TEDY BRUSCHI, LB
I think what you're going to have here on Saturday night is two physical football teams pounding away at each other. It's just going to be a battle.

(On Tennessee's 13 wins)
It didn't surprise me in terms of what they did. They don't care who they're playing or where they're playing. Jeff Fisher has them at a point where their mentality is that they're going to get it done.

(On Steve McNair and his injuries)
He's got his aches and pains, I'm sure, but the bottom line is what I see out there. I see him out there playing and making plays and running quarterback draws. To me, he looks good and he looks healthy when he's playing.

WILLIE McGINEST, LB
The difference is, now it's a one-game season. You lose and you go home. We don't have 15, 12 or nine more games to try to get back on track. If you do something wrong or have a bad game, you don't have another game to say, 'I'll just get it next game.'

(On why the defense plays so well at home)
We don't really look at it as where we play. We just work together and execute. When you don't give up big plays and you get turnovers, it makes things a lot easier. Getting off the field on third down has been the emphasis with our defense this year. We worked really hard in the offseason to do that.

(On whether he is a wiser player than earlier in his career)
Definitely. You learn from your experiences. It's always been said that to know is to experience. If you don't go through certain things or experience them, you can't really know how to bounce back or how to react to things when it happens to you.

(On whether the most physical team will win on Saturday)
We don't sit around here and say, 'We've got to play physical.' That's what we do anyway. If you say, 'New England Patriots,' you say physical. Period. You can't get yourself up for something that you already do. We don't have to say that we're going to play physical because they're physical. We're both physical teams and we know that. We try to play that way every game no matter who it is.

DAMIEN WOODY, C
(On how the Titans are different from during the season)
The first time we played them, they had some starters missing. We had a pretty good day against them the first time, but they're a much-improved defense since that time and we're much improved on our side of the ball. We'll see what happens, but they're very aggressive, they have a lot of good athletes on defense, they know how to run the football and they're a physical football team. It's going to take our best effort on Saturday night.

(On whether they have confidence due to the regular-season victory)
It starts over. You can't take anything from that game because it was so early in the regular season. They had some people missing, so you really can't take anything away from that game. Just because we ran the ball pretty well against them in that game doesn't mean we're going to do it again this game. All we can do is work, prepare and get ourselves ready and try to put ourselves in the most advantageous situation in order for us to do the things we want to do.

ANTOWAIN SMITH, RB
(On running in the snow in the last playoff game in New England)
Actually, it was kind of fun. But whatever the elements are and whatever conditions exist, both teams have to play in them. What it basically comes down to is execution and whichever team executes the best.

(On running the ball well against the Titans in the first meeting)
Looking back at it, we did some good things in that game. But this is a totally different game right now. The stakes are a lot higher right now since it's playoff time. If you win, you move on and if you lose, you're out. I don't think we're ready to go home right now.

CHRISTIAN FAURIA, TE
(On whether playing the Titans before gives anyone an edge)
A little bit, but they've changed quite a bit and so have we. We've both grown a lot since that first game. Do we expect to see the same stuff from them? A little bit, but I'm not sure how much.

(On not getting caught up in the hype)
I think we've done a pretty good job all year not getting caught up in the hype and taking the one game at a time approach. This one is no different from the other games that we've played in trying to stay focused on what's at hand and not let external things affect how we think. The best thing I can do is not to read the paper and not watch TV.