New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady addresses the media during his postgame press conference at Gillette Stadium on January 12, 2008.
Q:What kind of view did you have on the tackle on Donte' Stallworth?
TB: I didn't see the tackle. He made a great play that slipped the guy and ran by him and made a great catch, right on his fingertips. I thought he was going all the way. He usually doesn't get caught, but Rashean [Mathis] is very fast and he made a great play to tackle him.
Q:(On pressure on that play) On that play, they had pressured us, and I looked to the left and kind of rolled to the right and thought Donte' beat the guy. And they gave us a great chance tonight, receivers, the running backs made some really tough catches in traffic [and] big fourth down catches. Randy had a great catch. The fourth down line, I thought, protected extremely well. [The] penalty hurt us there, and then [there were] a few other plays that I wish we had executed a little bit better. But the thing about it now is none of it matters, so for 17 games, it all comes down to this, and we were here last year, so I hope we perform better.
Q:They played about as well as they could. They took away Moss for a lot of the game – does that make it a more satisfying win?
TB: Sure, and I think the thing with trying to take away Randy or trying to take away any one player, I mean, you're vulnerable in a lot of other places. So I thought we ran it great. I thought we were efficient throwing the ball. So even if, you know, if you're taking two guys every play and putting them on Randy, then you leave a lot of other guys one on one. So you've just got to try they are doing what they think is the best thing they can do to stop us. You know, sometimes it worked tonight, and other times I thought we made enough plays.
Q:When the defense was on the field you were just pacing and pacing. It seemed like you were very, very anxious to get back on the field when it was 14 14.
TB: I was. We were so close on so many plays defensively. Rodney [Harrison] almost had the interception. We almost had a sack [on] the fourth down play at the end. You know, I thought it just was going to take one or two plays to kind of get us over the hump. When you play good teams like that, usually it takes four quarters. I thought Rodney's interception at the end really sealed it. [We] really needed that play. Turnovers were big in this game. We got two of them, and Coach really stressed that all week. They had an incredible percentage of wins when they won the turnover battle, so we came way ahead.
Q:(On accuracy)
TB: No. Those guys when they are open like that, that's my job to hit them. They were open every time. It's easy when you have receivers that are open all the time and an offensive line that never let's anyone touch you. It makes it fun to play.
Q:The touchdown pass looked almost like the Statue of Liberty, what would you call that?
TB: Yeah, I'm looking for my Academy Award on that play. That's definitely we worked on it the other day, and for the first time we just kind of put it in on Friday and thought we had a shot on it. I think they bit on the run pretty good, and Wes [Welker] did a great job. He's hard to find. He's five-foot-seven. [I] just had to drop it over the linebacker and he made a nice play to catch it.
Q:Did you have a name for it in practice?
TB: We call it double pop.
Q:Double pop?
TB: Double pop.
Q:Watching you play on the field you never seem flustered no matter the situation and from our Japanese point of view, it looks very Zen of you.
TB: I'm all Zen. I'm all Zen.
Q:I know you're from California, but where did you pick up that focus and intensity?
TB: Well, I think I have a lot of confidence in the guys I play with. So when you're confident in the guys around you, and I've been around for eight years [with] the same offense and the same coaches, so I have pretty good confidence going out there knowing that if I just do my job, everything will take care of itself. We were very fortunate this year, and we're 17 0 and that's great, but it all comes down to this week. We have to really play our best game. I hope I'm Zen like for another week. That would be a great feeling.
Q:Talk about the opportunity to go all the way
TB: Yeah, and the great part [is that] it's just one game. It's one game. All the preparation, all the months of workouts and training camp and weeks of football and hundreds of hours of practice and six hours of meetings a day, it comes down to this. It's a great opportunity. Junior [Seau] talked to us before the game and he said, we control what happens tomorrow and that's all you can really ask for. We have an opportunity to play another week and whoever we play, whether it be the Chargers or the Colts, is going to be obviously the toughest game all season. [I'm] glad we're playing at home and I'm glad I think we've learned a lot of valuable lessons throughout the season and really have to put our best effort this week at practice and hopefully play our best next week.
Q:All week long we heard about the Jacksonville running attack; how good was it to see Laurence Maroney have the game he had tonight?
TB: Laurence has been great he's been playing good all season. I don't think he probably had all of the opportunities he would have hoped, but his role has been whatever he's got and he's been extremely productive. And the way we've thrown the ball with multiple receivers on the field, it puts a lot of stress on the defense. Any time you have Randy and Wes out there and Donte' and Jabar [Gaffney] all making plays…really, Laurence, thank God, lost it there for a little bit, but he's obviously found his way, and he's been extremely productive tonight [and] had some huge runs. I thought the receivers did an incredible job of blocking, I don't know if you guys noticed that, but that's what it takes: team football. I think that's why we're in this position: because of a bunch of selfless players, whether it be Laurence or the receivers or the offensive line, [who] always count on each other to do their job.
Q:Do you think you're a handsome quarterback? [From Randy Moss]
TB: That was the last question.
