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Tom Brady made his weekly appearance on the Dennis & Callahan Show this morning on WEEI.
So, to me, what we’ve accomplished really is nothing to this point. There’s always a part of me that knows, ‘Man, you can lose. You can have a really bad game and lose.’ I’m not trying to have any of those games. And I’m trying to express to my teammates — who maybe it’s their first year or second year, they haven’t been a part of it — ‘Man, listen, we haven’t done anything. Literally nothing. Zero. Nine wins? Nine wins is nothing.’
"Coach always says — and I said this last week — ‘Football season starts after Thanksgiving.’ It’s after Thanksgiving. Now we’re going to see what kind of football team we have. We’re going to see what other good football teams are, and what it takes to be a good football team. It’s not easy this time of year. There’s a lot of guys banged up. Depth for each team now has really become an issue. Mental toughness has really become an issue. The weather’s getting colder. The games are getting bigger. This is really when you find out kind of what the heart of each team is."
I could play better, there's no doubt about that, and I think this would be a great week for it. There's so much that goes into having success as a quarterback…it discredits what everyone else is doing to (focus only) on the quarterback. I play with a great group of guys. Really proud to be part of a team that has showed up when it matters most.
LOCAL LINKS
- Shalise Manza Young reports Alge Crumpler has become a major contributor in more ways than the stat sheet shows. He's arguably the league's best blocking TE.
- WEEI highlights Tom Brady's appearance on the Dennis & Callahan show this morning.
- Shalise Manza Young recaps Tom Brady's Q & A with Dennis & Callahan this morning on WEEI.
- Mike Reiss offers 3 nuggets of note from Tom Brady.
- Ian Rapoport reports after four days off, the Patriots will return to practice, ready to refocus.
- Mike Reiss says that if the Patriots want the No. 1 seed, a first-round bye and a chance at home-field advantage in AFC playoffs, they have to win Monday night.
- Michael Felger, Ron Borges and Steve Buckley looks at the success of the Jets' brash style. (1.31 min. video)
- Mike Reiss cleans out his Patriots' notebook at the start of the week.
- Mike Reiss takes a look at where the Patriots rank in key NFL statistical categories after 12 weeks.
- Mike Reiss looks at where the Jets rank in key NFL statistical categories after 12 weeks.
- Chris Gasper reports Tom Brady has not only come back from his knee injury, he is playing at as high a level as ever.
- Ian Rapoport reports Danny Woodhead doesn't need to use his release by the Jets as extra motivation against them.
- Jimmy Golen, AP reports Deion Branch is filling the deep-threat role that was traded away with Randy Moss.
- Robert Lee notes the Patriots and the Jets are both different teams than they were when they played against each other in Week 2.
- Tom E. Curran understands why Bill Belichick keeps his staff of assistants small in number and quiet of mouth, just by looking at the bite marks on his ass.
- Dan Shaughnessy writes about the Bronco's taping fiasco and the Patriots' guilt by association is unfortunate, but all the New York papers are running with it.
- Steve Buckley tries to imagine what it must have been like to be Randy Moss on Thanksgiving Day, especially if he tuned in to watch the Pats-Lions game.
- Christopher Price reports ex-Patriot Curtis Martin is a semi-finalist for the Hall of Fame.
NATIONAL NEWS
- Kevin Fishbain (Pro Football Weekly) Patriots offense clicking on all cylinders.
- Alex Mayster (Pro Football Weekly) Flashback: Patriots' recent Week 12 performances.
- Lynn Zinser (NY Times) The Cowboys and the Bengals accepted blame for their defeats on Thursday while the Lions pointed fingers.
- Peter King (SI) MMQB: Back-stabbing in Bronco-land; how NFL will handle Texans-Titans fight.
- Vinnie Iyer (Sporting News) Week 12 NFL Checkdown: Effective running games make good teams look great.
- Don Banks (SI) The Bears get serious, the Falcons' dome invincibility and more from Week 12.
- Judy Battista (NY Times) Parity keeps many NFL teams in it.
- Matt Bowen (Nat'l Football Post) Week 12 winners and losers.
- Jonathan Comey (Cold Hard Football Facts) 10 things we learned in Week 12: Cassel for MVP?
- Mike Florio (NBC Sports) Week 12 Monday 10-pack.
- Sean Leahy (USA Today) Josh McDaniels: I didn't have inside knowledge of Patriots' Spygate.
- Steve Bien-Aime (Fox Sports) Humiliating loss to Chargers shows Peyton cant save Colts by himself.
VIEW FROM NEW YORK
- Mark Cannizzaro (NY Post) Jets gear up for next week's duel vs. Patriots.
- Gary Myers (NY Daily News) Jets control destiny when they visit Bill Belichick, Patriots in Foxborough.
- Manish Mehta (NY Daily News) Rex Ryan calls Jets-Patriots clash on Monday night 'the marquee game of the year'.
- Eric Allen (NewYorkJets.com) Ryan already looking ahead to Pats on Dec. 6.
- Mark Cannizzaro (NY Post) Jets confident they won't fold this time.
- Gary Myers (NY Daily News) Jets must play better than they did in win over Bengals to beat Patriots in Monday night showdown.
- Kevin Armstrong (NY Daily News) Patriots' Danny Woodhead, who's been beating the odds all his life, looking to beat his former team.
- Steve Serby (New York Post) Belichick will always be tied to 'spygate'.