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Bill O'Brien Conference Call Transcript

Read what Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien had to say as he addressed the media during his conference call on Monday, October 17, 2011.

Q: You had Stevan Ridley opening the game and then we didn't really see too much of him the rest of the way. How would you describe the way it unfolded for you guys?  

BO: I believe we had different packages in the game and one of the packages or a couple of the packages we used involved Benny [BenJarvus Green-Ellis] and Woody [Danny Woodhead] obviously at the end there, a little bit more than Stevan, and that's just again game plan offense. That's kind of the way it worked out and I think Stevan understands that. His time will come.  

Q: Your guys talked about how they practiced that two-minute drive a whole bunch in practice. Does that mean the plays themselves were practiced? Are they kind of scripted like in the two-minute drill or are you calling those on the fly and they just practiced the situation?  

BO: We have situational two-minute drives every week in practice, every day in training camp, and then as it relates to each individual opponent, we have a two-minute game plan that we call for that particular team. But the situation itself is practiced all the time.  

Q: We haven't had much of a chance to see Shane Vereen over the course of the season. How has he looked in practice and how was he progressing in the offense when he has been healthy?  

BO: Shane, just like Stevan Ridley, both those guys are doing well. They have really good futures and at some point they definitely probably will contribute a little bit more than they are now. We're happy with them.  

Q: I was wondering if you could describe that Aaron Hernandez touchdown catch - what you saw, how they defended it, and how it happened?  

BO: A lot of split safety coverage down there and Aaron did a good job of running a baseline in cut. Tom [Brady] made a good read [and] made a good throw.  

Q: Is part of Tom Brady's read figuring out whether the corner or safety goes with Rob Gronkowski or Aaron Hernandez? Is that one of the things he's reading? It looked like they tried to double Gronkowski instead of Hernandez.  

BO: We have things that we call basically 'all purpose coverage-beaters.' Routes that are good against multiple coverages and that was one of them.  

Q: Over the six weeks of the season, how have you seen teams evolve defensively in the way they are trying to put things together against your offense. Or have they evolved?  

BO: It's not my offense; It's the Patriots offense. If it's anybody's offense, it's Bill's [Belichick] offense. On just how they put things together, I would say that every team is different and every team, to me, has done a really good job of putting together a good game plan and we've been fortune like in the Dallas game and the other four wins just to be able to make a few more plays than the other team. I thought last night we played really good complementary football at the end, meaning our defense did a hell of a job of holding them and we were able to get the ball and do better than we had done the whole game. A lot of credit goes to our defense.  

Q: Does that change your play calling or goal during the drive when you know the defense is playing at a certain level on a particular day?  

BO: The biggest key to any drive for any offensive team is the first play and to try get a positive play. You just don't want to be second-and-10 or second-and-12 because in this league, that's not good. We just try to stay on track with what we call our 'drive starters' and just have good plays and make positive yards on first down and let the drive go from there.   

Q: Does that mean you place more importance on first downs than, let's say, third down conversion rates?  

BO: I'm talking about the first play of the drive. Somebody asked me about this drive, so that's what I was talking about. I place importance on every play in the drive, but I think it's important to start the drive well.  

Q: Danny Woodhead had a catch over the middle with about 1:30 left in the game. Do you know which play I'm talking about?  

BO: Yes.  

Q: Could you describe that one and is he your first read there? How did that play kind of exploit what they were in?  

BO: Again, it's a multipurpose coverage-beater, so it's a route that hopefully has different parts of it that are good against a few different coverages. Woody always does a good job of entering himself into the defense as fast as he can. He came open pretty quickly and Tom [Brady] checked it down to him.  

Q: When it comes it Chad Ochocinco where do you think he's struggling to get that connection with Tom Brady, if you agree that he would be struggling at this point to make the connection with Tom in terms of chemistry and rapport?  

BO: Ocho is progressing every week. He's done a really good job in practice and when he's been in certain part of games, he's produced - two-minute drives at the end of halves and things. We're happy where Ocho is with things right now. Again, we got a lot of guys that contribute. This is a unique place. We've got a lot of guys that contribute and some guys in certain games are contributing more than others. At some point in time, we're going to need everybody to contribute, so that's kind of where it is right now. Ocho is probably in that category and working really hard to keep producing and eventually help us in different ways.  

Q: On the one play he was targeted on, it was an interesting formation where you got most of the guys on one side and he was on the other. Can you just describe how that unfolded on that play?  

BO: Yeah he just…that was probably more me than anything going to the well a little too often on something there. We probably didn't put him in the best position.  

Q: Not just Ochocinco, but with guys like Matthew Slater, isn't part of the thing with those guys getting limited repetitions the fact that there're only four receiver spots on the field and Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez and Wes Welker never leave? And Deion Branch hardly does as well. Doesn't that limit the amount of time you can use those guys anyways?  

BO: I mean, there're 11 guys on the field at one time and we have a lot of productive players and in certain games this year, the game plan has taken the course of certain personnel groupings and that's one of the personnel groupings that's been productive for us and it's been a decent one. Again, it will be game planned differently for every game from here on out and we'll see how it goes.  

Q: What are you plans this week? What are you going to do? I don't mean like whether you're going to the beach or not, but if you are I would be interested. But what are you plans for what you're going to do and be productive and how will you spend the bye week?  

BO: Yeah I'm heading to Myrtle Beach for about five days for a little golf and rest. No, I'm just kidding. We will kind of self scout and look at ourselves and make sure that we do a good job of that. Then we will continue to prepare for Pittsburgh.

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