Greg Knopping is the managing editor of SB Nation's New England Patriots blog and SB Nation Boston affiliate blog Pats Pulpit. Greg is on assignment in Indianapolis to cover the upcoming Super Bowl XLVI game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. On Satruday, Greg sat down with Pats safety Sergio Brown to talk about his 2011 season and the big game on Sunday.
On turning training camp opportunity into bigger role:
I stepped up into a bigger role after those guys [Meriweather, Sanders, McGowan] left at the beginning of the season and played a little bit more and now I'm just contributing to the team [any] way I can. It's a blessing because I'm better than last year and I just keep taking steps forward.
On how he has improved as a player:
Experience; I've gotten older and I've been able to focus on the important things while trying to weed out the things that don't matter. I'm just really focused on getting better and everything we need to do as a football team.
Thoughts on his emergence as a special teams player despite up-and-down playing time on defense:
Special teams is a big part of the game - there is a lot of hidden yardage in special teams and whatever value we can get we need to have. So every chance I get out there to do anything I just want to give it 100% and try to contribute to the team.
On transition in defensive backfield and how the secondary has coped with it and improved:
We just want to play our best football after Thanksgiving - play our best football going into the playoffs. And once the playoffs hit, we wanted to really narrow down and really, really play our best football because it's like another chance, or another season. In the whole scheme of things, once you get to the playoffs, that's the only thing that matters. It doesn't really matter what happened before or anything so we just [have been] trying to come together as a group and play our best, best football in the playoffs - the postseason.
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