More from Belichick, Players on Cardinals win
11:09 AM Mon, Aug 21, 2006 | Permalink
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Bill Belichick gave his players the day off today before the team jumps into preparations for its third preseason game, Saturday at Gillette Stadium against the Washington Redskins. As a result, there was also no media availability today, but here is some more of what Belichick had to say in yesterday’s media conference call: Q: Was there a line of thinking in having Junior Seau dress last night even though he wasn’t going to play? [The veteran linebacker, who played 14 seasons with the Chargers and 3 with the Dolphins, came out of retirement and signed with the Patriots late last week.]  Journal files/Bob Breidenbach Jason Seau BB: He was healthy enough to dress, so he dressed and warmed up and went through the process on the sideline. Going through adjustments and things like that, that’s all part of the whole process. Q: How much of the team’s success on third down last night might you attribute to Kevin Faulk and his various skills? BB: I think last night’s third down numbers were attributable to a couple of things. One was that the distance wasn’t too long. For the most part we had very manageable third down situations where we didn’t need a lot of yardage and therefore pretty much every skill player on the field was a possible option to get that yardage. On third-and-three, you could run it or you could throw it to any of the five eligible receivers and they could pick it up. On third-and-16, realistically, you’re probably only going to be able to get two guys, maybe three at the most, that would even be able to get far enough down the field to even get the first down. It just gives you a lot more options and then of course it always comes back down to execution. I thought that the execution on the third down runs by the offensive line - Dante [Scarnecchia] and those guys have worked really hard on that - there were some positives there. In the passing game, we had receivers and you try to spread the field and make it hard for the defense to match up on all of them, so you have one or two, either, good matchup situations or situations where the defenders just get out-leveraged by the route. Good routes, good throws by the quarterback and catches and you know you have a chance to convert some of those short-yardage situations. Keeping it short and staying out of negative plays and third-and-longs, that is a big key to giving yourself and your team more options. Q: How sharp are Tom Brady’s fundamentals right now? BB: I think Tom is a pretty fundamentally sound player, but we’re in training camp. We’re halfway through the preseason schedule, so I think that everybody has a lot of room for improvement and I'm sure that he’ll be better with another week or two of practice than he is now, just like he’s better now than he was a couple of weeks ago when he hadn’t spent as much time on them. It’s just refining your skill and your technique and everybody on the field is doing that.
POST-GAME QUOTES FROM SATURDAY'S GAME Tully Banta-Cain, Linebacker (On how he felt he played compared to last week) (On whether he heard the praise Coach Belichick gave him last week about his camp thus far) (On whether he feels he as improved) (On whether he thinks he can be a starter in the NFL) (On the defense compared to last week) (On the defense’s playmaking ability tonight) Logan Mankins, Guard Kevin Faulk, Running Back (On the versatility of the running backs) Eric Alexander, Linebacker (On whether this is a big year for him) (On what motivates him) 
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