Q: Is this the start that you guys were looking for, both on offense and defense?
VW: I think as a team, we were looking for this all year and what a great time to put it together. You cannot ask for a better performance. Not everything was perfect but at the same time the team started fast and finished. That is one thing that we have been preaching all year. The guys never gave up. Each week you come in and work hard and you never know when it is going to pop for you. (We thought that) hopefully it was today. We went out, played hard, prepared well and good things happened. The offense went out on the first drive and scored and the defense went out and stopped them to give the ball back to the offense. Just playing good football all the way around; all three phases. (It was a) great team win. We have to get better. Each week, it is a one game season. Next week (we have to win the) AFC Championship to get to where you want to be. It's going to start with another great week of preparation and practice. I think that is where it started for us. I think we knew going into this game that we had a good idea of what we wanted to do and how we wanted to play. We prepared well and were very confident going into today's game. I understand that we can play this game how we want to play this game. Everything worked out for us. Hopefully it won't stop now. It's a great week to start playing 60-minutes of football so we have to try and regroup and do the same thing next week.
Q: How good does it feel to look up and see 7 points, then 14, then 21...?
VW: It's always good when you can put points on the board.
Q: Tom (Brady) has been the leader of this team. What does it mean as a team with you guys playing like you were?
VW: We never look at the individual. We all try and do our job (to see) how we can help this ball club and you are right, Tom is the leader of this team; he has been the leader of this team for a long time and has won a lot of games for this team, some [Super Bowls] also, so he is first and foremost. If he plays well then everyone else plays well. When he has an off-day, we try to rally around him as a team to help Tom and the offense. We aren't going to get 20-30 points all the time. It doesn't happen like that. Our job as the defense is to stop the opponent. Whatever we score, make them scoreless. That's the mind-frame we have. We don't want to depend on offense to score 30 points just thinking that each week is going to be like that. We aren't going to set ourselves up for failure. The defense, we always go out and set goals; we want to create turnovers or we want to put our offense in good field position. The special teams is the same thing, so it's always good when you can see points scored. I don't care how you get it, but get it. I would love to see more defensive points scored than offensive but with an offense like this, that's tough.
Q: Does this kind of defensive effort help the confidence of the defense going forward and does it maybe silence some of the critics?
VW: All year we had confidence. I remember talking a long time ago, at the beginning of the season, about the confidence I had in this team and this defense from what I can see we can do. The main thing is guys believe. There is not a week that we come in here and guys don't believe what we are capable of doing as a defense. It can take us a long way. I think that with a performance like tonight, in the postseason, everything is elevated. We don't want to be good; we want to be great, especially at this time. You want to be able to make the game changing plays and great situational plays. All that comes in, but this team won't go away. Like I said, we are going to fight until the end. Whatever the outcome is, we are going to fight so it's great to come out as a team and put it all together. It's something we have been striving for all year; that is to play 60-minutes of football and we have finally done it so hopefully we can do it again this week and maybe the week after that...who knows?
Q: Do you think this is the best performance the defense put in this year?
VW: I think it was the best performance as a unit and a team for playing 60-minutes and not playing three quarters or 58 minutes. 60-minutes of good football all the way around. That's what you look for, especially at this time of year; to go out as a team and play off one another. Offense, defense and special teams.
