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**Q: Ty, you have had some pretty good success with Manning including today. What's the secret?TL:**
I don't know if there is any secret to it because he has also had success against this team and myself, just go out there, play hard and being physical. I think if you stick to the receivers tightly, it's going to be tough to get the to the quarterback, and we have a lot of respect for him, but we felt if we played physical
Q: Is this as good as it gets?TL:
Not yet. We have one more game to go. This was a stepping stone for us. We came here expecting to win, and if we played hard and played together, but this is not the ultimate goal. It's to go to Houston and win.
Q: Can you talk about the coverage plan you had with Marvin Harrison.TL:
It was a pretty simple day. This is probably the most simple game plan that we had, just go out there and stick them and beat them up at the line of scrimmage. If you watch those guys all through the season and post season and put up those big numbers, you see a lot of guys run through the secondary and we say we are not going to let them do that to us, we are going to challenge them more so than other teams, and may the best man win.
Q: Ty, you said you were tired of hearing all the talk about superbowl Manning this and that. Do you think (Inaudible)?TL:
Not really. You can't take away from the year that Peyton Manning had. He is the co MVP. We have a lot of respect for him. It was getting kind of tiring, but it was no disrespect to those guys not wanting to hear about it anymore, I just wanted to go out there and play, what about us, what about our team, which actually added fuel to the fire, so we wanted to go out there and put a little bit of silence on the situation.
Q: (Inaudible) Rodney's interceptions?TL:
It was big, especially when we were confused in coverage, you know what I mean? And he just reacted and made a good play. I don't even think he was supposed to be there. He just seen that I had Marvin and he was free. Great instinctive play by Rodney, and I think he has it proven to be the best safety in the league this year. He got snubbed, and I want to say it again in front of national audience, Rodney Harrison should have been a Pro ball player, I don't know if you guys voted but you are wrong.
Q: Ty, it took a lot of pleading for calls in the second half of the game. Do you think you were in their heads at all?TL:
A little bit. You are going to try to work the refs a little bit. As much respect as Peyton has for the league, he probably will get some of those calls but we stuck to our game plan and played physical, and I don't think that's what they were used to. I am not saying they are not a physical team, I am just saying we were more physical today, and with all due respect, we just out played them for 60 minutes.
Q: Ty, can you talk about the fact as a team concept (Inaudible)?TL:
Well, I mean, of course you start training camp with one goal in mind, to win the championship, and it's a process. The first one is to win the division and make it to the playoffs. The next go around you want to win in the playoffs and get a chance to go to the Superbowl.
But it's the ultimate when you get to the Superbowl, but if go down there and lose, you have a long off season to think about it, and you don't want to do that, you want to win, so we looked at this as a stepping stone to get to our ultimate goal.
Q: Can you talk about your three interceptions?TL:
I don't know how to describe it, but the ball hit my hands and I held onto it. I had pretty good coverage at times, but I have to give a lot of credit to the guys up front. I just took advantage of the opportunities. I think they should get just as much credit as I did catching it because they made him throw the ball out quick. A couple of the balls didn't have a lot of zip on them so I was able to capitalize.
Q: For all the hype that Peyton got and you guys were sick of hearing it, can you imagine a greater challenge than the one you guys overcame as a secondary against a quarterback that hot?TL:
Well, we have been there before. We have heard about it. It was kind of reminiscent of St. Louis when we played against the Rams. They gave us a chance, they were on fire offensively. No one thought we could run with it, but we just did what we do best, and that's play physical. So, I mean, they are going to stick to what they do because why change? You score up 40 some points in two games, we knew they weren't going to change, and we weren't either. May the best team win doing what you do.
Q: What was the sentiment with the fact that the national media, it seemed like there was only one quarterback in this game. You got a guy that all he does is win. What was your feeling there?TL:
I think somewhat slighted, but like I said, it gets to a point where you get used to it around here. That only adds fuel to the fire. Tom Brady is the greatest winner in football right now. I don't care what anybody says. Maybe his numbers are not eye popping and all these yards, all these touchdowns, but he knows how to win ball games. What is stats when you are sitting at home? So Tom Brady, I will play with him any day of the week, with all due respect to Steve McNair, Peyton Manning, and so many of the other great quarterbacks in the game today, I want to go out with Tom Brady because winning is the trump card of everything.
Q: Were you surprised to see so many balls come your way? A week ago you had no balls come your way.TL:
I wasn't surprised because I knew I was going to see a lot of Marvin Harrison, and he's the go to guy, he is best receiver in the league, along with Randy Moss, so I knew I was going to be in for some action this week, and I was looking forward to it, I was ready.
It got a little frustrating last week, but I guess I did my job because they didn't throw at me. I think that's just as good as making interceptions, when they don't throw the ball your way, but Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison is his man, he has had a lot of success with him, and I felt like I was up to the challenge today. I felt it all week, especially with this game plan, and to go in there and give me a chance to be physical on them, and I looked forward to the opportunity all week. I think I was a little bit too antsy at times just to get out there and start playing, but it paid off and we were confident and I am glad we won the game.
Q: They had four interceptions. He had the ball with two minutes and a chance to tie. Were you thinking this guy just won't go down? Was there any concern?TL:
We knew that. You can look back in the Tampa Bay, although we think of ourselves, we are not that defense, but he did the same thing to us the first game, he came back. It got a little bit frustrating because we were tired running around with those guys all day trying to be physical, trying to run step for step with them, and so, I mean, he is not going to quit and we knew that, but at the same time, we were thinking in the back of your head, would you go down, please? You know what I mean? But we fought longer harder and we came out with the victory.
Q: Do you think you are going to be here next year? This team gets rid of people. How do you think of that? Are you worried about it?TL:
I really don't think about it right now. I don't know what's going to happen because technically I am still under contract, it's not like I am a free agent, so I don't have to think about it, but there is probably going to have to be some decisions made as far as my future, but that's out of my hands, out of my control. The best thing I can do as far as negotiating myself is go out there and play football. Hopefully they want to keep me around, but right now is about winning the championship.
We will talk about that after the season, but hopefully I will be here for the long haul. I would like to retire here, but it is a business, and I understand, so regardless of what happens, it won't be any hard feelings because if I do have to leave, I want to leave as a champion.
Q: Can you describe what a big play, you made a fingertip catch, reel it in for an interception. How does what happens from that point on?TL:
Well, I mean, it's just getting back out there, and it gives you more confidence to go make another play. I am always a pretty confident individual when I am out there playing because I have to be, as a cornerback, and I never try to get myself down, but it's about wanting to be in the mix, making a difference, and when I made that play, I was eager to get back on the field to do it again, wanted offense to score to get me back on the field, but it just feels good.
Rodney, he made a lot of plays, and that was a great motivation because he was on fire. You could really tell that that guy wanted to win this game. It's been a long time since he has been in this situation, and I wanted to win it for him just as much as I wanted to for myself.
Q: What did you think when you saw that game plan? A week ago everybody played a lot softer. That seems to be your game. What did you think?TL:
I loved it, from day one, saying you can get up there and beat them up, because we felt that we were more a physical team than them. We couldn't go out there and just play a finesse ball game. They are more a finesse team, they are better at that than we are; let's give them the credit. But we felt we were better at being physical, so we felt we were going to stick to our guns and do just that, and we felt if we were physical, we would have a better chance to win the ball game, and that's what happened.
But when you got a team like that with so many great weapons, the big 3, Brandon Stokley stepping up like he has, Reggie Wayne has been pretty consistent throughout the course of the year, you don't want to go out there and win stride for stride, you will fall into their hands. The only thing that you can beat speed with is power, and that's what we did.
Q: Do you get recognized outside of positive Boston? Do people know who you are? Your team doesn't seem to have a lot of high profile guys.TL:
If they are football fans, but I kind of enjoy it. Certain things come with the territory as far as autographs and people recognizing you, and I think you are doing something right when people recognize you and compliment you on how you played, but at the same time it's nice to be able to go out and enjoy yourself, so if recognition comes with it, that's fine. And if it doesn't, that's fine, also.
The point is that we go out there and play as a team and win, and that's what this game is all about. It's not about individual accolades and recognition outside. We love our fans here, so as long as our fans appreciate the New England Patriots and appreciate Ty Law, it doesn't make any difference what anybody else thinks outside New England
