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Replay: Best of the Week on Patriots.com Radio Fri Dec 20 - 10:00 AM | Sun Dec 22 - 01:55 PM

Antowain Smith Post-Game Press Conf.

To view the transcript, click below

Q: Two TD's today, that's a nice day.

AS: We needed them.

Q: How bad?

AS: We just needed a win very badly today to stop the four game slide that we've been on. So we came out, guys started early and continued to play good ball.

Q: Here in Buffalo they said you didn't catch it that well coming out of the backfield. You always felt that you could catch it, now that you're at New England, did you know they were going to come to you?

AS: Yeah, they told me about the game plan. A lot of people think when Kevin Faulk comes into the game they holler, 'screen pass,' and it's a screen to him, so I took it upon myself to get better at catching the ball so it takes some of the pressure off and we wouldn't be so predictable.

Q: I know a win is a win, but it must be nice to stick it to your former team?

AS: Last year it was. A lot of that has died down, my main thing is I just want to go out there and make plays to help my team win.

Q: So where does the team go from now?

AS: Hopefully we continue to get better. That's just one step, we have to go back, look at the film, evaluate it, see how we can get better, and just get ready for Chicago.

Q: Do you guys have your swagger back and you confidence?

AS: I don't think we ever lost our confidence, but we were down a little bit. But I think we came out there and knew what we had to do, and everybody made it a big Brady versus Bledsoe thing, but we wanted to come here and play as a team, and go out there and get the job done in all the phases of the game.

Q: Is it a kind of game you can build on?

AS: Of course, this is the type of game you can build on, we just have to go out there and continue to get better, and not get complacent, not let anybody say, 'okay, you look like the New England Patriots that started 3-0,' so we just have to continue to play within ourselves and do what we need to do.

Q: Antowain, was this more like last years offense?

AS: A little bit it was. We wanted to come in here and control the clock, and keep number 11 on the bench over there. He can't do any damage when he's over there on the bench. I think we did a great job of coming out and executing the game plan, taking what the defense was giving us, taking our shots down the field and most of all, dumping the ball underneath.

Q: Coming into this stadium, isn't it a little more special that way?

AS: Of course. I think that's when we play our best anyway, when we're underdogs and nobody gives us a chance. We believe in ourselves, we knew what we needed to do to go out there and turn it around today because we just went out there and executed the game plan and guys made big plays when they had to.

Q: Do you feel like you stole the whole spotlight away from Brady and Bledsoe?

AS: Oh no. I don't need to steal the spotlight, not me. I don't need it, but I knew that I was going to be a big part of the game plan today. Just coming in and controlling the clock, get something going on the ground, and I think we came out here and did a pretty good job.

Q: Was that frustrating for you in the four consecutive losses, they really didn't utilize you?

AS: Of course it's always frustrating if you want the ball, but I knew the game plan going into those games. The main thing is, today we wanted to come out and establish the run early and if we had success with it we were going to continue to do it.

Q: Why was it that the screen passes worked so well?

AS: They didn't expect me to catch a screen pass, that's why it worked for me, they hardly ever throw me the ball. Those are the things that we've been working on in practice all week, getting better at the screen pass. We went out there, had some good blocks down field and executed.

Q: Can you talk about the job that the guys did up front?

AS: That's what we needed, the guys got off to a good start up front, we were finally getting everybody back together, [Joe] Andruzzi was out for a while, Greg Robinson-Randall, that was the line we had last year when we went to the Super Bowl, so everybody was intact. I think everybody just went out there and did a good job, when it's going like that, they give you a good chance to get to the line of scrimmage, and when they do that I'm going to take my two, three yards, just go in there in the hole.

Q: How did Robinson-Randall do?

AS: I think he did pretty well over there today. We went out there and got the job done that we needed to get done. But we can get better, and that's what we're always striving for, to get better.

AS: Anything else?

AS: Cool!

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