Vince Wilfork Post Game Comments
Here's the complete transcript of defensive lineman Vince Wilfork's postgame press conference following the Patriots win over Green Bay Sunday night:
On the defense making the big play at the end of the game:
“It’s something that we always talk about, you know, going in as a defense, offense whatever – situations. As a defender I love being in situations like that because it gives you a chance to win the ball game. I think we came up big for us. The game wasn’t perfect. At the end of the day, the ‘W’ – that’s exactly what counts. I think good teams find a way to win, especially in December. I mean Green Bay, I tip my hat to them because they came out fired up and they played a hell of a ball game. Flynn did a hell of a job. Looking at him this week, he actually ran the offense pretty well. So we weren’t shocked that he was going come out and perform well. It was all about us executing, and I think at times we did it good, and at times we didn’t. Like I said, good football teams find a way to win. I think you saw today people rising to the occasion. When the offense needed to score, we scored, when we needed to make a stop, we made a stop. Special teams came up big, so I’m not sad at a victory. I’m not worried about how we won. There are some things we can clean up and get better at but the fact of the matter is – we won today. You look at film, make corrections and move on because we’re going to need to win more ball games than this if we want to get to where we want to be.”
On Dan Connolly’s kickoff return:
“You know for a big guy - I mean he gets the game ball, I’m telling you that right now. To do what he did, he got us pumped, it really got us pumped. Just to see a big guy running down the field like that – me, I would have had to take a timeout and get subbed in or something. But he went out, he finished the series, and the offense capped it off with seven points so hats go off to that guy and he definitely deserved the game ball in my book.”
About the fact he didn’t score:
“He got us where we needed to get, he got us seven points. Bill, we talked about coming into this game – about field advantage. Special teams, defense, offense, and taking advantage of situations. At times it was shaky, but at the same time we made the plays that we needed to make at the time we needed to make them. So I’m never going to sit here and complain about certain plays. You play a football game, the only thing that counts at the end is ‘did you win or lose?’. I don’t care how great you are, if you lose, you lost. I don’t care how bad you are, if you won, you won the ball game. We won a tough ball game. The last couple of weeks we’ve played some good football teams, and handled them pretty well. To give up 27 points and play a little inconsistent at times today, people may be upset. Do I want to blow people out every time? Yes, but it doesn’t happen like that every time. So we got the ‘W’. There’s some things we definitely can learn from in this game, but I’m not taking back the fact that we played our tails off. We probably got off to a slow start, but we made plays to get the job done and now we’re sitting back with the ‘W’ and we’re going to enjoy it.”
On facing the Bills next week:
“You know what? Buffalo’s been playing some tough games all year. They’ve put up a lot of points. They’re very explosive on offense. Fitzpatrick, he’s throwing the heck out the ball and the receivers are catching it. The running game – I think Jackson is probably one of the most underrated backs there is in the league. He’s a hell of a back, so we’re going to have to play some ball - especially with a division game. You can’t look at a record and be like, “this is a win.” You can’t do that - especially in the NFL and being a division game. So we have to come to play, and we have to go to Buffalo. But like I said, good teams find a way to win – especially when it’s late in the season. We have to rally around eachother and continue to do what we’ve been doing. Preparing well, practicing well, being good in situational football. Just being able to execute, and it’s going to continue this week.”
