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BB: We really needed that. The players really deserved that. Really it started…we made a real big commitment on Wednesday. I thought that we got some real good leadership today from a lot of our players. They stepped up and they played big all the way across the board. I thought that we had a good complimentary game between the offense, the defense and the special teams. I thought all three units answered the bell when they needed to and that is really what you need to do to win in this league. You have got to have everybody pulling their share of the load. We made some key plays at key times. We had a pretty good day today, but that's a good football team and we will be hearing from them again, I am sure. It looked like Marty [Moore] hurt his Achilles there at the end of the game. I am not positive what the extent of it is, but that's what it looks like right now.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about [Tom] Brady? Was there a lesser package in for him or did you have everything in for him that would have been in otherwise?
BB: Yeah, I think it was pretty much whoever the quarterback would have been for this game would have had about the same game plan whichever one of the three. I think that we didn't do anything specifically with Tom in mind or not in mind. We were just trying to find a way to attack the Colts. I thought Tom did a real good job of running the team. Some plays were better than others, but overall I thought he did a real solid job for the first time out.
Q: Who do you think stepped up as far as leadership?
BB: Oh man, I'll tell you, a lot of them. Defensively, [Lawyer] Milloy, [Bryan] Cox, Ty [Law], [Anthony] Pleasant, [Bobby] Hamilton, [Tedy] Bruschi, Otis [Smith]…Otis came back pretty quickly form a groin injury he had last week. Ted Johnson, [Willie] McGinest, they all showed up today. We got some plays out of [Richard] Seymour, Riddick Parker. We rotated our linemen, but I thought those guys did a nice job. On the offensive line I thought we got some real good leadership out of the interior people, [Joe] Andruzzi and [Mike] Compton. [Damien] Woody missed pretty much the whole week of practice, but he went out there and really played hard and made a big block on that screen pass. Troy Brown I think really stepped up and Troy is kind of a quiet guy, but he really stepped up and I thought gave the team and the offense some good leadership this week. Brady, Kevin Faulk, Antowain [Smith], those guys played hard. It is hard to single anybody out because there were so many people that put so much into it. Whatever the frustrations were after the first two games they really tried to focus on being ready for the Colts and collectively that is what they did. Big kick by [Adam] Vinatieri at the half too. That was a tough kick.
Q: Did you plan to have Woody go in as early as he did or was it because of the [Grey] Ruegamer penalty?
BB: That might have speeded it up a little bit. I just didn't know if Damien was ready to start because he missed the whole week of practice, but we took him out there in warm-ups and he felt okay with the contact. Yeah we planned to bring him in at some point in the first half there anyway, but we need to play aggressively, but we have to eliminate those 15 yard penalties. We had two of them on that drive. We were going into the wind. We had a key first down that we picked up and got that called back on the chop block. Then we lost some more field position on the personal foul and that just wasn't a good way to start.
Q: From a personal standpoint is there a place for this game in your own trophy case?
BB: I don't know. Ask me at the end of the year. It is a good win, it is a good team, but there are 16 games and they all pretty much count equally in the standings. It is a division game so it counts a little bit more, but this game by itself won't be enough. We are going to have to do a lot more this year. I think that this is a real good win for our players to build on. I think we can see a little bit what we can do if we really apply ourselves.
Q: You talked last week about the frustration and you said that you told the team to take it out on the field, did you have a sense that you had a very frustrated football team on your hands?
BB: I think that there were people that were frustrated about being 0-2, absolutely. I think there are a lot of them. Basically instead of being mad about it and throwing a tantrum and all of that, there is nothing you can do about it, once they are in the books, they are in the books, the only thing we can do is take that feeling of being ticked off and frustrated and disappointed at 0-2 and take it out on our third opponent. That is where we really tried to channel the energy and the attitude not at what had gone wrong in the past, but what we could do about it moving forward.
Q: Did you find that Bryan Cox set the tone with his aggressiveness and his enthusiasm?
BB: That's the way Bryan plays. I think he does set a little bit of a tempo especially when he can make some plays for us like that and then the other people respond to it. Lawyer is that kind of a player too. He had a couple of real good hits and that gets the offensive people going a little bit. The special teams people, Larry Izzo and Je'Rod Cherry did it for us in the kicking, Antowain ran hard and I think that did a little bit for us on defense. So yeah, I think there are some tempo setters there, no question. Bryan can be one of them for us.
Q: Was there a re-commitment to fundamentals, especially in tackling this week? It seemed that one of the things that you complained about before was that people weren't wrapping guys up and bringing guys down. Today they really seemed to stop any forward progress?
BB: I think we did a better job of tackling, but it seemed to me like we had a lot of people around the ball and even when you miss them when there are another two or three guys there it just doesn't show up. My philosophy on defense has always been the more people you can get around the ball minimizes any kind of errors that you have, just be aggressive and you can get a lot of people there. [Edgerrin] James is a good runner. He ran hard. We got him a couple of times, but we missed him a couple of times. It seemed like whenever we missed him there were always a couple of others guys there to cover it up.
Q: Antowain had kind of a breakout game and you have mentioned the last couple of weeks about the running game getting better and it seemed to really be there today, again another thing you just thought was getting better as time was going on?
BB: I thought the running game was okay last week. I think it was a little bit better this week. I didn't think it was too good the first week against Cincinnati. Hopefully we can keep building on it. I thought that Antowain and today it was Kevin, that there styles really contrast a little bit. Kevin had a couple of nice cutback runs and Antowain had a couple of good power runs where he was running through the arm tackles and guys reaching for him and that kind of thing. I think that they compliment each other and J.R.'s [Redmond] style in there as well. It is not really a case where you go into the game and say, 'This guy is going to do it this week and that guy is going to do it the next week.' I think that they compliment each other and if we can keep running the ball like that and get those numbers of carries eventually something good will happen. I think our line is starting to gain some confidence in coming off the ball too.
Q: But it had to be huge for you to get that kind of an effort from your run game with a new quarterback in there, take a little bit of pressure off of him, eat the clock?
BB: Right, but I think that is the way that you want to play the Colts anyway. They are so explosive on offense that the fewer possessions they have, the longer you can hang onto the ball, the less your defense has to stay out there for long drives and no rest and keep going back out there, the tougher it is to stop them. I thought it was a good complimentary game today between the offense, the defense and the special teams. Certainly the offense did a good job in converting some third downs, running the ball. We had a situation where we had the ball on the nine-yard line into the wind and even though we didn't score we were able to drive it out and get some decent field position for the defense. So just plays like that, it doesn't look like much in the final score, but they are key times in the game and they are important.
Q: When you took over this team almost from the beginning you talked about physical play, we have seen instances of that, but was this probably the most complete performance of that aspect?
BB: It was a good one. I thought we had a couple of physical games last year, but this is a good one today. I think this is the way that we need to play. We need to play tough. We need to be physical. We are not really a great finesse team, but I think that we can play into are strengths and I think that is our best chance, put it that.
Q: From a coaching standpoint, Peyton Manning has never been that successful here, is it just the way the ball bounces for him?
BB: I would say that you have got to give the credit today to the defensive players. They did a good job. They really played good team defense. There is no one guy you can stop on that offense. Harrison, they got Pathon, Pathon they got Pollard, Pollard they got James, they have got too many good players. So everybody has got to do a good job. We got big plays in the secondary from a lot of different guys. We got some big plays up front with the linemen. The linebackers stepped up. So it was just good team defense. I have got to give all of the credit to the players.
Q: Did you sense this coming whether it was know or at some point in the season, that the team would put this kind of effort together?
BB: That's what you hope for, that's what you hope for. No, I will be honest with you I didn't think that this was going to be the final score of the game when we started at one o'clock this afternoon, but that's the NFL, you never know what is going to happen. Every Sunday is a different combination of plays and momentum and breaks and those kinds of things. Look we had a good day today. This certainly wasn't one of the better Colt days. They are a good football team and today wasn't one of their better days. We are going to see them again and they are going to be tough then.
