Bill Belichick responds to a question concerned with the Patriots pass protection facing its third straight challenge from teams that rush pretty well.
I think overall our pass protection has been good. It could always be better; there are always things that we could do better. We've had some plays here and there. I'd say overall it's been okay. These guys are good. They have a lot of guys who can rush. They move them around. You can't be really sure of the matchup that you're going to get. Some weeks you kind of know where this guy is going to be or where that guy is going to be. With the Giants, you don't really know for sure where some of them are going to line up. It depends on who else is in the game and what front they're in and all that. They give you a lot of different matchups. The offensive line really has to do a good job preparing for all the guys as opposed to sometimes each lineman knows pretty much who they're going to be blocking for a high percentage of the game. That's not really quite the case this week. But they're all good, they're all very good. They're quick, they're active, they work well together, and they have a lot of speed on the field. It's a good group.
Tom Brady is asked how unique are the Giants in the sense that they can drop a lot of guys into coverage because they can get so much pressure up front.
Yeah they get pressure probably better than anybody in the league. They lead the league in sacks. Damn, every guy on that defensive line can rush the quarterback. JPP [Jason Pierre-Paul] has eight sacks and Osi [Umenyiora] got six and [Justin] Tuck hasn't been in there a lot, but he's still getting them. They got a whole group of pass rushers. The only time you rush the passer, obviously you commit more people to coverage and they do a good job of that. They're very good against the pass. We have to go out there and be balanced and execute certainly better than we did last week.
Chris Forsberg notes the NY media asked Bill Belichick about his coaching future. To Belichick, that means Sunday vs. the Giants.
"I feel like I have the energy to do it this week and do a better job of it than I did last week," he quipped.
TEAM TALK
- Patriots-Giants Wednesday Injury Report.
- Erik Scalavino shares his news and notes from Wednesday at Gillette,noting the elevated role of CBs Antwaun Molden and Phillip Adams.
- Press Conferences: Bill Belichick (17.07 min. video plus Transcript) and Tom Brady (10.34 min. video plus Transcript)
- Conference Call Transcripts: Wes Welker - Tom Coughlin - Eli Manning.
- Player Interviews: Phillip Adams (2.06 min.), Antwaun Molden (2 min.), Brandon Deaderick (2.06 min.), Albert Haynesworth (3.34 min.) and Kevin Faulk (4.44 min. ).
- Patriots Today - Wednesday practice update. (1 min. video)
- Locker Room Uncut - Thoughts from Haynesworth, Faulk. (2.38 min. video)
- Patriots Playbook - 11/02/11 (2 hour program) John Rooke and Erik Scalavino get you ready for the Patriots' matchup with the New York Giants.
- PFW in Progress - 11/02/11 (2 hour program)
LOCAL LINKS
- Karen Guregian sees the pressure directly on Tom Brady and the offense, as the Giants lead the league with 26 sacks -one more than the Steelers.
- Jim Donaldson believes that as bad as the Patriots looked, he still likes their chances.
- Ian Rapoport reports Kevin Faulk has never seen a replay of Super Bowl 42 and never intends to. He prefers to live in the 'now'.
- Chris Forsberg notes the Pats are focused on beating the Giants this week, not rehashing SB XLII.
- Christopher Price puts together a three-point plan to fix the Patriots defense.
- Christopher Price tries to measure the impact of Albert Haynesworth on the Pats defense.
- Chris Forsberg charts out the players at fault for allowing the opposition to get to Brady by looking at the sacks, hits, and pressures allowed.
- Mike Reiss offers some quick-hits from the media-access period in the locker room Thursday.
- Mike Reiss updates the penalties for the Patriots so far and notes the offensive line has had it's struggles with false starts.
- Chris Forsberg posts the awkward Q&A between the media and Bill Belichick regarding the Julian Edelman situation.
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Christopher Price looks at how Eli Manning is earning the title of 'elite quarterback' this season.
- Rich Levine explains why he still stands with Belichick, even in spite of his mistakes and flaws.
- Kirk Minihane addresses his weekly Patriots mailbag where readers are clamoring for a new GM.
- Chris Forsberg and Mike Reiss debate whether this Patriots team can win the Super Bowl.
- Michael Vega Patriots Notebook: Bill Belichick declines to blame corners in last Sunday's loss; Alternately, Hines Ward said the Steelers felt the corners could be exploited; No one from either team sees Giants game as Super Bowl 42 rematch; Injury and practice participation update.
- Ian Rapoport Patriots Notebook: Wes Welker still feels that when he's on top of his game he's pretty tough to cover; Antrel Rolle doesn't plan on having any trouble covering him; Patriots have lost back-to-back games just twice since 2006; The team was all in a bad mood last week after losing; Tom Coughlin acknowledged how the Patriots give up yardage but still put themselves in a position to win five of seven games; Albert Haynesworth plans on giving 100% in the snaps that he plays, but he's never played 100% of the snaps in his career.
NATIONAL NEWS
- Les Carpenter (Yahoo! Sports) Brady grilled about Patriots' power outage.
- Kevin Fishbain (Pro Football Weekly) Patriots-Giants matchup of the day: DEs Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora and Jason Pierre-Paul vs. Patriots O-line.
- Brian Burke (NY Times) Week 9 NFL game probabilities - Patriots vs. Giants: Put all the numbers through the wash, and the two teams come out surprisingly equal.
- Ian Rapoport (Sporting News) New England Patriots: Revamped secondary a work in progress.
- James Walker (ESPN) AFC East Week 9 X factors. Patriots: Devin McCourty.
- Around the League (NFL.com) Giants vs. Brady. (1 min. clip)
- MJD (Yahoo! Sports) Darius Butler's 3-month-old has open-heart surgery.
- Peter King (SI) MMQB Tuesday Edition; Mail.
- Mike Tanier (NY Times) Ex-players talking trash, just to be heard.
VIEW FROM NEW YORK
- Mike Lupica (NY Daily News) Bill Belichick turns focus form defense to offense heading into Sunday meeting with Giants.
- Gary Myers (NY Daily News) Giants still feel great about Super Bowl XLII victory; they're inspired with Patriots in their way.
- Steve Politi (NJ Star-Ledger) Giants, Patriots have selective amnesia when it comes to Super Bowl XLII.
- Michael Eisen (Giants.com) Giants staying in present against Patriots.
- Steve Serby (NY Post) Giants play the respect card.
- Mike Garafolo (NJ Star-Ledger) Giants vs. Patriots: Antrel Rolle, Kenny Phillips serve up brash talk.
- Paul Schwartz (NY Post) Giants' Rolle puts Patriots on notice.
- Mark Cannizzaro (NY Post) Stop Welker and you can stop New England.
- Ralph Vacchiano (NY Daily News) Giants Antrel Rolle says Patriots star WR Wes Welker is not unstoppable.
- Mike Garafolo (NJ Star-Ledger) Giants' Prince Amukamara could make his debut Sunday.