Q:Do you have a little illness up there?
TB:No, I'm good. I'm doing good, ready to go. It's going to be a fun week, great environment for football. It's a big challenge playing on the road. They've got a good team. They were one of the best teams in the league last year, and it's going to be a tough game. We got a lot of work in yesterday, a lot of work in today, so excited for the week.
Q:How much does play-action help in giving you time to read through your progressions?
TB:Play-action is a great tool for an offense because if used effectively, I think you can gain more time to get your receivers down the field to create bigger opportunities. It always displaces the zone coverage and could slow down the rush if they think the back has the ball. So, it's a great tool if used at the right time. Not on third-and-14, [when] they're not going to be playing the run. First-and-10 situations and things like that, that's when it's really effective. But really it's the whole arsenal that you need to have as an offense. You've got the play-action, the screens, draws, traps, downhill runs, outside runs, inside runs. When you think about a particular opponent, you're looking for their potential things that you see as weaknesses in order to try to exploit those things. Then like I said last week, they make adjustments over the course of the game, thinking, 'Oh, well this is the way the game is going to go.' Then we make adjustments, and it goes all the way up right until the end of the game.
Q:It seemed like you only got to your second or third reads once or twice in last week's game. Is the clock in your head accelerated because you feel you might not have time?
TB:I think there are different parts of the game where you do that as a quarterback. Typically, the longer you have to throw, the better decision you'll be able to make. I've said the best teams are typically the ones that can rush the fewest amount of people and still get the same amount of pressure because then they can help in coverage. If a team has to pressure to get pressure, they've got to bring a fifth rusher to get pressure, then they're lighter in coverage. If a team can rush four or three and still get great pressure, then it's a great advantage for the defense. It's just a chess match that goes back and forth, and I'm sure it'll be that [way] this week. These guys have some real good pass rushers. It's not one of those games you want to stand back there and see how long you can hold the ball because eventually they're going to get there. They've got two of the best guys in the league on the edge that can rush quarterbacks, strip-sack. Coach gave a great stat today. In 11 wins, they had 41 or 46 sacks, and in their five losses they only had five sacks. Those guys are real big playmakers for them – [Justin] Houston and Tamba Hali. They've got some good scheme stuff, inside blitzes. They've got a good defense. They've got a great team. They've got good offense, good defense, good special teams. It's a tough team.
Q:You play several stout defenses coming up. How important is it to get the offensive line going and ramp up protection?
TB:Like I said after the game, there are a lot of things we have to ramp up. It's not just one thing on our offense, and we're trying to identify the things that we need to do better, and then certainly go out there in practice and try to do a better job with them. It's not really one area; it's all areas. That's what is going to make us hopefully the most effective team we can be in November, December, just by working hard, continuing to correct our mistakes, and then see if we can get better and make the improvements so they don't show up week to week. Some teams really flatten out at some point. You work on things, they never get better, they're always a problem, and then you lose confidence in them, and it can go the other way pretty quickly.
Q:What do you feel like you have to do to help the offense get better?
TB:Just be the best quarterback I could be. I think that's what my job is, and my responsibility as a player is to do whatever the coaches ask me and do it the best way I can. That's trying to do everything well on a consistent basis – be a good leader, obviously make the plays when they're there, have great command and understanding of what we're doing, try to put our team in the best position possible to win.
Q:I wanted to ask you about the fun you've been having lately on Facebook, with the college resume and the Robert Kraft high five. What was the thought with that?
TB:I don't know. I'm not really the social media king, but there are a lot of people who put a lot of time and energy into it, and it's a pretty popular thing these days. I'm glad you had some fun with it, glad you enjoyed it. That's the goal.
Q:When you look at Chandler Jones' length and wingspan, have you ever fantasized about using him as a wide receiver?
TB:Usually they put the guys on defense because they can't catch the ball. They weren't good enough to play offense. They didn't have enough ball skills to catch it. But you're right. He's got phenomenal length, and he's so quick and gangly. He always seems to be making plays. We could probably use that on offense – those long arms to catch the ball and stuff like that. Vince [Wilfork] is catching the ball. Whenever that ball is near Vince, he catches it.
