New England Patriots Links 11/25/09 - Leigh Bodden Corners AFC Defensive Player of the Week

Bill Belichick is asked how the Saints are doing, considering several players have said they are trying to emulate the New England Patriots.

Well, I just watch them on film, and I see them play and - as I said - they are good at everything. They don't make many mistakes. They cause a lot of problems. They're very explosive. They can put up a lot of points in a hurry and they have. It's hard to give them any more compliments than that. They kind of look, in some ways, a little bit like the Rams did back in 2001 with a player like [Reggie] Bush similar to [Marshall] Faulk - a guy who could come out of the backfield, and split out and be a receiver, but line up in the backfield and be a running back. Players like that that are just rare - very hard to match up with - that give an offense a dimension that you just don't see during the course of the year and then all the other things that go with it. Defensively, with their pass rush and [Jonathan] Vilma and Will Smith, [Darren] Sharper, they've got a great scheme and great players to go with it. Like I said, they do everything well.

Dean Pees talks up Vince Wilfork in a big way.

I don't watch a lot of other nose guards; I'm too busy watching everybody else's offense, but Vince does a great job for us. We're able to move him around, whether it be at nose tackle or move him out to end if we need to move him to end. He's a very intelligent football player. Besides being a very good defensive lineman, he's a very intelligent defensive lineman. And generally what happens is on most defenses - unless you get in to sacks and some things like that - basically in the running game, if the linebackers are making a lot of tackles and they're not gaining a lot of yards, it's usually because your defensive line is playing fairly well and it has taken a couple of them to block him. And so sometimes you're right, the stat sheet may not show up just how well somebody played. They may not have a lot of tackles, but if they're using up two guys to block them, that means that somebody else has the chance to make the tackle. And Vince does what we ask him to do within the scheme and he does it very, very well, and I can't tell you how much he means to our defense.

Nick Caserio discusses the need to have more balanced scoring in the second half.

Sure. In the end, our goal is to have more points on the scoreboard than the other club. Each week we go into it and we're expecting improvement on a week-to-week basis, whether it's the first half, whether it's the second half. Really, we've played OK at different points offensively, so I think the most important thing is being consistent for 60 minutes and finishing the game because you never know when that one play is going to sort of make the difference. Our philosophy in the first half is the same as it is in the second half. It comes down to executing a little bit better in the second half and making sure we are a little more consistent with what we're doing.

TEAM TALK

• New England Patriots at New Orleans Saints: Game preview, broadcast info, series history, team connections and more.
• Ask PFW: Thanksgiving edition.
• Tuesday Conference Calls: Bill Belichick (12:42 min.), Nick Caserio (7:02 min.), and Dean Pees (8:01min.) Plus Transcripts.
  

LOCAL LINKS

• Shalise Manza Young offers a much needed primer on the Saints, a team the Patriots have only faced twice before this decade and the first time since 1998 that they've played a regular season game in New Orleans.
• Mike Reiss lists Ten Things to know about the Saints.
• Albert Breer notes so far, the Saints approach has been unbeatable.
• Kerry Byrne warns not to sleep on the Saints defense as they boast the best defense in football.
• Boston Globe Tale of the Tape: Brady vs. Brees.
• Albert Breer talks about how well the O-Line has been protecting Brady. 
• Albert Breer looks at what Belichick said about the comparison between Reggie Bush and Marshall Faulk.
• Albert Breer takes a closer look at the Patriots and the Jets and how their game played out. Terrific insight here and analysis on some key plays.
• Albert Breer questions whether or not Laurence Maroney needs to be a full-time back to be most effective and charts each game he's played in.
• Karen Guregian focuses on the offense and its habit of going stagnant, particularly in the third quarter, and charts out the Patriots scoring by game and quarter to prove her point.
• Ron Borges is disgusted with Rex Ryan's whining.  "There’s no rule against running it up on any team from New York, least of all the Jets and their loud-mouth head coach."
• Michael Hurley crunches the numbers and asks if this Is the best Tom Brady has ever been.
• Adam Kilgore reports the Patriots' offense has stalled in the second half of their losses, particularly in the third quarter.
• Mike Reiss feels Monday's meeting with the unbeaten Saints gives Patriots one last shot at signature win.
• Christopher Price answers his weekly reader mailbag, focusing on the Saints and the lack of Patriots focus in the second half of games.
• Mike Reiss answers his weekly reader mailbag with an early look at Monday's game vs. the Saints.
• Boston Herald Patriots Notebook: Belichick not concerned with preserving record, just on beating the Saints this Sunday; Vince Wilfork earned gobs of praise from Dean Pees; Leigh Bodden earned AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
• Steve DeOssie grades the Patriots in his weekly report card.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Pat Yasinskas (ESPN) Saints strive for perfection, ready for Pats.
• Tim Graham (ESPN) Saints LB Jonathan Vilma warns his teammates that 'you can't sleep' on Watson, Baker.'
• Gregg Easterbrook (ESPN) Passing equals winning in the NFL.
• Tim Graham (ESPN) Mike Holmgren turns away Buffalo.
• Michael Lombardi (NFL.com) Thanksgiving week means best football still lies ahead.
• Don Banks (SI) Things you need to know as the NFL post season comes into focus.
• Ann Killion (SI) NFL needs help in policy to deal with dangerous concussions.
• Sean Leahy (USA Today) Robert Kraft: Saints are 'probabaly the best team in football, better than the Colts.'

VIEW FROM NEW ORLEANS

• Doug Tatum (Times-Picayune) New Orleans Saints scouting report for the New England Patriots.
• John DeShazier (Times-Picayune)  New England Patriots have been where the New Orleans Saints want to go.
• Nakia Hogan (Times-Picayune) Saints coach Sean Payton offers little about team's injuries.
• NewOrleansSaints.com Saints vs. Patriots capsule.
• Doug Miller (NewOrleansSaints.com) Saints playoff picture starts to come into focus.