Bill Belichick caused a minor stir on Monday when he wrote off the use of the Microsoft Surface tablets due to what he described as a lack of reliability. Tom Brady is never even gave them a chance in the first place.
Brady was asked whether he preferred the old-fashioned pictures or the new-age technology available with tablets, and the quarterback raised a few eyebrows with his answer.
"You know, I've never been too much of a picture or tablet [guy]. I kind of know what I see," Brady said. "I see out there and as soon as I come off the field, Josh [McDaniels] will say, 'What was it?' and I'll say, 'Oh, they did this and this guy dropped.' I'll peek at them from time to time with Josh. It's great for the coaches because they have a different angle. It's hard to see when you're seeing from the sideline. When you're out there playing, a lot of times I can come over and tell Josh, 'This is what happened and here's why we did that.'
"Maybe to verify some fronts and stuff like that to make sure of where guys are shaded and identification, because in our system, we always set the scheme of blocking on every play, so we just want to make sure we get it set the right way so that everyone can really be deployed the right way. That's where the pictures probably help me."
So much for the modern age of sophistication. Evidently Brady relies almost solely on his eyes.
Anyway, the quarterback had plenty to say about the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Patriots upcoming opponent on Sunday.
Steel Curtain -Despite his immense success against them over the years, Brady said the Steelers defense has always been a huge challenge to play against.
"It's a lot of pressure, I mean, they blitz a lot. They have every blitz in the book. They've got every combination that you could think of, so much of it for us is about making sure that everyone's aware of who we have in pick-up and who we have in the run game, and making sure we kind of have a hat and account for everybody.
"A lot of times they overload you, and you've got to get the ball out if you need to, based on the protection or based on the calls, so it's a challenging defense to play. They test you in every area and that's why we've always had so many tough games against them. They're just tough to play, especially at home."
Missing Ben -Brady was asked about missing out on the opportunity to go against Ben Roethlisberger, who will miss Sunday's game with a left knee injury. While his absence increases the Patriots chances of winning, Brady didn't seem overly happy with the turn of events.
"I think he's been such a great player, and anytime, you always want to go against the best players. He's one of the reasons why they've been such a great team for as long as – we've had so many memorable games against that team, some really important moments, and it seems like he's been a part of those. It's tough to see any injury for any player, and he's obviously dealing with a significant one, but I'm sure they'll still be ready to go."
Still shaking the rust - Brady has been near perfect in his first two games back following his suspension but the quarterback isn't convinced he's back at full strength – which should send shivers down the collective spine of defense all across the NFL.
"I'm still trying to just get back into the kind of football shape that I need to be in. Being here for two weeks has been great and the practices and so forth have been really good for me. I just need to have another good week. There's no way to really replicate the kind of intensity and duration of what a practice is, and then certainly what a game is, when you're not doing those things. It's been good to be able to do those things for the last couple of weeks, but there's a long way to go and this will be another important week for that."
