Bill Belichick Press Conference Transcript

Here's the complete transcript of Bill Belichick's press conference following New England's win over the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.

OPENING STATEMENT:

Of course it's nice to come here and win and be 3-1. I thought our team did a pretty good job today. Raiders are real physical, of course coming off a big win last week. I was proud of the way we ran the ball and played good in the red zone on both sides and handled the turnover situation a lot better than we did last week. So a tough win, but a good win, and we kind of turn the page and get back into the division this week. They're a good football team and fortunately we were able to play well in the second half and make a few more plays than they did, and that was the difference.

On the play of Stevan Ridley:

Yeah, Stevan did a good job. I thought all of our backs ran well. We know we had a good day running the ball, so that always helps balance things up. Rid came in and gave us a lift today on a few plays, so that was good.

On if running the ball was a focus, or if balance was part of the plan coming into today:

No, well, we just .... we ran the ball better. I mean, we always want to have balance, and we were able to have it today. The players did a good job. We blocked well, we ran well, the receivers blocked well, they were involved on those perimeter plays blocking in the db's and crackblocking, and things like that. It was a good team effort running the ball. One guy can't do it, you've got to have eleven guys.

On what he learned about his team's toughness:

I think we have a physical football team and I thought we had a good day playing physically today. We ran the ball pretty well, and I thought we stood up to a physical team. But you know, we're going to see that pretty much every week. We'll get challenged the next week, and I'm sure in a lot of successive weeks.

On the play of Wes Welker:

Wes is a good player, we know that. He's a hard guy to cover. We competed against him when he was at Miami and we compete against him every day in practice. He's a good receiver. I thought all of our receivers stepped up, I think we got plays from everybody today. Again, that just helps the overall balance of being able to spread the ball around, and also being able to run it.

On if he's worried about the long-term health of Welker:

You worry about everybody. Look, it's a physical game. Everybody gets hit out there.

On the health of Jerod Mayo after his injury and dealing with his absence:

He's done a good job for us. We'll see where he's at. We'll come back, take a look at it tomorrow, and see where he's at going into this week.

On what he saw during Patrick Chung's interception:

It looked like they were trying to run a play action pass down on the goal line, and try to get the defense to bite up on the run and then hit something in behind him - and then it was kind of a busted play, so I don't know exactly what happened out there. Obviously Campbell must have figured somebody was coming in behind him. I don't know.

On if the officials gave him an explanation on the pass interference call earlier in the game when they picked the flag up:

They said that it was incidental contact, that the guys got their legs tangled together.

On Vince being at the right place at the right time after getting two interceptions this season:

He sure was today. Vince has got great hands. People don't realize that because he's not a skill player, but he can catch the ball, and catch punts and everything else. So when he gets his hands on it he's a vacuum cleaner - he sucks it right in there. But that was a big play for us and great awareness on Vince's part.

On Vince's running yardage after the catch:

He's very hard to bring down, I know that. You've got to gang tackle him.

On how the defense changes without Mayo in the lineup:

You saw it in the second half.

On this thoughts about the Raiders compared to the last time they played them:

We haven't played them since '08, so that's the last time we've actually faced them. I'd say they're definitely better than they were then, but that was three years ago. I think they're a good football team. They played very well in all three games, certainly could have won the Buffalo game. So I think they're a good team.

On the fact they played a lot more zone today:

We just felt that was the best way, in some cases, to play Oakland. But we mixed it in, or tried to anyway, and we'll do that week to week. We'll try to do what we feel like is best for our team against who we're playing that gives us the the best chance to win.

On how much emphasis was placed on being focused on avoiding being too emotional:

We always talk about that. We never want to be heavily penalized. That's one of our goals every game really is to avoid penalties. We could have avoided a few more, but we never want to be penalized. That just gives the other team extra opportunites as well as costing us yardage. But look, in a physical game, that kind of thing happens and keeping your poise and staying away from those flags, that's important. No question.

On if any comments on Seymour and how he played:

No, I was trying to watch our team out there.

On what he takes away from this game:

We've got a long way to go. [It's] a very competitive division. We've played two of the teams in our division, got another one coming up this week. They all look pretty good, and there's a lot of other good teams in the AFC, it looks like, early in the season, so a very competitive year. We've got a long way to go, hopefully we can improve.

On the fact they gave up 500 yards, and if he feels better about what he saw in the second half from them:

I feel good that we won. That's it. We didn't win last week, I didn't feel good. We won this week, I feel better. We won the first two weeks, I felt better those two weeks too. That's what we come here for is to win games. [We'll] try to win another one.