BB:We just got off the bus, obviously we just landed here. We'll get organized and re-acclimate and get acclimated to our new surroundings. Tomorrow will be kind of a normal Saturday for us. Sunday we'll be ready to go. We're excited to be here and looking forward to playing the Rams.
Q:How does this year compare to a few years ago?
BB:I don't know, just got here. It's London. A little overcast, some traffic – it's like everybody is up and at it this morning.
Q:Will you be able to do anything in London or is it strictly football?
BB:I don't know, we'll just take it one day at a time here. We'll see if we can get organized, finish up our preparations on the Rams. We still have a lot of work left to do.
Q:What went into the decision not to practice today?
BB:We'll get done what we feel like we can get done productively. We got three days of practice – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – last week and this week so that's the three days we normally have. Saturday will be a normal Saturday for us. Today is kind of a transition day.
Q:How much of a disruption is it playing a game in London?
BB:We played in Seattle a couple weeks ago. We've played here, we've traveled before.
Q:[inaudible]
BB:Just try and make the adjustment, get ready to go. We travel every other week, we're on the road. It's a farther trip but it's nothing I don't think we can handle.
Q:It's been 10 years since you beat the Rams in the Super Bowl. What do you remember about that team and that game?
BB:It was a great moment for our team and our organization. But in all honesty, we've kind of put all that behind us. We need to focus on this week's game. Obviously everything is different. We just have to focus on the present. We need to play better against these NFC West teams; we haven't done well enough so far. Hopefully we can have a different outcome this time but our focus is in the present. Whatever happens, great. Whatever happened in the past is the past and we have to zero in on what we have to do now.
Q:What is it about the NFC West division that has caused you some issues?
BB:We've had a little bit of trouble with those games; we just didn't play well enough. The Rams present a lot of issues. They're very good defensively: fast, good pass rush team, good coverage team, they have a lot of good corners. Offensively, the running backs are very talented, of course [Steven] Jackson and [Daryl] Richardson. They have an explosive group of receivers. They're good in the kicking game – good punter, good kicker, good returners. They're good in every area. They're very competitive from where they were last year. They're young but they're good. They play hard, they're fast, they're aggressive so there will be a lot of challenges.
Q:The NBA has done a great job translating itself internationally. Do you think football translates as well? Can you see it reaching that level?
BB:I have no idea.
Q:What were the reasons for you choosing to come to London three days later than the Rams? What advantage do you think that gives you?
BB:We just did all of our preparation at our facility where we have all our video equipment, our training equipment, guys could stay on their schedule and we got all of our preparation done there. Today is a transition day for us. Saturday will be a normal Saturday and Sunday is game day. That's basically the way we did it when we came over and played Tampa.
Q:You played at home against the Jets last weekend. Do you have any concerns that the travel and non-rivalry game will affect your play?
BB:No.
Q:When you say transition day, what do you mean?
BB:Just to get all of our body clocks re-acclimated to where we're at. Normally this would be the middle of the night for us but it's not, it's early in the morning. Try to spend the day as the day and sleep the night and then hopefully tomorrow our body clocks will be back on a normal daily schedule – get up in the morning, get through the day, sleep at night and do that on Sunday. Today, obviously we just got off the plane after a long flight. We'll try to make the adjustments here today so that tomorrow will be a normal Saturday for us.
Q:Did you bring players who are questionable physically?
BB:We'll probably have some guys that are game-time [decisions] that we're not 100 percent sure about. We'll have to see how that goes. We have a lot of guys who are working really hard, getting a lot of extra treatment, coming in early, staying late and doing everything they can to be ready, whether how ready they'll be, what they'll be able to do and all, I'm not sure we know that 100 percent. Our last practice was Thursday, so that's still a half week before the game, a lot of times it takes a couple days more than that, sometimes it takes up until game time to really figure that out for sure. We'll see where some of those guys are.
Q:Will you guys go over to Wembley Stadium before the game on Sunday?
BB:No.
Q:In your last three games, you've been outscored 34-6 in the fourth quarter. How do you prepare to change that?
BB:We have to do a better job and play four quarters and 60 minutes. Fortunately we were able to outscore our opponents last week in overtime but we have to play 60 full minutes of football. That's our goal every week. We have to do a better job than we've done, no question. We'll keep working on it and hopefully we'll have better results this week.
Q:There have been some issues with racism in English soccer. Can you describe how that's changed the NFL?
BB:I don't know what you're talking about.
Q:But how has racism changed the NFL?
BB:I've been in the National Football League for 38 years. I think there's a good rapport and mutual respect all the way around for all different types of lifestyles, races, religions in the league. Professional football in the United States is a very diverse community. People come from all areas of the country, foreign countries, all different races, religions, economic backgrounds, social backgrounds and it all comes together on a football team. I've been around it for 38 years and I haven't seen any changes. I don't know anything about the soccer league.
Q:Is one of the challenges this week to make it as normal as possible? This obviously is an abnormal situation from an NFL standpoint.
BB:I think the normal point is the day before the game, the day of the game. We have normal weeks, we have short weeks, we have travel weeks, we have home weeks but I think you always try to get to Saturday, Sunday or the day of the game, day before the game, you try to have consistency at that point in the week. Sometimes you have to modify or adjust what happens before that. When you get to game day, you want that to be a fairly consistent routine that the players and the coaches and the organization are comfortable with. Hopefully the day before that, your final preparations are consistent as well. That's I think the most important part of it. Like I said, we've played on four-day weeks, three-day weeks, two weeks, 10 days, but in the end it's the final lead-up to the game that I think is the most important part of the consistency of the week.
Q:Are you leaving right after the game?
BB:No, we're going to leave in the morning.
Q:How many players are new to the team from the last time you were here?
BB:Almost all of them are new. I think there are like 15 players that were here before, so three-quarters of the team.
Q:Are you excited for the game? BB:We're excited about being in London, we're excited about playing the Rams, we're excited to get on the field. We play once a week, so we practice the rest of the week. We have one opportunity every week to go out and perform. It's always an exciting time, that's why you put in all the practice and all the hours of preparation and training and everything else, for that one opportunity to play during the week whenever it comes. It's coming on Sunday in London and we're excited to play, as we are every week.
Q:The trading deadline got pushed back this year. Have you noticed any uptick in activity?
BB:I haven't, no. This week has really been kind of a, it's a normal week for us but it's a short week for us. As you know, we moved our preparations up so we really have been at it trying to get ready for this week. We haven't talked about anything but the Rams this week.
Q:Would it be tough to add a guy to your team midway through the season? It's not like baseball.
BB:It would depend on the situation. Historically, you don't see a lot of that. But if the situation came up, sure.
Q:There's been a lot of talk about second London game next year. Speaking as a coach, do you think that could be viable, multiple games in London?
BB:I'm not really sure. I haven't really thought about it, I don't know. I'm just trying to coach the team; I don't know about all the rest of it.
Q:The Olympics were here this year. Do you think football could ever be an Olympic sport?
BB:You'd need to some other teams, some other countries to play.
Q:What about Canada and the CFL?
BB:I don't know. That's a long way down the road. I haven't seen a lot of international football [at the level] where our football is, but maybe someday.
Q:Do you think the Rams are a better team this year than they were previously?
BB:Yeah, I think Coach Fisher has done a real good job with that team this year. Just watching them all the way through the preseason and their seven regular season games, I think they're very young, they're one of the youngest teams in the league, they might be the youngest team in the league but their players are improving on a weekly basis. Their overall chemistry and execution as a team, you can see that from the beginning of the season to now we're kind of at the halfway point. Obviously they've worked hard, they're well coached, they have a lot of good players. You can definitely see them getting better on a weekly basis. Jeff's done a real good job.
