Chad, Chad, Chad

"Oh, yeah, they are balling out of control," Johnson said about his teammates in a conference call. "I'm looking at the play getting ready to develop because we have (cornerback) Ike Taylor in my face. We have (linebacker) Joey Porter running to the flat. And (safety) Troy Polamalu all the way over the top trying to cover the deep ball.

"I really didn't have to run. All I needed was some popcorn and watch 84 and 15 just go to work while I was on the side. It was nice. It was a beautiful game and I really enjoyed myself."

Belichick: "Chad is a good guy. I've spent some time with him. He's really an entertaining kid. He has a good sense of humor. It sounds like he was poking fun at us. That's OK."

Question: "Why does no one ever take offense to the things (Johnson) says? Why don't more teams take that seriously?"

Belichick: "It's Chad being Chad. That's just Chad."

Q: "Is it more acceptable because he can back it up?"

Belichick: "He's not even serious. I could throw that same stuff back at him if that's really what we wanted to do."

Q: "Could you do that? We want you to." (Laughter.)

Belichick: (Laughter.) "Tell him we'd cover him one-on-one all the time, but he pushes off more than any receiver in the league. He must be paying off the officials not to call it. We're going to double-cover him some. ... Just as much as he pushes off, tell him that we have to protect ourselves. No, he's a great player."