On whether a rivalry game against the defending Super Bowl champs is fun
"I relish any challenge and this is a big challenge. So as a competitor I'm excited about this game, this will be great. It is a personal challenge. I want to go against the very best. I'd rather have a win against and compete against a first ballot Hall of Fame coach like Bill Belichick than a slappy coach. I mean I'll take the victory, but shoot he's going to get what I've got and he knows it."
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On respecting the consistent success of the Patriots**
"When you look at the last 10 years it's easy to say the Patriots have been the most dominant team in the National Football League the past 10 years, but this year is a different year. I'm going to put that caveat out there. It's a different year and we'll see who is the king of the mountain at the end of this season."
On covering Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski"No, we're not going to ask just one guy (to cover him) and say, 'This is your guy.' He'd have to be like King Kong or something (to do that). 'You got him, we've got the Gronk, we're putting Kong on him.'"
On knowing more about his team after this Sunday "We're playing the two teams that represented the AFC in the championship game (in the first two weeks) and we're in this conference. So we'll see where we stack up against the very best two last year anyway. So we're not coming off that statement, but we will see at the end of this game where we stack up against the very best of the best, what they had last year. The defending Super Bowl champs and the Colts who went to the championship game."
On expectation of the atmosphere fans will provide"I'm anticipating it to be extremely loud. We're going to pump up the volume on our speakers (at practice) when our defense is out there and play it as loud as we can. I'm expecting it to be extremely loud. Our fans have been challenged. If last week was any indication… we don't need to sell seats, our (fans) stand the whole time anyway. Our fans are into it. I have a feeling they're going to be into this one."
