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Replay: Patriots Unfiltered Wed Nov 20 - 02:00 PM | Thu Nov 21 - 11:55 AM

Bill Belichick Postgame Presser - 11/23/2008

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addresses the media during his postgame press conference at Dolphin Stadium on Sunday, November 23, 2008. (General thoughts on the game) - "It's nice to come down to Florida and win; you know this hasn't been a great venue for us through the years.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addresses the media during his postgame press conference at Dolphin Stadium on Sunday, November 23, 2008.

(General thoughts on the game)
- "It's nice to come down to Florida and win; you know this hasn't been a great venue for us through the years. It's good to come out on top, a lot of player stepped up, and played hard today. Miami's a good football team and we definitely had our hands full. Offensively, we had a lot of good production, but we had some penalties and a couple miscues, but I thought those guys really stayed after it and moved the ball effectively. Defensively, we were just trying to hang in there. They're a good team, you know we evened it up with Miami this year; they got us pretty good up there, so we feel good about evening the score down here. We're happy to win, and ready to move on next week to Pittsburgh."

(On the importance of bouncing back from a loss)
- "Every game's important. It's good to win a division game here against Miami, like I said they got us up there the first time, and at least we were able to square it up with them, and we'll be in it right to the very end."

(On his QB)
- "Matt's a confident guy, he's a good football player, and every time he walks on to the practice field or into a meeting, we're in a game and he just keeps learning and keeps improving. I don't think there was ever a lack of confidence. I think anyone gains it, young or old. You go in there, and you're successful, and you gain more confidence, whether a rookie or a 10-year veteran."

(On Matt Cassel's work ethic)
- "Matt works hard, he works hard at what he does. Like I said, not just every game, but he gets better every practice and every meeting. He understands things that went wrong and he corrects them and we usually don't have that problem again. He very seldom repeats mistakes and he usually executes the plays better the more times he runs them. But that's everybody offensively as well, not just him. The offensive line, the receivers, it's just not a one-man-band. That's the way it is with every pass play. If they come after you, then you got to get more people out there to block them, if they don't, you got to count on your protection to hold up and follow your reads. And if they drop off, and have more guys in coverage then they do in the route, then you got to find the open guy. I mean the quarterback's got a tough job on every play."

(More on Cassel)
- "I would say that he makes good decisions. When things are covered, and the rush opens up, and he has a chance to advance the ball, he can step up there and make that decision. At times when that's not the case, or better of just staying there a little bit longer in the pocket, and wait for something to come open, and I just think he's made a lot of good decisions, and not just in the passing game, but in his pocket-presence, his ability to step up in the pocket sometimes, scramble and move the chains on some of those man coverage situations where the defense has their backs turned to him."

(On Randy Moss' performance)
- "He's been like that for a long time; he's made a lot of good ones. He's got how many touchdowns, hundred and whatever. Whatever it is, he's making good plays, and he's a great player. We've seen him do it time and again, and he continues to do it, he's been doing it for a long time."

(On outcome of game)
- "Well you go into every game and you hope you're going to move the ball and score points, hoping that you're going to play good defense and not give up many yards or points. We would certainly like to play better defensively, had trouble in the red area. When they got the ball down there, we were able to make a couple stops, and hold them to a lot less points then they ended up getting, but they're a good red area team and they had a couple good plays, which is good execution on their part. (Chad)
Pennington's a smart quarterback; he was able to find some openings there on the scramble, where he hit the fullback in the back of the end zone the pop-pass off the fake flip play. You know, give them credit, they're a good football team, they score points, and they won four in a row, so they've been doing a good job against everybody."

(On Wes Welker)
- "Wes does a lot of things well, it's hard to say, well, this will take care of him. You know, he's quick, he runs well after the catch, he's got great hands, good concentration, good feel for man and zone coverages, he's a good technique player, as well as having good skills. He knows how to attack defenses, how to attack coverages and get open. He's got a good repertoire and you can throw a lot of different pitches at him. So it doesn't take just one thing to take him away, he's got too many change ups."

(Breaking down the halves)
- "A few turnovers, and what was it, six penalties in the first half, you know we really felt like we stopped ourselves in the first half. But we really didn't in the second half. We had a lot more consistency moving the ball, and defensively we got hurt with some big plays and some red area touchdowns. There's still a lot of room for improvement."

(On the Wildcat offense)
- "We did a lot better then the first time. I think we tackled better, and we hadn't worked on it in the first game. I mean we've seen it from other teams, but not really their version of it. I think our ability to have a chance to prepare for it, and see some of the things they've run in other games, at least when we got to the sidelines we could talk a lot more about it, you know, this is what we expected, this is what they're doing, and this is the adjustment we've got to make. That kind of thing, and having time to prepare for it definitely helped. But it's still hard to stop, they have some good players in there, (Ricky)
Williams, and (Ronnie)
Brown, Offensive line and all that, so just seeing it sometimes, if you know what they're doing, it's still hard to take it away."

(On personal fouls)
- "We hate to see that, that's not anything we want to be apart of. We want to make a statement on the field with the way we're playing, and we'll do our talking on Sundays. We don't need to get any fouls or penalties, or get into a verbal battle back and forth after the game. We'll say what we have to say on the field. "

(On Wes Welker getting clocked in front of him)
- "He's a tough kid. He's been hit a few times, but he's a tough kid. Most of the time he seems to manage to miss those solid blows, he gets them when they're kind of glancing, or he squirts under them, but every once and a while they tag him, but he's a tough kid and he tends to bounce right back. So that's pretty impressive. He's smaller then I am, and you know those hits got to hurt, but he's tough."

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