Bill Belichick Wee Quotations

It hasn't even been competitive. That's the first thing we're going to have to do is just find a way to stay competitive because these (first two games) have been over by halftime. We saw that last year too (on Halloween). It was 21-3 (Steelers) at the end of the first quarter.

We were trying to take a little bit of the edge off, give everybody a chance to relax. It's been a good hard week with a lot of concentration. We figured we'd lighten up a little here and be ready to go tomorrow.

I have all the respect in the world for Rodney Harrison. I told him that when we brought him here, and he's made great contributions to this team. There's no question about it. Unfortunately, he had a tough setback last weekend and so did the team, but that's the way it is. We're playing San Diego this week. Unfortunately, he won't be with us. I wish he was, but he's not.

He does a great job from week to week of matching up his players against your defensive weaknesses. And he also adds little, different wrinkles to it.

We've got a short week this week with New Orleans, ... It's a team we play in the regular season, so we'll try to put more attention in this game than a normal preseason game because it will come up in the regular season.

We've won a few games here the last five, six weeks and hopefully we can continue to play better.

We're looking at another really good football team this week in Denver. They're probably one of the hotter teams in the league right now. They're playing very well in all three phases of the game. They've been a good team to watch just because they're executing so well. They haven't had a turnover in three games.

Honestly, we went through this at the end last year with the San Francisco game (and the starters played most of the game). Were treating this like a regular week ... I don't think anybody else really knows any other way to do it around here?. I don't think the players do. I don't think the coaches do. It's football season. Maybe I'll see it differently next week. I don't know.

Overall, we gave a little bit more of a competitive effort than we did the other two games. Some of the things we had problems with the first two weeks I thought we did a little better.

We talked last week about (Randy) Moss being in a special category offensively for the Raiders. You've got to put Peppers in that same category defensively,

need to take advantage of the extra time that we have this week and do a good job trying to solidify everything in all three phases of the game. ... Fundamentally, we have to try to tighten everything up as much as we can.

Because the offense usually extends a little bit to try to take care of him, they like to bring the linebackers and blitz them up inside. As the line widens to give attention to Peppers, that opens up a lot of the inside pressures for them. We talked about last week (Oakland receiver Randy) Moss being kind of in a special category, offensively, for the Raiders. I think you have to put Peppers in that same, whatever category that is, defensively.

Some of the things we had problems with the first two weeks I thought we did a little better. I thought the 'fits' were a little better in the front seven.

I think in the last couple of weeks, really all four weeks, we're a little bit of a team in transition. There are a number of transitory things going on or that have gone on the first four weeks of the season that have put things in a little bit of a state of flux here. They weren't what they were a month ago. Some of them aren't like they were two weeks ago. Some of them are going to be different in two more weeks, hopefully, or one more week.

This is a good opportunity for us this week to go up against another good team, a very hot team, and continue to get ourselves ready for the following week's game, whoever that might be against. We're going to approach this as a normal week.

We had a chance to look at a lot of our younger players. We are in a much shorter window now than you would be if you opened a week from Sunday.

We'll get a good evaluation of where we are going against a different type of team than we played last week in Cincinnati. We'll have some different challenges that we'll have to meet. They?re a good team and they have a lot of talent.

We'll do the same thing that we always do. We'll take every situation from week to week and do what we think is best for that week and evaluate it on that basis.

We?re going to try to take advantage of the extra time this week in terms of meetings, and trying to go through some things we feel like, the last six weeks, teams have repeatedly tried to attack us. Those are things we can address and try to improve on.

We're going to approach this as a normal week. We're treating this week just like every other week this year in terms of our preparation for the game.

They've both been very dependable. They have gotten a lot of snaps. They've been able to be out there on a weekly basis and understand it and get better. I think they've improved. I think they started at a good level and I think they've improved with each game. I think they're doing well and I think they can do better. There are some things that they need to work on. They're both instinctive football players, smart guys that when you tell them something, they understand it.

I enjoy the competition of all the games. I love to coach and be in a competitive situation where we're up against the greatest players and the greatest coaches on a weekly basis. It's very challenging but it's very exciting, and that?s true every week.