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BB:** I thought that was a really solid effort by our team today. Our players did a good job all week in practice. I thought we had good execution, good energy and came out and played with it in all three phases of the game. We had good contributions on our coverage team. Obviously the punt return at the end of the half was a big play for us. We got some turnovers on defense. We ran the ball, threw the ball, scored in the red area. I thought we had a lot of players play well. It was good to see the whole team ready to go, playing with that kind of energy and execution. It was a pretty good day for us out there today. We'll have to turn this one around quickly and get ready for Denver next week.
Q: What did you see in Brandon LaFell that has worked up to the point where he was ready for this kind of afternoon?
BB: He's been doing it all year. I think we saw it in Kansas City. [He's a] big target, tough kid – really tough – plays hard, hard to tackle. I think we've seen a lot of examples of it this year; saw it in preseason, see it in practice.
Q: Rob Gronkowski had a couple of key catches on third down.
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The New England Patriots take on the Chicago Bears at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, October 26, 2014.
BB:** I thought our third-down execution was good. We got a lot of conversions; a bunch of different guys. Tim [Wright] had a bunch of them, Rob, Shane [Vereen]. Tom [Brady] threw the ball well. I thought we protected; handled some of their pressures, handled their pass rush for the most part. We had a lot of guys that came through and got open, kept drives going. This is a hard team to get a lot of big plays on. We broke a couple tackles and had a couple longer runs, but for the most part you have to execute a lot of plays against this defense. Our offense did a good job. Josh [McDaniels] and the offensive staff did a good job this week.
Q: Did Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner really show their value to the defense today?
BB: I thought our whole defense played very competitively. This is a good offensive football team. We talked about it all week – good skill players, good quarterback, veteran offensive line, great running back. We had to compete against everybody. I thought they all did a good job: Brandon, Darrelle, Logan [Ryan] did a good job for us, Patrick [Chung], Duron [Harmon], Devin [McCourty]. You can't just take away one guy on this offense. You have to handle all of them. It was a big challenge for our defense – they stepped up.
Q: You had to make some changes in Chandler Jones' absence. Did you have any trepidation with what Zach Moore, Akeem Ayers and Dominique Easley would provide?
BB: Well, Akeem hasn't been here so that's a little different story. The other guys have been here all year so I think we had a pretty good idea what we were going to ask them to do. I think they prepared and tried to do it.
Q: How do you think it went?
BB: I'm sure there were some things that were OK. I'm sure there were some other things that we'll need to work on and improve. I mean, I don't think – the score kind of got out of hand there with what happened at the end of the half. We made some plays. We were fortunate, we had the turnover, we had the punt return. We were able to convert those into touchdowns. I don't think the score is really indicative of the game. The Bears are, they've obviously played a lot of good football this year and it kind of got out of hand there at halftime, but it's a good football team. We'll see how we evaluate ourselves. We'll look at the film and see how the evaluations look.
Q: Jonas Gray ran hard today. Can you talk about that? I know the offensive line opened up some holes for him.
BB: Yeah, he's run hard all year. The offensive line competed well. That's a good defensive front. They have seven, eight guys they roll in there that do a pretty good job. Jonas ran hard. He's done that for us all year. He did that in preseason, does it every day in practice; training camp. That's the way he plays. I thought he did a good job.
Q: Did you see Rob Gronkowski building up to this kind of game today?
BB: I don't know. I mean, he had some opportunities. He took advantage of a few of them, broke a couple tackles. I thought he ran well with the ball after the catch. But he's been a productive guy for us.
Q: For those of us who don't hear it all the time, can you talk about your relationship with Tom Brady?
BB: I love coaching Tom. [I've] been fortunate to have him [his] whole career since he's been here. We meet at least twice a week, sometimes more. [We] spend a considerable amount of time together. I think that's important to have that relationship between the head coach and the quarterback so at least we're on the same page [with] what we're trying to do. He has great feedback. Nobody works harder or prepares better than Tom does. He's about as good as it gets in that category. He's got a lot of great ideas. Very smart, experienced player obviously and does a great job executing the team game plan.
Q: How much confidence would you say Tom has played with in the last four games or so?
BB: That's a question you should probably ask him. But again, offensively it's about our entire offense. There's no one guy out there making all the plays. We have block them, we have to throw, we have to catch, we have to run. We have to execute as a team. I think that's a credit to – whatever success we have offensive is a credit to the entire offensive football team and the coaching staff. I think the coaches have done a good job. I think we've seen a lot of improvement in some of our players and some of our units and our entire group over the first half of the season. Hopefully we can continue to stay on that climb.
RELATED LINKS
- RECAP: Brady throws 5 TDs, Patriots rout Bears 51-23
- PHOTOS: Bears vs. Patriots Week 8
- Game Notes: Patriots are wicked good in October
- Stock Watch: Patriots bury the Bears
- Brady 10/26: "We've got a lot of momentum"
- Wilfork 10/26: "We put it all together today"
- Belichick 10/26: "Pretty good day for us"