Bill Belichick's Post Game Press Conference: Patriots vs Buccaneers
Here's the complete transcript of head coach Bill Belichick's post game press conference following the Patriots 23-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
OPENING STATEMENT:
"I thought our team did a good job today. We had a good week of practice and I think that showed up out on the field. We got good contributions from all three phases on offense, defense, special teams. I thought that our situational football was better, 3rd down, red area, 4th down, kicking game so I thought that we made some improvement this week and that was good to see. Like I said, we had a good solid week of work and I think that showed up on the field so it's not just Sundays, it's all that goes into it. But I thought the players really did a good job this week and happy that we had some of the success that we had today as a total team. I think Tampa's a good football team and fortunately we just made a few more plays than they did today."
On what he's most encouraged by what he's seen from his team defensively:
"I thought we did an O.K. job today. We played good in the red area, that was big, keeping them out of the end zone. But next week we'll have a new set of challenges so we'll just have to do everything well against Atlanta. But today was red area defense, and we made some third and fourth down stops when we needed to. They moved the ball, they had some long drives, but fortunately it didn't result in a lot of points."
On whether or not the offense performed better thanks to having more practice time this week:
"I think we get better every time we have practice. If we don't, then I don't know why we're going out there. We had an opportunity to have an extra day this week with the Thursday game, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I think it helped our entire football team. Our execution, our communication, and our timing on everything was a little better. Hopefully it will be better next week."
On if he was pleased with the way his rookie receivers stepped up today:
"I think they've been working hard, they've given us good effort every week."
On how crucial Brandon Bolden was today:
"I thought all our backs ran well. Brandon did a good job for us, but Stevan, LeGarrette, they all had some good runs, some key runs for us. It's a tough defense to run the ball against, but we were able to chip away and at least keep them honest and stay out of a lot of long yardage situations and that helped us. When we got in long yardage, than that was...those were our bad series. But when we were able to control the distance situations, the running game certainly helped that. That was positive for us."
On how they were able to limit what Vincent Jackson was able to do:
"Well, he's a heck of a player, made a big catch there on us early. I'm sure they missed him when he went out, but I thought Aqib [Talib] did a good job competing against him and played him tough at the line of scrimmage. Jackson made a couple, but Talib made a couple, and it was a good competitive match-up. He's definitely a guy, obviously him and [Doug] Martin are two guys you've got to stop on this football team and being able to keep them out of the endzone and just limit his catches was huge for us. But Aqib did a great job. He worked hard, had a good week of preparation, he had a real good week of practice and it showed up in the game. He made that play in practice, the interception, a couple times just the way it turned out in the game. So it's just a good example of practicing well leads to game performance."
On the performance of rookies Jamie Collins and Logan Ryan:
"We'll look at the film and see how it goes. But we got a lot of contributions from a lot of players today and I thought we were O.K. in the kicking game, our field position was competitive, made some kicks, the kick at the half was a big kick. You know, all the guys that played, we got good solid contributions from every body."
On if the QB sneak before the kick at the half was the call or if Brady called an audible based on what Tampa Bay was doing:
"Well, we usually don't talk about how the plays are called and all that, but obviously what we were trying to do was get the ball as close as we could into field goal range and where we had it there was on like maybe the 40 or 41, it would have been a 57, 58 yard field goal with a strong crosswind. And each yard to get a little bit closer would increase our percentages on that. We only had, I think it was six seconds on the clock, so we didn't have a lot of time to run a play and call timeout, so we had to do something pretty direct, get as much yards as we could in a short amount of time and take a timeout. And then Steve [Gostkowski] made the kick. So all that stuff is great, but it all comes down to making the kick and having good execution by the field goal team and we had it on that play with the specialists and the protection, so that made it all look good, otherwise it doesn't mean anything."
On what made the offense click as the game went on after their slow start:
"Staying out of long yardage. We got in some long yardage situations early, 2nd-and-18, 3rd- and-15 and couldn't overcome them. You're not going to overcome those very often but we were able to keep it into third and 2's,3's,4's, 1's, we were able to convert more of those. So I think that was the big thing. Avoiding negative plays, staying out of long yardage, like it usually is."
On the fact Gostkowski's kickoffs are in the endzone frequently and its effect on the field position for the defense:
"Yeah, well, it was a touchback game. Both kickers, I mean I think there was only kickoff returned, right? It was like the 20 yard line...so it was a touchback game. I think you see a lot of that this time of year. The weather's good, it's warm, the ball's flying, but we're going to have to cover them sooner or later and we're going to have to return them sooner or later. I'm sure we'll get our chances, but today, it was a touchback day."
On the poise of Brady during the game after starting off slow and then picking up the urgency after their fourth drive:
"Well again, I think once we eliminated the negative plays and stayed out of long yardage, then we were able to move the ball competitively. But the 2nd and 3rd and longs, it's just too hard. As a group offensively, we didn't have a lot of negative runs, as we got going we didn't have too many penalties, we didn't have too many 2nd and 10's, 3rd and 10's, so that's the key to it. You just can't, 2nd and 15's, 3rd and 15's, I mean you just can't expect to get too many of those in this league. Not against a good defense like Tampa."
