Bill Belichick's Postgame Press Conference Transcript
Opening Statement:
NOTE: Belichick opened the press conference thanking the veterans of our armed forces, however the broadcast cut that portion off so unfortunately it’s not included in this transcript.
“Good to win. Like usual a tough matchup withBuffalo. They do a good job fought us right to the end, but we made the plays that we needed to make, it wasn’t perfect of course, a lot of work to do, got to keep working to get better but in the end the turnovers were the difference and let’s move on to Indianapolis.”
On the fact Danny Woodhead seemed a little more involved today:
“You know, we use all of our backs. So there’s no, I mean, you guys think that we… like every game ‘oh, this guy’s got all these plays, in the next game somebody else has all those plays’ - we don’t know. But they all played, they all contributed, they’ll were productive and Danny made some good plays, no doubt about it.”
On if he seen improvement with Jermaine Cunningham rushing the passer:
“I think he has been productive. He has been productive, yeah. We’re just trying to get our best guys on the field, best pass rushers on the field, he’s one of them and he’s had production for us really, it’s grown. He’s got a better feel for it. He handles a lot of communication there on the line of scrimmage in terms of what games we’re running and things like that. He’s done a real good job with it.”
On if the production the bills had was what he expected in terms of how explosive he felt they were:
“Well, they didn’t really hit us with a lot of big plays. They hit us with, I mean they moved the ball around, they got a lot of guys involved,Chandler, Johnson of course, the backs, they did a good job. Again, in the end I think the turnovers helped us. They’ve got an explosive group of skilled players and they got them all involved.”
On the fact the Bills ran for more yards against them than any other team this season:
“They had a lot of balance and we missed some tackles, we didn’t play some of the runs real well. But those backs are good backs, they make yards against everybody so we’ve got to do a better job but give them credit, they gain a lot of yards against everybody. They do a good job, they’re not easy to get on the ground even if you play the play halfway decently, they make a lot of yards on their own.”
On the fact it still looks like his team is struggling to close out games:
“I’ll take any win. Take any win.”
On if he’s disappointed in the lack of sharpness on defense:
“I thought overall as a team we just didn’t do a real good job of that. We had penalties, dropped balls, offsides, missed tackles. You know, missed tackles and dropped balls, I mean that’s pretty fundamental. We just didn’t do a good job in a number of areas, I don’t think it’s any one thing but just overall we made some plays and we did some things well but there were was other things that were just not as sharp as what they need to be or what they should be. So we’ve definitely got to do a better job on those. Far from perfect.”
On if he’s surprised by the missed tackles and fundamental mistakes:
“I just got through saying that I think they have a good group of skilled players that are hard to tackle in part of that’s a credit to them, but we have to do a better job. I don’t know how else to answer the question, it’s the same thing I just said.”
On if having Devin McCourty at safety gives him the ability to have an impact on more plays:
“I don’t know, it depends on the play.”
On if he sees Stephen Gostkowski gaining confidence as the season goes on:
“I don’t think Stephen has ever not had confidence. I don’t think that’s an issue. He kicked the ball well, absolutely, but I don’t think it’s a confidence issue.”
Maybe not a confidence issue, but I’m just try to get you to talk about him:
“Steve’s real consistent from the date got here. He’s kicked well, he works hard, he’s been very consistent, like everybody not perfect, but good and works hard to continually get better. That’s the way it’s been when the stats say he’s doing real good, and that’s the way it’s been when he’s missed a couple kicks or hasn’t kicked off well or whatever the case might be. He’s very steady, he works hard, he puts a lot into it and overall he’s very consistent on a daily basis. I mean there’s not too many times where you walk off the field, in fact I’d be hard-pressed to think of more than a handful of times where you’d say “he didn’t have a good game today” – there’s just not many of those days. He kicks the ball well pretty much every time he gets a chance to kick it.”
On the fact he gave the defense very good field position:
“You’re right we had good coverage on a couple of they brought out, and that was good. I mean this is the best kickoff return team in the league, great returner, punt and kickoff returner, and that was one of the things we needed to do was neutralize [Leodis] McKelvin’s production in those two areas and we did a decent job of that.”
On if he senses any frustration by Tom Brady and Vince Wilfork with the team’s inconsistent play after seeing their outbursts on Sunday:
“You’d have to ask them.”
On the fact that despite the fact the defense has struggled at times throughout the game, they’ve still had a player come up with big plays at the end:
“I don’t know, that’s the way it happened today. But I’m sure next week, who knows what the script will be next week? We’ve just got a go out there and try to play well for 60 minutes. That’s what we’ll try to do every week. One might make plays at the beginning of the game, the end of the game, all through the game. Hopefully we’ll be able to do a better job next week.”
On his thoughts on Brandon Bolden’s suspension:
“Well it’s a league better, I don’t really have any comment on it.”
On what makes Danny Woodhead so special after what he did in today’s game:
“I think Danny is a versatile player. He does a lot of things well. He’s good in the passing game he’s got a good feel for man and zone coverages and getting open, he does a good job on blitz pickup, he runs well, he reads his blocks well, he’s got good quickness, he’s got some speed and really runs pretty strong for smaller player he’s got a good skill set, he’s smart, he works hard always trying to improve he does what you ask him to do. So he’s got a lot of things going for him.”
On the fact that they lost both are starting guards today and if he thinks the guys did a good job in their absence:
“Yeah, they sure did. We were kind of fortunate there. Most of the time we only carry offensive linemen in the game and we happened to have a today. So both Donald [Thomas] and Nick [McDonald] ended up filling in there. Obviously we’ll have to watch the film and see how it all turns out but there wasn’t a lot of problems, I know that. That was obviously unexpected but luckily they came through for us and that’s why everybody has to be ready. You just never know when the bell’s going to ring and both Nick and Donald answered it”
On the fact that when someone like Bolden breaks a rule and gets suspended for four games, he has to have some sort of opinion on that:
“Well, I can’t talk about it. Can’t get into those matters.”
