place he’s been and that’s the way they play. They have certain adjustments they make to certain looks and they know how to do it and they’ve done it enough where they execute it pretty well. Maybe it’s not the greatest situation they want to be in, but they know how to do it. They know how to deal with it. They know what the weaknesses are and they try to compensate for them with maybe technique or anticipation of where the offense is going to try to hit them.

How many times have you coached against each other?
It has to be in the double digits. It has to be. Other than when he was at Buffalo, then we were in the same division, so that was a twice a year deal. Other than that, he was with Denver, New Orleans, Atlanta and San Diego. Every other year. It wasn’t as frequent as the Buffalo situation where it was twice a year.

Do you think he might be under appreciated as a head coach?
Yeah, well you take a look at his record as a head coach and I think there are a lot of guys who would like to have that record, let’s put it that way. On the other hand, is this the fifth time he’s been a head coach? Three regular ones and two interim ones? I think that also speaks to the respect and confidence that different organizations have had either in making him the head coach or appointing him as the interim head coach, which came up twice right? I think he’s respected externally and the teams that have played against him, like us. Certainly the places that he’s been, the organizations that he’s been in they’ve shown that same kind of respect. Had the timing been different in San Diego, he probably would have been the head coach in San Diego. I’m sure San Diego feels the same way. It was just more of a timing issue than it was any type of commentary on his coaching abilities.

Does going inside hamper the preparations at all? Would you have gone inside anyway?
We always prefer to go out on the grass, but we’ll go inside today. We’ve been inside plenty of times before. I think we’ll be all right.

You’ve had good fortune with the weather for this to be the first time you go inside.
Yeah, weather-wise, it's been good. Some of the weather that hasn't been as good has been on the weekends or times when we really weren't involved in practice situations. It's a good facility. Certainly, it's a huge improvement from what we had when I came here. We were on the tennis courts or whatever it was. The quality of practice is so much better than what it was practicing in the old bubble. There’s not a big difference. There’s just less wind, less weather conditions and all of that, but we can crank the noise up louder.

Wade said he wanted to get Roy Williams playing closer to the line of scrimmage this year. Have you seen that?
Well, in their sub defense, he really plays the linebacker position. He becomes either a Sam or a Mike linebacker depending on the formation, however you want to call it. There’s no doubt about that. When they go to six DBs, he’s about as close to the line of scrimmage as you can get and he’s very good as a blitzer. He’s very good in the underneath coverage. He has a lot of interceptions. He has great hands. He reads the quarterback well and all of that. In their regular defense, usually when they rotate, when one safety is back and one safety is down, he’s usually the down guy. Not 100 percent of the time, but he’s usually the down guy. Now how much that was true last year, I would say the same thing was true when they were playing with [Patrick] Watkins and [Keith] Davis and those guys back there at safety, but they probably didn’t rotate down quite as much as maybe what Dallas does this year. I don’t think it’s any secret that he’s more of a strong safety than a free safety, although he does play in the deep part of the field, or play in the middle of the field. He’s been productive there too. But the closer he gets to the line of scrimmage, he’s much more of a force as a blitzer than what most safeties are in this league. That’s a real weapon for them when they bring him on the blitzes. He’s very good at tackling backs and tight ends and guys like that closer to the line of scrimmage where he can really be closer to them and get to them sooner. He’s a good player. He’s a real good player.

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