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Q: Is your offense playing better than it did in your Super Bowl season?
KW: I think we are playing very well. It is really hard to say. I think it's kind of a whole different situation. A lot of things were new back in the Super Bowl year. A lot of people didn't really know what to expect, didn't have a lot of film. I think things came a little bit easier that year just because, you know from my perspective it seemed like I would be able to throw more on my first reads that first year because people didn't know what to expect. Now we've been advanced and we do more things. I think we are as successful as we have ever been. We just have to do it a few different ways than we did it the Super Bowl year.
Q: Is it true that if you have 100 plays in the play book you figure that all 100 are going to score every time to use them?
KW: Well I think that we feel that, yeah, any play can score at any time. You know I think that's more not so much from the plays that we have, but from the personnel that we have and the guys that we feel that we get them the ball in the right position that they can go the distance every time they touch it.
Q: Do you think there is a lot of jealousy around the league about what the Rams have been able to achieve?
KW: I don't know. I mean it kind of looks that way a little bit just because of some of the comments that are made because just being in this locker room and knowing the kind of people that we have here. I don't think the players are arrogant one bit. I think we have fun, we are excited about what we do. Maybe we are a finesse team, just because we don't do things the typical way where you run the ball and then…two yards and a cloud of dust. You know we throw the ball and we have fun doing it and we enjoy what we are doing. So I don't know why some of those comments come about and what exactly a finesse team means, but if that's what it means, being uncharacteristic and throwing the ball and doing things unconventionally, then I think we are. As far as arrogance, I really don't know. I don't think we have players that are arrogant. I don't think we come off that way unless what we are doing and the way that we play and have fun and enjoy it comes off as being arrogant in any way. But I don't foresee that or see that coming from our team, but again I am on the inside and other people are looking at us.
Q: How much trouble are you having with your thumb? How much is it affecting?
KW: I don't know, that's one of those things that it is really hard to say. I mean I know it is there and it has bothered me. If it bothers me at all or more than anything it's been with some of the longer balls where I've been kind of flushed out of the pocket, had to turn and try to throw it deep without really being able to get my feet set under me and really have to throw with my arm because I didn't have the strength and the grip that I wanted to on a few situations. Again, you don't know necessarily that's from the thumb. Obviously I think that has a little bit to do with it, but I don't really know. I mean I feel for the most part I'm throwing the ball well and doing those things and putting the ball where I wanted to put it, but there have been some balls that have gotten away from me and I think it has a little bit to do with the thumb, but I can't say that for sure.
Q: I realize you haven't had too many coaches in the NFL, but what do you think sets Mike Martz apart?
KW: I just think one of the great things about coach Martz is that he never changes his approach to things. It doesn't matter if it's the first snap or the last snap. It doesn't matter if it is first-and-ten or third-and-twenty. He attacks the same. I think that's what is fun for us as players, that we know that he's confident enough and that he's going to continue to call plays and continue to be aggressive and continue to play to our strengths in every situation. I think that's what makes him a great coach, that he doesn't necessarily care what people say or what the conventional way to do something is, he is going to do it the best way that he feels that this team can win or be successful. And that is what's so great about playing for him, is that we know he is going to do that in every situation. He's not going to sit back and wait for other teams to come to us. We are just going to attack and attack and attack and continue to do that and that is the way that we are going to continue to win football games, is by attacking and not sitting back and waiting for other teams to come to us.
Q: Last year you guys were 3-3 outdoors and 0-2 at the end of the year when temperatures dropped. Are those just coincidences or do you have a difficult time when you get outside later in the year?
KW: I don't know. I mean I never really think about it. I think back to last year and you know we played in Carolina where I had a terrible game. You know it was my first game back from an injury and the rest of the team played well. You know we had seven turnovers and you know we just didn't play well in that game. I don't think the surroundings had anything to do with it. I just think it was one of those games we didn't play well. You know we played Tampa Bay on a Monday night and got beat 38-35, which was just another one of those games where I think we played very well, especially offensively but we were just outscored in that game. So I don't foresee anything or say that when we go outside…obviously we have a comfort zone inside. When you play ten games a year inside, on turf and that's your home stadium, you're going to have a comfort level there and you're probably going to play better at home than on the road, most teams do. We just happen to play in a dome and so when we go on the road, it's a different atmosphere, but I don't think that…I think the turf, I think inside really plays to what we do and the strengths of our team and the quickness and the speed that we have. But I don't think that it correlates to saying, 'Well we are not as successful off the turf or when we are outside,' because I think we've been very successful and had some very good games outside although we have played some bad games outside. Yeah I don't really think there's a correlation, I think it's one of those things that comes down to a focus thing. You know if you go on the road and it's cold and it's windy or whatever and you allow it to affect your focus, at some point it becomes a problem. We've done that before on the road outside, but I don't think it necessarily pertains completely to the fact that we are playing on grass or that we are playing outside, whatever the conditions are.
Q: You have never faced a Bill Belichick defense, but he has a reputation of coming up with defenses that quarterbacks and offensive coordinators don't expect to see. What are you looking for from them? What have you seen on film? What can you expect on Sunday?
KW: Well just as you said you never know just what to expect on Sunday because knowing about him and hearing about him I understand that that is kind of his M.O., that he comes up with different things that you don't necessarily see on film every week. When you watch him on film you see a team that likes to play a Cover 2 type scheme, will close the middle and play some Man and blitz a little bit and that kind of seems to be their two predominant coverages. But we know that we can expect anything, especially against a team that you don't see very often, that's it's kind of a one-shot deal that we could see anything. We don't know exactly what to expect. They could come out there with anything. So we are just actually preparing for everything, taking a lot of our base plays and keeping them in there in case we see different looks, but obviously we have to base a lot of things off of what we see on film. We also know in the back of out minds that we could see anything. He could come up with a completely different plan and we've seen that a lot over the last couple of years and it's something that we just have to kind of get a beat on and try to adjust during the game.
Q: Earlier in the week Belichick said your offense truly is the 'Greatest Show on Earth' and he likened it to the 1980 Chargers? And Lawyer Milloy said he likes watch offensive football and loves to watch the Rams? Are you aware of the kind of historical niche that your offense is making?
KW: I don't know if we have a real understanding from a historical point of view what we are doing. You know I have heard the comparison to the great Chargers team and obviously we are very similar and do some of the similar things. The offense is taken basically from Air Coryell's system. So we do a lot of the same things. I think we do understand the fact that people enjoy watching what we do. They enjoy watching our kind of football and enjoy watching people put points on the board and do some of the fun things that we do. And that excites us, when you say that about Lawyer, I mean yeah that's great to know that when another players gets to watch a game that he wants to watch you play. I mean what better compliment could you get from another guy in the same profession that wants to watch you play when they get an opportunity. It's a great compliment for what we do and I think as a team we kind of understand that we do do things differently and that people enjoy watching what we do and that's why I think we take so much pride in what we do offensively and scoring points and the label, "The Greatest Show on Earth." We want to try to live up to that each and every week by putting points on the board, being efficient, and doing what we think we do best.
Q: The game you played against the Saints a few weeks ago was very entertaining. You guys dominated the second half and then they came back and showed something about themselves?
KW: Yeah, I mean it was a great football game and like you said it was disappointing to lose one like that because has we not turned the ball over it could have been a completely different ball game. But it was a great game, it was great game to be a part of even though we were on the losing end because there were so many highs and lows, so many great plays on both sides of the ball. You know so many ups and downs and opportunities to win at the end by both teams; I mean it was just a great football game. You know a lot of points scored which always makes it fun and obviously fun for me that you score a lot of points and it's more of a shoot out, but it's a fun game. You love to play in those kinds of games, but you always want to win and that was what was difficult about that one, is we had chances to win and we didn't pull it out. But it was a great football game to be a part of.
Q: Boston and St. Louis are two great baseball towns. You might be the "Greatest Show on Earth" in terms of the NFL, but are you number two in St. Louis? What's that like if it is true?
KW: Well it is obviously a great baseball town and we are just trying to slide in as 1A or maybe we are 1A and 1B, that we are trying to make our little niche. I think the success that we've had and the fun and excitement that we brought to the city and the championship has really gone a long way to help make this more of a great sports town than just a baseball town. I don't know where we sit. The history of the baseball and the success that we've had in baseball obviously goes a long way to talking about this community, but I think we're doing everything that we can to make a name for ourselves and try to make this a baseball/football city and our hockey team is doing well. So we are trying to just make this a great sports town and I don't know where we sit, you know I hope that if we are not first we are a close second, but we are trying to even things out with the Cardinals as much as we can.
Q: You know this year's Kurt Warner is Tom Brady. You know what I am saying?
KW: Yeah.
Q: Do you look at Brady in the way that we do as a coming-along NFL phenom?
KW: Yeah. I love to watch stories like that and guys like that that get an opportunity to come in and play well and do the things that he is doing and see the excitement that guys like that generate. I mean it's fun to see those guys that nobody expects to do well come out of the woodwork so to say and do well. You know it is a difficult situation because obviously it's Drew's [Bledsoe] team and they have made the commitment and built the organization around him, but Tom's going to be a great quarterback. He's obviously showing that and he's winning football games, which is always the bottom line and it's fun to see a guy like that. A young kind that you see on the sideline going through some ups and downs, but just having so much success and having fun doing what he is doing and having fun winning football games and you always love to see that excitement brought to the position and to the game.
Q: Are the turnovers just part of the cost of doing business in your offense in which you take a lot chances, more than other teams?
KW: It is a part, but I don't think it has to be as much a part as a couple of those games that we have mentioned. We know that with the way that we play and the way that we do things that we are going to have some turnovers; some interceptions are going to happen the way we throw the football and those types of things. But there's certain times and there's critical situations and dumb turnovers that you can have that you have to try to eliminate and although we realize we are going to have some, we are constantly trying to work on the ones that we are just careless or just make bad decisions or put our team in difficult situations. So although it is a part of it, we understand that some of them and a lot of them can be avoided and that that needs to be our focus because if we don't turn the ball over in some of these games, they are all different ball games. As much as we score a lot of points and beat people with what we do, there's times that we've hurt ourselves and lost games because of what we do too. So it's a fine art and we've got to make sure that we continue to try to improve each and every week, getting better and better and that's the primary category where we need to improve, is not turning the ball over, not giving other teams easy scores or take points off the board from turning the ball over in critical situations
