Over the course of the spring Patriots backup quarterback Rohan Davey will chronicle for the readers of Patriots.com his experiences playing with the Berlin Thunder in NFL Europe. Today's installment has Davey's thoughts on a 5-0 start to the season, his third NFLE Player of the Week Award, a small peek into some of his off-field activities in Germany and a look ahead to what fans can expect this weekend in Berlin's game against Cologne. Last weekend Davey completed 10-of-17 passes for 149 yards and four touchdowns plus a rushing touchdown in a 33-29 win over the Amsterdam Admirals.
We started off slow this week. We went three-and-out on our first series. But then we got a turnover at the plus-50 and we talked a little bit on the sideline about maybe taking shot off the turnover, so we took a shot. We ran a play that was basically a mirror play from the one we ran the week before when I dropped back a little bit to the right and took a scan of the field. I tried to check out the safety and see where he was playing and then work from there. It just so happened that Richard Alston ran a great route and Ed Ieremia-Stansbury, our fullback, made a real nice block to give me a lot of time to see the field and our offensive line held up real well. Everyone did a great job and Rick made a great catch and that really started off our scoring.
From there, we were basically just reading the coverages and trying to get the ball into someone's hands and let them work and make plays. That's a big part of our offense. Our offense is predicated on explosive plays and that's one of the things our coaches really emphasize a lot. We want to make it a point that when we get a chance to make an explosion play we really want to take advantage of it.
Some of them have been run-and-catch plays but the explosion plays I'm talking about are more deep passes. Explosion plays for us are runs over 20 yards and passes over 25 yards. They can come off anything – designed trick plays, they can come off a nice play with a great catch-and-run from the receiver and some have come off taking deep shots with the receivers.
Some of our offense is similar to what we run with the Patriots. A lot of it is, actually. Some facets of the game here are different. Some facets of the game are more of what Coach [Steve] Logan (quarterbacks coach) and Coach [Don] Eck (offensive coordinator) have in their offense. It's been very good for me because it's allowed me the chance to flourish in a system I think I'm well suited for. I'm surrounded by good coaches and I have such a good team around me and good teammates that it's made my job easier. Especially on offense, which is obviously the unit I'm dealing with. When it's time to play ball they really come to play. The receivers are terrific and the offensive line is smart and tough and they keep me clean every week. I'm just fortunate to be a part of such a good situation with this team.
I spoke with Coach Belichick today and he was just asking me how things were going. I was asking him what was going on back in New England and how things went with the rookies. He told me he was happy to see I'm doing well and he just said to continue to work hard and do the things that have made me successful and stuff like that. He just said he and the coaching staff have been following me and watching what's going on and to keep it up. Nothing special.
Over the last few weeks, we've gotten a chance to get out some and see the museums and the Parliament and a lot of the sights around Germany and that's been pretty cool. We saw the sight where the Berlin Wall went down earlier in the season. And we play in Olympia Stadium, which in itself is a huge part of history. There's a lot of interesting things here to see and there's a ton of history, especially from the war.
Right now we're kind of focused on the next game, which is against Cologne. We need to keep playing well and winning, but it's not going to be easy. Cologne is a much better team than their record indicates so we're going to need to keep our focus and keep playing well as we continue to make our move on going to the World Bowl.
As toPatriots Football Weekly's Paul Perillo
