Patriots conference call

[CloakNNNdagger]

Interesting interviews with Wilfork and Slater leading up to the game.

Posted 1 hour ago


PATRIOTS DL VINCE WILFORK

PRESS CONFERENCE

JANUARY 8, 2013



Q: Do you guys account for the fact that the Texans may feel like they owe you one after the regular season game?



VW: Yeah, we know that. They didn’t play their best game. They know that and we know that. Come Sunday we are expecting their best. It’s all or nothing from here on out and for us; we have to be able to execute. If we don’t execute, we’ll have troubles. First, it starts with their running game. It starts with [Arian] Foster – the more touches that he gets, in the passing game or on the ground, the better that team is. But I’m pretty sure they’re sitting down there saying, ‘You know what? They played us in the regular season and things didn’t go well.’ We basically outplayed them and they feel that they are a better football team and they are a better football team. There’s a reason that they’re in the postseason and there’s a reason that we’re in the postseason. So I don’t think anything from that game is going to play a huge factor. I think it will give them more momentum or give them more of an edge that they will want to come back up here and face us and try to beat us in Foxborough. So we can control what we can control, and that’s going to practice and working hard and trying to fix little kinks and stuff. We had a good chance to get back to work last week. We had two days of good practices, working on things that we think can help us moving forward. But it’s going to come down to execution – that’s what it’s going to boil down to. A bunch of guys making plays – who can make the most plays and who can execute well. That’s what this game is going to boil down to.



Q: What are some of the challenges of facing a team that runs a zone blocking scheme?



VW: Well always cut blocks. That’s something that they do very, very well. Their zone running scheme, stretch runs [and they] mix in a couple scheme runs. But playing cut blocks is always a big challenge when you’re facing a team like this because it seems like – I don’t care if you’re getting cut on the front side or the back side, that running back sees it and he hits it right off that cut block. So up front it’s going to be very important for us to try to stay on our feet and make sure that we are playing our blocks pretty good. And hopefully everybody around us is doing the same thing. But it’s always tough. Any team that runs the ball the way they run the ball and has the play-action and the bootlegs and all the stuff that comes after that, it’s a big challenge for us. But we’ve faced it, we’ve seen it a bunch of times, so we kind of know how we want to play this game. If we play it the way that we need to play it, we’ll be OK.



Q: Although Arian Foster did not do much against you guys in the regular season, he is coming off a great game against Cincinnati. Do you expect to see that kind of performance?



VW: Absolutely. I expect to see the best. Whatever they have, I expect to see it – the kitchen sink if it’s called for. But last week you saw why this guy is one of the top offensive players in the game – not just a back, but a top offensive player in the game – the things that he can do with the ball in his hands in the pass game and running it. He’s a great blocker when they ask him to block. I mean he’s a special player and we understand that. We know it starts with their running game. I mean you can’t x-out the receiver, Andre Johnson, you can’t x-out [Owen] Daniels, you can’t x-out the quarterback [Matt Schaub] and you can’t ex-out their Pro Bowl size. They’re well put together and the last time we played them, they didn’t play as well. So, I’m pretty sure that they’re going to come out here fired up and ready to play this week.



Q: You must have been pretty happy that you guys built an early lead in the last game and were able to take Arian Foster out of the game. Is it a huge relief for you to see the offense come out like that?



VW: Well anytime that you can get a team one dimensional that’s a big plus. Every team tries to do that. We try to do it, I’m pretty sure Houston tries to do it. It just bottles up a bunch of things when you can get a team like that one-sided; knowing when you can expect the pass, you can expect this and you can expect that. But when a team is on track and when they are running the ball good and throwing the ball good and the play action is good and the special teams are good, it’s tough. So you have to be able to play 60 minutes of good football. So we’re at the time now where we’re going to have to play that. We’re definitely going to have to play that from here on out. But starting with this game first, we have to put it together for one game and then move forward hopefully.



Q: Do you get an added sense of excitement at this time of the year? You have played a number of big games over your career, but is there still a step up in adrenaline for you?



VW: Absolutely. I mean, you lose and you go home, plain and simple. There’s no more next week or next time that we face them. You’re talking about next season. So we all have to be at our best. I have to be at my best, my teammates have to be at their best and the coaches have to be at their best. Coach [Belichick] has done a great job this year putting us in situations that make us successful. So hopefully we can carry it on, but we all have to raise it a notch just a little bit. Going forward we’re going to have to play like that. Like I said, hopefully this isn’t our last game. We go into this game like our backs are against the wall. You lose and you go home. That’s reality. There’s nothing else to it. You can’t sugar coat it; you lose and you go home, you win and you move on. We want to win and we have to do everything that we can to try to win. It starts in practice.



Q: For you specifically, what have been the physical benefits of the bye week? Do you feel like a new man after a few days off?



VW: I mean you could take it however you want to take it, but I think everybody treats it different. For me, it was doing what I needed to do to feel good. [i] still worked out, got a chance to watch football, got a chance to enjoy my family and got a chance to get away. Just clear your head and prepare for what’s soon to come hopefully. That’s how I approached it. Just knowing my level of play had to go up and my teammates’ level of play had to go up. So the best way to do that is to show; lead by example. A lot of times people think you have to talk; you don’t have to talk a lot. If you go to work and everybody sees that you’re boosting your level of play, they’ll follow. That’s my goal. Go out to practice today and boost our level of play up and hopefully guys can see that and hopefully I can bring some guys with me. We have a great group of guys now. I’m pretty sure that they’ll be ready, they’ll be excited [and] they should be. We’ve worked very, very hard to get to this point, but we can’t stop now. We can’t stop now, especially if we want to continue to play. So we have to do whatever it takes to win.

Q: How much do you think playoff experience matters?



VW: Well it only matters if you make it matter. You have to understand what’s at stake. I think that’s the biggest thing, for this team to understand where we’re at [and] what it’s going to take to win. That’s when you talk about how many times you’ve been in the postseason and stuff like that. But if you can’t put it out and you can’t execute, I don’t care how many times you’ve been at this level or how many games you’ve played in the postseason, it won’t matter. It will not matter. So we have guys that have been here before and we have guys that haven’t been here before. So our job is to make these guys understand what it takes to win, especially in a situation like this. Like I said, we have some good teammates – great teammates. They understand what we need to do to go out and perform our best. We just have to go out and execute.

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

[LonerATO]

I can literally hear Bill Belichick speaking through Wilfork.

[eriadoc]

Originally Posted by LonerATO

I can literally hear Bill Belichick speaking through Wilfork.

Oh yeah. I think the one person in the world talking up the Texans is BB.

[C Madd]

Originally Posted by LonerATO

I can literally hear Bill Belichick speaking through Wilfork.

Wilfork was hungry.

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by LonerATO

I can literally hear Bill Belichick speaking through Wilfork.

Got that right. CoachSpeak at it's finest.

[Jules Winnfield]

Texans talk a big game but play small while the Pats dont talk at all but play big.


I can see why they are perennial superbowl team while the texans and their letterman jackets and non division middle of the season game is biggest in franchise history just got in last year.


Patriots are ruthless killlers not afraid to put up 50 while the Texans are good old houston boys who only wnat "Texan Worthy" players.



Ideology and Mindset is completely different.

[coltfan123]

Originally Posted by eriadoc

Oh yeah. I think the one person in the world talking up the Texans is BB.

If texans are smart they wont listen to the pep talk they should remember what happened last time..

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by CloakNNNdagger

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

I'm glad we didn't get HFA Throughout.

Can you imagine what Shaun Cody & Connor Barwin would have thought up with that kind of idle time?

[Modest]

Originally Posted by C Madd

Wilfork was hungry.

[imatexan]

Originally Posted by Jules Winnfield

Texans talk a big game but play small while the Pats dont talk at all but play big.


I can see why they are perennial superbowl team while the texans and their letterman jackets and non division middle of the season game is biggest in franchise history just got in last year.


Patriots are ruthless killlers not afraid to put up 50 while the Texans are good old houston boys who only wnat "Texan Worthy" players.



Ideology and Mindset is completely different.

Texans talk a big game?

Facts?

Logical statements?

Anything from you ?

[The Third Man]

Originally Posted by Jules Winnfield

Texans talk a big game but play small while the Pats dont talk at all but play big.


I can see why they are perennial superbowl team while the texans and their letterman jackets and non division middle of the season game is biggest in franchise history just got in last year.


Patriots are ruthless killlers not afraid to put up 50 while the Texans are good old houston boys who only wnat "Texan Worthy" players.



Ideology and Mindset is completely different.

Go root for the Patriots, winner.

[Texan_Bill]

Originally Posted by LonerATO

I can literally hear Bill Belichick speaking through Wilfork.

JUP!!! I just now read this and got the same feeling.

[Texan_Bill]

Originally Posted by Jules Winnfield

Patriots are ruthless killlers not afraid to put up 50 while the Texans are good old houston boys who only wnat "Texan Worthy" players.

Other than Earl Mitchell, Wade Smith (Dallas actually) and maybe another guy or two, who is actually "good old houston boys"? BTW, for the record, Houston is spelled with a capital "H".

Originally Posted by imatexan

Texans talk a big game?

Facts?

Logical statements?

Anything from you ?

Facts??? Who needs facts when you can make up shyte as you go along!!

Originally Posted by The Third Man

Go root for the Patriots, winner.

Easy.... Easy...

While I don't feel like the Texans will win this weekend, some people go off the rails. The more dramatic their posts are the more important they feel. I'll call DocJean and find out what that disorder is called.

[dc_txtech]

Originally Posted by Texan_Bill

BTW, for the record, Houston is spelled with a capital "H".

A good rule of thumb for that is to just capitalize the name of every city. It's worked for me for a long time.

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by Jules Winnfield

Texans talk a big game but play small while the Pats dont talk at all but play big.


I can see why they are perennial superbowl team while the texans and their letterman jackets and non division middle of the season game is biggest in franchise history just got in last year.


Patriots are ruthless killlers not afraid to put up 50 while the Texans are good old houston boys who only wnat "Texan Worthy" players.



Ideology and Mindset is completely different.

My brother-in-law is a Patriots fan too. Where are the rest of y'all getting together to watch the game & share your Tom Brady wet dreams? He'd love to hang out with like minded (using that word loosely) Pats fans.

[CloakNNNdagger]

Originally Posted by Texan_Bill

Easy.... Easy...

While I don't feel like the Texans will win this weekend, some people go off the rails. The more dramatic their posts are the more important they feel. I'll call DocJean and find out what that disorder is called.

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.............................Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Texan_Bill]

Originally Posted by CloakNNNdagger

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.............................Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well played, sir!

[CloakNNNdagger]

Gimme that thing back, you skinny ass runt!!

Originally Posted by Modest

[TexanSam]

Originally Posted by dc_txtech

A good rule of thumb for that is to just capitalize the name of every city. It's worked for me for a long time.

Except dallas. They don't count.