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Moss named AFC Offensive POM

Patriots' receiver Randy Moss was named AFC Offensive Player of the Month for November, continuing New England's stranglehold on the award this year.

Tom Brady won conference offensive player of the month in September and October.

Moss had 24 receptions for 316 yards (13.2 yards per catch) and five touchdowns as the Patriots won three games in the month. Against Buffalo on Nov. 18, Brady had 10 catches for 128 yards and four first-half TDs.

It is his first Player of the Month award in Moss' 10-year career.

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 5:01 PM to Randy Moss | Permalink | Comments 0

Thursday participation report

For the Patriots:

Limited Participation
S Rashad Baker - ankle
QB Tom Brady - right shoulder
G Stephen Neal - shoulder
DL Ty Warren - thigh

*This is the first report of the week for New England, as they did not practice yesterday. Brady was the only player on the team's last injury report, last Friday.

For the Steelers:

Did Not Participate
S Troy Polamalu - knee

Full Participation
RB Najeh Davenport - foot

*Polamalu was not on yesterday's report; WR Hines Ward, who did not practice yesterday (coach's decision), is not listed today.

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Photo: Patriots return to practice

Journal photo / Mary Murphy
Patriot veterans Rodney Harrison, left, Troy Brown, right, and Tedy Bruschi, background, run a drill at practice in the bubble at Gillette Stadium, in preparation for Sunday's 4:15 p.m. game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The team has returned to the practice field after yesterday's day off to rest.

Posted by Pam Cotter  at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Transcript: Tom Brady's press conference

What is your first impression of Pittsburgh? The same blitzing Pittsburgh Steelers that you’ve faced in the past?
They blitz us. They blitz us quite a bit. Their style is pretty much the same. They’re a good defense, obviously, the best in the league according to the statistics and if you ask them they’ll tell you that. It’s going to be a great challenge for us, so hopefully we go out and play well.

What did you think of the bold prediction by their corner back [Anthony Smith]?
Coach always says we do our talking on Sundays. I’m glad they feel that way. I hope they feel that way. I hope they do, I hope they feel like they can win. I’d hate for them to come in here and feel like they can’t win any games. We’ll see, we’ll see who comes out ahead on Sunday.

Is it fair to say that it might be talked about a little bit this week? It might find its way on a wall somewhere? [Anthony Smith’s victory guarantee]
I’m sure yeah. We heard about it, I think everybody on the team has heard about it. It always comes down to who plays better. Well done is always better than well said -- that’s been the motto of this team.

What do you know about Anthony Smith?
I didn’t know who he was until we started preparing for them. He’s a young player and it’s obvious that [there are] guys that we’ve played in the past that we really respect on that team, Deshea [Townsend], Troy [Polamalu], Aaron Smith, Casey [Hampton] -- those guys aren’t the ones that say it. It’s a great challenge for us we’ve had a great history with them, we’ve played some very meaningful games and they’re a great team. They’re really well-coached both offensively and defensively. I just hope we play well.

Do you consider the source when you hear things like that?
I don’t know if we’ve ever come out and predicted victory or anything and we’ve won a lot of games. Whether you predict it or not, he’s got to show up on Sunday and try to guard us, play his role, do his job and we’ve going to try and make it hard for him.

Are the Steelers are doing anything differently on defense with Mike Tomlin as head coach?
Not really, not really. To me it looks like it’s the same defense, the same group of guys, same style. They blitz a lot. It’s the same blitzes. It’s the same style of play that they’ve played in the past. They always seem to play it well. I think their players are very comfortable in their scheme and I think they have players that really play their scheme well. It’s a challenge to run it. It’s a challenge to throw it, it’s a challenge to protect and get open. It’s a lot of man coverage from the outsides. We all have our work cut out for us.

What needs to improve offensively going forward?
It’s a team-wide thing and I think we all need to focus on doing our job the best we can. Not to try to correct everybody’s mistakes, we all have our own mistakes we need to correct. I need to throw the ball better, make better reads, make better protection calls and lead a bit better. I think for each of us we need to look at ourselves individually and try to make improvements for ourselves. If we do that, collectively as a team there will be improvements. We’ve won these games, it’s been exciting to win them, it was a great game the other night but at the same time you realize we made mistakes in the game that we need to correct.

Is everybody kind of refreshed after a day and a half?
Oh yeah. Can’t you see the bright and sunny faces in here? It’s a long season and I think there’s moments when you feel a little drained and moments when you feel really reinvigorated. Going into my eighth year I really felt like every year, “OK, I have it a little more figured out this yea,” and you just realize it’s a grind. Everyday you come in here you’re coming in to work hard and give everything you’ve got. When you give everything you’ve got and it’s Monday, Tuesday morning at four in the morning you are drained but you find a way over the next day and a half to prepare yourself and come in here bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to get to work. There is no better team for us to be excited about than the Steelers and the challenges they present. There’s been a lot of excitement in our locker room. We’re back home playing in front of our crowd and hopefully we play the best game we have all season.

Along those lines, every team goes through the long grind of the season, but how much easier is it for this group to get back their energy back with your record being what it is and knowing that you’re playing for something?
I think you’re always playing for something. Whether you’re 12-0 or 0-12 you have a lot of reasons to be motivated and I think we’re motivated by playing a team that presents a lot of challenges for us. We’ve got to play our own style of game, understanding what they really do well and understanding what we need to do well. It’s a very motivated group we have. [We’ve] got some veteran players that try to work hard and take the coaching and we’re coached very hard around here. I really hope we’ve listened to what has [been] preached this week and can go out there and show it on Sunday.

They are number one in a lot of different defensive categories, but particularly in pass defense. What do you guys have to do to operate at your optimum level against their pass defense?
Yeah, they play the run well. They play the pass well. I think they create disruption with their front and they get to the quarterback and push the pocket. They’ve got some guys who can really rush. It’s a lot of man coverage on the outside and they’re on those guys tight and you’ve to find ways to get open. You don’t have all day. That’s the hard part. It’s a little bit of a challenge.

Coach Belichick talked a lot about Ed Reed last week. What do you see out of Troy Polamalu? How does he affect the Steelers defense?
He really sets the tone for them. In the times that I’ve played against him, he always makes a huge impact on the game. He’s very aggressive and he’s always focused on the ball and he can really make a lot of plays. He’s a really explosive athlete. We have to account for him on every play. Every week, we’re facing guys that are the best in the league and he’s… I don’t think there are too many players better than Troy.

Have you seen more and more creative ways each week in trying to bring pressure against you?
It’s different. I think different teams have different styles. For example, Baltimore blitzed 17 times so it wasn’t a big blitz game. They dropped a lot of guys into coverage. Every team looks at different ways to approach us and some want to cover, some want to pressure. Some want to play man. Some want to play zone. It’s probably based on what they do well and what they think they have to do to stop us. I think I know how to defend us, but I think I know how you wouldn’t defend us, too, so we’ll see if they’re right.

Well, along those lines, how do you defend against you guys?
There’s your chance. You’ve got to study the film, buddy. You’ve got to study the film.

Seriously though, you set the standard so high in the first 10 games, but the last two games do seem a little bit different from the passing production standpoint. Has there been a difference? Is it because of what teams are trying to do against you? What’s been the deal in terms of what you’ve seen in the passing game?
Well, I don’t think we’ve been executing as well. I think that’s what it comes down to. We’ve been playing good defensive teams that don’t give you a lot of opportunities, or much margin for error. When you get those opportunities, you have to take advantage of them so we’ve got to play better.

Posted by Art Martone  at 3:04 PM to Tom Brady | Permalink | Comments 0

Transcript: Bill Belichick's Thursday press conference

We’re getting caught up here on Pittsburgh. They’re a very impressive team to watch. They really do everything pretty well. They’re good in all three phases of the game, they’re well-coached, they’re tough, they’re physical, they make a lot of plays, they run the ball, they’re hard to run against, they throw it and they’re hard to pass it against. They have a lot of good players. They have a good scheme that we’ve seen before. I think it’s very similar to what they’ve done in the past. [They have] a few new faces and a lot of the core guys that we played against in those ’04 and ’05 games, so [there’s] a lot of familiarity there, but at the same time a lot of new things that we have to get ready for. [It’s a] style of play that really we haven’t faced this type of offense or this type of defense quite the way they do it in a little while. We need a good week of preparation. We’re underway and we’ll step on the pedal here today and tomorrow and Saturday and try to be ready to go on Sunday afternoon.

You’ve seen Ben Roethlisberger since he came into the league. What progress have you seen from him from a game management standpoint from when he came into the league until now?
I think like any quarterback in a couple of years he’s matured. He does a lot of little things maybe a little better than he did a couple of years ago, but he was pretty good then, he’s pretty good now. He’s a winner. He wins a lot of games and he makes good decisions. He’s obviously a good passer. He’s strong in the pocket, [a] hard guy to bring down. Ben makes good decisions with the ball in critical situations - third down, red area, end of the game type situations. He’s certainly one of the better quarterbacks in the league, one of the better guys we’ve faced.

What sort of challenges does the Pittsburgh defense pose? What makes them different?
Just the schemes they run. We’ve seen the Jets and Dallas and San Diego [who] are all 3-4 based schemes. They don’t quite run it the way Pittsburgh runs it, that’s all. Pittsburgh has their own way of doing it and it’s unique to them. That’s who we play this week. That’s the challenge this week.

In order to study Pittsburgh, you’ve obviously had a lot of exposure to Dick LeBeau over the years. How can you tell the fingerprints of Mike Tomlin? What has he done there?
I would say it’s pretty subtle. I think that a lot of the things that they do are…What they do, that’s what they do. It’s pretty much what they’ve been doing [since] when LeBeau was there in ’92. Then, of course, he left and went to Cincinnati and Buffalo, then came back when Dom [Capers] was there and Marvin [Lewis]. They’ve had a lot of different coordinators on the defensive side of the ball, but essentially their defensive package is pretty consistent.

So kind of like it wasn’t broken so they didn’t try to fix it?
It hasn’t been [broken] for the last 15 years. But whether it was Greg Lloyd and Kevin Green and [Earl] Holmes and the different linebackers they’ve had there, the defensive line, the secondary…It looks pretty familiar to me. Now, you know, every once in awhile they’ll come to something - Early in ’01, ’02, ’03, teams started playing empty. They’ve modified their package a little bit against some empty sets and that kind of thing, but it’s because they saw it and it was new. But the stuff that they’ve seen before - the two-back stuff, the slot stuff, the one-back stuff - they kind of do what they do. They do it pretty well.

I know you have to play the schedule as it comes up, but with a short week how much tougher does that make it late in the season?
Look, I made a comment the other day that our team was tired, and I think at midnight or 1:00 a.m., whatever time it was Monday night, Tuesday morning, we were tired. But it’s Wednesday. The game is Sunday afternoon and we’ll be ready to go. At the end of a week like that and playing on the road and playing a tough game, sure, it takes something out of you. But we bounced back yesterday and we’ll be at it today and we’ll be ready to go Sunday. We play once a week. We have all week to get ready for the game, just like everybody else does and that’s what we’re going to do.

You mentioned linebackers. Can you talk about James Harrison?
Really impressive. He’s really a good football player -- very explosive, he’s got good speed, real tough, makes a lot of big plays, very physical player. I’d say one of the most physical players in the league. He plays on the coverage teams, on the punt teams, on the kickoff team. He’s made big plays in that phase of the game, too. [He] hasn’t taken anything away from his performance on defense - there’s production on defense. He’s a good pass-rusher, he’s a good run-defender, he’s good at the point of attack, he’s good in pursuit, he’s an explosive player. He’s got some of the best hits we’ve seen all year in their games that we’ve broken down. He’s an explosive, impact-player. He was very good in the kicking game when he played for them and now he’s had a chance to play on defense and he’s - Not that he didn’t play on defense before, but he’s certainly played more this year and he’s had a lot of production, but his production hasn’t dropped off on special teams, either. He’s a good football player. You have to know when he’s on the field. He makes a lot of plays.

I’ve heard you mention in the past when you have a successful run defense, the players have to have proper fits. To the layman, what does that mean?
The runner only needs one hole to go through, so however you construct your defense to handle all of the different running plays that you see - zone plays, scheme plays, inside plays, outside plays, cutback plays, power plays, all of those things - it has to be coordinated across the board. You can be good at the point of attack and a good runner will find a seam somewhere else, so you have to have however many people you have in the front, whatever technique they’re playing, whether it’s one-gap, two-gap, stunting, playing straight, penetrating, reading - whatever it is, it has to be consistent so that you can defend the line of scrimmage. So that’s what it comes down to. It’s not any one scheme or player, but all however many guys it is, six, seven, eight, however many you’re defending with, it all has to be coordinated and everybody has to do their job across the board.

Is that the top challenge every week in terms of having a productive run defense, getting all those players on the same page?
I’d say that’s part of it. That’s part of it, but there’s no running plays that are designed to not block people, so no matter who you put there somebody’s assigned to block them. Then it comes down to whether or not they block you or they don’t. It’s not like when we line up in the defense and even if we’re in proper position, they still have a player to block each one of our players, just like we have a player to block each one of their defenders. Whether we get them blocked or don’t get them blocked, and then whether you can tackle the runner, then ultimately that’s what it comes down to in the running game, is getting the guy with the ball on the ground. You can have good fits, you can be in good position [but] if you get blocked or if you can’t tackle the runner, then you’re not going to have a good run defense.

What was more the issue in the Ravens game? Was it tackling?
We’re done with the Ravens game. We’re on to Pittsburgh.

What would you like to see improve for the Pittsburgh game?
There’s a lot of things we could -- there’s things we could do better in every phase of the game. And we’ve talked about that and we’re on to Pittsburgh.

You said not a lot changed with the defense with Dick LeBeau still being there. What about the offense?
No, I think it’s -- their offense looks pretty similar to what it did in the past. They’ve worked [Santonio] Holmes in there, he wasn’t there -- or we didn’t see a lot of him when we played them a couple of years ago - so he’s a big part of their offense, and [Nate] Washington, but [Hines] Ward and [Heath]Miller’s taken a big role for them, [Willie] Parker, of course. The offensive line is good, the right tackle, [Willie] Colon, is an excellent player. He’s been a real good addition to their offensive line. I think he’s one of the better tackles that we’ve seen this year, especially in the running game. So there’s some new players, but I think overall, scheme-wise, they have their two-back runs, they have their one-back runs, they have their play-actions, they have their drop-backs, they spread the field on you on third down like they always have -- not as much four receivers, because they use Heath Miller like a fourth receiver as a flexed-out tight end and that kind of thing. It’s the four receiver passing game, but only three receivers [are] in the game. Miller’s probably as good as most receivers anyway, so they don’t really lose much with him in there. In a lot of ways they gain it, because it’s a different match-up on the defense and it gives you another protector, if you need him. It’s good.

In terms of so-called “bulletin board material,” how much do coaches consider the source?
I don’t know. I think the most important thing is for us to be ready to play the game on Sunday afternoon. The Steelers are a good football team. They’re tough. I’m sure they’re going to play hard. We’re going to play our best. That’s what it’s going to come down to.

Troy Polamalu has been back in practice this week after missing some time. What does he do to this game? What dimension does he bring for them, defensively?
He’s an impact-player. He’s a big play-maker in both the running game and the passing game. He’s got tremendous speed, [he’s] tough, [he’s a] big hitter. Last week they didn’t play their dime defense I think probably because he wasn’t in there, so they just used nickel. They’re really a dime team. He plays down around the line of scrimmage in their dime coverage package, so I’m sure that that would be a grouping with him in there that they probably would use more of. It’s one of their core defensive packages. But he’s an outstanding football player. He makes a lot of tackles, he’s hard to block, he’s very fast in the passing game, can play man, can play zone and he’s a hard guy to throw in front of because he’s so fast and he’s a good tackler. He comes up and he usually makes a play for not much of a gain after the guy catches the ball. He adds a lot to their defense. He’s a really good player.

Do you ever use so-called bulletin board material?
I think the most important thing for us is to understand what Pittsburgh -- how they play the game, how we need to play it and how we need to -- what we need to do to win. I think that’s what’s the most important thing.

So you don’t use it?
I’m just saying, we can sit around and put a bunch of stuff up on a board and write stuff down on paper and all of that. I think in the end it comes down to whether you can outplay the other team on Sunday or not outplay them. On a priority basis, that’s what our priority is -- trying to prepare well and play well.

Would it get your attention if one of your guys guaranteed a victory?
I would hope when we walk on the field, we expect to win. That’s what I would hope. I would hope that we would expect to win the game when we walk out there on the field. I would expect when Pittsburgh walks out there, they’re going to expect a win. I can’t imagine that they would approach it any differently. We expect to win, they expect to win, both teams will play hard [and] we’ll see who’s better on Sunday. I don’t know what else there is.

It just seems unlikely that one of your guys would go out and publicly guarantee a victory.
I would think every one of our players would expect to win the game on Sunday. That’s what I would think. I would hope they would prepare and go out there with the confidence that we could play well and win it. I can’t imagine playing another NFL team that didn’t feel the same way. Certainly the Steelers - As good as they are? The way they’ve played? Their record, their team - I’m sure they’re confident that they can come in here and win. I think if I was in Pittsburgh I’d feel the same way, and I think if they were here, they would feel the same way that we feel, that they would be confident that we could win. So, you know, that’s why you play the game. I don’t think either team lacks confidence. I don’t think either team’s going into the game not expecting to win it. I can’t imagine -- maybe you guys think so, but I can’t imagine anybody going in to this game not expecting that they’re going to do well and win. Based on what?

Posted by Art Martone  at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Practice peek: perfect attendance

The Patriots are holding their first on-field practice of the week, and made the late decision to move inside the Dana-Farber Fieldhouse.

There are no absences to report, and players are in shells and shorts or pants.

Eric Alexander, Wesley Britt and Matt Gutierrez are sporting black jerseys as practice players of the week.

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments 0