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Q:** Not only did you beat the Dolphins, but you shut them out. How satisfying is that and how satisfying is it to get the first-round bye?
VW: It feels good when you can shut out a team, especially a division rival. To go in here and do what we did tonight was some pretty good stuff. We played well together as a team. We made some plays; we executed very, very well. So I'm very proud of that. We're in a one-game season now. We've got a bye, so we have a little time to rest up and get healthy and get treatment. Whoever we're going to face is going to be a good team. I have no clue, but at this point it is what it is. We have to start playing our best game and tonight was a good night to start it. I think we did a lot of things well tonight that can win some ballgames for us. We're going to move forward with this one, and like I said, it's crunch time now.
Q: When did you know the Colts had beaten the Texans? Did the captains say anything?
VW: No. We said at the beginning, the only thing we can do is win. Win and everything else will take care of itself. Control what we can control and that was our own destiny. We knew coming in that we had to win the ballgame. From here on out, we have to win. That's reality. There's no beating around the bush. If you want to get to where you want to be, you have to win out.
Q: But when did you see that they had won? Did you see it during warm-ups?
VW: No, I saw it before we took the field, before we started. Then they said the score. At that point, we just knew – going into this week, we knew if we win, everything else will fall into place. If we got the bye, we got the bye. If we didn't, then oh well. But we did what we had to do, which was win. Winning can take care of a lot of stuff. We came out, we won, we played well, we made plays, we executed our game plan the way we wanted to play, we scored points, and we didn't give up any points. That's always awesome when you walk away with a goose egg on the score board. That's very, very satisfying
Q: With this performance, do you think the team is where you want it to be going into the playoffs?
VW: No, there's a lot more areas we can get better. Each week we try to attack those areas and make sure we're doing things that we need to do the right way. Sometimes it will be different things; sometimes it will be things that we've done already. But like I said, at this point, the most important thing now is to win. It might not be pretty, but it's to win. If you lose now, you go home, so it's up to us [to decide] what we want to do, how we want to be, what type of team we want to be. We're in the driver's seat right now, so we drive the car where it needs to go.
Q: With all the rookies on this defense, what's the message you send to them when you have these two weeks? What's the message guys like you and Tom Brady send going forward?
VW: I mean, basically, what we've been doing all year: we lead by example. I don't think there's much we can say. One thing we will say is that everything rises to a whole other level now. Every team you face is a good football team. You're not playing any teams that are below average; you're playing all top quality teams, so we have to be at our top. We have to be at our best every play, every situation [for] 60 minutes – sometimes it might be more. Every time we take the field, we have to understand that we have to make a play. These guys have done a really good job all year. They've done a really good job all year and I'm expecting for them to do the same thing, but just raise our level of play just a little bit each week. More and more each week and hopefully it will get us where we need to be.
Q: Does Coach Belichick do anything at practice to crank that intensity up?
VW: No. I mean, no. Over the years I've been here, I can't remember him doing anything different. All of your eggs are in one basket. We might go in with a bunch of plays and we might try to do a bunch of things and try to cover a bunch of things just so we can have them, but other than that, I think this team, this organization, speaks for itself. I think when you come here, the bar is set so high. We expect to win. If you don't expect to win, you can't be part of this. Everyone expects to win. Every time we walk in the meeting, every time we walk on that practice field, we expect everybody's best. If we play our best, we will be tough to beat. But it's going to take all of us. It's definitely going to take all of us.
