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New England Patriots Links 1/05/12 - Wilfork: 'We Might Not Be Pretty, But We Will Not Give Up'

By Marima

Vince Wilfork addresses the media Wednesday, and "loves the odds" with this team.

Have you had conversations about starting faster amongst yourselves?

I don't think there's much said about it. I mean everybody in this locker room it's not like each week we go and say, ‘We're going to spot this team 21 points' or ‘We're going to spot this team 14 or 17 points and then we're going to start to play.' It doesn't happen like that. Each week we know we get off to a slow start, but eventually it can catch up with you also and we understand that. But at the same time being down 14 and 17 and 21 points and to pull games out shows you a lot about this team. I don't think there's anyone in this locker room saying, 'We're going to get away with a 24 point deficit or a 28 point deficit now.' I think it's more about, ‘Let us being on the other end. Let us be up 14 or 17 points and see where the game takes us. With this team I love the odds. I love them.

When you get behind in games does that make it more of a sense of urgency to make a play or do you have to calm yourselves down?

Most of the times we've been down we've had to calm down. I think that the tougher the game gets the more, I don't know, settled we get. [We] never lose our poise. You know you get frustrated at times, but at the same time you go out there and everybody has their poise and everyone is calm and I think once we're calm we make more plays, we make more plays, we make more plays. I mean, it's funny, but down 21 points you would think that we're over there screaming and hollering and trying to fix everything, but that wasn't the case. It's more about, ‘Just settle down to play football, plays will come, just believe what you see.' The times we've done it, we've been okay. It's just a tough group – tough, tough, mentally tough football team that, you know what, for 60 minutes we're going to fight. I'll tell you that. We might not be pretty, but we will not give up. I don't care how long we play. This team will not give up, so if you've got to beat us it's going to take 60 minutes plus because we're not just going to fold our hand no matter what the score is.

Jerod Mayo responds to a question about if this team will use the playoff exits of the last couple of years as motivation.

To be honest with you, this isn't the same team as the previous years. I think this team is mentally tough. A playoff game in itself is motivation. We're pretty motivated.

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