Quarterback Brady enjoyed a field day
FOXBOROUGH -- Though more than $300 million was invested in the construction of Gillette Stadium, part of it going to a state-of-the-art drainage system, the playing surface reminds Tom Brady of his high school field in San Mateo, Calif.
"How were the conditions?" Brady asked after the Patriots' 24-3 win over Baltimore yesterday. "Poor. I think that field from here on out is going to be terrible because it is only going to get colder and the grass doesn't grow back, so it is just going to be mud for the rest of the year, which I think we are all pretty much accustomed to here. That is what we played in all last year. Hopefully, we can use that to our advantage.
"When you walk off the field you say, `Yeah, that was kind of fun.' You look around at the locker room at the end of the game and it does feel like you are in high school and you are playing on that old, crappy, dirt field you played on in high school that I think every team in our school used to [use]. The soccer team, the baseball team, everybody was on the football field. That is the way it is out there now. The field gets beat up and it gets torn up and it gets muddy. It gets sloppy out there.
"You just have to do the best you can do. You know it is not going to be perfect out there. It is not like we play in a dome. Every week it is different around here and it changes every hour, so you just have to learn how to adjust. If it is really windy or it is cold or it is rainy or it is snowing, we have played in quite a few games where it is less than ideal. This is another one of those games."
Brady struggled in the first half, leading the Patriots to a 3-0 lead on Adam Vinatieri's 28-yard field goal on the first play of the second quarter. But the Patriots clinched the win with three successive scoring drives to start the second half, stretching the advantage by scoring 15 points on a three-play sequence -- a Corey Dillon 1-yard run, Dillon's conversion run, and a Jarvis Green fumble recovery in the end zone. And the Patriots seemed on the verge of more scoring, Brady's 23-yard pass to David Patten negated by a pass interference penalty.
"I was pretty disappointed," Brady said. "I think I went over to the refs and let them know it. But, I saw the replay and it is just always tight like that when you get a DB and a receiver running for the ball one-on-one. Sometimes they call [interference] on the DB and this time they called it on David. I thought Dave made a nice play on the ball. It was a nice catch and that would have been a nice touchdown. Had the score been a little closer it might have been more of a factor, but fortunately it didn't end up costing us too badly."
Brady did his best to issue the company line about concentrating on the task at hand and at being humble, but he did acknowledge satisfaction in the Patriots' 10-1 record and zero-turnover performance.
"I think we were on a streak of like 18 or 19 straight games where we turned the ball over," Brady said, "so in a game where you would expect the ballhandling to be poor, guys slipping out there or grabbing balls on interceptions, it was nice that we didn't have any of those interceptions.
"I think they had some things for us that we weren't really ready for, things they hadn't shown. I think it was important for us, going into the second half, to make some changes. It is an excellent defense. We scored 17 offensively. But, to score 24 points against a defense like that, as a team I think everyone feels, not that we can't improve, but it was a good performance.
"At this point we are 10-1 and feeling really good about where we are in the big picture, but there are five tough games left and we are playing two teams that we haven't played in a while.
"I think a lot of it comes down to turnovers and penalties and those types of things. We had too many penalties [yesterday]. When you play in these type of conditions it is different. With each play there has to be so much more concentration. You just can't take for granted a center-quarterback exchange. You can't take for granted a handoff. And when you throw the ball, it is wet and muddy and you have to try and direct it through the wind.
"It was not really offensive football. You can't expect to go out there and have 500 yards of offense. You would like to think you could, but when you are playing a defense like that and it is rainy and windy, you just try to come away with a win."
