FOXBORO - Thursday was Amateur Day at Gillette Stadium, at least where the media was concerned.

With the focus of the entire nation now affixed upon the coming clash of the undefeated Patriots and the 10-5 New York Giants Saturday night at Giants Stadium (8:15 p.m.; NFL Network, Chs. 4, 5, 7, 10, 12), several "media" outlets from the greater New York metropolitan area descended upon the stadium to ask questions that - to them, at least - were being asked for the first time anywhere.

Tedy Bruschi took a deep breath, embraced the "grin-and-bear-it" approach, and politely answered the first question about being on the verge of completing an unbeaten regular season and heading into the playoffs.

"We're not thinking about the playoffs right now," the veteran linebacker said. "Instead of thinking about how we got here, we're just thinking about the opponent we've got in front of us, and it's a formidable one in the New York Giants."

Focus has been very important to the Patriots this year, either in dealing with the media hordes or dealing with their 16 opponents. And as Bruschi said Thursday, that focus started at the top and filtered its way through the entire roster.

"I think Coach (Bill) Belichick has had great focus this year," Bruschi said. "If there has been any year in which players and coaches alike can lose focus, it's when you've had a lot of success. When you get to 12-0, 13-0, 14-0, 15-0, it's easy to maybe get complacent. But I haven't seen any of that in Coach this year or any of that in his staff. They've just put their nose down and focused on what's next. "The example has started from Bill and his coaches of how focused they've been," he said. "Here we are, we're 15-0 and you wouldn't know it. You wouldn't know it from the coaches by the way they continue to coach us hard, and it just helps us realize what's next."

Bruschi was asked if the intense focus of the coaching staff stemmed in part from the national embarrassment of the "Spygate" controversy following the season opener against the Jets.

"Maybe if I had more time to think about that, I could give you a better answer," he said. "We're all in the middle of it right now, but what's really given us motivation is just to win another game. To win another game would bring us to 16-0, and that's definitely enough motivation right now."

Bruschi also suggested that focus has been easier to maintain inside the Patriots' inner sanctum because of the many battle-tested veterans who call it home.

"I think the experience helps in terms of focus," he said. "We do have some young guys in here and we've had some success this year, so starting with the veterans, we can relay the message of just focusing on what's next, the task at hand, and not worry about the success we've had, because 'had' is past tense, and we want to continue to have."

Bruschi said the Patriots will have their hands full Saturday night with a Giants' squad that can run the ball with authority - as it proved last weekend by rushing for 291 yards against Buffalo.

"They're a great running team and they had a lot of success last week," he said, They've got three very capable backs led by (Brandon) Jacobs, and the offensive line is very good at getting hat on hat. So he can hit those holes and we've got to do a great job around them

"There are some guys that we respect out there on the defensive side of the ball that aren't able to run (Jacobs) down, and that's a great indicator for us of how much speed he actually has," he added.

Bruschi said that despite the Patriots' 15-0 record, their defense hasn't been perfect this year - and that the need for improvement has been understood and addressed. "Every week, we've shown progress," he said. "But then we lost Rosey (Colvin), so we had to do a little bit of re-shuffling there, linebacker-wise, conceptually-wise. What I'm really encouraged about is the production we've shown in the red zone the last few weeks, that we've been able to move up from the bottom I think that's something that we're happy about, that we've had some fourth-down stops. That can really boost our confidence.

"That's the bottom-line stat: Do you let them score," Bruschi asked. "They can get down inside the 25 or down inside your 10, but do you let them in? And then, do you keep them out totally or hold them to a field goal attempt? Those are goals that we have and what we're thinking about when they're down there."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com