Former Patriots defensive coordinator Dean Pees, who is in his first season as Ravens linebackers coach, answered questions from reporters today in Baltimore.
“It’s always more competitive when you’re going against somebody you know and you like,” Pees said in comments distributed by the team. “It’s like playing golf against my brothers, who I love. I’m a lot more competitive. It’s kind of like you always want to beat family and friends more than you really want to beat somebody else.”
Pees touched on how he might be able to help the Ravens on what he knows about the Patriots.
“Obviously, I’ve practiced against [Tom] Brady a lot, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what they’re going to do in the game,” he said. “I’ve seen it all, over practice, over six years. I’ve seen every formation, everything that they do, and they keep changing it all the time. So it’s going to be game-plan specific for what we are.”
With that in mind, Pees said he feels the biggest way he can help the Ravens is on the Patriots’ personnel, and their strengths and weaknesses. Still, he downplayed how much that might help, calling it more like a normal week. He also noted how sometimes giving too much information can complicate things.
As for the Patriots having two weeks to prepare, Pees said he experienced times in New England where the Patriots revamped things considerably during the bye. Other times, there was little change.
"I can still remember one time we self-scouted ourselves on defense and I noticed that on first-and-10 I never ran any pressures," Pees recalled. "So I told Bill during the bye week 'I probably should change that.' And he looked at me and goes 'We're No. 1 in the league on defense. Why?' ... That's the thing about Bill. He can do a lot of change and he can do no change."