Bill Belichick's Post Game Press Conference Transcript
OPENING STATEMENT:
"Well once again, it's a little bit like last week. I'm proud of our team. I thought they once again stepped up, made the plays we needed to make in the fourth quarter. The conditions weren't great out there in the second half, but we did a better job of taking care of the ball than we did last week, that was key. Had some stops on defense, had some field position in the kicking game. Always room for improvement, but good to be 2-0, good to get two division wins, and so we'll take a little break here and then get ready for Tampa. But I though the team fought hard today and that was good. Like to see that."
On if he was surprised by all the dropped:
"You know, it's one of those games. One of those 13-10, 10-7, 16-13, you could kind of tell it was going to be one of those games and that's what it was. I thought both teams really competed hard. This is a tough division game like it always is, like it was last week, like it is with the Jets always. That's the way it is. They played a lot of tight coverage, we played a lot of tight coverage, there was some tough throws in there from both sides."
On how he would assess the performance of Ryan Allen:
Well I thought he got the ball off. There was some key situations that I thought he handled, not perfect, but decent. We'll take look at the film, take a little closer look at it, but he certainly got us some field position. Just as a team I think we've got to a little better job on the plus fifty, our coverage, our kicks, and get those balls down there a little bit tighter. It wasn't easy out there, he and Danny Aiken handled the ball pretty well. And Edelman too, I'd say on the punt returns handled it pretty well, some tough catches back there.
On if he's noticing anything about the personality of his team having won two close in games in 5 days:
"I don't know. I mean it's early in the season, we'll see. We'll just keep grinding it out here, but I don't know. It's good to win them, I mean I know that, but I think it's a little too early to brand anybody as anything. We'll just keep playing and get better."
On if the touchdown pass was designed to take advantage of the rookie cornerback for the Jets:
"Talking about the playaction? Well, it looked like they had everybody up pretty close to the line of scrimmage, which they did that quite a bit tonight. It looked like they had no deep field player and it looked like they were kind of caught up in there in the action and Aaron [Dobson] slipped behind them, and Tom [Brady] found him. We got behind them several times, we didn't convert as often as we would like to or need to, but that was a big one for us, no question."
On the play of Julian Edelman:
"Yeah, Julian played well, made some tough catches and did a good job on the punt returns. Plays hard like he always does. He's a tough kid and I thought he made a couple tough catches out there, two in the second half, had to take the ball away from his body in the rain and all that, but he competed hard."
On if he was pleased with the way his defensive backs stepped up:
"Yeah, it's always good to turn the ball over, it's always good to turn the ball over. I mean, again, I thought we competed well as a football team. I mean everything we did wasn't perfect, that's for sure, but we played hard, we fought hard, we made them earn everything they got, they made us earn everything. It was just one of those games that I thought the team really competed well for 60 minutes. So I'm proud of them for that, they did a good job there."
On the fact that near the end of the first half he had Brady kneel on the ball on 3rd down and whether or not he felt they just didn't have enough time and decided to play for a field goal?
"Well, we had enough time to run a play, but there were a lot of things that could go wrong and the chance to score from the 25 yard line I don't think is real good. So we wanted to make sure we had the opportunity for three points. We had the ball right in the middle of the field, we put it where we wanted it, we just didn't execute the play well enough. We took our shot the play before, or two plays before, or whatever it was and just felt like that was our best chance...to give us our best chance to get three points."
On Tom's irritation being obvious and whether or not it can be counterproductive and whether or pays attention to that with younger players and older players:
"I don't know. I think Tom's just probably the best leader I've ever been around so I wouldn't be too critical of him."
On the play of Dont'a Hightower and the fact he was in on a lot of pass coverage:
"Dont'a did a nice job. He blitzed well, I don't know how many tackles he made but he seemed like he was around the ball and he had a lot of coverage responsibility. they have a couple good inside receivers, their tight ends and those guys pretty good job of handling them."
On with so many inexperienced skill players, how tough it was to play a second game in four days at this point in the season:
"There wasn't really a whole lot new for us this week. We ran what we know how to run. Let's just say we've got to do it a little bit better all the way across the board in all phases of the game. Certainly our execution on offense, its not like there was a lot of new stuff, we've just got to do it better. I mean they're a pretty good defensive football team and they got up there and it was what it was. We made enough to win, but we're going to have to keep making more than that."
On his overall impression of Jets QB Geno Smith tonight:
"I don't know, I'm just happy we won. We'll take a look at the film and look at how everybody matched up, but he had a couple good drives...I don't know, you'll have to talk to them about how their players played, I was just trying to watch our guys to tell you the truth."
