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            **BB:**  What do you guys have going on today?  

**Q: Is there a much of difference for you and your coaching staff having two weeks to prepare for another team?

BB:** I don't think there is a big difference. I think it has actually been good this week because we are not very familiar with Dallas. We haven't played them since I've been here. We did a little bit of work on them in the offseason but not as much as the earlier opponents. So we knew with the bye here were would have a few extra days to work on them so we did a little bit less work on them in the offseason knowing that we have a little bit more time here to actually to so their system once they got it rolling and played in regular season games.

**Q: So there is no advantage to you to have that extra time with any opponent?

BB:** Well, I don't know. I think by the end of the week, we usually feel like we are pretty well prepared for the game. You take the time and in this case I think it has been good for some of our players who have been a little banged up to be able to get a little bit more treatment and get relatively healthier from where they were after the Denver game. In terms of preparation, I think you can get done what you need to get done in a week. With all of the film and the tape and all of the different ways of breaking it down that we have, I think that you can do that in a week. So to have a few extra days is okay but I don't think it is that necessary.

**Q: Jarvis Green, what has his progression been like?

BB:** Good. I think that Jarvis is really having a good year. I think he has been really solid for us in both the run and the passing game. He is using his hands well. He is active in the pass rush and pursuit. I think he is coming along nicely as a player. He came in here with good fundamentals and good techniques from LSU under Coach [Nick] Saban and I think he has played solidly for us.

**Q: Is he one of those guys where maybe the stat sheet doesn't really tell the story?

BB:** I think he has been pretty consistent. It is hard for any defensive lineman to just have…

**Q: 12 sacks?

BB:** Yeah. Some of the stats are circumstantial. But I think he has played solidly for us and he has played both inside and outside and played in sub and regular situations. I think for a young guy he is coming along okay. Some plays are better than others. He still has a little ways to go but I think he has done a solid job.

**Q: Is there a guy you would compare him to at this point in his career?

BB:** I think there are some similarities, I don't think he is the same player as Rob Burnett. But Rob Burnett was a player who played end in the 4-3 and then played inside on sub, which is still his role in this league even down at Miami and Baltimore and all of that. I think that Jarvis has a little bit of that ability to go inside and outside, 285 [pounds], 6'3-ish, that range, that type of a guy. It is hard for some of those taller guys for some of them to play inside. I know that [Richard] Seymour plays inside but I am saying it is hard for some of them to do that. It is hard for some of the other guys, the 6'3-ish guys, sometimes some of them have trouble with end and they have to play inside. I think if you want to pick out somebody that there are some similarities to, I am not saying they are really clones of each other but a guy like Burnett.

**Q: Is he [Jarvis] a guy who has a lot of room to grow?

BB:** Well he has been improving. I am not sure what his ceiling is. Hopefully he can keep working hard and improve on his techniques, improve on his hand use. He has got some natural athletic ability and explosion and can run fairly well for his size. He has got some good tools to work with and if he continues to improve, I am not sure exactly where he is going go, but he is still moving in the right direction. He certainly hasn't plateau-ed. He has made solid progress this year and as he did through the year last season.

**Q: Was there a setback yesterday with Ted Washington and Ted Johnson or was that just keeping them back from doing too much?

BB:** Well they had two pretty good days there on Tuesday and Wednesday and it didn't look like yesterday they were maybe quite where they were earlier in the week. We will see where we are today. They are questionable.

**Q: How about Troy Brown? How is he doing?

BB:** He has done a little bit out there. You know how Troy is. Troy will work as hard as anybody and he will give you everything he has got. We will go down to the wire with him and see where we are. We will take a look at it today and then evaluate it tomorrow and if it has to go until Sunday, it will go until Sunday.

**Q: You had a light workout Tuesday?

BB:** No. Tuesday was like a regular Wednesday for us.

**Q: Dallas' corners are impressive, they really hold up their receivers at the line. Have you seen that? How can you combat that with your guys?

BB:** Yeah. Well, [Mario] Edwards who plays primarily on the offensive left and [Terence] Newman primarily plays on the offensive right, they are up in press coverage a lot. They play a lot of man-to-man from the line of scrimmage. They don't play too much from off and they play some two-deep zone. So they are up there jamming them with the safeties backing them up. So they are up there a lot. They make it hard for the receivers to release and hard to get into the route and then they do a pretty good job of matching the routes and covering them down the field. Then when [Derek] Ross comes in, he plays usually the inside position on their sub defense. He plays in the slot and he is up on the line of scrimmage as well. They make it tough on you to get off of the line of scrimmage and get into your route. Then they are pretty competitive. They are athletic. They are fast. They cover pretty well once the receiver's gets down field into the route. The keys to beat man coverage are the same as they always are – getting off the line of scrimmage and getting a good release and then doing something in your route to get open.

**Q: The receivers that you have are kind of smallish guys. It really isn't' a problem with these guys. Is that true?

BB:** Well, I think there are a lot of different skill sets for different types of receivers. There are a lot of different ways to do it. If a guy is big he can be physical to get off the line. If a guy is quick he can use his quickness to get off of the line. Some guys use real good technique and knock down the defenders hands and that kind of thing. However they do it. They have to do it. To be a good receiver in this league, you have to do two things. You have to be able to get open and catch the ball, a 40-time is great, height is great, all of that other stuff is great but in the end you have to be able to get open and catch the ball. However they do it, and we have seen a lot of different receivers and guys in the Hall of Fame all come in different packages. In the end you have to be able to get open and catch the ball.

**Q: More of a philosophical question, your organization places great emphasis on good character guys. When did you realize that was important not to have so-called 'nit-wits' in there?

BB:** First of all, I think it is important to Mr. [Robert] Kraft and the organization for our team to be professional on and off of the field. It is important to me as well. Being professional constitutes a lot of different things. It means that players have to conduct themselves accordingly really all of the time and that is what we are looking for. Now, nobody is perfect. We have all had our moments. That is basically what we feel like is the winning formula. Philosophically, it has been that way since day one, since I have been here.

**Q: Does it place a special challenge because you are going to be looking for certain skill sets?

BB:** When you evaluate a player, you have to evaluate everything about him. You can't just evaluate how he plays in the running game or what his instincts are or what his size is, you have to look at all of it. When you get the player, you get everything. You get his injury history. You get his size and speed. You get his instinctiveness. You get his off the field work habits. You get all of that. You might be able to modify some of them but if you want to know what you are getting. You just have to scout the player all the way through. I think our scouts and our personnel department has done a good job of that of knowing what we are getting. In some cases some players need a little more direction and a little more help in some areas than others. If we feel like we can do that, then we take the player on in those conditions and try to work with him. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't.

**Q: As an organization, do you place more of an emphasis on that than some other teams?

BB:** I don't know. I am sure it is probably more than some. It might be less than others. I am not sure. It is definitely important to us. I am not saying that. I don't know how you could rank it. I think the bottom line is whenever you bring the player into your organization, if you feel like that player needs help in a certain area, whatever it is, he is coming off of an injury, he doesn't have experience, you are moving him from one position to another, whatever it is that you have to have a plan for how you are going to deal with that. 'What are we going to do when he gets here? Are we just going to let it go and hope that it takes care of itself? Here is how we are going to address it.' If you feel like you can address it and you feel like you can improve it and you work with the player whatever the situation is and he sees it the way you do and you have a plan for how you are going to improve it, then I think you have a chance to improve it. But what I don't think is a good combination is when you bring somebody in and you just give it one of those and hope that,' Well this is going go away and it will all take care of itself on its own.' I don't think there is really a high success rate with that.

**Q: How does that change with a guy like say Lawrence Taylor?

BB:** Lawrence Taylor, yeah we could probably find a spot for him. Lawrence Taylor was…there are a hell of a lot of things to like about Lawrence Taylor. I mean the guy is in the Hall of Fame. We are not talking about just some throw away player.

**Q: I am not trying to take away from anything he has done. We just know he had problems off of the field too.

BB:** Well, I don't really want to get into those. I think they were far and away overridden by a lot of good things that he did, which a lot of those, as usual, wouldn't get the notoriety. You could do 500 charity events and get a ticket for jaywalking and you are a criminal. We all know what Lawrence's situation was. I am not trying to change it. I am saying that the guy played a long time. He did a lot of good things for his team, for his teammates, and for the community that he was in. There were other things that were less than perfect. I am sure he would be the first one to admit that.

**Q: With Asante Samuel, did you notice at any point that he was making the adjustment from coming from the MAC to the NFL?

BB:** Sure. It was a huge adjustment from any place in college football to the NFL. That is a big step.

**Q: Yeah, but for someone like [Tom] Brady for example who went to Michigan would it be a little bit different than coming from Central Florida to the NFL?

BB:** Well, yeah. It is different. We ran more of the play-action than they ran at Michigan. That is no disrespect to Michigan. They won a lot of games. Our offense is a lot different from theirs. Again, I would just say with Asante, he had a lot of the qualities that you are looking for in a corner in terms of his quickness, his instinctiveness, his ability to run, his competitiveness and confidence, all of those things are good. Adapting them to the NFL receivers and the NFL passing game and the adjustment that he has had to make from playing outside which is what he primarily did in college to also playing inside, because he has done both for us this year, that is a whole different ball game. When you are playing inside you are playing really linebacker responsibilities but you are covering wide receivers. So it is a difficult position to play particularly if you haven't played it before. There is a lot going on in there. It is a lot different than when you are playing outside and it is just you and the perimeter receiver there aren't a lot people that can get to you when you are inside, you got people coming from the inside out in and you also have people coming from the outside in, there are a lot more things that can happen to you inside and you are involved in a lot more different types of coverages.

**Q: No disrespect on any other cornerback coming out this year, but where would you rank his instincts?

BB:** I think they are pretty good. Good instincts and good ball skills. He had a lot of production in college. You have to respect that, that he can cover, get his hands on balls, knock them down, intercept them, make tackles, return kicks. I mean he is a good punt returner. You can judge a player's hands on that too. If a guy can handle punts pretty cleanly, you know he has got good ball skills. That is not saying that the guy won't drop a ball or drop an interception or something, that is going to happen. If a guy can go back there and handle punts, left footed punters, right footed punters, the wind blowing and judge a ball and all of that and handle it cleanly and take hits and make decisions under pressure, you have to feel pretty good about the guys balls skills. I think that has been a positive really for all of our corners this year. Ty [Law] has good ball skills. [Tyrone] Poole can return kicks. Asante has returned kicks. Eugene [Wilson] has returned kicks. These are guys who have those kinds of ball skills. You have a lot better chance of intercepting passes rather than just knocking them down and getting those turnovers that change games.

**Q: Not specific to what you are planning on doing on Sunday, what are some of the ways you can kind of deal with the safeties like Darren Woodson and [Roy] Williams?

BB:** I think number one if you are going to run the ball you have to block them. They are like having linebackers back there. There are some teams where you don't really worry about the safeties and you tell the back, 'You are going to run off of him. We are going to block everybody else, we don't have anybody blocking the safety, you are going to have to deal with him yourself.' Whatever your reasons are for doing it that way. If the safety is the guy who is going to come down and make plays for a two yard gain and all of that, you block everybody else clean and you have nobody on the safety and you are worried about him coming down and making the play, then you have to find a way to get him. There are a million different ways to do that. In the end, somebody has got to account for him besides the guy with the ball in his hands. Other ways you can do that of course is try to combine your play action with your running game. Other ways to do it are formationing. Sometimes you can get into a formation based on what their scheme is, he has to get displaced somehow in the formation adjustments. Normally when you play defense with a player like that, you try to have other calls that won't displace them. Sometimes he has to make an adjustments to the formation, other times he doesn't and maybe somebody else makes the adjustments so you try not to let the offense dictate where he is going to be. I would say a combination of those things. Just pure numbers, you have nine guys on offense, the quarterback is not a blocker and the guy who has got the ball is not a blocker so you have nine guys to block 11. You just have to make a decision on what you want to do with those nine guys. We have all talked about the defensive linemen, you know they get double and triple teamed which as you all know I think is a bunch of garbage. I don't know how many of those you can have when you only have nine blocking 11. You ripple team a couple of guys and I don't know who is left. That being said, you just have to decide how you want to handle those guys. Now, if you are running an outside play to one side or the other, that is pretty easy you can let the two backside guys go. If you are running any kind of play that is basically into the line of scrimmage between the tackles or even in the off tackle areas, then you have to decide how you want to account for those extra guys.

**Q: Is it tougher to run a play-action pass with a team that blitzes a lot because your quarterback is turning his back to the defense at times?

BB:** I think when you talk about play action, there are a lot of different types of play action. But the first thing that you have to think about when you call a play action pass is who you are trying to fool. If you are trying to throw the ball to the flat out here into the fullback or a tight end in the flat and you fake at the player that you are trying to influence and make him think that the run is coming right at him and then slip somebody out then that is a different kind of play action than if you want all of your action going this way but then you are going to bootleg and come out the other way and now you are trying to fool the guys over on this side and you want them to flow across and you are trying to beat somebody over here. Or if you are trying to play action up into the middle so that you can get some type of inside cut coming behind it, then that is a little different philosophy too because of who you are trying to affect. You don't care about this guy in the flat anymore. You are trying to get the inside linebacker or the safeties to step up so you can get in behind them. It all depends on the play that you are talking about and what you are trying to do. Again, the fake is critical to whoever you are trying to fake. If you are trying to fake the front side guy to get into the flat and you don't care about the backside guy or vice versa. Now when a team blitzes, the faking doesn't really matter anymore because the guys who are in coverage aren't looking at the quarterback. They are not looking at the play action fake. They know all they have to do is cover that receiver. They have no help from anybody on the field so they don't want to be fooling around and looking back in there and seeing what is going on in the back field. They have their guy to cover. What a lot of teams do, and what a lot of quarterbacks do, is when the play action is called, if there is a blitz coming, then a lot of times the fakes get aborted. So if the quarterback sees the blitz, he is not worried about the fake anymore. The backs, once they see they have a protection assignment because somebody is blitzing, then they just come right off the fake and go block the guy they are supposed to block. They don't care about the fake anymore because they have to pick up somebody that is coming in. I am not sure if that answers your question or not. But a lot of teams that I think are good protection teams and we see because we blitz our safeties and our corners and that kind of thing, a lot of teams offensively will have their assignments on their backs to take those blitzers in what normally would be a play action if you blitz from the opposite side, then that back instead of faking, he'll come off and block the guy that is blitzing and pick him up. The quarterback knows, 'Whoops, he is not faking here, that means there is blitzing back there so I know got down field and here is where I am going with the ball.'

**Q: Where have you see John Hufnagel's influence on Tom Brady?

BB:** John has worked with all of the quarterback. Again, in our situation, the quarterback coach ahs four different guys to be working with. There are some experienced players, some guys who have a couple of years in the league. Another guy is a rookie. Another guy is in his second year. So there is a real spectrum there of what those people need and what their experience level is. I think a coach brings a different aspect of coaching to each one of those players based on where they are in their career and what their experience level is which includes mechanics, which includes the game plan, which includes knowing what the defense is doing and what keys and tips you can pick up from what they are giving you.

**Q: What do you think he has helped Tom with the most that maybe you see improvement in? Maybe play action passes?

BB:** Again, I think with Tom you are not going to look at one thing and say, 'Well this has gone from zero and now it is like 92 percent.' I think that Tom has got a pretty efficient level with a lot of things and you just try to incrementally to keep working to improve them a little bit, footwork, throwing mechanics, reads, play action faking, ball placement, all of those kind of things.

**Q: I am assuming it has helped you and Charlie [Weis] with the work you used to have to put in with the quarterbacks all of the time.

BB:** Right. That is true.

**Q: Why the schedule move? The wind?

BB:** No, just it has been a little bit of a long week for us. We practiced every day this week. We practiced Monday. Tuesday was kind of like a Wednesday for us. So we've had pretty much of a full week. I think that we have seen a lot of tape, we have run a lot of plays, and we have seen the practice tape. We just cut down the meeting time a little bit. It will be a regular kind of practice for us. We just had quite a bit of meeting time. I think we are fairly well caught up and it will give the players a chance to get off of their feet a little bit here.

**Q: How was the week overall?

BB:** It was windy.

**Q: Would you do anything differently with tomorrow and Sunday's schedule?

BB:** No. Tomorrow will be a regular Saturday and Sunday we are just playing a little later. Basically a normal game day procedure.

**Q: Are you getting much use out of the indoor facility?

BB:** Oh, yeah. It has been great. It has been great with the extra distance. Just the whole contour of the facility has been great. We can kick off in there. We can throw all of our passes in there. We can't fully do the punting but we can approximate it. If Kenny [Walter] doesn't kick it straight up in the air, we can still get the timing on the returns. There is a lot more space. Really, it is a great facility.

**Q: Dimension wise, it is the size a of full practice field?

BB:** It is about 70-yards plus a run out area at one end of it where the goal post is. That has really been good. It would have been tough this week outside with 30 mph winds. We can go out, but to just to try to get the kind of executing in the passing game or the kicking game is hard.

**Q: How many times this year have you used it so far?

BB:** I would say maybe about four. Well, it was November 1st was really kind of the entry date on it. It was under construction from the middle of August, right in the middle of the preseason, until November. We rolled the dice on a couple of days there in September and October range, the hurricane had come through and all of that. Now that we are into kind of predictable weather here in New England at this time of year, we have gotten a couple of good days of use out of it. It has really been helpful.