Heath Evans on the days leading up to the SB42 defeat - New England Patriots Forums

BradyManny · 01-31-2012, 09:47 AM

Evans was on DA last nite and D&C this morning.

Really intriguing - albeit painful - stuff. Gives some behind the scenes insight and a look at it we haven't quite heard before.

On DA last nite, he said he and Pioli were talking in Mobile this week, and Scott said that they were a "tired, exhausted football team."

Sounds like they just ran out of gas.

It Is What It Is » Heath Evans on D&C: ‘I’m going to second-guess Bill Belichick’ on some decisions before Super Bowl XLII

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We all completely agreed with the full pads Thursday Friday Saturday in Foxboro, the bye week. When we get to Phoenix, Wednesday was kind of a lackluster practice and I think Bill kind of thought maybe we were overlooking the [Giants] team. I don’t think we were. It was just, you have a bad day. Bill opted to put us in pads again on Thursday, which is that the reason we lost the game? Probably not. But if there was a way to freshen us up …

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"You flash back to 2007, the game plan was to run the football. We had some key mistakes early on in the game. Josh McDaniels, Bill Belichick elected to get away from the run game, put the weight of the world on Tom Brady‘s shoulders. Ultimately, he did his job.

“Yes, 14 points, people said, ‘No, you should have scored more,’ but he drove us down the field. We scored. Just left a little too much time for young Eli Manning at the time.”

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But the better team won that day so it’s not an excuse, but you get done with the season and you reflect back and you’re just like, ‘Wow. We were a tired football team.’”

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“The second thing which is kind of odd and I would suspect they would do it again this year too. Saturday night, kind of the rule of thumb is let’s get the players and the team away from the family/team hotel, away from all the distractions. Let’s put them where we can kind of get on a normal Saturday night routine so everything is structured perfectly like it’s been from Week 1 through Week 18. It really kind of backfired.

“The hotel was horrendous. We literally had guys with M-16s walking around the outside of our hotel. They warned us, ‘Don’t go outside by yourself.’ We were literally in the hood of Arizona. My room smelled like smoke. I remember Randy Moss being like, ‘I can’t sleep in this place. It’s like sleeping on a plywood.’ … but it was just little things like that. Again, is it the reason we lost? I don’t know. But you look back. Hindsight’s 20/20 and you say, what if?”

Fball · 01-31-2012, 09:53 AM

I always thought that the 1st Giants drive probably determined the outcome more than the last one. After all of the distractions for the Pats that week, they probably couldn't wait to just play football & not have to deal w/ anything else. Waiting for 10+ minutes probably created a lot of impatience that wouldn't have been there otherwise...

ThatllMoveTheChains!!! · 01-31-2012, 10:00 AM

Who the hell picks the hotel? You'd think that would be up to the team and they'd scout it out...

I'd still guess that the exhaustion they were feeling was far more about the stress of going for perfection. I'd wager all of us have had moments in our life such as this, but on a much smaller scale. I have doubts that a crummy hotel and full pads practice did more to wear the guys down than the constant pressure of a chance at cementing themselves in the record books.

Uncle Rico · 01-31-2012, 10:06 AM

I felt tired just reading those quotes above. And honestly, I think we all felt a little tired by that point, if that makes sense. Different feel this year, for sure,

condon84 · 01-31-2012, 10:25 AM

I thought this was interesting:

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On whether he would rather play with Brady or Drew Brees if he had to win one game: “It’s going to be Brees. Here’s why. If you think about the athletic defensive fronts that you take this day and age, Brees has a sixth sense that Tommy has, but he has the athleticism to escape more than Tommy has. So if you’re talking about one game, I’ve got to win it and they’re both playing the same defense and same playbook and everything else, that’s what I always go back to. These guys were twins that were separated at birth. One’s better looking and one got more athleticism. I don’t know which one is which, but ultimately, these guys, I’m telling you, the things that they do, how they practice, how they prepare, their photographic memory, their presence, how they calm a team, even the defensive players. That’s my only reasoning to picking Brees.”

RodThePat · 01-31-2012, 10:31 AM

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Originally Posted by condon84

I thought this was interesting:

Can anyone tell me exactly why did Drew Brees gain this reputation as a big game quarterback? He had a very nice SuperBowl run, okay, but aside from that what has he done? Seriously, it's mystifying to me. The guy is as prolific a passer as they come, but his teams have customarily underachieved.

Uncle Rico · 01-31-2012, 10:34 AM

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Originally Posted by RodThePat

Can anyone tell me exactly why did Drew Brees gain this reputation as a big game quarterback? He had a very nice SuperBowl run, okay, but aside from that what has he done? Seriously, it's mystifying to me. The guy is as prolific a passer as they come, but his teams have customarily underachieved.

An aside: In looking up Brady's performance in domes, I found that Brady has played 10 indoor games (regular season) in the past 9 years (none this year). Brees played 11 dome games THIS year alone.

Funktopus · 01-31-2012, 10:35 AM

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Originally Posted by condon84

I thought this was interesting:

He probably had this answer thought through long before the question was asked.

Gronkandez · 01-31-2012, 10:35 AM

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Originally Posted by condon84

I thought this was interesting:

I would pick Brees too...if the game was played the Superdome.

tobias funke · 01-31-2012, 10:37 AM

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Originally Posted by RodThePat

Can anyone tell me exactly why did Drew Brees gain this reputation as a big game quarterback? He had a very nice SuperBowl run, okay, but aside from that what has he done? Seriously, it's mystifying to me. The guy is as prolific a passer as they come, but his teams have customarily underachieved.

Exactly, "teams".

Evans played with both guys and I respect his opinion. I think what he's saying is that he believes Brees has slightly more potential to win a given game based on his athletic ability.

You can even view it as much of a compliment of Brady, considering that he's done more with 'less'.

I'm not saying I necessarily agree with the opinion, but again, he played with both guys and articulated his reasoning. If the question was "who has been a better big-game QB", he obviously would have said Brady because of his body of work.