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Q: Can you talk about bouncing back the way that you guys did today?
TB: This was such a good team performance. The offense had a pretty good first half. We moved the ball really well. Defensively we came out in the second half and they just shut them down. This is Patriot football. This is the way we expect to play and it is nice when it comes together like this.
Q: Personally though were there any sleepless nights this week, you seem to have so much confidence that you can just seem to ride the wave and bounce back?
TB: There are hard times before that I have had, so you kind of learn how to deal with them and just move forward. Sometimes you come out in a game like this and you just have got to put everything behind you and you have got to say, 'I want to move forward and see what we can do' because you can't get last week back. We are back to 4-4 and we have got the whole second half of the season.
Q: What kind of things were you saying to yourself before the game, were you trying to say just go out, relax, calm down because I am sure you were itching to get out there after last week?
TB: Yeah I think I was ready to get back out there last week, Sunday night, whenever that game ended. So it was good to come out, you come down, we play three in a row on the road and you win two of them and that's pretty good. That is good football. Now we are back at home for three and it is going to be good to be back home and back in front of our home fans.
Q: Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good, can you talk about the pass that ended up in Troy Brown's hands?
TB: We drew it up that way, what are you talking about. You know sometimes it bounces your way and other times it doesn't. Last week there were a couple of interceptions that it was just unlucky, so it kind of evens itself out. Sometimes you get some lucky ones. That was a big play in the game. I mean David [Patten] saw the ball coming and he kept it alive and Troy was in the right position, I mean it is just luck, but it is good luck for us.
Q: It wasn't luck in the drive at the end of the first half, can you take us through that?
TB: Yeah, yeah and I think we got the ball on our ten yard line and I think we had about two minutes and fifty seconds I think, both time outs…
Q: And you burned about 20 right at the end.
TB: Yeah, yeah we did. Charlie [Weis] made some good calls in there. Calls that are really pushing the ball up the field and forcing them to defend. Troy made a great catch on one play, David came back and made a great catch and then Marc [Edwards] on the touchdown almost fell down he was so wide open.
Q: Did the strategy change at all in the second quarter because it seemed like you were a little more conservative in the first quarter and then I think you threw 19 passes in the second quarter?
TB: We really came out firing in the second quarter. We go out there and for us we have our opening plays and you kind of anticipate how you think you want the game to go and the type of tempo you want to set whether it be running or passing and then about the second quarter everything starts to settle in. You really start getting back the things that were working well and I think that drive right before the end of the half was a huge drive for us. Momentum-wise we came into halftime excited and we knew the defense was playing well and they came out and just stepped it up, I mean that was great defense. Chalk it up to the defense today, it was great to see.
Q: Is it nice to have the road test behind you, getting back home?
TB: Yeah it will be really good for us. We have been traveling every week so you are cutting down your crowd noise and the momentum, if you notice the momentum when you are on the road, like at Denver last week, if we were at home it is a completely different game because it is so hard to get back into the game when the crowd is on the other side and every third down is a big play. So now that we are back at home we are real comfortable and confident that we are going home.
Q: Speaking of the crowd, did you notice that there were a certain number of Patriots fans?
TB: There were a lot of Patriots fans especially in that corner of the end zone. We were down there and it was great to see them, what great support.
Q: How shocked were you to see the ball bounce and end up in Troy's hands on that touchdown play?
TB: Oh man that has never happened to me before. I saw the ball bounce up and immediately look and say, 'Oh God where is that ball going to come down' and Troy was just kind of sitting there and Troy was surprised to see it and he caught it and busted out to the left side and read no one was there and I think he was kind of striding into the end zone. It was a pretty lucky play, but at the same time we will take those.
Q: How old were you for the "Immaculate Reception"?
TB: What year was that?
Q: '72
TB: Yeah that was way before I was born.
Q: That last series before the end of the first half, did you want to make a first down and then see if you could get some points or did you want seven from the get go?
TB: I think that was important because when you are on your own ten you don't want to punt the ball back to them and let them get the ball on the 50. So I think it was important to get a first down. I think we ran a screen for a first down and then we took a shot up the field with Troy then at that point you are saying, 'Wow, we got them. We have all of our timeouts, we are moving the ball, David made a catch there and then we got the first on Kevin [Faulk] getting out of the backfield on the linebacker and threw a touchdown to Marc. Everyone stepped up today. [Jermaine] Wiggins had a lot of catches, he was a big part of the plan, Kevin was and Antowain [Smith] and Charles Johnson and Curtis Jackson, guys that you haven't been seeing us much really stepped up and played good.
Q: Some people and even a former coach here years ago speculated about would a quarterback get rattled after a game like you had last week and this would sort of be the proof of what kind of quarterback you were, did you ever feel rattled in the aftermath of that game?
TB: I watched the film and from that point you are trying to understand why you made the plays you did and what you saw and what you were thinking. You evaluate those and then you say, 'Well if that comes up again I am not going to do that.'…I mean I don't think my confidence has ever been a problem.
Q: The question last week at Denver was whether you had to force the ball today to try to make plays early or whether you would be tentative, but obviously you were neither?
TB: Yeah, yeah and that's how I play. The way our offense is setup we can put a lot of pressure on defenses with our formations and putting certain guys in different spots. Kevin lining up outside or Marc Edwards lining up outside and it really forces the defense to show their hand. So we get down there in the end zone, when I threw the little fade ball to Kevin, he made a great catch. I mean I look out there and I see a linebacker on him and I will take Kevin on a linebacker all day. So that type of stuff with our offense where you can spread them out or we can tighten it down at the end, I mean it is second and 20 and we get a first down just by running the ball.
Q: Was he your first read, did you see him on the backer at the line and now you are going to go with first, it was a perfect throw and he made a nice adjustment?
TB: Yeah he sure did. Kevin is capable of that.
Q: Is that the call coming out or did you see that?
TB: Their corners and safeties were matched up on our receivers and then the running backs are normally matched up on linebackers. Well if it is zone coverage those corners are going to be outside just in their zones and once you see that it is man coverage, you know he has Kevin man-to-man, so you are looking over the field and that is your best match up.
Q: It looked like at the beginning that you were a little antsy because the ball was sailing over Patten's head by three feet do you wonder at that point that maybe the adrenaline was flowing too much and you had to calm yourself down?
TB: I didn't feel that much, I didn't feel that much. Maybe my technique wasn't as good as it should have been on those first couple. That first one I remember I threw high to David, I threw real early before Dave came out of his break so I think it surprised him a little bit when he came out of the break. So that's one I wish I could remember it, but yeah that's one.
Q: I think you were only three of eight in the beginning at the game, you didn't sense it?
TB: I didn't sense anything.
Q: The pass to Kevin in the end zone, do you throw that fade a lot to him in practice?
TB: Yeah I am real comfortable with, I mean I have thrown with him before…
Q: But I mean you threw a perfect pass to him?
TB: Yeah we worked on that. Kevin loves that, Kevin will go out there he will catch them one handed, left hand, right hand, he loves that
