Patriots Quartback Jimmy Garoppolo addresses the media during his postgame press conference at Gillette Stadium on Thursday, August 13, 2015.
Q: What were your thoughts on your performance tonight?
JG: There were ups and downs. We've got a long way to go, obviously. Eleven points isn't by any means good enough. There's room for improvement.
Q: What would you attribute the seven sacks to?
JG: I didn't really get a chance to break it all down yet, see the film, but you can always get the ball out your hand faster. That bell helped eliminate a lot of them probably. I haven't really seen it yet, so I don't know.
Q: What did you learn from the situation at the end of the second quarter? What did Bill Belichick say to you?
JG: Well, if we had enough time we wanted to get another play off, but the clock was running down. In that situation we had to clock it, get the field goal, get the points at that point and walk away with three more at the half.
Q: How did the overall management of the drive feel with limited or no timeouts?
JG: I think we were out at that point. I thought it was good. The pace of the offense, we were moving pretty well, moving the ball up the field. [We] just got three, but three is better than nothing at that point.
Q: When did you learn that Tom Brady was going to start?
JG: Right when you guys did. We don't really [have] any heads up.
Q: What do you see in Josh Boyce?
JG: J.B. is a good player out there. He's very athletic, quick, fast. He's got a lot of tools in his tool belt. I missed him on a couple of those deep balls. I was a little upset about those. You've got to take advantage of those really.
Q: How are you handling not knowing if you're going to be the starter or not?
JG: Â I'm taking it day by day. I'm going into it pretty much the same way I would, whether this was going on or not. Whether you're the backup, starter, third-string, whatever it may be, you have to have the mindset that you're the starter. In training camp there's a lot of repetition, a lot of guys mixing and matching, so you have to be able to play with multiple guys.
Q: Were you surprised by how much they blitzed you tonight?
JG: They were bringing a little bit of heat, but it's nothing we haven't seen before. You've just got to handle it.
Q:How much more comfortable do you feel going into preseason games this year than you did last year?
JG: Night and day – last year, it's not even really a comparison. I wish I had the deep ball tonight that I had last year in the first preseason game. That would've helped a little bit, but you've got to take it in stride really.
Q:What was the issue on the deep ball tonight?
JG: I don't know. It's just one of those things. The post, I just overshot him a little bit. The go route on the outside I left a little flat. Those are hard for the receiver to adjust to, so I've just got to put a little more air under it sometimes.
Q:Is it fair to say that you found the single coverage on most of the plays?
JG: Yeah, that's what you want to do – take advantage of it when you see it.
Q:When you have a guy like Josh Boyce, who you've worked with for a full year, is there a tendency to lean on that guy?
JG: I wouldn't say lean on him, but he is experienced. He's been in the system for a while now. I thought all the receivers did a good job getting open, running the routes the right way, getting their depth on their routes, and it's upsetting to come up short like this.
Q:What the biggest difference between training camp practice and a game situation in your mind?
JG: Obviously, you're going against a different opponent. You go against the defense day in and day out. You know their tendencies and they know yours to a point. Seeing a different look like that, different coverages, different players out there, obviously – that's probably the biggest thing.
Q:What about the tempo?
JG: The tempo, it is what it is. It's game tempo. You try to simulate it in practice, game tempo, as best you can, but it's tough to do in practice. I wouldn't say it's drastically different.
Q:How do you feel when you drop back to pass and James White, who is 5-foot-8 and barely 200 pounds, is pass protecting for you?
JG: James does a good job. He's a very smart player. He knows his protections and all of that stuff. He does a good job.
Q:What did you see on the interception with Josh Boyce?
JG: That's a tough one. He got grabbed a little bit. The ball gets tipped up and it's unfortunate, but throwing an interception is inexcusable. That's on me.
Q:Did you have a chance to talk with Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers at all?
JG: No, I didn't get a chance to. I talked to some of the other guys that I knew on the team, but no.
Q:Have you been working with Josh Boyce a lot in practice?
JG: Like I said, we mix and match so much. We never know who we're going with. I would say that we've worked together a pretty good amount, but nothing drastic compared to the other guys.
Q:Were you throwing to him far more than you have during practice so far?
JG: I haven't really looked at the numbers of who I targeted and all that stuff, but he was running good routes tonight. When you get a matchup you like, sometimes you go to it.
Q:How did you feel David Andrews handled the center duties tonight?
JG: Dave did a good job. First preseason game, he didn't really stutter at all. He went out there and played his game. I thought he did well.
