Bill Belichick's Post Game Press Conference Transcript
Due to the fact the broadcast didn't show his press conference in its entirety, here's a partial transcript with Bill Belichick's post game comments following the Patriots big playoff win over Denver Saturday night:
On if how they started (starting fast) was what he was hoping for tonight:
"We always try to start well. I mean, believe me, we always try to start well."
On the two touchdown swing at the end of the first half and how important that was:
"Yeah, that was huge...that was huge. We got the first touchdown and then we were able to get a stop there on defense and come back and we were kind of playing for three with I think it was 10 seconds to go and we still had a timeout. We saved that timeout for the field goal, and we kind of took a shot for the endzone and Tom [Brady] hit, of course Rob [Gronkowski] down the middle against, it looked like split safety coverage. I mean that was huge really to get those points to come in before halftime. It was big, and then we got a stop to start the third quarter so that kind of sequence there at the end of the second, start of the third quarter was big for us. I mean we had the lead, but then the game kind of got out of hand at that point. That was really well executed by our football team, especially offensively."
On having Aaron Hernandez in the backfield:
"Well, we didn't have any backs in the game in that personnel grouping, we just had the three receivers and the two tight ends, so I don't think that...you know that isn't something we've done a lot of. You see all those receivers on the field and you're not really thinking too much about the running game defensively so we tried to pop a couple of runs in there just to keep them honest. We thought they might be thinking...I mean obviously they are thinking pass - we threw the ball almost every time - but we tried to get a couple of runs going there. And Aaron [Hernandez] made a good run, it looked like he broke a tackle and he did a nice job handling the ball there."
On his thoughts on Tom Brady's performance:
"You know Tom, I thought really had a good night, other than the one ball that was overthrown. But he managed the team well. We were in a fast paced, no huddle the whole game and as usual he did an excellent job of controlling the formations and the plays and got us out of a couple bad situations. That punt, the fake punt...not the fake punt but the quick kick...we've worked on that for, it's got to be like what, another I don't know, 7 or 8 years since the last time we did it. So he's 2-for-2, 2 inside the 20. The last one was I think on the one against Miami. This one was on like maybe the, I don't know, the 7 or 8, whatever it was. So I was a little disappointed that we lost that field position. But...no, it's funny, I mean that's the kind of play we work on forever and you never know when it's going to come up and actually we talked about doing it when we were backed up there on the 2 yard line, it was like 3rd and 12 or something on the 2....2nd and 12 on the two, and then he hit Deion [Branch], we got the first down, and then we ended up in 3rd and whatever it was, 15 or something and rather than go out there and go through the punt rushes that they have which, you know, they like to bring their corners and so forth, we just felt like that was a good time to do it. And Tom has usually made it work good."
On what's different about Tom Brady now compared to a few years ago:
"I mean Tom's done a good job for us for a long time. But I think offensively it's just our team. We had good execution by a lot of guys out there offensively tonight, certainly a lot better than the last couple of playoff games they've had here. Our team performed well, we scored points, and I think that's really the bottom line. Everybody contributed. We had a lot of guys doing a good job out there. Tom's one of them, but he had a lot of help."
On whether or not he noticed Tom Brady's determination to put their playoff losses behind them this week:
"I think our whole team feels that."
On if Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez are a good demonstration of how the tight end position has evolved over the years:
"There's been a lot of great tight ends through the years in the NFL, but Rob and Aaron have both done a good job for us. They compliment eachother well, they compete well with eachother, push eachother and they've been very productive for us. They both do a great job, we're fortunate to have them."
On their reason for going the no-huddle virtually the entire game:
"Well I think it was certainly something that helped us when we played them out there. But we had a couple of no-huddle series there at the end of the 2nd quarter, start of the 3rd quarter in Denver and we felt like that gave them a little trouble. And then today it looked like they lost a couple of safeties and I'm sure that didn't help their communication, so we were able to press it a little bit. It seemed like we had an advantage that's why we tried to, like I said, continue to try to take advantage of it and try to press on it a little bit."
On the offensive line and the fact they didn't give up any sacks:
"As I said the whole team, I think all the players did well. And of course we want to give all the credit to the guy throwing and a couple of guys catching, but it's everybody out there. The offensive line protected very well, our backs as well when they were in [blitz] pickup. I thought we ran the ball hard Benny [BenJarvus Green-Ellis] ran well. So I think it was a full team effort all the way around. You can't move the ball and score points unless everybody's doing their job, it's not just one guy out there. That's the way we practiced, and that's the way they all played. They executed extremely well today. We didn't have very many penalties, had a couple at the end but overall we played penalty-free and that was a big help to us offensively as well. We weren't in a lot of long yardage situations, as you said, no sacks. [We had] a couple of runs that weren't great, but we didn't have a lot of sacks and penalties so we were usually in a fairly favorable down and distance situation."
On why they didn't let Brady go for his seventh touchdown which would have been a postseason playoff game record:
"I don't even know what those records are. We're just trying to win the game. That's all we're here for."
On the fact they had lost the last two playoff games and how it affected their focus for today:
"That's all we care about is this game. I mean there's nothing we can do about...look, we've won games around here, we've lost them but all that's in the books. There's nothing we can do about any of those. All we can focus on is this week. And I think that the team went out there and practiced well, prepared well, and played well. That's all we can do, and that's all we can do next week. Just go out there and get started on whoever we play once we find out who it is, have a good week of preparation, practice, film study and so forth and be ready to play our best game in the AFC Championship. We're going to be playing another great football team, whoever it is and we're going to have to play well. So we don't really care about what's happened in the past. There's nothing we can do about it."
On what he likes about his defense:
"I like our whole football team. Our defense, they compete well. I thought they did a good job. We unfortunately gave up a touchdown there on a short field, but overall I thought they competed well. We had some better plays on third down. Got off the field, gave our offense some field position. Were able to turn the ball over early in the game, that was big. Guys played together, they communicated well, we've gotten better throughout the course of the year."
On his thoughts on Rob Ninkovich and his strip sack early in the game:
"Rob's been a very consistent player for us all year. He did a great job tonight. I know he was a little bit disappointed in the way he played in the last Denver game, and he was very determined...he had a great week of practice, a great week of preparation. It looked like he had a real good night tonight along with the other guys out there. Again, it just comes down to team defense. Being able to do our job in the running game inside, with the quarterback on the pitch, those kind of things, playaction passes - they threw a lot of those - balls down the field. It takes 11 guys to stop that offense, not one. As a team I thought they communicated and executed pretty well."
On whether facing them once already helped them:
"Yeah, it definitely helped. The fact that we had actually seen it live as opposed to just watching it on film. We tried to simulate it in practice of course and our guys did a great look of giving us a good replication of what they did, but it's always different to see it in person. Of course trying to tackle [Willis] McGahee and [Tim] Tebow, and [Demaryius] Thomas live, it's a challenge. I mean those guys break a lot of tackles and that's a big part of it too. They did that tonight. We tackled them, but it's challenging. But having seen it once before I think was a big advantage. Like watching the Kansas City game as an example it looked like the second time Kansas City played them it that their players and their team had a little better feel for how to play some of that than they did the first time, so that was probably true for us too."
On if he's ever faced a team that used two tight ends as extensively as the Patriots do with Gr:
"I don't know, I'd have to think about it."
Back in the mid 70's?
"Charlie Sanders and David Hill, we tried to do that with them, thank you. [Laughs] I mean, honestly there really wasn't a lot two tight ends prior to the mid 70's, there really wasn't. There was one tight end in the game. Occasionally teams would use two tight ends in short yardage, but that's kind of where thetwo tight ends and one back...and then with Coryell and San Diego and so forth, it became a little more prevalent. But when we had Charlie Sanders and David Hill at Detroit, those two guys are pretty good. One of them is in the Hall of Fame, right?"
