QB TOM BRADY
RE: Brady's animation on the sidelines towards his team
I was exhausted. There's only one way to play the game, and it's an emotional game. I think part of being a quarterback is making sure that everyone's into it and there's a level of concentration and focus that you need on the road. The crowd gets noisy and there are plenty of plays that we didn't make, that we probably should have made, especially in the first half. Getting the ball down on the four-yard line and they call us for a chop-block, then not making plays on the next drive, and just not executing great. I thought all the guys played really hard and stayed focus. It was an exciting win for all of us. We haven't been this happy in a long time.
Did the players get your message when you were lighting up?
I really have respect for this team. The Steelers are a classy organization. It's always a battle when we play. When you're playing them, you have to play well. They take advantage of every bad play you make. They're the best at "Sack-the-Quarterback" football. Troy (Polamula) is one of the best in the game. Ike Taylor is a great player. We knew we had to come out and counter it. Everybody was up for the challenge.
RE: This game showing what they're all about, what is that?
Well we're pretty good when we play and execute the right way, do the right thing, and when everyone's doing their job. We got off to a fast start tonight, played from ahead the whole game, and that's a big difference. Anything can happen each week, and we're 7-2 with a lot of football left. We've got another great opponent coming into our stadium this week, so like I said it's an emotional win, everyone, especially me has to get some rest and be ready to come back Wednesday.
RE: This past week of practice compared to the week before the Cleveland Browns' game
It was a better week, but (Colt) McCoy comes to execute on gameday, and I've had good weeks of practice where I thought we'd come out and win and bad weeks where I thought we'd come out and lose, so you have to learn from practice. If it's good, you have to keep it that way, and if it's bad then you know you have to improve it. We had a good week of practice this week. Our guys made some great plays, and I think that's the exciting part.
WR WES WELKER
RE: Best Performance of the year thus far
I think we did a lot of good things out there, and we were able to move the ball. I think there were some frustrating times too. We were up 10 to nothing and we wanted to put more points on the board, and we weren't able to. It's a little bit frustrating with the penalties and other stuff. At the same time we did some good things, and were able to move the ball. It's just when we would stop ourselves, we would have some trouble. Overall, it was a good game and a great win for us.
NT VINCE WILFORK
Re: Preparing to play the Steelers
We got off with a good start this week in practice, and it showed today. We prepared well this week. I think everybody's focus was on the Steelers. So starting in practice, we showed up every day and tonight. They're a pretty good football team.
Re: Importance of rebounding from last week's loss to Cleveland
Each week is different, especially coming off an embarrassing loss. As a defensive unit, we just wanted this game to hurry up and get here. At the same time, we had to take care of what we had to take care of in practice. I think everybody did a good job of coming to work and putting the Cleveland game behind us and focusing on the Steelers. We did well. We prepared well. Guys came ready to work. We were eager to get to this game and get this game started to get rid of the bad taste of last week. It worked well for us today. We came out and played aggressive and physical. If you want to beat the Steelers, you have to be able to play physical. If you don't, they'll run you out of the building. One point of emphasis this week was coming out and playing aggressive and standing up to these guys.
TE ROB GRONKOWSKI
Re: Importance of the game
That was a great win. It was a great team win. All the line played well, the wide receivers were out there running. The defense played great. Overall, a great team win and I'm so glad we got the "w" to go home with.
Re: Playing high school football in the Pittsburgh area
I played here at Woodland Hills my senior year, up here in Pittsburgh. We never made it to Heinz Field. We lost, I think, two games before the championship (at Heinz Field). I did come to Pitt games and Steelers games here. It's a great atmosphere. The fans are crazy, I knew they'd be up for the game. The fans are awesome. It's a wild atmosphere. (Woodland Hills High School coach) George Novak was here.
Re: Playing well after loss to Cleveland
It definitely feels good. We practiced hard all week as a team. I just had to go out there to do my job, and everyone else did their job, and we just played as a team. That's what we did, and we got the "w" and it feels a lot better.
Did you have something to prove tonight?
It's just opportunities. When you get the opportunity, you have to step up. Obviously last week didn't go the way we wanted it to. We practice hard every week no matter what, and this week we're going to have to practice just as hard as we did last week, or even harder. We have a good team coming into our home and we have to go hard all next week.
OL RICH OHRNBERGER
Re: Tom Brady's vocal leadership
This is an easy game to get fired up for. We didn't need any extra motivation, especially after last week. We had a whole week to think about how we played, and I think we played a lot better than we did (last week). We didn't want a repeat.
What was Tom Brady's message on the sideline?
I don't know. He was yelling about something. He was just trying to make sure that everyone was focused and into the game and that everyone knew that the game wasn't over yet.
How do you react when your quarterback is that fired up and animated on the sideline?
I don't know. It's good, I guess. Look, we're professionals, we don't need Tom to yell at us, but when he thinks it's necessary, he's going to yell at us. We take it for what it's worth.
Re: Brady's animation after touchdowns
Yeah, that's always great. Football's a game of emotions, so we want to see him excited when things are going well.
