Q: What has it meant for your defense to have a shutdown corner like Stephon Gilmore out there with you guys?
PC: I mean, it means a lot. It only means something if he can do it all the time. We always preach that, but he means a lot. He's definitely a good corner, been competitive and a smart guy.
Q: He seems to cover some of the best wide receivers in the league pretty consistently. What's the one thing that stands out about his game?
PC: We put him on those guys for a reason. He's just good, man. He's good, he's quiet and he just does his job, a professional. That's what stands out about him the most, is that he's a professional and he comes in and studies his film and makes sure he knows what he's supposed to do.
Q: Will you watch the playoff games that take place this Saturday and Sunday?
PC: I'll probably watch half of it. I'll probably be chilling with my little man. It's time for me to get football off my mind. I'll be back ready to go Monday.
Q: Rest and relaxation are in order?
PC: Rest and relaxation, for sure.
Q: What has it been like to take the field this week in practice without Devin McCourty participating?
PC: I mean, Dev's our leader. He's very smart. He gets us lined up and we feed off of him, [Dont'a] Hightower and those guys. It'll be fine. He'll have time to heal. I'm not really worried about not having him. He's a tough dude, man. We'll go from there.
Q: How does the communication change when somebody like that is out of the lineup?
PC: It shouldn't change, definitely. I mean, not having him in there, hypothetically, but we all learn the same things. We're all in the same meeting rooms. We're all in the same book. It shouldn't change. We have a lot of guys out there that communicate so it should be good.
Q: In terms of the self-improvement you're looking to do as a team this week, where does run defense fit in the hierarchy? Is it tough to work on that sort of stuff when contact in practice can be limited?
PC: I mean, I can't really say we focus on one thing. We focus on all of those things so I can't really give that a place. It's a time to better ourselves and find out things that are hurting us and we're going to find those things, not just particularly [run defense]. Just work on everything. We have time to rest and see what we can improve on and just pretty much go from there.
Q: How much better do you feel the secondary has gotten throughout the season?
PC: Yeah. I mean, naturally you're going to grow over 20 games, but we're only as good as our last game. We've got one more coming so we'll see how good we are.
