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**Q: How are things going right now? How do you feel about things in general?

LM:** I feel good being here. I feel like this is a home now. It was kind of weird the first half of the season, just trying to get the defense, know my teammates and really just dealing with the move in general. But now, the second half of the season, not only myself, but our defense has been playing well, but the wins aren't showing for it. So it's really frustrating right now.

**Q: After that Patriots game, I remember you saying it was a revelation to you, 'Hey this is a pretty good football team that I am on.' How much were your expectations raised by that first game?

LM:** I think people around our fan base and obviously the media, they were labeling us as a contender. But you guys know you can't win a championship in the first two weeks. I approached it like I was still getting used to my teammates. So I didn't really buy too much into it. You have seen the outcome for us this season. It has been a humbling experience. But this team, we have shown at times, can be not only a good team but a dominant team. I think that especially defensively, I think we are number two in the league, so we definitely have some good parts of this team that we can build on for the future.

**Q: Was that in anyway, that first weekend's win, an albatross of something that could have been…was there ever a difficulty coming down from it and crashing afterward?

LM:** For me, I didn't have time to get caught up in the hype, because I was still trying to get familiarized with my surroundings and the game plan. It really didn't happen until Week 8, until I started feeling comfortable and able to worry about the position that the team was in. Me personally, I never really got that caught up in that.

**Q: You are rooting for your former teammates to do well in the postseason, but is it difficult to see different people playing your position and playing it well here?

LM:** No, it's not. I thought that in the preseason, just having the four games and the training camp and the offseason with those guys, I knew that they were going to be a good team. Obviously, watching Rodney Harrison over the years, he is definitely capable of being a shut down safety, I think, that was helping them out and helping him play the way that me and him are use to playing. They are putting a lot of responsibilities on the corners, and the corners are really stepping up this year. It is allowing the safeties to really do whatever, to blitz a lot, or whatever. When I see the game film, I see Rodney and Eugene [Wilson], I see them blitzing a lot more than we had in the last years. It is probably because of the injuries and they need him to be in the box. That's what he needs to be doing. He wouldn't have been happy in a Cover 2 defense. Leaving that team, I knew that they were going to be okay because we were 4-0 in the preseason. It was just a bump in a road, that first game, and obviously you have seen what they have done over the year.

**Q: What do you miss the most about being here? Obviously, there are some things that you don't miss at all? But what do you miss the most?

LM:** Probably the fans, because the fans really allowed me to be Lawyer Milloy. I played hard, for not only my teammates but for them. They were the type of people that I think that I can relate to, blue-collar, hard-working, not really flamboyant. They just show up to work everyday. They are probably the people I miss. They are probably what I am looking forward to the most, coming out the tunnel and just seeing them and going out there and competing hard.

**Q: It has been such an emotional year for you from start to finish?

LM:** I'm emotionally drained.

**Q: I was going to say, is there anything left? And do you anticipate when you come out of that tunnel feeling any kind of emotion that you are not expecting?

LM:** No. No. After the bye week, I was able to go home and really soak everything in, be with my family. And I am starting to play like Lawyer Milloy again. I'm flying around. I feel good. This is not going to be a game of revenge at all. This is a game that, you guys know, I am going to go out there and I am going to fly around, and it is not going to be a vengeful range. It is going to be because I respect all of my teammates over there and anybody that gains my respect on any opposing team, they can expect my best. I'm just going to…hopefully by the way I approach this week, especially with the situation here, my teammates here can see that this is still football. We have a chance to be a number one defense. Eventually we…right now, we feel like we can line up and play against anybody. It is just sad that we are not in the playoff hunt because I know teams don't want to face us right now. That's the attitude we have right now.

**Q: You played against the Bills a lot as a Patriot, but you probably didn't pay much attention to their defense. Now that you have been a member of it, have their been things that have opened your eyes or been really surprising that you hadn't noticed about some of the guys that you are playing with now?

LM:** Well first and foremost, when I first got here, I realized how young this defense was. I really was the elder spokesman; I turned 30-years-old this year. A lot of these guys are 22, 23, just very young and they need guidance. They need a little bit…that pat on the back to just push them forward. I think over the year, they remain hungry even in adverse situations where the season not going well, I think that the defense has really stuck together. That's the type of team and the type of defense that I want to be involved with. You have London Fletcher, Takeo Spikes, myself, Sam Adams. We have a really good defense. It is a defense, that even though our record doesn't show, we really believe in each other and we believe that we can go out and dominate every week, week in and week out.

**Q: When you talk about how good your defense is, but your team is 6-9. What is going on with your offense? You have known Drew [Bledsoe] since 1996, 97…

LM:** I'm not going to talk about the offense at all. This league is predicated off of wins and losses. The difference is, when I look at the Patriots, they are not blowing anybody out by any means. We have lost a lot of close games. That is the difference between them going to the playoffs, looking at a first-round bye and having the playoffs go through them versus us going home early. That's where we have to be. I think we have to be more mentally stronger. That is one thing that Coach Belichick is very good at. He wants his team to be very situationally aware, thinking, anticipating what the calls are. You see that. I see that on the field. You see that on television. It's a very sharp team. That's why I think that they definitely have a chance to bring it home this year.

**Q: About being the elder statesman and taking the younger players under your wings, can you remember when you were a rookie, who would have taken that role with you?

LM:** Willie McGinest. It was a West Coast, Pac-10 type of thing. Just a guy that I could relate to. At that point, it was him, Chris Slade, Ted Johnson, were pretty much the leaders of the defense. Really I just looked up to him and I watched how he went about himself, on and off the field. He was like my big brother for seven years. He went through some difficult years, but this year I really feel like he is back to Willie McGinest's true form. That is really good to see.

**Q: Have you been running up some phone bills, back and forth, to the Boston area, talking to Ty [Law], talking to Tom [Brady]?

LM:** Yeah, every week we say hi to each other, good luck, go get 'em. That was before I played them the first week and it is going to be before I play them this week.

**Q: Who do you think is the best player, the most important player on the Patriots defense?

LM:** To me, I think the unsung hero this year has been Tyrone Poole. I think he has played phenomenally. In the offseason and training camp, I felt like he did not really want to be there. He had some differences with the coaches and all that. He stuck out like a sore thumb. So the way that he has stepped in and he has played, especially with Ty [Law] being on the other side, we have always been looking for that other shut down corner, which is allowing everybody else to be free. They are putting a lot of pressure on those cornerbacks and they are holding up. To me, he is the unsung hero of the Patriots team.

**Q: Is [Richard] Seymour a much better player then he was when you guys were streaking toward winning the Super Bowl two years ago?

LM:** Yeah, he definitely…I think, evolution with him getting older, getting the snaps. Naturally he is getting better awareness wise. But he is always a player. I told him, 'Look you can take over this league if you want.' This was before last year when he went to the Pro Bowl for the first time. I said, 'If you make your mind up.' If you look at him, he is a physical specimen. He has all the tools. He is very athletic, to be that big. He is the best lineman. The only thing he has to worry about, and there is not anyone else that can control it, is his motor. You have to give it 100 percent of the time, all the time. And as long as he can continue to do that, I don't see anyone stopping him.

**Q: Will you and Bill Belichick really ever bury the hatchet after what happened in September, or do you think that it is just a mutual respect situation and that is a wound that might not ever heal?

LM:** He's a coach, I'm a player. That's it. He was never really my friend. It's a business and that's it. The only thing that really was terrible about the whole thing was their strategy as far as trying to squeeze me into the last week. He knows what he did and that's it. They've moved on. He's moved on. And I've moved on.

**Q: When you look at the Patriot offense what do you focus on first?

LM:** They have been making a lot of deep ball plays off of the play action. That is what sticks out most