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Q:** How much have you had the chance to work with Aqib Talib? What has your experience been like with him so far?
MP: I had the opportunity to meet with him yesterday and just get caught up a little bit. That was all good. Obviously we're evaluating as the week goes, but we're excited to get going with this week and get ready for Indianapolis. We'll certainly see how that goes. But as far as getting a chance to get to know him, it was great. Professional, the guy's been in the league, so no problems there.
Q: Is cornerback a position that would be easier to step into due to the isolation factor of the position?
MP: I don't really think you can say that any position in the NFL is easy to step into. Obviously all the positions have fundamental skills and techniques along with different scheme responsibilities. They all have quite a bit of work that goes into playing them.
Q: It seems like the dynamics are less at that position and it may be an easier position to slide into because individually he is out there on his own.
MP: I wouldn't really say he's an individual working on his own because as a defensive unit you're going to work together as an entire group because all the pieces work together in a scheme. It's different for every position, like you say. If you're in the middle between two guys and you're trying to communicate to both ends, it's going to be a different dynamic than if you're to a particular side where you're communicating to one or two players inside of you – right or left. It's obviously all a little bit different. But then there are some other factors that come along when you move away from the middle of the formation as a player that you have to be aware of and be able to handle that, necessarily, a player that plays in the middle of the formation or the middle of the field doesn't have to be aware of. So, they all kind of have their varying degrees of difficulty and issues.
Q: Why do you lock the cornerbacks in on one particular side?
MP: For us, it definitely can depend on what we're doing that particular week and whatever it is we feel is going to be best for the game plan for that week. We do try to be very multiple and all those things are taken into consideration when we do that. There are some instances where we do and where we don't. We do have the ability to do both.
Q: You do not switch them very often though, right? The corners pretty much line up on the same side.
MP: It just depends on the week for us.
Q: What do you expect Aqib Talib to provide for the Patriots defense?
MP: I think we're just going to have to wait and see and evaluate it as the week goes on. Obviously, like all our players that come in, we expect them to work hard and get on board with what we're doing as soon as they can and get out there and contribute in any way we feel is positive for the team.
Q: Your defense will face a rookie quarterback. Has he seen any sort of learning curve?
MP: Excellent question. Indianapolis offensively is doing a phenomenal job. You can really tell Andrew Luck is grasping what they're trying to do and obviously Coach [Bruce] Arians is doing a great job of getting them in the right situations and they have some excellent players around him. Obviously you know Reggie Wayne, who is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. He has progressed throughout the year and is obviously playing a very high level right now from an offensive standpoint. Certainly we understand that he has the title of a rookie but we're well into the season here and he has played quite a few games in the NFL and he's really doing a good job of handling that offense and running the offense and putting them in situations to win football games and that's what you want out of your quarterback. It will certainly be a big challenge for us this week.
Q: The Colts have a couple rookie tight ends playing well. Can you draw on any experience from your tight ends in practice this week in preparation for Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen?
MP: Indianapolis definitely has some really good tight ends and their rookie tight ends are progressing really well along with some of the other guys they have in there, along with [Weslye] Saunders, for instance, will be in there also. Those guys will be a good challenge for us. Obviously for us in practice it's always an opportunity for us to go with whoever is out there. I think all of our players that we put on the field do a great job for us, giving us the look that we need and they really do a great job of trying to do it exactly how our opponents will play it against us. Obviously with a couple good tight ends on our offensive side of the ball, any information or whatever we can get from them along with all the players we face every day in practice hopefully makes us better. So, we certainly will try to take any opportunity we can to improve.
