* *
HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK (on AFC Title games getting old)
"It's certainly an honor to be in the game, to be one of the two teams playing for the AFC Championship. We have all the respect in the world for the game and what it means and the Indianapolis Colts and the great season that they've had and the playoff games they have won. We just want to try to put together our best week of preparation and hope to play our best game of the season on Sunday against Indianapolis, which we know what it's going to take to come in there and be competitive."
HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK (on momentum carrying over from last week)
"I think they are separate weeks and I think in terms of at this point in the season, that the Colts would have all those, whatever characteristics that you could put on our performance in San Diego, you could say the same about the Colts in Baltimore. Both teams have won Wild Card games, both teams have won divisional games on the road against higher seeded teams. Clearly, the Colts deserve to be in this game and they played extremely well against a team that…I mean, they took the ball the last eight minutes and ran 12 running plays and ran out the clock, I think that right there, on the road, is a pretty good testament to what they can do as well as defensively being 3-for-22 on third down in those last two playoff games. The Colts are a great football team and we know we are going to have to play our best football to be competitive."
HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK (on Colts meeting the Patriots again)
"It seems like we are in the same division, doesn't it? It seems that we play the Colts more than once a year, every year, but it's tremendous competition. As I said, I have all the respect for Tony (Dungy), his staff and the entire Colts team and the way they performed this year and every year. They have been very consistent, they win a lot of games and they play extremely well on a very consistent basis. There isn't a team we have more respect for than the Indianapolis Colts, from the top of the organization all the way through to everybody that participates in the game."
HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK (on (QB) Peyton Manning's playoff struggles)
"I don't think anybody does it any better than (QB) Peyton (Manning) does and that offense can certainly do what it needs to do. (They) had a lot of success against us and again in that (Baltimore) Raven game last week, I thought that final drive really put an explanation point on, offensively, what the Colts can do, what they need to do to win and that's what it's all about. It's about winning. This time of year, it's not about putting up stats, it's about doing what you need to do to win. The Colts have done that and that's why they are in this game."
* *
HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK (on the value of a quality kicker in the playoffs)
"I think every player's job is important in the playoffs. As we have seen, so many of these games come down to a play or two plays and it could be a final play or it could be another critical play at some other point in the game. Everyone on the field has an important job to do, and it could be catching a pass, it could be kicking the ball, it could be catching it, it could be making a block or making a tackle in the open field. Whatever it happens to be, every guy wants to and needs to be at his best because the competition is so high and there is so little room for error. I feel that way about all our players and I'm sure every other coach does as well, and that includes everybody."
