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BB: Hi, how is everything going today?
Q: Good Coach, thanks.
BB: What are you guys working on here?
Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for us?
BB: The wrap up? Well, there is not really a lot new from this end. I have a lot of the same comments that I made yesterday after the game. I thought our team played well and I thought what they did this year during the regular season a lot of people contributed and a lot of people played well and a lot of hard work went into it. I don't think we could really ask too much more. The bottom line is we are 0-0 and we are starting all over again.
Q: I see you are giving them a pretty long weekend off, is that because you don't know who you will be playing and you can't really start working on the game plan until you do or will you be working on game plans for potential opponents simultaneously?
BB: We will be working on all of them. When you are the first seed, you just don't know who you are going to be playing. There are a lot more possibilities of who you can play. So if the sixth seed wins, you obviously play them. If six loses and five wins, you play five. If six and five get beat then you get the fourth seed. There are some combinations there where we are just going to have to be prepared for all of them.
Q: Given all of that do you work more on six and on five and more on those two than on four just based on the law of averages?
BB: Well, I think we are going to have to be prepared for all of them. Again, we don't know what our schedule is going to be when we do play in the second week. It could be a Saturday game, it could be a Sunday game so we could potentially be working on a short week on Saturday. I think we are familiar with some of the teams. There is probably at least one that we won't be familiar with in those seedings. We will just have to take it from there. But we will know that all by tomorrow. We will work on the teams that we can potentially be playing. We don't want to get caught being unprepared especially with the week to work on it.
Q: You are 14-2 and obviously that means that there is probably not a lot wrong with this team but there are some things that you see that maybe could use a little bit of a refresher course in what your team does. Is that something that you might use some of this time before the pairings are totally set up for?
BB: Sure. We will look at it like we do with the bye week during the regular season. We will take an analysis of what we have been doing particularly recently and how those trends are developing and make sure that we understand what our opponents are seeing from us and also take a look at the things that we are doing well and things that we are not doing as well and try to decide whether to fix things that aren't going as good or get rid of them and whether we want to put more emphasis on things maybe where we have been more productive. Then how all of that matches up against whoever the next opponent is. We will definitely consider and take a look at that. There is no doubt we will be working from a self-analysis point of view.
Q: Does [Mike] Vrabel have an injury that will keep him out in two weeks?
BB: No, I don't think so.
Q: He didn't re-break his arm, nothing like that?
BB: Nothing like that.
Q: Did you come out of there [the game] pretty well physically?
BB: I don't see any major problems at this point.
Q: Have you been contacted by any other teams regarding one of your coordinators?
BB: I am sure there is going to be some. Let me put it this way. I am not going to really get into a blow-by-blow commentary on that. The other teams have jobs available. How they decide to pursue them or who they talk to or don't talk to I think should come from them. We will follow and comply with all of the league rules and policies. I have stated many times before that I am ready and willing to help our assistants in whatever way that I can. We will certainly do that and we will comply with everything that we can with the league. But that is really about as far as I think I can go with it.
Q: I can assume if someone calls and asks for permission, you are just going to say yes. That has to go through you first right?
BB: Yes. That is pretty much of a formality. It is not anything that we wouldn't grant.
Q: Will that take away from any preparation time or do you have that figured out as to how long some of these guys will miss if they have to interview?
BB: Well, we will work around our schedule. We are going to get done what we need to do and we will work around that and accommodate whatever request there happen to be.
Q: Aren't the rules where they have to come up here meaning a team has to interview Charlie [Weis] or Romeo [Crennel] somewhere near your team complex?
BB: It has to be worked out with us around our schedule. I am sure that we will be able to do that.
Q: You talked yesterday about Tom Brady and how he deserved the accolades when he went off the field yesterday. Can you talk a little bit about how far he has come in the last few years?
BB: Well, I think one of the things that he has really done a good job of the last couple of years is managing the empty backfield, no huddle procedure and that really came into play yesterday, you know audible-ing the plays, recognizing and changing the protection based on the looks they were getting and that type of thing. I thought that yesterday at the beginning of the game we got off to a good start there. I thought he really did a nice job of taking two different looks that Buffalo threw at us on the two different drives and made a lot of good decisions, not only throws but also again in terms of just orchestrating the whole procedure. It was a perfect day for it here in Foxborough, calm, clear, relatively warm, nice day to go to a no huddle and he executed it along with the rest of the team. There were a lot of other people out there besides him. He executed it very well.
Q: Are you at all concerned with the fact that Adam Vinatieri hit the upright on a 24-yard-er? It doesn't seem like he has that automatic touch that he had a few years ago.
BB: I am sure that is a kick that Adam would like to have back. Anytime you send the field goal kicker and field goal team out there you want to come away with points. That is the only reason to put them on the field. We want to make them and he wants to make them too. We will just keep working hard to try to get our accuracy and our execution on that whole play as high as we possibly can.
Q: At this point in the season, do you feel extremely tired yourself or do you feel energized because the team has done so well?
BB: I feel good. I feel good.
Q: Will you take a couple of days off yourself this week?
BB: The pace of the week wouldn't be what it would normally would be for a regular game because we do have a little bit more time and the fact is we don't know exactly who it is we are playing. There are a lot of things we want to get done but I think we can get them done at a pace where everybody can be rested and be ready to head into next week's regular normal preparation for a game and be prepared and be as rested as possible at this time of year. We have been going here for quite a while. I don't think you can catch it all up in one evening. I think we can manage it. We are definitely not going on vacation this week.
Q: Today's games for instance, do you allow yourself a vacation? Do you watch these games taking notes or is this one of those rare weeks where you can sit back like a fan and take your shoes off and lay back on the couch and watch?
BB: Well, if I watch a game on TV, I think if you know for sure you are going to play the team the next week like for example if you are watching a team on a Monday night game and you are playing them the following Sunday, you pay a little closer attention although TV scouting is hard to do. It is hard to see where everybody is and how exactly everything fits together like you would be able to see it when we watch coach's film and TV scouting I would say that would certainly be a qualifier there. I think you watch that a little bit differently than in a situation here where no matter how it comes down, there is still going to be multiple teams in the equation even as we get to the end of the week until the wild card weekend games are completed. It won't be with quite the same intensity maybe that it would be if you knew you were playing the team the following week. I am sure I will see a little bit of the game this afternoon. I doubt if glued to the set would be the way to characterize it though.
Q: The number one seed is nice but recent history is the number one seed hasn't guaranteed a visit to the Super Bowl. You certainly know that from Pittsburgh two years ago. What did you talk to the team about in regarding the number one seed and how precarious it is?
BB: We will talk in a lot more detail about how we are going to approach this week and our next game when the team comes back on Tuesday. We are happy to beat Buffalo yesterday. It was a good win for us and we know we are starting a brand new season. So that is about where we are right now.
Q: What were your thoughts on being the number one seed?
BB: My thought isn't any different from what is has been all year – whoever our next game is, that will be where our focus will be in that preparation and our teams performance that week. That is really what we will be concerned about. Nothing more, nothing less. That is all we can control. Right now we don't know exactly who that is. We will work on the teams that could fall into that category and once we know who it is, then we will put our sights on that challenge. I am sure it will be a strong challenge because the teams that will be playing in the playoffs are all good teams. They are all formidable opponents. They are all teams that have a lot of serious threats and are well coached on their teams. It won't really make any difference who it is, they will all be good. We will just have to make it specific once we know who that team is. That is how I feel about it.
Q: Bill, this one might be a little bit out of left field.
BB: Oh, I doubt that.
Q: You have home field advantage and the field at Gillette Stadium is pretty barren in the middle right now. A lot of fields get re-sodded during the year but this one hasn't. I am just curious to if you have any input into that? Whether it is your preference playing old-time football on a barren type of surface or if there was any factor at all that is under your control in regards to the conditions of the field or your preference for it?
BB: Well whatever it is, it is. My job is to coach the team and get the team prepared to play and that is really where my focus is. Doing the fields isn't my strength. I think we all know at this point in the season in New England there is going to be a lot less growing than there is at other points in the year and the field has had a lot of wear and tear. It is what it is.
Q: If you went to Bob Kraft though and said, 'Bob, how come the field hasn't been re-sodded?' do you have any input like that?
BB: That is not really what it is about. It is our home field. We are comfortable playing on it. It is what it is. The fans have been great. The atmosphere in our games has been good. Whatever we play on, we will show up and play on. That is our attitude. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it
