Bill Belichick Press Conference Transcript 9/12
OPENING STATEMENT:
(Belichick's press conference started a little late back here in New England, so part of it was omitted)
"I thought our guys did a real good job of coming down, being focused, doing their job and trying to block out a lot of distractions. Miami played well, they've got a good football team. I just think our guys made a few more plays, and I'm proud of the way they played. We've got a quick turnaround now getting ready for San Diego, so we'll enjoy this one for a few minutes, but then we have to get back to work and get ready for those Chargers. Obviously [there were] a lot of big plays in the game, but, like I said, fortunately we made a few more than they did. I thought we got good contributions from all three phases of the game, offense, defense, special teams, and hopefully we can build on that and improve on it. We've certainly got a long way to go. That was certainly no "rembrandt" performance, but fortunatley it was good enough."
On if he saw Welker's 99 yard touchdown:
"They came after us, Tom checked it, we picked it up, hit him in stride, broke a tackle, so it was good to get Wes down the field."
On going hurry up and if it was part of the game plan:
"We did it in other games in preseason this year, so it's part of our offense. We can do it, we can not do it."
On his thoughts on Tom's 511 yard performance:
"I think you talk about the whole team. The pass protection, Solder did a good job in there, Waters played right guard, and then [Dan] Connolly had to go to center when Dan went out, Logan got rolled up on early, finished the game, Light...so we had good protection, got a lot of production out of the receivers, Tom did a great job of throwing the ball, so it was a good complimentary game. We ran the ball effectively, enough to keep them honest. Tom threw it well, the receivers caught it and we pass protected - so it was no "one man band out there". We had a lot of contributions from everybody, and that's what a good offensive team should do. We should be good across the board."
On Koppen's injury:
"We'll see how it is...I mean I don't know, I just walked off the field...so..."
On if it was a broken ankle (as was reported by the 5th Quarter):
"I just walked off the field, so...."
There was a report a few minutes ago (referring to that report):
"Then go with the report, I mean I don't know."
On what it would mean not having Dan Koppen out there:
"Well Dan [Connolly] stepped in there and played most of the game tonight so whoever's healthy, we'll play with those guys, if somebody's not healthy, then somebody else will have to step in and play for them. I mean that's part of football. But I mean, Dan does a great job for us, don't get me wrong, but we'll see what happens."
On his thoughts on the defensive job in general:
"They're a pretty explosive offensive team. They've got a lot of guys who can make plays, they've got a good group of receivers, a good tight end, a good back, quarterback played well. We had our moments, we made some plays and they made a few, so it was a good give and take. The turnover at the end was big, we hit the quarterback, but he stood in there and made some good throws, and they've got a good group of receivers - a good group of skill players."
On his thoughts on the offensive performance and what they were able to do following the Lions game to play as well as they did tonight:
"That's a long time ago. You go through training camp and preseason games, and there's a lot of things that aren't right, believe me. Even when they look right, they weren't very good against Jacksonville or Tampa for that matter either - we had plenty of mistakes in those games. That's what preseason's for. To play people, correct mistakes, you hope you don't make too many, but it's inevitable that you make a bunch of them and then you get the timing down with the guys who are going to play more, and hope to improve it. Again I thought it was competitive tonight, but there's still a lot of things that we need to do better, that's obvious. We've got to go back to work, it's the first game of the season, we've got 15 more in the regular season, and hopefully we can improve on a weekly basis. I mean that's what we need to do. We're a long way from being a good football team right now."
On if he's still evaluating guys at each position to figure out what they have:
"If we put play the players in the game, we're confident in them. So if we put them in there, we're confident that they can play. "
