Q: How much interest did the Patriots show in you in the offseason?
PB: I never heard from them.
Q: Bill Belichick said he worked with you or did some work on you?
PB: Did some work on me as far as what?
Q: Research.
PB: Well, we never heard from him. My agent and myself never heard from him personally. Maybe he did do some research, look at some tape or what have you, but I never heard from him personally.
Q: How would you view your season having gone so far? How do you think you're playing?
PB: I'm doing okay. We can definitely do better as a whole. We had a few bumps in the road and different things like that. As far as me just evaluating myself from a personal level, [I'm] just working to get better every day.
Q: What's been the biggest challenge for you so far, as far as getting back acclimated and things of that nature?
PB: It has nothing to do physically. I would say more me just really getting comfortable with verbiage of the offense and different things like that. Now I'm going into Week 5, going into the season and getting four games under my belt and different things like that. It's just basically me just picking up the offense and I'm getting to the point where I just go out and play and I'm picking up everything a lot better. You just go out and let your talent show.
Q: Your coach mentioned you have some inflammation in your elbow. How's your elbow feeling?
PB: It's fine. It's a little stiff, a little sore. I kind of woke up this morning with just a real little inflammation. They shut me down for this evening but it's nothing that will stop me from playing this weekend. I plan on practicing tomorrow and Friday so they just wanted to take precautionary measures with the swelling or what have you. I'll be just fine.
Q: What have you seen from the Patriots defense on film, particularly the secondary?
PB: I looked at them this morning for a split second. I know that [Devin] McCourty is a good corner - he made the Pro Bowl last year as rookie. [Patrick] Chung, he is a good player, a good athlete back there being able to make plays. [Brandon] Spikes and everybody knows about Vince [Wilfork] and all those guys. You know, Andre Carter, he's a good rusher, good defensive end. From what I've been able to look at, they have a lot of athletes. They have a lot of speed over there on defense. They have a lot of guys over there that are capable of making game-changing plays.
Q: What is it going to take for you to reach your potential in that offensive system?
PB: Just keep working. I'm not really worried about getting to that level, it will come. I think we all realize that and we definitely have other playmakers out here on the offense that match up well against anybody. It's my first four games playing with Mark [Sanchez], us being on the same page, but it will come.
Q: Talk to us about the adjustment for a receiver adjusting to playing with a quarterback you haven't played with before. What are some of the challenges that exist with that?
PB: It's just one of those things where it's just constant work. A lot of looks that we get in the game we don't get in practice and you just have to read and react. You don't have the time, you don't have the opportunity to go over certain looks when you go out there on Sunday. You may see it one time and you have to go out there and make a play into it, you know, versus making the throws off of the leverage of the defensive back, what angle you're breaking on, or the safety, different things like that. I'm just trying to be consistent with the look that I give him. Just really emphasize where I'm going to be on certain routes and things like that. It's definitely a work in progress. It's something that doesn't come overnight. We're working at it every day.
Q: How would you rate your Super Bowl catch as far as moments in your career?
PB: It's definitely the best. Coming into this business, it's something that you dream of. Playing the wide receiver position, being able to play in the Super Bowl but to win it in the fashion that I did, it's something that you dream of as a child. To do it against a team that was probably the best in history offensively, what they had accomplished. How big that game was, it's just something that will always be a part of me. It was a defining moment of a lot of guys in our careers and it was beautiful moment.
Q: You've had a lot of time to think over the past couple of years. Is that catch something you looked back at?
PB: It's just a part of who I am, playing in that Super Bowl and making that catch, in the fashion that we did, driving down the field in two minutes, making that play on that stage. It's just a part of me. It's a part of history. To me it was the greatest Super Bowl ever played. Like I said, it was a moment that every kid dreams of having. To be able to do go out and execute it and do it in the fashion that we did it against the team we were playing against, it just says a lot.
Q: Does preparing for the Patriots this week bring back those memories?
PB: No, not really. [It's] a different team and different defense. Some of these guys in the back end I haven't even played against any of them. I haven't played up there in almost ten years in Gillette Stadium. It's going to be good to get back and I expect to get booed by the fans and different things like that, but it's going to be fun. I think that for our football team it's a big test for us to know where we're at mentally. We'll play hard and try to get a win. They don't give up wins too often early in the season.
Q: Do you see potential for big plays against this Patriots defense given the fact that they've given up a few in the first four weeks?
PB: There're a lot of big plays that they've given up just from the little bit of film that I've watched. Hopefully we can go out and execute. We're going to have to do a good job of protecting - they've got so many guys up front with Vince [Wilfork], Albert [Haynesworth] and Andre Carter, so we're going to have to block those guys up, it's not going to be easy for us. If they want to play some one-on-one matchups and zone we're going to have to make plays and get into the defense.
Q: Rex Ryan called that loss to Baltimore miserable and horrible. Do you look at that as basically an aberration and kind of throw that out the window because that's not who the Jets really are?
PB: I think a game like that in your career as far as being on the back end and losing in that kind of fashion you don't know what this league is all about. No one wants to lose in that fashion that we did. Like I said, it got our attention and it was something that we needed. We're going to use that as motivation to move forward and remember how poorly that we played, and come out, be sharp and focus on the little details that needs to be done so we can go out and have success against a damn good football team. We know we're playing the best team in football right now, so we've got to come out ready to play.
Q: Rex Ryan has put a lot of attention towards beating the Patriots in the last two and a half years. Have you noticed anything different in this last week of work? Is there a sense heighten of urgency?
PB: I wouldn't say sense of urgency. I expect my boys to come in exactly the way that I expected them to today with the way that we played this Sunday. [They're] coming in focused and ready to pay attention to detail and just concentrating on getting better at every position. It's really not just about the Patriots this week, it's more about us: being where we're supposed to be, making the right calls, communicating, trusting and just going out and playing.
Q: On the Super Bowl catch, do you remember the route? Do you remember how it broke down?
PB: Yeah, it was a play that, we had run the same play twice. Eli [Manning] told me before I broke the huddle that if they gave me single coverage, he was going to throw it. I'm just thinking to myself, there's no way they're going to single cover me at this time in the game. They actually went Cover 0, with no safety help. I had been watching so much film, watching film on Ellis Hobbs, inside from the ten-yard line to the goal line and noticing that he likes to stop his feet right around the goal line. I just went up, just made a move, never broke stride, just kept running. I had watched so much film on him that if I had a chance to run that route, I knew exactly how and when to run it. It actually came down to the film, running that exact route, as I had seen him do, he did exactly what it showed on tape. I knew when we lined up that I had a great shot to make the game-winning catch.
Q: Are you still surprised that they didn't have a safety over the top on that play?
PB: Very surprised. They had single covered me maybe a handful of times that whole game. Coming off the NFC Championship Game and the game that we had Week 16 in Giants Stadium, they were really focusing on taking me out of the football game. For them to give me that coverage with that on the line, I didn't think they would, but thank you.
