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Head Coach Bill O'Brien**
(on CB Darryl Morris' recovery from injury) "He had the ankle against Buffalo and it was a high ankle, so it took him a while to come back from that. He worked very hard to get back to the point where he's at right now and he looks like he's moving around well. He's had a good week of practice, so he should be ready to play on Sunday."
(on how important it is to get CB Darryl Morris back into the rotation) "It's important. Anytime you have a quality player like that it's important to get him back in. He's got good quickness, good playing strength, good ball skills. He's an instinctive guy, so hopefully he'll see some time on Sunday."
(on his impression of QB Ryan Mallett after one week of practice) "It's everything that we thought it would be. Good command, good huddle operation, he's thrown the ball well, he's worked very hard with his teammates as far as film study in here in the building and staying after practice. He's still out there throwing some routes to some guys. He's working really hard. He's excited for the opportunity."
(on if he QB Ryan Mallett has met expectations so far) "No doubt about it. Like you just said, we give you a shot to play quarterback for us in our system—anybody, anybody that plays quarterback in this league—there is high expectations for that position. We're looking forward to seeing what he can do on Sunday. He's had a good week, so we're looking forward to it."
(on if the weather influences the offensive game plan) "You can't ignore it. You have to think about all of the possibilities that can happen from wind to snow to rain. Fortunately having coached in New England, I've been involved in all of those. We have a decent track record in weather games and we have a lot of players here that have played in all different kinds of weather. Certainly it affects your game plan depending on what it is. Is it windy? Is it snow? Is it a lot of snow? Is it just a slight accumulation of snow? Is it rain? All of those things really affect how you call a game."
(on if the weather can throw off tracked tendencies of an opponent) "I think so, especially if it's windy. I can remember Cleveland, playing in Cleveland a few years ago. Actually, it was Buffalo, which is somewhat near Cleveland. Buffalo where there were 65 mile an hour winds towards the end of the season. That was more the end of December. In fact when a guy kicked a field goal it actually stopped and took a left. It was so windy. And Cleveland has the same type of weather at times during this time of the year. I'm not saying it's going to be like that. I think you have to really pay attention to the forecast. Again, you can't base everything on a weather forecast, but you try to pay attention to it and you make sure you're prepared for what that weather might be. You're preparing the players for that on game day."
(on if he's going to rip the weatherman like Bill Belichick) "I don't go down that road. Bill Belichick's been in this league for 40 years, many Super Bowls. I'm just a first year coach."
(on how he stays warm and focused on the sideline) "That's a good question. We try to. Basically I just go with the layer theory. I wear layers. I can remember playing in- it's funny you guys are asking me these weather questions. Like I was saying earlier in the week, I love this time of the year because of the weather, because you're bringing a team in there and they have a really good football team, a tough physical team and it's going to snow. It's really in my opinion what football is all about. So I can remember in Chicago one year it was snowing bad and equipment manager before the game was going around handing out ski goggles because it was windy snow, it was whipping snow. I didn't actually wear the ski goggles, but he gave that as an option for us to do. You try to make sure you're clothed so that you can concentrate on your job. There is no doubt about that. Now we've got some guys on our staff, don't put me in this, like (Mike) Vrabel and Fitz (Craig Fitzgerald) and those guys on our staff, they might show up in tank tops and shorts. These guys are nuts, but don't put me in that category."
(on his nickname from his time in New England that Browns QB Brian Hoyer alluded to) "I had a few nicknames there. Some of them I can't mention them in public. Not sure if they were nicknames. I think he was talking about, they used to, people know this, I can say this. They used to call me Teapot. You know, I'm Irish. I'm Irish, so sometimes I get upset when things aren't run correctly. You guys have already witnessed some of that. I think that's probably what he's talking about. They used to mark down my teapot incidents on the teapot. They had an actual teapot in the middle of the table. So there were a few. There weren't many teapot incidents, but they would mark it down."
(on if the teapot was in the quarterback room in New England) "In the quarterback room, right. That's right. I think they still have it in New England."
(on QB Ryan Mallett's involvement on the sideline during the games he was not playing) "I thought that was pretty interesting because the last time I had been around him is when he was a rookie. Basically he was learning the offense and watching Tom (Brady). He didn't have anything to say on game day. When he came here, he was very involved in what was going on on the field in a very positive way. 'Hey, they're doing this.' He wasn't suggesting play calls. He was just saying, 'Look, it looks like this is the tendency that they're headed towards,' and he would help Fitz (Ryan Fitzpatrick). I thought that was pretty good. It just showed me that he had learned a lot in the years that he had been in New England."
(on an update to RB Arian Foster) "That's definitely going to be leading right up until game day on that one."
(on if RB Arian Foster practiced) "He did some things, but I think at the end of the day that will be something, he and I will talk. We'll do what's best for Arian Foster number one and then what's best for our team number two. That will be something on Sunday we'll talk about."
(on if he thinks if a guy can't practice during the week that he won't play) "I think that's a good point. I think it depends on the player. You've got a guy there that's played a lot of football in this league. He's a smart player. Versus maybe a rookie, maybe you'd think about not playing him. I think at the end of the day it's more about the health of the player than it is anything else, especially with a guy like Arian (Foster). We'll just make sure we're in communication with him and we'll make a good decision for him and our team on Sunday."
