Tom Brady: It Was Our Day
FOXBORO - Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's post-game transcript, as furnished by the New England Patriots.
Q: How sweet was this one for you?
TB: It was great. I thought we executed pretty well at times. It was a big win. We're playing a damn good team, but it was one win. There are obviously many more big games for us here down the stretch [and] none bigger than Chicago this week, so I think we've got to move on pretty quick. I think we're way behind in preparation for them [after playing Monday night] and they definitely have a jump on us. It was a good job by us tonight to come in here and play well.
Q: You threw touchdowns to four different receivers. Can you talk about the offensive line and how they protected?
TB: They played great. They always play great. I think I certainly don't take those guys for granted. They work so hard, they take so much pride and they're so well coached. We do a lot of stuff with our offensive line in terms of communication and they handle everything so well, so it was a good night for us.
Q: Was there something a little extra to this game though, having lost to them in New York and you having three turnovers in that last game?
TB: Well, we couldn't afford to lose to them again. You can't lose to the same team twice. I don't think it's happened here very often since I got here in 2000. If you want to win your division, which is our goal, you can't lose to the same team twice. This is a team that's 9-2 that's playing pretty good football, and it wasn't their day; it was our day. We made some plays, but we may see them again.
Q: Even though it's a 60-minute game, do you get a sense at some point during the game that things are going well?
TB: Not me. I don't. I've seen some pretty crazy things happen. You can go back to last year with some leads and we just didn't produce much in the fourth quarter. We've got to continue to find ways to produce in the fourth quarter. Our defense really stepped up and made some huge turnovers, got us the ball in a short field and we capitalized. It's a good team. They're a good team. Like I said, I think it was just our night tonight.
Q: I think in Cleveland you said the offense wasn't in sync. Is it safe to say you were in sync tonight?
TB: Well, we made some important plays out there. I think we made a couple fourth downs that were really important. We got some big third downs that were important. We got some situational plays that came up that we did a good job taking advantage of. But it wasn't perfect out there. I think there were a few plays we can definitely do better on. Communication within the whole offense needs to continue to improve, but all in all, it was a fun night. It was fun to be a New England Patriot on Tedy Bruschi night, I'll tell you that.
Q: You played a long time with him and won a lot of games with him. What does Tedy Bruschi mean to you?
TB: He's a great friend. Tedy and I have had a lot of conversations over the years and he's someone I've always looked up to and admired, not only for who he is as a player, but who he is as a person, as a father, as a husband. He's a great friend. He's just a great person. He's got a lot of heart. You know, I think when you look around the locker room and you talk about being a New England Patriot, I think that's one thing that you better have: a big heart. And no one had a bigger one than Tedy.
Q: Some of your teammates said this was the team's best week of practice yet. Would you agree with that?
TB: It was a good week. I don't know. I think we practice pretty well all the time. There's not too often that we don't practice well because we'll be out there all day if we don't practice well; he'll [Bill Belichick] just keep us out there.
Q: You said this week that as you watched more and more film you felt better about the game. What was it that you saw that made you feel better?
TB: We have a lot of guys who have god matchups out there: Woody [Danny Woodhead], [Rob] Gronkowski, Aaron [Hernandez], Wes [Welker] and Deion [Branch] – what they're able to do. This team plays a lot of man coverage and they've got some real good guys and then we've got some guys who I thought we could really have some good matchups against. So that's pretty much the way it turned out. I think those guys that we expected to make some plays for us really did make some plays and we took advantage of some all-out blitz situations that we really haven't done a good job of this year. We overcame some long-yardage situations. The guys stepped up and they made the big plays when we needed it. I think that, more so than anything, it's our level of execution that we need to continue to improve. When we execute the way we did tonight, we have a great chance of winning.
