Bill Belichick's Postgame Press Conference Transcript
Here is the complete transcript of Patriots head coach Bill Belichick's postgame press conference following New England's win over the New York Jets on Sunday.
Opening Statement:
"Well it's good to come in here after a win against the Jets, always is. A division game, hard fought game like it always is. I'm really proud of our players. We stepped up, that was a great drive there offensively to answer the touchdown, field goal, and I thought we played better on defense, so some good things to build on, we've still have a long way to go. We'll see them again in a month, as well as the rest of our division teams later on in the season. It's good to win, I'm really proud of our team. They had a great week of practice. They worked hard, pushed through a lot of bumps and bruises, banged up, a long trip from Oakland and all that, but they hung in there, and I thought they really did a good job this week, it was one of our better weeks of practice so hopefully that was reinforced by what they did in the game."
On how BenJarvus Green-Ellis was so effective in the second half:
"I think everything helped. Throwing the ball, they played a lot of sub defense, a lot of extra DB's, our O-Line did a good job, our tight ends did a good job, Tom checked some plays and got us into some more favorable runs than maybe what were called, so I think it was a good job all the way around. Benny ran well, of course, like he always does, runs hard, gets a lot of yards after contact, so it was a good solid job all the way around. The receivers, you know they blocked on that last 3rd and 4 play where we ran around the end, we got a couple good crack blocks from the receivers. Everybody did their job."
On the way the defense responded
"We had our moments. We had some 3-and-outs, we didn't play very well in the red area, we still gave up 21 points, but it was enough to win. Certainly a lot of things we can improve on. But I think we have improved, and hopefully we can keep building on that and continue to get better each week."
On if this was a game heavy on making adjustments at the line
"There's always an element of that with the Jets. They give you a lot of different looks, they stem in and out of things, and overload, and then switch it, and just change things up on you. So you've got to be careful about running plays that just have no chance. You want to stay out of those, try to give yourself something that you at least have an even fight, fair numbers on, so some of that's the quarterback's responsibility. A couple of times we just got caught in it, they did a good job. They maneuvered in a way that we weren't able to do that, but I thought he did a good job of handling that."
On the drive where they ran three consecutive 8 yard running plays, if that was a case where their personnel dictated that:
"No, that's just the way it turned out."
On what he saw on Wes' long reception, and what did they take advantage of:
"A play action pass, he came over the middle. It looked like the safety dove, whether he was supposed to on the run or not, I'm not sure. He split Revis and, I think the safety was Smith, so I'm not sure whether they were combo'ing that because the tight end blocked or....somebody obviously got caught short. Tom put it out there...you know we had a couple other chances today where we were behind the defense, and we just overthrew them by a yard or so. But I think we've got to keep taking those shots, you're not going to hit all of them, I mean you want to, but, we hit one, we've hit them in other weeks and if they want to come down and clamp us, then we've got to be able to go over the top. It was a great throw, Wes made a heck of a play, that was a huge play in the game."
On what he saw from Aaron Hernandez, and the fact he looked a little mobility-wise in his brace:
"Aaron's really worked hard the last couple of weeks to get back out there. He's in here early, stays late, he's leaving like, when the coaches are leaving, he's getting a lot of extra treatment he was able to get out and practice later on in the week and handle a little bit more each day, kept getting better, so we felt confident going into the game - and he did - felt confident going into the game. He got behind the defense a couple of times, so he obviously got his speed back. I thought he had a good couple days of practice at the end of the week and was able to carry it over into the game. He's a tough guy to match up against. He's a good player. "
On his confidence to keep him in the game:
"He seemed to be doing fine. We check with those guys as they were coming out. We had a few of guys banged up offensively that were fighting through some stuff, but they hung in there, and when we needed to give them a break, we did so."
On the fact they're a third of the way through the season, and if he could talk about the overall analysis of the team and the fact the Patriots are the "team to beat":
"We don't really care about all that that. We're getting ready for Dallas next week. I don't think now is the time to reflect on anything. We'll look at this game, we'll correct our mistakes, we'll analyze the things we did well, the things we need to do better, and we'll get ready for the Cowboys. And that's what we'll do next week."
On some of the things he feels they need to get better with:
"I think we can do better in everything. I think we can do better in all three phases of the game. Our running game, our passing game, just our overall execution, and keep building on it. Red area, I mean, you can go right down the line. We're not playing a perfect game. We've got to work on everything. Do a better job of coaching it. Just get our guys out there executing better, just try to refine, take care of the little things, then some of the big plays come from some of the little things on the execution. So better coaching, hopefully that will lead to a little better playing."
On how they did without Mayo defensively getting in the right place
"I don't think we had a lot of, defensively, adjustment problems where we couldn't get things lined up right or that kind of thing. I think Patrick [Chung] and James Ihedigbo did a real nice job, James did a great job for us today in his overall communication, and of course he was pretty familiar with the team we were playing. He's a smart guy that really works hard, communicates well, and practiced well this week and I thought he did a good job when he was in there - delivered a couple of big hits and played well. So he helped us with the communication as well as Gary and Spikes, and Ninkovich. You know those guys have been playing together, especially Spikes now, he's had a few weeks where he's been in there with Gary, and so they had a good week of practice, and Rob, so it's going better, I mean it's not perfect, but we're making progress, it's definitely getting better."
On the two challenges and the process he went through:
"Yeah, good calls from upstairs. Our guys up in the booth got a good look at it and felt like Deion [Branch] was touched before the ball actually came out. He was still down, had he gotten up and the ball had gotten punched out, that would have been a fumble. But it looked like he still had his knee, or whatever part of his body - I think it was his knee - was still on the ground when he got tagged and then the ball came out after that. So that was a good call upstairs. The same thing on the catch there on the sideline. It looked like Burress bobbled the ball a little bit. That's always a tough call because he did come up with it but I thought he bobbled it a little bit. But then the guys upstairs said that his toe came down on the line, so I think that really was why they called it incomplete, I don't know the bobbling part. Although it looked to me like he did bobble it, but they called his toe on the line, or foot on the line, whatever it was. So good job by our assistant coaches, guys upstairs, Ernie Adams, and the other coaches that saw that."
On the fact the Jets played a lot of defensive backs like they did in the playoff game, and if he felt like they needed to run the ball more if they did that:
"We try to have a balanced offense. We try to run it and throw it, we've done that every time we've played them. We did it today, we did it last week, I'm sure we'll do it again. They do a good job defensively, they give you a lot of different looks, sometimes they put a bunch of defensive backs in the game and try to bait you into running it, and then they all come up there and swarm you and they've just got more bodies than you do, even though they're smaller, but you can't get them all blocked, or you don't have good blocking angles on them. So they keep you honest, they do a good job, and it's a little bit of a chess match between the play callers, and then of course, you know, the quarterback on the line of scrimmage trying to recognize it and try to keep his eyes out of...bad plays. That's the most important thing. In the end you've got to block em, you've got to throw it, you've got to catch it, but if you call a play where you just, have no chance because you've got a guy standing right there, or they blitz a guy that you can't block, then those are the ones that you want the quarterback to keep you out of. Tom does a great job of that, like he usually does. He's very good at that.
On the fact it was a physical game:
"It's always physical against the Jets. They're physical, we try to be physical. They ran the ball, they came in aggessively. Their front's physical, our offensive line stood there and battled with them, our backs ran hard. Defensively we slugged it out with them up there in front. So it was a hard fought game, and that's the way it usually is. Same thing in the kicking game, there were some good hits on special teams. Both teams played aggressively, that's the way it always is with the Jets."
On if he sees improvement with the offensive line:
"I think the running game is a team thing, it's not just the line. It's the line, it's the tight ends, it's the backs, part of it's the quarterback, part of it's the receivers and of course it's the guy carrying the ball. So everybody has a hand in that. I think the better you run it, The better you throw it, the better you throw it, they better you should be able run it, so they kind of play off each other. It's hard to keep calling runs when you don't gain anything. After you call three or four of them and you're 2nd-and-10 everytime, it's hard to keep calling them, especially if you're moving the ball through the air. So if you can match that production and have good positive gains in the running game and then have them in the passing game, then as a play caller, you feel confident and comfortable calling pretty much anything. Again, that's a credit to the team, because we called a lot of different stuff and they executed it well, and again, they had to make some tough adjustment against some of the things the Jets did, but they did a pretty good job of it. It's a good team win. I don't think you can give it to any one guy, there's a lot of people that played well today and I think everybody feels good about it."
