Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick
Opening Statement...It's always good to come down here and win. It was a tough game, typical AFC East game. We've been in a lot of these close games. It's kind of like what we talked about last week. When you think about how a game is going to go, you probably don't think it would go the way it went. The way it started and the way it ended. But it's a good win, we'll take it. I thought there were a lot of good things out there on the field for us, a few things we have to improve on. We will work on those things this week. It was a tough hard fought game and in the end we were able to make a few more plays then they were and that's how we came out on top. You can always do a better job, starting with me and working all the way down to everyone who participated in the game. That's the way we will look at it and that's the way we will approach this week. We have a big week with Denver so we know we have a tough week coming up.
On playing sloppy...There were plays we could have executed better, there is no doubt about that. There are plenty of things we need to work on.
On the Patriots last drive...It was a good drive. We didn't finish it and we gave them the ball back with a 7 point lead instead of a two score lead. It was good to drive the ball down their and run some time off the clock. We had some good plays on that drive but we didn't finish it and we gave them a chance at the end.
On having Teddy Bruschi back in the line up...It's good to have all the players back. We are getting a little healthier and we got some contributions from some guys that didn't play last week and that's good. There is still room for improvement, don't get me wrong but it's good to have him back.
On if there were certain plays added for Chad Jackson...Not really, we just tried to run our offense. We weren't really sure who was going to play when we started the week. We just put in a game plan and tried to execute it. As it turned out we had both Doug(Gabriel) and Chad but we weren't positive about that before the game.
On Chad Jackson catching the deep ball...I was on the other side of the field so I didn't get a good look at it but it was good to see him come up with the ball.
On his impressions of the New York Jets...They played hard, they played well. We played a little bit better. That's how it turned out. It was a tough, hard fought game, both teams made a lot of plays. Both teams played hard and hit hard. It was very competitive like it usually is in this division.
On being encouraged by the running game...I think there are a lot of things to be encouraged about. We need to be more consistent, we need to finish some drives, tackle better, play better defense, play better in the kicking game. I think there are good things to build on but there are still a lot of things we could do better. We'll keep working on those. Each
part of our game is showing some positive signs but we need to be more consistent.
On what he said to coach Eric Mangini after the game...Good game.
On taking a delay of game before the 4th quarter field goal attempt...We thought we might be able to get them to go offsides. We had gone for a couple of fourth-and ones we didn't feel like five yards would make much of a difference. The field position wasn't that big of a deal. They didn't jump so we took a penalty and kicked 26 yard field goal.
On improvements in the passing game...I think we did some good things in the passing game. But we did some good things in the passing game in the second half of last week. We need to be more consistent so we are going to work on that. There are some positive signs we got the ball to some different receivers and we protected fairly well, but we had a couple of bad plays out there too. So we have to do a better job on those.
On Jerricho Cotchery's 71 yard touchdown catch...I've seen a play like that couple of times. I thought his elbow went down but I guess it was on the back of one of our players. He's a heck of an athlete and those receivers run well after the catch, Coles, Cotchery those guys are great runners with the ball in their hands. They have a lot of talent, their receivers are tough to cover, they have a good quarterback they are good on defense. This is a team that a couple of years ago was right there at the AFC Championship game so we have a lot of respect for the Jets and the talent they have on the football field. It was a great play.
On coaching against Eric Mangini...It was Patriots against the Jets, that's what it was. We were just trying to coach against the Jets, I was just trying to do the best I can for my team I'm sure he's trying to do the best he can with his team. That's really all it is. We are just trying to get our team to do better and see if I can do a better job of coaching.
On the play of the Patriot wide receivers...Like I said, there were some good things, we had some positive plays and there were some plays we would have liked to convert on. Some of that is the play some of that is the execution of the play, some of it is good defense by the Jets. So it's a combination of things we need to work on and get better. There were some big plays, we hit some key third down plays, we hit some plays in the red area and we missed some. We just got to keep working at it.
Patriots LB Roosevelt Colvin
On trying to assess the win...At the beginning we tried to do the things we game planned for during the week. I don't know if you want to call it complacency or lack of focus towards the middle of the third quarter, but we have them some plays and the game changed a little bit.
On the game becoming close after being up 24-0...You have to play 60 minutes in this league. They have talent on that side of the ball. A game like this comes down to fundamentals. For us defensively it is tackling. Two or three plays here and there where we miss a couple tackles and the score is 24-0 and then 24-17.
On playing better next week...Well, you have to play better than that every week. Everyday you have to go out and get better than the previous day. This week in practice we will try to do that and prepare for a tough challenge ahead of us with the Broncos.
On confidence of winning the close games...
I fell confident in us because Bill (Belichick) tries to cover the majority of situations that come up in games. I think if it is presented before hand you have a better opportunity to repeat what you have done well or corrected in practice, so when you get to the game it is not necessarily a pressure situation for you. We made it more of what it should have been out there today. They made plays when they needed to make plays. If we made plays the way we were supposed to then it wouldn't have come down to what it did in the end.
