Bill Belichick's Post Game Press Conference Transcript
OPENING STATEMENT:
"Well that was a heck of an effort by our players. I'm really proud of the way they fought back...you spot a team like Denver 24 points... Just took it one play at a time, kept fighting all the way through. We say play 60-minutes, it took a lot more than that tonight. But really proud of the way they played, the way they hung in there. It certainly wasn't a very good first half in any area. We just stuck it out and in the end, kept making some plays. Had several plays in the kicking game, got a couple turnovers there in the second half after giving them up in the first half and those were big for us. But kicking game was good, our coverage was good, that was a great punt by Ryan [Allen] there at the end getting up there high and making it a tough play. We were able to take advantage of it and Steve [Gostkowksi] knocked it through. We had a lot of guys who are heroes tonight. It's a great night to be a part of recognizing the military and Veteran's Day, and just the whole, what we've gone through in the last few weeks relative to the league recognizing all those things. President Kennedy's 50th anniversary assassination the other day and all that. Good to be a part of all that, good to be on the winning end of it and now we'll turn the page and head to Houston. But we'll enjoy this one for a little while, a couple hours anyway."
On his thought process on taking the wind in overtime:
"It was a strong wind. We just had to keep them out of the end zone, obviously and I just felt like the wind would be an advantage if we could keep them out of the end zone on that first drive, we were able to do that. The wind was significant in the game. It was definitely significant."
On what Julian Edelman brought tonight with his two touchdowns:
"Julian did a great job. First of all, he did a good job of handling the ball, especially in the 3rd and 4th quarter there. He made a couple of good runs with the ball in his hands, also got open, caught the ball. The under route he got there gave us the field position in the overtime, it was a big play. I mean, look, we had a lot of guys step up. You could rattle off 35-40 guys here and we'd be talking about every one of them. Julian's a tough competitor, all those guys are."
On his thoughts on the coaching staff's forecast in terms of what Denver might do and how his team needed to approach the second half:
"How the game would change? I mean I don't know why Denver would do anything different. They were up 24-0, we didn't expect them to do much different."
On the fact Denver did a little turtle action, which didn't really help them:
"That's what they did the first half, they ran the ball in the first half. I would have done the same thing they did. They ran the same plays that they hurt us with in the second half in the first half."
On the fact they got a touchdown off the fumble return...
"I understand that. But I mean they ran the ball...I don't know, maybe we're seeing different games there Tom [Curran]. I think they hurt us with the running game in the first half and they continued to run the ball. They had success with it all night. What did they end up with?"
220-yards for Moreno:
"So it didn't surprise me that they kept doing what they were doing. You have a 24-0 lead, you don't go in there at halftime and say, 'Let's change what we're doing." They didn't, fortunately we made some plays, we finished our drives, got the ball in the end zone. We turned it over a couple times, and we were able to get back in the game and make it a one score game there in the 4th quarter when we had the wind. So that was key for us to be able get back and make it a game in the 3rd quarter. The turnovers obviously helped, and finishing in the red zone helped."
On if he could feel the momentum shift and what made them click so well in the second half:
"Well, I thought we were moving the ball pretty well in the first half. But we turned it over, we couldn't finish the drives and they ended up not only with the ball, but one time they ended up with the touchdown. So you can't move the ball when you're losing it and we've got to hang on to it. Once we started doing that and converting a few third downs...we had some big plays in the red area. I mean, this is a big red area game. We were able to get the ball in and not get held to field goals. So that was huge for us, four touchdowns."
On if he was surprised that the Broncos ran the ball so much given their passing:
"Well, they have a good running game too. I've been saying all week they're a well balanced offense, I don't know anybody else that wouldn't see that. It's hard to stop everything with those guys, they've got a lot of good players."
On what he liked about the way the defense played in the second half:
"Well, I thought we hung in there. We made some plays in the passing game, we played better on 3rd down. I thought our guys competed well, and they're a tough offense to play against. I mean, look, it's hard to hold them down yardage-wise, hold them down point-wise, but I thought we hung in there and battled and I thought our corners, they deserve a ton of credit. [Aqib] Talib, [Kyle] Arrington, Alfonzo [Dennard], they're all...I mean nobody's 100% in that locker room, but they're all banged up, they fought through it, just want to go out there and compete. Devin [McCourty], Duron [Harmon], then we have Marquice [Cole] at the end jump in there, Logan Ryan, those guys, they just went up there and competed against a great group of receivers. They made some plays, but we made some too."
On his decision if he had gone back and looked at other overtime games in the new system if that's what made him feel it made sense:
"No. Nope. That was it. If it hadn't been a strong wind, we would have taken the ball."
On Brandon Bolden's performance:
"He stepped in, he gave us some quality plays. He ran hard, broke some tackles. He's a good back, all our backs have been productive for us."
[This Question Was Asked by Roosevelt Colvin] Fans want to know, who's the best linebacker you've ever coached out of the city of Indianapolis Indiana:
"[Laughs] Roosevelt Colvin."
