Sapp's comments don't faze Patriots

“He’ll get a good view from wherever he’s sitting,” Brady said today during his first pre-Super Bowl press conference at Gillette Stadium.

When asked by PTI co-hosts Michael Wilbon and Ton Kornheiser for his Super Bowl pick, Sapp said, “I think this defensive line of Carolina will dominate the front five of New England. I don't even think it's a fair matchup. I don't see how they're getting it done because I think Russ Hochstein started for them in the AFC Championship game and I've seen Russ Hochstein block, and he couldn't block either one of you two fellas. Damien Woody was the best lineman they had, but Russ Hochstein, trust me my friend, he couldn't block either of you two."

Hochstein, who filled in for the injured Damien Woody in last weekend’s AFC Championship win over the Indianapolis Colts, was a 2001 draft pick of the Buccaneers and lined up against Sapp in training camp that year. Today, he downplayed the significance of Sapp’s comments.

“All I care about is the Carolina Panthers and the Super Bowl that’s coming,” he said.

As Hochstein spoke with a group of reporters in the Patriots locker room, Woody limped towards his locker nearby, wearing a brace on his right knee. The Boston College product is done for the season with the injury, reportedly a partial ligament tear, but was impressed with the job Hochstein did in his place against the Colts.

“For Warren Sapp to call on Russ like that, I think he did a pretty good job last week,” he said. “He didn’t give up any sacks. Russ went on in there and did a pretty doggone good job against a guy, [defensive end] Chad Bratzke, who’s a pretty good player.”

Sapp’s Buccaneers won the Super Bowl last season, but struggled to a 7-9 finish in 2003.

“We’re not concerned about guys who didn’t even make the playoffs, all we’re concerned about is the Carolina Panthers,” Woody said.

Coach Bill Belichick was more preoccupied with his team’s game plan for next Sunday than Sapp’s yapping.

“I’m more concerned about what our preparation is,” he said. “I think that has more impact on how we perform than anything else, so that’s where I’ll focus my attention.”

Sapp also went on to say that he had “already whupped up on [the Patriots] every time they've seen me, so I say the day they beat me is the day I retire, because I am no longer able to play this game like I should." The two teams last met in 2000, a 21-16 win for the Bucs.

“For him to talk like that. He hasn’t even played us since we won the Super Bowl,” Brady said. “They had a great year last year and he’s a great player. But I think he likes to talk a little too much.”

Hoping to be in the zone

One concerning factor in the Patriots’ AFC Championship win was their inability to put the ball in the end zone. Five times that the Patriots were in the red zone Sunday they were forced to settle for field goals from Adam Vinatieri, who kicked the most in an AFC Championship game in 13 years.

“Red Zone is always important, but the name of the game is points,” Belichick said. “If you don’t get points, you’re not going to win and if you give them up you’re going to lose. So any time it involves points, there’s nothing more critical than that. There’s no way to understate the importance of the red zone, it’s impossible.”

The Patriots ended up beating the Colts, 24-14, sending them to their second Super Bowl in the past three seasons. But while the score was relatively close, causing for a few nail-biting moments towards the end of the contest, had the Patriots converted better in the red zone, things would have been a lot more lopsided. If the Patriots converted on just two of those five possessions and scored a pair of additional touchdowns, we might be talking a differential of 20 points, putting the Colts away much earlier in the game.

The players understand that settling for field goals every time they get within the 20-yard line during the Super Bowl will not cut it if they want to win.

“Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t. Obviously we understand that’s not going to be good enough for this game,” offensive tackle Matt Light said. “To beat a team like Carolina, that has a defense like that, you get down there and you have the opportunity to score, you’ve got to score a touchdown, we understand that.”

Bruschi on the mend

As usual with any injury, the Patriots were tight-lipped on the status of Tedy Bruschi, who injured his leg Sunday. Belichick said the linebacker was feeling better than he was on Monday, and that the team was doing everything it could in order to have him ready to play against the Panthers.

“You know how we do things around here,” Bruschi said. “I’m glad I have two weeks. You always say a bye is good to heal your bumps and bruises and obviously I’ve got some.”…If the Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers in next weekend’s game, they will equal the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins in wins, 17. When asked for his memories of the ’72 Dolphins, Belichick replied, “They won all their games.”…Brady said he did get to speak with President Bush, albeit briefly, Tuesday night when he attended the State of the Union Address. “He’s a busy man, right? He wished us well. I said I hoped I’d see him back there in a couple months,” Brady said. The team would receive an invitation to the White House if they were to win the Super Bowl…Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme has made it know that one of the quarterbacks he aims to be like is Brady. The Patriots quarterback today wondered why. “He ought to want to be Michael Vick,” he said. “Have some aspirations.”…The Patriots have been designated the home team in Houston and will wear their blue jerseys for the game. The Patriots also wore blue in New Orleans two years ago.