Bill Belichick's Post Game Press Conference Transcript 9/14
 Belichick notched his 200th career victory Sunday in Minnesota. (USA TODAY Images) |
OPENING STATEMENT:
"Well that was a real good team win for us today. Really proud of the team. We got great contributions from all three areas, thought our special teams did a real good job, Steve [Gostkowski] kicking the ball, made a couple of big returns, obviously the blocked kick by Chandler [Jones]. Offensively we had a more balanced attack than we had last week, which is what we needed. Had a lot of runs, play-actions, converted some big third downs, converted some red area opportunities. Defensively we had a lot of turnovers, plus the blocked kick. So that's a good formula. Obviously still a lot of things we need to work on, we're a long way from being where we need to be, but we certainly made progress this week. Hopefully we can go back and have another good week of practice and grind it out and continue to improve, which we need to do. It's good to come up here and see the team play as well as they did, play hard for each other, play well as a team, good complimentary football from all three units and that's what we need to do. "
On the blocked field goal by Chandler Jones:
"That was the hugest ten point play...it was a huge play. We work on it every week and it was great to see it happen the way it did, see that hard work in practice payoff and become reality in the game. That's what it's all about."
On how win number 200 feels:
"It felt good. Every win feels good. It felt good, it felt real good. I'm proud of the way our team played today. We had a lot of good players...I thought our captains did a real good job this week coming off of last week's disappointing game in Miami. We got great leadership from our veteran players and our captains. The team played hard today."
On the adjustments they made on defense following the Vikings' first offensive series, they were able to get turnovers, etc:
"I mean, the turnovers were huge. Most of those plays were on balls down the field. They got us early in the game on misdirection plays, the crossing route for [Vikings tight end Kyle] Rudolph and then the crossing route back to the tight end off of the play-action, then the cross boot for the touchdown. So we need to do a little better job on staying at home and defending our areas and not over-pursuing. We kind of got caught on that on the first drive. They had a good group of plays and they definitely were able to execute them well. That was a good drive."
On the offensive line bouncing back:
"I thought that Josh [McDaniels] and the offensive staff did a great job with the game plan. We had some good opportunities to run the ball and that set up some play-action passes. We weren't in a lot of long-yardage situations. There were some with penalties, but we didnt' have a lot of negative plays where we just got blown up in the backfield or anything like that. So I thought that the staff did a great job. Our offensive line, our tight ends, James Develin was part of that, they blocked well. Stevan [Ridley] ran hard, the backs all ran well. So it was good to see that. That certainly helped us in the passing game, set up some passing opportunities and also kept us out of long-yardage [situations]."
On the fact history is important to him and the fact he's the 6th coach to reach the 200 win mark during the regular season and what it means to him personally:
"It means a lot. What it really means is I've coached a lot of good football players. Those are the guys that win the game. Players win games in this league and I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to coach a lot of great players and so that's really about them winning the games. But it's certainly an honor to have my name thrown around in there with some of those guys, I'd say really all of whom, other than Curly [Lambeau], that I looked up to as a kid and admired and maybe borderline worshiped as NFL coaches. I certainly never got into coaching expecting that to ever happen, so it's very gratifying to reach that milestone. But what it really says is that I've had a lot of good players. That's really what it says."
On the fact the tackling seemed better this week and if it was a point of emphasis:
"Absolutely. Blocking and tackling were the two biggest points of emphasis this week. I think we did improve. We can still do better, but taking care of the ball, turning the ball over, blocking and tackling, those are the fundamentals that we need to do well in. Obviously we had too many penalties, which again negated some good plays and gave them extra opportunities. So we've got to do a better job on the penalty front. But I thought the fundamentals of blocking, tackling, turnovers, ball security, ball protection, and running with the ball. I thought our backs ran well, our receivers ran well, Julian [Edelman] on the returns, so we made some plays with the ball in our hands."
On the success on special teams punting the football:
"I thought our special teams really responded. I mean, this was a huge challenge [Marcus] Sherels and [Cordarrelle] Patterson, they're the return tandem in the league last year. Those two guys are great, [Blair] Walsh is a good kicker, I mean they've got real good special teams units. Joe Marciano's an excellent coach, he's done a good job, and Mike Priefer, whoever you want to call it, but either way, we knew it was a big challenge to come in here with their units, their specialists, the production that they've had in the past and the schemes that they have. But our guys really met the challenge. [Matthew] Slater and certainly our specialists, Julian [Edelman], Danny [Aiken], Ryan [Allen], Steve [Gostkowski], you know, those guys, they played well and anytime your specialists play well, then there's a good chance your special teams are going to play well. So those guys did a good job. We got a lot of...downed some punts inside the 20, gave us an opportunity for good field position. They really, they looked good."
On how he felt Deontae Skinner played with Jamie Collins being deactivated:
"We'll see. There's probably some things that were O.K.. There's probably some other things that we need to sharpen up on. But we felt like we had to make that move just for the game with Jamie not being able to go, so Deontae has had a couple good weeks on the practice squad and in practice. It's an opportunity for him. I think he was mentally ready to take advantage of it, so I'm sure he'll get better as he continues to play. I mean the guy hasn't played a lot of football for us this year.
On the fact Chandler Jones had a big day and won all his match-ups:
"Chandler's, I mean he's played well for us. He's a good player. Again, anytime you can get that kind of a lead like we did and we saw the reverse of that last week when it was a one-dimensional game and those guys can just do their thing, tee off on the quarterback and all that, that's a defensive lineman's dream. We were able to capitalize on it and get some pressure on the quarterback, but our ability to make plays to get ahead to create that situation really had a lot to do with it too. But he did a good job, we got a good pass rush from all those guys, Rob [Ninkovich], Chandler, [Dont'a] Hightower, [Dominique] Easley, Vince [Wilfork], we had a bunch of guys hitting the quarterback."
On as someone who loves the league, what he can do to make things better [given some of the recent off the field events related to the NFL]:
"I think we need to do what we always do, and that's take care of our job and do our job and try to do it well. That's what we'll focus on and continue to focus on. We really can't control anything outside of what we do. We've just got to do the best that we can, leave all those other things to the process and so forth. I mean, it's certainly unfortunate. I have a lot of personal respect for Adrian [Peterson] and Ray [Rice], and the whole situation is really unfortunate with the events of what happened. But we all know what that is, so it's an unfortunate situation."
