fire away,
how you doing? How are you? I'm doing good, you know, Championship Week ready
to go, how's the ankle? It's doing good, you know, *** few days of treatment,
*** few days of rehab, excited to get on the practice field and kind of test
it out and see where I'm at, but it's feeling good so far, you express it,
you'd start treatment the night after the game. Can you just kind of bring us
through what that night was and then these last few days, what you've been
doing? Yeah, I was able to do some extra testing just to make sure
everything was good. Uh not after the game and then get *** few things done
to help the treatment kind of start off and then the next few days is just kind
of been, I mean all day thing where you're just doing either treatment or
rehab or watching film and uh I had to take Brittany *** few places with me so
I can be around the kids *** little bit. But uh it's *** full day thing where
you're trying to make sure that you're obviously prepared for the Bengals and
*** great football team um mentally and physically. What do you feel doctor,
what do you think has been the toughest injury that you've had to play through
before? How that might serve you for sunday?
Probably my toe would probably be the toughest injury. I remember when I had
the toe, I was like having had to curl my toes when I walked. So that was
probably the toughest injury that I had to play through, but I've done with ***
lot of them and, and uh, you're gonna have to mentally get yourself to focus
on what needs to be focused on, and that's the team that you're playing and
you prepare your body all week and then you get to sunday, you focused on
playing the football game and uh, that's what I'm gonna try to do this
week. Yeah, it's very similar. Just *** different ankle, um, especially when
you're different angles at the quarterback position, you're planting
and throwing off different stuff. Um, so the last one, it was the leg that I
landed on, so had to find ways to throw where I could land and keep it in the
right spot and this time I have to find ways to be able to push off and be able
to still make the throws the right way. So, uh, definitely similar in *** sense,
but obviously different limitations and stuff that I have to work through,
especially as *** home underdog basically due to your injury, so to
speak. Do you feel you feel more pressure? Do you feel like it's, it's
because you're an underdog. Now there's, there's not *** lot of pressure,
there's *** lot of people expecting,
Yeah, I mean every time I walk on that field, I don't, I don't think I'm
underdog, especially when I walk on our arrowheads field. So I'm just going
with the same mindset of, we got to play our best football to win. Um we
know we're playing *** great football team that beat us the last three times.
Um and so we have to learn from our mistakes in the past and be better um
in order to win against *** great football team,
trying to make practice that
I think we'll see throughout the week. I haven't got to go out and practice
yet and put myself in those positions. I've done limited stuff kind of in ***
*** small uh small kind of box of what I can do, but I'll push it *** little
bit today and then the next day and then the next day again and see what I
can do that not re aggravate the injury obviously, but to push it to see what I,
well, I'll be able to do on sunday.
Um there was *** little bit earlier in the week, I mean you wanna, you wanna
push it, but you know, like I said, I don't wanna reaggravated or do
something that you were in the position of this last game and it was hurting.
But uh that stuff that you do the rehab and then you do the treatment for, is
to prepare yourself to go out and practice and go out and play and um I
mean all you can do is keep pushing and pushing it and try to do whatever you
can to go out there and win *** football game.
Yeah, I mean, I haven't been at the house much. So when I'm at the house,
it's usually either studying or going to sleep. So it's just kinda prepare
yourself, do whatever I can in the building and then whenever I can't get
off my feet and get some sleep and I'll go get some sleep.
Yeah, I mean *** lot of greats have have done it. I mean, I think it's just
about being *** competitor. I mean if you wanna, you wanna be out there and
especially in these games. Um and so all you can do is just mentally prepare
yourself and your body throughout the week. And then like I said, you get the
game that you have to focus on the game and uh, that's, that's what I'll try to
do is prepare my body the best I can and get to the game and just go out
there and play and try to find *** way to win.
Uh Yeah, for sure. I mean, I felt, I felt better than I thought I was gonna
be after the game, moving on it during the game definitely definitely hurt. Um
but after the game I was able to arrest it and kind of sit up and do different
stuff like that. I felt *** little bit better position and obviously the next
morning I felt *** little bit better and I've continued to get better
throughout the week. So we'll see how I feel today at practice and I'll get ***
better, better feel for you and I'll be able to think and *** little bit better
tomorrow. This is *** team you've faced *** few times like *** division
opponent, you guys know each other pretty well. You've been able to run on
them. What has been the challenge trying to throw against that secondary?
Yeah, they're coached well man. Uh they're defensive coordinator coach and
Romo has has done *** great job of changing up the game plan. I think
that's been the best thing is very game plan specific. Uh it's never the same.
It gives you different looks out of the same the same look but different
coverages. And that's what I think *** lot of great defensive coordinators do
is they're able to coach your team up and do *** lot of different stuff and
variety of stuff, but still be sound in it. And I think that's what they do
well. And then they have great players. I mean at the end of the day they have
great players that that are that are extremely coachable and go out there
and do their job to the best of their ability. And so when you're at this
point in the playoffs, are playing against great teams and it's about who
can execute at *** higher level in different ways for like better terms of
Bengals have been *** little vocal this week. What's been the messaging
internally just to not get involved with that and reacting to that type of
stuff. Yeah, I mean we just we just go out there and play football at the end
of the day and all that stuff you can talk throughout the week, but then the
day it's *** football game, you have to go out there and play it. And so we
believe in just going, showing up on sunday playing our best football and
seeing what happens.
Patrick, *** little little related to that. You're *** lot more used to
having winning streaks against other teams than having one going this way.
How do you how do you work with that in terms of the motivational point there?
I I know you, you know, you look for motivation at different places. Um Yeah,
I mean, we've obviously lost this team three times in *** row and uh we've had
great football games against them, but they've been able to beat us
situationally at the end of games and so how can we be better there? We know
it's gonna be close football game. Every team you play in this position is
gonna be *** close football game. Um But how can we be better situationally
that we go out there and we're able to execute on third down in the red zone
and at the end of games in order to win, it gets *** good football team, it gets
in your head in *** negative way in anyway, right? I mean, I assume it's
motivation rather than um, yeah, I don't, I don't know how it would be ***
negative way. I mean, if you, I think you don't want to, you won't relax,
you're focusing even more on the details. So, uh, I mean, I'll be, we'll
be ready to go and I'll be ready to go for sure. How much of what they do is
scheme stuff and how much of it just physically they're able to do something,
put pressure on. Yeah, I think more than anything, they have no weakness
across that whole defensive line and the linebacker position. I mean they do
*** good job of pass rushing. They do *** good job with their dbs of rushing
from the outside and they keep changing it up. I think that's the biggest thing
is you you can't you can't relax back there. You have to make sure that
you're really focused on the details. And same with the offensive line and
the running backs in the protection. And so, uh, I mean, it's *** little bit
both. They have, they have great players all throughout that defense and
then they have *** great, *** great coach and defensive coordinator. So uh,
for us we have to focus on the details, prepare ourselves the best way possible.
And at the end of the day we go out there and play
not be limited. Moving around what's the, what's your message to the
offensive line knowing that you may be limited.
Yeah, I think you saw in the second half of this last game and um they they
stepped up and did *** great job of protecting me and where I was able to
throw the ball from within the pocket. Um and I'm sure they'll be ready to go,
but like I said, it's *** great defensive line, it would be *** great
challenge for them. Um but I'm excited for those guys to go out there and
accept the challenge.
I think they might,
um not necessarily, like, like I was saying earlier, they're very game plan
specific and they switch every, every time, it seems like we play them. Um
and so it's one of those teams have to be preparing for everything. Um Play
them one time they pressure *** little bit, put them one time they drop their,
you play them this last game, they played it more uh kind of true to the
coverages. So I'm expecting to have *** mixture of all that stuff man. I mean
that's why they're in this position. Um and so you just prepare yourself to be
ready for it and execute the play and then move on to the next one