New England Patriots Links 12/09/10 - Brady Searching For More Consistency

Tom Brady talks about the difference between his level of play now versus earlier in the season, and how hard it is to stay mentally sharp week-to-week.

Regardless of how I play it's how our offense plays. That's what I'm concerned most about. I think we've been playing better as of late, and we're going to need to continue to play better. The weather is getting colder. The conditions are getting tougher. Everyone has to be able to execute at a high level, and I think that the guys that are on the field that are playing play-in-play-out we're doing a good job of that. We're still searching for more consistency for all us, myself, Wes [Welker], Deion [Branch], the veteran guys, the younger players. The games only get bigger from here.

That's really what we're preparing for. That's really our jobs. It's only been 12 weeks. It's not like this is the last week of the season. We're three-quarters of the way through the season, haven't accomplished anything. Yeah, it was a good win on Monday night, but it doesn't do anything for us. It doesn't do anything this week. We're going to need to go out there this week and put on a good performance. Try to go out there and play our style, understand the strengths that they have, and try to commit to doing things that we need to do to win the game.

Bill Belichick talks about the challenge of scouting an unfamiliar NFC opponent on a short week.

It's tough. I think the process starts in the offseason. You get the schedule and you seen that you're going to be playing Chicago in a short week. You see you're going to be playing Detroit on a short week, so you try to do your offseason preparations on them and get a feel for what they were like the year before.

I think today is going to be a tough day for everybody. It already has been. What you hope for is that when you come back in here tomorrow on Thursday, is that you are pretty close to being on schedule for a normal Thursday. If you can do that, then I think you can stay on track for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That's kind of our goal today, is to get to where we normally are by tomorrow morning. It's a challenge and one of the main things we emphasize to the players is how important everything is this morning with paying attention and the walk-throughs and the films and the game plans and getting on it and being on top of it, even though we haven't had a chance to do as much preparation on Tuesday as we normally would with the Monday game.

TEAM TALK

• Patriots-Bears Wednesday Injury Report.
• Erik Scalavino reports Tom Brady is at the top of his game.
• Erik Scalavino tells us what happened at Wednesday's practice and in the locker room at Gillette.
• Patriots announce that QB Tom Brady has earned the AFC Offensive Player of the Week award.
• Patriots announce over one million people tuned in to ESPN and WCVB in the local market to watch the Monday night massacre in New England.
• Wednesday Press Conferences: Bill Belichick (15.49 min. video) and Tom Brady (6.03 min. video) Plus transcripts.
• Patriots Today - Providence Boys & Girls Club. (1.44 min. video)
• Patriots Today - Wednesday update as Pats move on to Chicago. (3.53 min. video)
• Patriots Today - Brady's success, third-down D and more. (2.44 min. video)
• Belichick Breakdown: Patriots vs. Jets. (4.03 min. video)

LOCAL LINKS

• Greg A. Bedard reports Sunday's game in Chicago will depend on the play of the O-Line and D-Line.
• Christopher Price reports on just what the field conditions will be at Soldier Field.
• Michael Vega points out the Patriots receivers racking up the YACs.
• Greg A. Bedard offers some interesting Jets-Patriots nuggets from Showtime's Inside the NFL that weren't shown during the game.
• Jerry Thornton is glad Belichick decided to pile on the points for the simple reason that it will make the rest of the football world hate the Patriots even more than they already do.
• Karen Guregian reports Deion Branch says Tom Brady's best trait as a quarterback is "the studying we do in the classroom".
• Christopher Price sees Tom Brady in an orbit of his own.
• Karen Guregian catches up with Kevin Faulk and notes he hates being a spectator to the sport he loves, especially on a big Monday night game.
• Christopher Price tells us the five most important things about the Patriots yesterday.
• Mike Reiss updates us on how the Patriots are faring so far in fan Pro Bowl voting.
• Mike Reiss notes Sunday's Pats-Bears game will be broadcast by the top CBS team of Jim Nantz (play-by-play) and Phil Simms (analysis) for the 7th time this season.
• Boston Globe Patriots Notebook: Tom Brady is pleased with his AFC Offensive player of the week honor, but not satisfied; Kevin Faulk couldn't resist being on the sideline Monday night since it was against the Jets in Week 2 that he was injured; Braylon Edwards didn't like that the Patriots "ran it up" against them; Injury update.
• Ian Rapoport Patriots Notebook: Brian Urlacher goes on record saying he feels the Bears are 'the best team, period' ; Brady is asked about his 2nd straight AFC POTW honors; Darius Butler played the nickel corner Monday night, breaking up two would-be completions.
• Kirk Minihane answers his weekly Patriots Mailbag, full of Rex Ryan bashing and a victory lap.
• Steven Krasner sees Julius Peppers as a good fit in Chicago, but how would he have looked in a Patriots uniform?
• Ian Rapoport focuses on Chicago Bears' elite pass rusher Julius Peppers.
• Mike Reiss weekly P.A.T. : Two important areas facing the Patriots this week: 1. Avoiding a letdown after emotional win and 2. The challenge of facing Jay Cutler. (2.20 min. video)

NATIONAL NEWS

• Peter Richmond (SI) Pats' Danny Woodhead is just like us, and that's why we root for him.
• Tim Graham (ESPN) Want to beat the Patriots? Run don't throw.
• Tim Graham (ESPN) How the Patriots, Jets can clinch Sunday.
• Shutdown Corner (Yahoo! Sports) Rex Ryan buries the game ball from the Monday night massacre.
• Tim Graham (ESPN) Ryan RIPs off Belichick motivational ploy.
• Mike Sando (ESPN) MVP watch. Tom Brady looks like the favorite.
• Steve Rushin (SI) In football, real men wear short sleeves.
• Tim Graham (ESPN) Will Fins at Jets be Interceptionpalooza?
• Rick Gosselin (Dallas Morning News) If we redid 2010 NFL Draft. Interesting read, with McCourty at 4, Hernandez at 19 and Gronkowski at 30.
• Alex Marvez (Fox Sports) 2010 NFL team-by-team rookie evaluations: AFC and NFC.
• Ross Tucker (SI) Rookies have wall to scale.
• Michael Lombardi (NFL.com) McDaniels paid price for Broncos' lack of commitment to change. Excellent article.
• Randy Cross (Nat'l Football Post) The 'Stink Eye': No. 18 has his turn.
• Pat Kirwan (NFL.com) Several factors contributing to Manning's recent struggles.
• Matt Bowen (Nat'l Football Post) Colts-Titans: five things to watch for tonight, plus Week 14 picks.

VIEW FROM CHICAGO

• Sean Jensen (Chicago Sun-Times) Here's the real clash: Martz vs. Belichick.
• Brad Biggs (Chicago Tribune) Martz vs. Belichick go at it again: Patriots coach has won all previous meetings.
• Brad Biggs (Chicago Tribune) Bears' Martz on the deep ball: 'It will happen'.
• Vaughn McClure (Chicago Tribune) Martz, Cutler present challenge for Pat's Belichick.
• Daily Blog (ChicagoBears.com) Cutler performing at elite level during win streak.
• Neil Hayes (Chicago Sun-Times) Belichick has more to say about Bears.
• Fred Mitchell and David Kaplan (Chicago Tribune) Harris says win over Pats won't sway skeptics.
• Vaughn McClure (Chicago Tribune) Add Cutler to those dissatisfied with playing surface at Soldier Field.
• Vaughn McClure (Chicago Tribune) Urlacher makes pitch for Julius Peppers for NFL's defensive player of year.