 | | |
sports > football > patriots > blogs
« Brady checks in |
Main
| Contract follow-up »
August 20, 2007
5 from Foxborough
FOXBOROUGH –- Patriots coach Bill Belichick held his daily press conference today (11:30 a.m.), while quarterback Tom Brady also answered questions from the media. The media had access to the locker room from 11:50 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Here are five nuggets from the scene at Gillette Stadium:
1) Belichick on Maroney. Bill Belichick noted that since Laurence Maroney has shed his red, non-contact jersey, it’s fair to assess that as a sign he might play in Friday’s preseason game at Carolina. “He’s made steady progress,” said Belichick, who added that it’s important that Maroney get some game-speed work. “The situation varies from player to player but in general, I think players need to practice and play to get ready to play. If we wanted to save everybody, we’d just sit around here for six weeks and not do anything. I don’t think we’d have a very good football team, but everybody would be safe. I don’t think that’s the answer. There has to be some middle ground.”
2) Why does Vinny do it? Quarterback Vinny Testaverde, 43, was asked why he’s decided to come back for his 21st NFL season. He said he still feels capable and has a passion for the game. “I feel like a lot of guys who have retired, a year later, their bodies start to feel better and physically they start to feel better and they say ‘Boy, I wish I could make a comeback.’ But it’s too late because they’ve been out of the game for a year and it’s hard to get back in once you do that. So I just kind of put my time in conditioning and in the weight room, and if I did that and got through the offseason and didn’t want to play, then I’d call it quits. But I still have that hunger, that taste for wanting to go out and do more. That’s why I do it.”
3) Gostkowski works on slowing it down. Kicker Stephen Gostkowski talked about his missed 33-yard field goal (wide left) on Friday night. When he assessed the kick, he said he needs to slow down. “I was kind of rushing myself, trying to kick too hard,” he said. “I have to believe more in my leg strength, especially on a short field goal like that.”
4) Belichick on the week ahead. Belichick touched on the team’s schedule at this point. “This is the week where we begin to transition into our regular-season schedule. We’re still in camp but we’re starting to transition into that, and kind of shift into more game preparation, and more of a regular weekly schedule. The players have moved out of the hotel, the ones who wanted to. We’re definitely not there yet but we’re taking a step there. There are a lot of things we’re trying to work on. Some things are general things we need to do to get ready for the season, some things pertain to Carolina, some things pertain to the Jets and the opening part of the season. We still have a few personnel things, we want to let guys work in different positions so we can build depth on our team –- so when we go to a 45-man active roster [on game day] that we have enough depth to get everything covered. We kind of have a lot of balls in the air this week. It’s an important week for our team in terms of its overall development. We’re going down to Carolina at the end of the week and I’m sure that will be a tough game down there.”
5) Stunts in focus. On quarterback Tom Brady’s two interceptions Friday night, rushers sprung free on stunts and pressured Brady. The second interception came as Antwan Odom stunted up the middle and crunched Brady. Right tackle Ryan O’Callaghan initially blocked Odom before passing him off to right guard Stephen Neal (who was blocking Tony Brown). But in reviewing the play, O’Callaghan said he didn’t execute properly, as he should have stayed with Odom. The reason is that he and Neal were playing on different levels (O’Callaghan was deeper in the pocket than Neal was), so it was his responsibility to stay with Odom.
Here is the football-specific Q&A from Tom Brady from the locker room today.
Posted By: mreiss | Time: 01:15:06 PM | E-mail | Link
|
|
|
