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**Q: Strange week with the turn around how hard is it for you physically?**
D: It is hard both mentally and physically. We have a number of guys that would benefit from a couple of extra days rest, but that's the same for the Lions. The things that is probably more difficult for us maybe than them because they have experience with this situation before is the mental turnaround of the short week where you have to pack really three days of preparation into one day and then get ready to go again very quickly. That part of it I think is a bigger challenge for us than it is for them because they have a number of guys that have experienced that before in a regular season setting.
Q: Unfootball-wise since you are traveling tomorrow, when is Thanksgiving in the Bledsoe household?
D: Thanksgiving is going to be Friday.
Q: No one, well I can't imagine anybody would volunteer to travel and play on Thanksgiving does that effect you at all, I imagine hanging around the hotel on Wednesday yes, but once the game starts does it effect you?
D: Once the game starts hopefully all that stuff is put to rest, but the place you have to address it is in your preparation because you have to spend more concentrated effort and as I said pack more preparation into a shorter amount of time. You also have to pay attention to how much rest you are getting with the shortened week you know make sure that you try to get as much rest as you can and as much treatment as you can and all of those things. You have to condense everything and try to pack as much as you can into a short amount of time.
Q: Can you talk about your thumb did you hit it again Friday?
D: Friday just in a walkthrough I banged it on Sale's (Isaia) back, which didn't feel particularly good. I don't know that it setback a whole bunch. It didn't make it better, but it also didn't injure it worse, it just didn't feel very good. As I said leading up to the game last week it's really in my mind a non-factor. I think it was obvious in the game there were a couple of throws that were affected to a certain extent when I was moving around, but in my preparation it is not something that I am really taking much into consideration.
Q: Do you take pride in the fact that you have a consecutive game streak going, Brett Favre is another player with that streak going and it is a big thing for him, do you take pride in that?
D: Yes I do. I take pride in the fact that I have been able to play in a majority of the games since I have been here. I think that as a football player that is one of the things that you want to do, you want to be out there and as a quarterback, quarterbacks don't get many chances to go hit somebody, or to be tough from that standpoint. So one of the things as a quarterback where you can show that you have a certain degree of toughness or resiliency or whatever is to just keep getting up from the hits. So yes that is something I take pride on and something that hopefully, hopefully knock on wood, I will be able to continue. As I have addressed before I always want to be smart in making that decision. I don't want to go out on the field for selfish reasons if I feel like it is going to hurt the team, but if I can go on the field and play and play effectively then I am going to continue to do that.
Q: Soon you'll catch up with Bruce (Armstrong)?
D: Yes I only have 90 more games until although he hasn't shut it down quite so that streak may continue on out there.
Q: Is any of it mental like the fact that you are the quarterback of this team? Does it bug you to see somebody else out there running the team?
D: Definitely, that definitely bothers me. To be on the sideline and watch somebody else quarterbacking this team, yes that bugs me. I don't like to see somebody else run out on the field and play my position and part of that is selfish, but I play this game because I enjoy playing it, I enjoy being the quarterback of the team and to see somebody else do that is not something that I will ever look forward to.
Q: Growing up in a football family what are your recollections of Thanksgiving and the games associated with it? Did you either play in any around the holidays or watch any?
D: The Thanksgiving football games are not as much of a tradition out on the West Coast as they are out here, but yes I always remember sitting around eating Thanksgiving dinner and then laying on the couch with my Dad and whatever relatives we may have had around and watching the Lions and the Cowboys play somebody on Thanksgiving. So you know I understand that it is a time of year when there are going to be a lot of people that are going to be either watching or sleeping through our game, but it is going to be on in a lot of households and people are going to roll over and have one eye open and see what the score is. So a lot of people are going to see what we do or don't do on this game.
Q: What's the call that you make on the film study in a short week, do you try to take in as much as possible or do you instead try to bring yourself up to date as much as possible?
D: You try and pack as much as you can in. I was in very early this morning and I will be here after treatment today studying up on them and trying to get as far ahead as I can in one day so that then I can focus on getting rested and getting ready for the game tomorrow, but yes you try to pack in as much film study as you can, try and get as much of an understanding as you possibly can of the team that you are playing in a short amount of time. Normally a day like today would be a Wednesday and we would be going out and I would be running the plays and the gameplan for the first time and then deciding what I did and didn't like and talking to Charlie about it. Well today we have kind of already decided what we are doing and now I am just going to go out and rep them and get them ready for the game.
Q: You wore out Troy (Brown) and Terry (Glenn) Sunday, is there a difference in the confidence level you have with them and all of the other receivers on this team?
D: Sure, I have been with Terry and Troy for a long time now and they are guys that have earned my trust and have demonstrated over the years that they can make plays in key situations and yes I think any quarterback is going to feel a lot more comfortable throwing to guys that have produced for him in the past and that have shown repeatedly that they are going to make the plays for you.
Q: Is it a disappointment that some of the others haven't stepped up, guys that have been around I am thinking (Tony) Simmons?
D: Well there are and there will continue to be opportunities for other guys to fill in that third and fourth wide receiver role. That position hasn't been solidified by anybody yet and as we go forward, not only this year but in the future, when teams come in and commit to trying to stop Terry and Troy then somebody else is going to have to take over that position whether it is Shockmain (Davis), or Tony or Curtis (Jackson), that we just signed somebody has to fill that role and as of yet I don't know that anybody has locked that position up. As we move forward through this year hopefully we will start to get a little bit of an idea whether that is going to be somebody that is already here or whether it is going to be somebody from somewhere else.
Q: Looking at Rod Rutledge, is he somebody who can begin to approach what Ben Coates was here?
D: To try and compare any tight end to Ben really is to do both of them a disservice. Ben is one of the great guys ever to play the position. Rod has made steady progress since he has been here. He was already an accomplished blocker when he came in, but he has worked very hard and made great strides as a receiver and he's a guy that I am starting to develop a certain level of trust with. To expect him to be Ben Coates or produce what Ben Coates did, like I said it would be doing him a disservice and Ben both, but he is developing and is continuing to improve and he has a very good work ethic and is showing that he wants to develop into one of those guys that I can trust.
Q: Having played behind Ben, did he pick anything up from him?
D: Yes I think that Rod and Ben had a good relationship. Ben was always very good at some of the little subtleties of playing his position. The little shove here or the little jersey grab here and there and I think Rod picked some of those things up from him, but as I said earlier Rod is going to have to develop into his own player. He is a better blocker then Ben was and is working towards becoming a more accomplished route runner and receiver.
Q: He didn't make you buy the shirt did he?
D: No he bought this shirt for me.
Q: Is it the same shirt?
D: Yes it is the same shirt. I did wash it.
Q: Not every day?
D: I am going to burn it after this week.
