Bill Belichick Post Game Press Conference Transcript
Here is the complete transcript from Bill Belichick's postgame press conference following the Patriots win over the Washington Redskins:
OPENING STATEMENT:
All right, well it's good to be 10-3 here. As expected Washington did a real good job. Mike [Shanahan] gave us a lot of problems, obviously, with what he did offensively. I was real proud of our defense to come up with a stop there on that last drive, that was big and a couple of other ones in the second half. I thought we had our moments there all the way around, some good, some not so good. But in the end, the Redskins are a good team. Like I said I think Mike did a real good job that was a hard fought game. Luckily we made a couple more plays than they did to come out on top. Good to be 10-3, turn the page, and move on to Denver.
On what he saw on the last play during Mayo's interception:
"We were in a zone defense, it looked like they tried to check it down, ball got tipped, and Jerod made a....it looked like it was going to be incomplete and he kind of, I'm not going to say he came out of nowhere, but he made a good burst and closed to make the play."
On if they were better about closing out the game this week:
"Well we kind of had a chance to make it a two score game there and turned the ball over in the endzone and that still kept it a one score game, and they drove it. But yeah, it was great to see us close out the game defensively and come up with the ball at the end, so that was good."
On the "words of wisdom" from coach O'Brien to Tom Brady following the interception in the endzone:
"I don't know. There's a lot of things that go on during a game. But the big thing is we were able to do enough to win. It wasn't perfect, there's still a lot of things we can work on and do better, but we're going to keep trying each week to improve."
On the fact that situation isn't not something you see that often with Brady:
"I think this is a real competitive game and we have a lot of competitive players on this team, and I'm glad we have them."
On if it bothers him seeing his offensive coordinator and quarterback are screaming at eachother:
"You know, right now I think we're, like I said, we're happy to be 10-3. We got a lot of work to do, and we'll go back starting tomorrow and get on to Denver."
On the decision between calling or not calling a timeout at the end on defense:
"We had them, if we needed 'em, we would have called them."
On if it crossed his mind to call a timeout:
"To do what?"
In case they scored to get the ball back with more time:
"Well, we were trying to stop them. I mean if I had felt like we had been in a bad call, what we had called, what they'd come out in, and it looked like we had a bad match-up with what they were going to try to do or something like that, then sure, we could have used it there. But it was 2nd-and-15 and we felt like...it's the same thing that works in reverse. If you take the timeout, then they see what you're in and they change what they're doing and all that. I think if you don't feel good about what your match-up is, or if you're on offense and you don't feel good about what your match-up based on the way the defense is deployed, that's a situation where you could use a timeout at the end of the game if you have extra ones. But if you don't, then you're probably better off letting the play play out rather than blow it and on the next play they come out and you might be in a worse match-up."
On the play of Rob Gronkowski and setting a record, and the play he made up the sideline:
"Yeah, the play was right in front of us. He did a great job there of getting up off the ground, breaking a couple of tackles, staying in bounds. He had almost no room to work with on the sideline and was able to, not only keep his balance, but run through a couple of tackles there and stay in bounds. And then the one down the middle of the field, it seemed like they were dragging him for 10-15 yards on that play too. He's a tough guy. We see him every day in practice. He's a tough guy to cover, tough guy to match-up on. We don't tackle him every day in practice, but we've seen plenty of people try to do it. He's a big guy to bring down."
On the fact it seemed like that was an area Brady wanted to try and target:
"Well, I think on a couple of...the two long plays, the one in the first quarter and the one in the fourth over the middle there, it looked like it was man coverage. He caught a couple zone, caught a ball out in the flat and broke a tackle. Again, it depends on the play and the coverage, but he's a guy Tom likes to throw to, he's a big target, and he's open, he's open a lot."
On when Devin McCourty came out, if they talked about adjustments:
"We're in different coverages and they're running different routes, but I thought Devin came back and made several plays at the end. I mean he had kind of a tough pass interference call there, I mean it was a close call. Obviously they called it but that was a 3rd and 20 play or whatever that he broke up that would have got us off the field, but that ended up being a long drive. But I thought that he came back and battled, and competed like he usually does and he made several big plays for us. So it was good."
On his overall impressions of the defense:
"Some things were good, other things could be better. It's always nice to score on defense. You never want to give up 30 or however many points we gave up, 27, whatever it was. It's too many."
On his thoughts on the officials being too involved in the game:
"I can't really worry about the officials, I'm just trying to coach a team. I'll let you guys worry about all that."
On the fact it seemed like Wilfork was pinned to the ground and Andre Carter was trying to make a play....
"Well, why don't you go ask the officials about it Jim [directed at Jim Donaldson of the Providence Journal]?"
I should:
"Well why don't you do that? I mean, what do you want me to say?"
[Inaudible]
"Well why don't you go ask them then?"
On his thoughts on Dane Fletcher's performance:
"He did a good job for us. Dane's really, when he's had a chance to play this year, he's done well. Unfortunately he's missed a little bit of time, but he's done a good job. I thought he stepped in and was physical, made a couple plays in the kicking game too, a tackle on the kickoff team and played pretty physically in there as an inside linebacker. It was good to have him back, and I hope we can get some of our other guys back as soon as possible. That certainly would help us too."
On the Redskins zone running scheme:
"They did a good job. Mike does a great job, offensively he's one of the toughest guys to go up against. I know he had some good schemes for us and things that definitely caused us problems from a coaching standpoint, from a scheme standpoint and he did a good job, we tried to adjust to them. But he always does that. He does things that give you a problem, and then he has things to come off them to balance it out so when you start looking at one thing,he's got something else and does a good job of keeping it moving. They're a very well coached football team, no question about it. They do a great job. We have to play better, we have to coach better, but you have to give them credit. They really know how to attack defenses. It's always a battle playing them."
