Here's a quick Q+A with linebacker Tedy Bruschi from this morning at Gillette:
First game back, how did it feel?
It felt good. It was nice to play football again. Get my looks, make some plays, and take on a few blocks. After the first couple of plays, I felt comfortable out there again.
Nice to get that interception?
Yeah, It was Rodney’s. [laughter] It sort of bounced off his chest a little bit, but I was there for it. I was able to snatch it. It’s nice to get your first interception of the year.
Tedy, year-in and year-out, do you almost get tired of watching the Broncos on film? It almost seems like you guys have become regular opponents.
It’s almost like they’re part of our division. They’re familiar with us, we’re familiar with them. Two quality football programs who play each other every year, so they’re battles. They’re hard-fought battles every year.
They’ve got the running game going … as it seems they do every season.
They have a couple of Bells at running back, Tatum and Mike. They do a good job running the ball, and that’s definitely going to be an emphasis for us this week, stopping the run.
Was it painful to watch the game film from the playoff loss last year?
I wouldn’t say it was painful. I’m over it, and I’ve moved on from there. Right now, it’s just … you just sort of watch film. If a few plays trickle in there from last year, it’s just, What can you learn from it now?’
Are you surprised they’re struggling a little bit? I know it’s only two games in, but it’s kind of how they started last year.
Yeah, we don’t really look at them as struggling, because we have so much respect for them and how much success they’ve had against us in the past. The last two times we’ve played them, they’ve been able to come out and make plays and get victories from us, so that garners enough respect from me, because they’ve been able to beat us. So, we don’t seem them as struggling. We think they’re a quality opponent, and they’re going to come in here and give us a tough game.
Did they get more conservative in their play-calling last week?
There’s … you can look at games like that, but I’m not going to look at it like that. It’s a different animal when we get to playing each other. When the Broncos and Patriots meet, we don’t look at how a certain game went a week before or two weeks before. We anticipate how it’s going to be when we play them, and we anticipate a tough ballgame.
They’ve been really good at pulling off the big play the last few years. Do they do something different than other teams, or does it come down to simple execution?
Plummer was able to knock out a few bombs when we played them a couple of games ago. They have good receivers, and they have a quarterback who can get them the ball. It’s not a matter of defensive schemes, or offensive schemes. They have players who can make those plays, and we recognize that and respect that.
•We'll have more later this afternoon, including the complete transcripts from Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, as well as the first injury report of the week at 4 p.m.
