Here’s what New England Patriots defensive back Marcus Jones had to say following the Patriots Divisional Round win on Sunday.
On the fact Khyris [Tonga] said during the week, ‘I like us’ with all the talk of the Houston D and whatever and what did he his guys today, and What is it about him and the end zone, if he just smells the end zone when he gets the ball in his hands:
“Yeah, I would say we put in a lot of work on the defensive side, offensive side, special teams. We know what we invested in when it came down to all the preparation and stuff like that. We definitely have the situation of confidence when it comes down to it. and man, just try to be right place, right time. Without that play, I can’t say without that play, KC, he was right there. Those guys always making it harder for the situation of the quarterbacks and everything. It was just right place, right time.”
On the fact we heard from coach Kuhr on Thursday that CJ was deadly when he had a clean pocket, and if he had a sense that if they got pressure on him, he might have a ball like you did on the touchdown:
“Yeah, we knew that CJ, at the end of the day, when it comes down to having only four-man rushing or three-man rushing, he can dice defenses up. So our main thing was to have pressure when it comes down to it. I’m glad that we caused what we caused today.”
On speaking of pressure, marrying the pressure with the coverage, how has it, as a defense, how has his unit progressed in that and they’ve become a lot more aggressive since about week 14 in terms of blitzes, applying the pressure, but at the same time on the back and taking advantage of it:
“Yeah, I feel as though when it comes down to pressures, like you said, it’s all 11 working. The guys getting in the right place, right time, causing havoc on the quarterback, but then also the guys on the back end being in the right spots. Because usually whenever you have pressures, quarterbacks want to have quick game. Being able to be in the right place at the right time is very effective and very good to have. We’ve progressed when it came down to that. So communication is a big thing because not only us being in the right place, right time, we always got the crowd being loud, which we want them to do, but we got to find out ways to communicate and hand signals and making sure to talk before the play happens is very important.”
On the fact his coach said that they seem to be excited but not satisfied with the win. But with that said, just from a pure emotion standpoint, how good does it feel to be in the AFC Championship game next week:
“Yeah, man, it’s great to be in a position that we are, but we’re one of those people, one of those teams, I would say, that love to flip the page. We’re going to be excited, spend time with our family and everything, and spend time with each other. But whenever it comes down later in the week, we’ll definitely dive into Denver because they’re a great team.”
On the fact he’s been here for a couple of years, he’s ridden the roller coaster, and what strikes him about the consistency of this team and where that comes from:
“I would say the identity. A lot of people would be like, ‘Well, what about the identity?’ We all have the same common goal when it comes down to the end of the day. Whatever helps us win, we’re down for it. So offense is going to have good times, and they’re going to have bad times. Defense is going to have the same thing with special teams. So, making sure that we stay day in, day out, have the right goal is the main thing.”
On how does Coach Vrabel plays into that:
Consistency. Always telling us whenever we’re doing good, we could be doing better, and things like that. So I would say that’s the main thing”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This transcript was done based on the available footage and is subject to typographical errors. If you spot anything, please let me know in the comments below.)
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
