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Bears Head Coach Marc Trestman**
MT:I'll keep it as simple as I can. We got beat today, obviously, in all three phases. And got beat in all three phases of the game. We started slow and we couldn't keep up the pace. Credit has to go to New England for the job that they did today. Coaching, playing and all three phases.
Q:How do you explain what happened in the final three minutes of the first half when it really got away?
MT:It did, and it was to our own doing. We have to accept that and it hurt us. It hurt us.
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Q: **Jay Cutler's fumble there, anything you saw there?
MT:Just putting the ball away.
Q:What did you say to the team at halftime?
MT:I told them that, in terms, that most of it is in-house. That we were going to define ourselves in how we played the second half because the first half was inexcusable.
Q:And how would you define the play in the second half?
MT:Well, I think that is a tough question to answer. Without looking at the tape, I thought we played hard and that's what I told our team. I also told our team that we aren't paid to just play the games; we are paid to win the games. So, it wasn't enough. Like I said, we got beat in all three phases. We got out coached in all three phases.
Q:What was your thought late in the third quarter, when [Rob] Gronkowski is out and the Patriots finally punt and you did not go to no-huddle at that point. You were still huddling up, why weren't you in a two minute offensive –
MT:I think I would have to really think through that and I'm not able to sort that situation out right now, I'm really not.
Q:Do you fear that the season, as a whole, is slipping away. I know you kind of look at it as 16 kind of one-game seasons, but –
MT:We lost today. We got beat by a really good football team, we have a whole half a season to play and we are going to go back tomorrow and start over. And address every situation that we have and all aspects of our football team. And get ready to start this thing up again in a week.
Q:Status of [Lamarr] Houston?
MT:Lamarr had a knee and that is all that I know at this time.
Q:How do you feel about a player getting injured in a celebration?
MT:As I said, he has got a knee and I'm disappointed for him.
Q:What kind of stress did Tom [Brady] put on your defense today? It seems like he always knew where the favorable matchup was.
MT:Well, he was meticulous with his throws today. We had people covering very close, lots of contested throws, so he was almost perfect with every throw.
Q:How do you feel about a player getting injured in a celebration in a game that you are down three touchdowns?
MT:As I said, I am very disappointed for Lamarr. I really am.
Q:How do you approach it now that you have got a bye? What do you do with your players? Take a step back and get a little bit of a break and get away from things?
MT:Well, they have to get away from things. That is part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. So, they are going to get away from things. We can't go out and practice tomorrow, so we are going to do the right things. We are going to give our team a chance to get rested. As coaches, we are going to certainly access all three phases of our football team and our personnel. [I'll] talk to Phil [Emery] about it obviously and we will go from there. We have got a team that works extremely hard, they prepare very hard, they are a very compliant football team and they are doing everything we are asking them to do. And so we will start with that baseline and we will work from there.
Q:Let me rephrase the question, would you ask them to say 'Hey, take a mental break, a little bit'?
MT:We are going to absolutely ask them to do that. I asked them to do that at the end of the game. You know, we are going to have time to really look at ourselves individually and collectively and the break comes at a good time for that.
Q:What were some of the struggles covering [Rob] Gronkowski? I mean, obviously, he is a tough matchup.
MT:I mean, you saw it. You see the struggles. There's a size matchup when you have him man-to-man. We had him covered man-to-man by two to three different players. As I said, Tom made meticulous throws, he was on target even when he was covered. So, you have to give him credit for that. And he caught some in zone as well certainly, but we had some very tight coverage on him, some hip-to-hip coverage and the ball was thrown perfectly.
Q:Do you know why Brandon Marshall pulled himself out for the fourth-and-10 play?
MT:I don't know why. He wanted to finish the game. The guys want to finish the game and be out there, so I can't answer that question.
Q:What was the greatest challenge for Al Louis-Jean coming in for Kyle Fuller after Kyle couldn't go anymore?
MT:He's been moving around so much during training camp and during the season that I don't think it was debilitating to a point that would hurt us in our overall play.
Q:Four games into the season, the Patriots didn't look very good. In the last three or four they look like they are running on all cylinders. Can you talk about what you have seen? Are they as good as any teams you have seen?
MT:They certainly are. They did everything offensively beautifully today and their defense played well as well. I mean they did. They played well in all three phases, but offensively, we caught them at a time when they were certainly at their best.
Quarterback Jay Cutler
Q:How would you characterize those final few minutes of the first half where it really felt like things got away?
JC:Agonizing. We started off, had some conversions on third downs, they were obviously converting and scoring so we got behind pretty quickly and didn't make it much of a ballgame.
Q:The fumble, what happened for you there on that play?
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JC: **Just got hit and the ball came out.
Q: How do you keep it together for the offense as the leader at this point?
JC:You know, we just got to… we're going to take some time off, obviously, with the bye week, come in tomorrow and watch some film, and collectively, as a whole we have to decide how we want to end this year and how we want to do in this second half. Do we want to just pack it in and hover around .500, maybe a little bit below, or do we want to use the talent in that locker room to try and make a run for this?
Q:Was it hard to keep up the game plan and feed Matt [Forte] when the score got to be what it was?
JC:Yeah, we wanted to run the ball, felt like we could run the ball. Matt still had, I don't know how many yards he had, but he ran really hard, which is hard when they're scoring at that clip to keep running the ball, keep play action and kind of keep your offense in tact that you planned on.
Q:Any way you can figure out what happened in those three minutes at the end of the half where it all…
JC:I'm more worried about the first quarter and what happened there. That's what we need to figure out.
Q:They kept Darrelle Revis on one side, did they do other things defensively that you didn't expect?
JC:They didn't play as much man as they have in the past couple games, a little more single zone, but nothing we weren't… nothing that shocked us.
Q:How do guys take this into the bye? How do you use it one way or another?
JC:Everyone's different. Some guys are going to beat themselves up over the bye, some guys will forget about it when they get on the bus. Either way, whenever we come back, we'll be ready to play.
Q:Were you surprised by today?
JC:Yeah, I think everyone's surprised. You don't expect to get out and beat like that.
Q:On the fumble, it looked like you kind of flung it forward…
JC:I was at first, and then I was just trying to cover it up.
Q:Have you talked to Martellus [Bennett] about the catch he made?
JC:Yeah, that was just a play on his part. He's got a guy trying to ride him the whole way, he got a corner and he just kind of faded it and made a heck of a grab. You know, Martellus, he played from the first snap to the last snap.
Q:Will you take some time to get away from it all during your break?
JC:Yeah, I will. We meet tomorrow and we'll talk about it, then we're off until next Monday.
Jared Allen, Defensive End
(On the game and how to stop the Patriots' Offense)
"If I knew, we would have stopped them. We got our butts' kicked today, plain and simple. We had a heck of a week of practice. Our guys' minds were right and it was one those games where honestly, we knew what they were going to do and they just take what you give them. A lot of quick passes, a couple of big runs and I thought we did a relatively good job. I don't think the run was our downfall, but then the quick passing game was go, go, go. We were missing tackles and next thing you know a ten or a nine yard route turns into 49, and we got a couple of hits on Tom [Brady]. It was one of those situations where we I felt we were in second-and-short or third-and- short all game. Those are tough ways to do it and we have got to figure out a way. If we are not going to get to him we are going to have to get our hands up. The only positive side of a butt kicking like this is there will be a lot of glaring things on film that we can improve on. The ones that are challenging are the ones you play really well and lose. In this one we got it kind of handed to us and we are going to have to fix all these mistakes."
(On being 3-5 in the standings)
"We have been in worse situations. We have to rest on the experience in this group. This bye week is going to be one of those weeks where guys are going to have to look at themselves and re-commit. I have to try and find a half a step. I have to try and find how to get the QB on the ground and knock the ball out of his hands. I think that goes for everyone on our defense."
Martellus Bennett, Tight End
(On how he'd describe the loss)
"Just a total team loss. We didn't do the things we needed to do to win. They just played a hell of a game, that's what the Patriots are, they don't make many mistakes and they were able to drive down the field and make plays and stop us when they needed to stop us so I thought we just didn't play a complete game in any of the three phases. Frustrating going into the bye week but guys need to take a little time off, come in tomorrow, watch some film and make corrections and go into the bye week and figure out what they want to do, figure out what kind of team we want to be coming back from the bye week. We have the chance to… we have six or seven games ahead of us, something like that so what kind of team are we going to be for those six or seven games so I think a lot of guys need to do some soul searching to see if their hearts are in it and who we want to be."
(On coming out that way in an important game)
"I mean, every game is important. For me, I treat every single game the same. You don't know what the outcome is going to be or what the other team has planned. Those guys over there get paid to stop us and they did a great job today. Really, I think we're still searching for our identity. I don't think we quit, I think guys continue to play into the second half when they could have easily laid it down. Guys came out and continued to fight and to try and make plays to get back in it."
(On if there was more pressure coming into this game)
"Every single game there's always pressure to win. We don't get paid to play, we get paid to win, so there's always pressure going into the games. I don't think there's any more amount of pressure, it's never different, you just got to go out and do what you do."
Jermon Bushrod, Tackle
(On the loss)
"At the end of the day, it comes down to, "Did we execute?"
They out-played us. We didn't do a good job executing, that is just what it is. If you have to find some kind of positive out of it, we came out in the second half and we didn't hang our heads. We came out and continued to fight."
Matt Forte, Running Back
(On how he feels about the loss)
"You know, we're tired of losing."
(On the upcoming bye week)
"We have time to reassess, get a little break for everybody, not get too down on ourselves and I'm the type to just put my head down and keep working. I'm not ever going to give up on striking my play. I'm going to get after it no matter if we're 12-0 or 0-12, you're going to get the same from me."
Kyle Fuller, Cornerback
(On what the veterans are saying to the younger guys)
"There's not much to say. All you can do is learn from it. We're going to move forward from this one."
(On whether the team still has confidence)
"Yeah, definitely. I feel like I definitely still have confidence."
Roberto Garza, Center/Guard
(On what happened today)
"We've got to be able to score points and keep drives alive. We just aren't able to do that right now."
(On how they come back from a loss like this)
"We know we are a good football team. We just haven't played like that the last couple weeks. The Patriots had a great day today. They are a good football team and you can't make mistakes like we did today. We have a week to look at what we are doing and how we can get better."
(On the team's mood)
"It's a lot of emotions. Frustrating and disappointing. We know we can play better than that. It starts up front and we need to do a whole lot better of keeping the rush from Jay [Cutler] and opening up holes for Matt [Forte]."
Lamarr Houston, Defensive end
(On what the Bears do now)
"We're going to take this week off, evaluate ourselves and look to get better. It's been a rough season so far, but we'll take this week and evaluate ourselves."
(On whether he hurt his knee on the sack celebration)
"We don't know yet. I have to get an MRI in the morning and hopefully everything is good."
(On whether he regretted the celebration)
"I probably shouldn't have celebrated like that, but it happens."
Al Louis-Jean, Cornerback
(On Kyle Fuller getting injured)
"Yes. I wouldn't say it was a difficult circumstance – I've got to step and I've got to play my role and get the job done. "
(On getting the call to come in the game off the bench)
"[Coaches] let me know to get ready to go. You just get ready to go and get your mind right – let's roll."
(On today's game being an educational game for rookies)
"Yes. There are a lot of steps that you take in this league and that was one of them. This was my first game getting a lot of reps. Now, I have to watch the film and learn from it."
(On the team bouncing back after these two losses in a row)
"We've got to look at the film and see what we did wrong. All you can do is come back and work harder than you did and harder than what you thought was good enough. Just keep working harder."
Brandon Marshall, Wide Receiver
(On the rest of the season after the bye week)
"Well half the season is gone; we've got to rest up a little bit get healthy, and after the bye week, just do what we did last week. We worked hard and came out here and didn't get the results we wanted to."
(On how hard it was to get into a rhythm)
"We know we are a good football team. We just haven't played like that the last couple weeks. The Patriots had a great day today. They are a good football team and you can't make mistakes like we did today. We have a week to look at what we are doing and how we can get better."
(On the Patriots defense)
"They didn't play man at all, they played zone and they played off. There was a lot of three deep coverage, a lot of what we we've been getting all year. They had a great game plan and they executed it well."
Sea McClellin, Linebacker
(On today's loss being emotional)
"Yeah. It's hard losing anytime – it doesn't matter if you lose by 30 or lose by 20. A loss is a loss and it's hard to take a loss – it doesn't matter what it is. We're just going to regroup and see what we did wrong."
(On not being able to pinpoint the reason for not competing better two games in a row)
"Yeah. It is frustrating. We have so much talent on both sides of the ball and on special teams. We've just got to see what we did wrong and correct the things that we did wrong, and the things that we did right and regroup."
(On the Patriots being on a roll and not being able to break their rhythm)
"Yeah, it almost seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong, kind of thing. That's the way I felt anyway, but it was tough."
(On it being tough to cover Rob Gronkowski)
"Yeah, [he's] definitely a big physical guy. He can run well, he has great hands and when you put that with a quarterback like Tom Brady, he's going to be tough to defend for anyone. Ryan Mundy, Safety
(On trying to defend the Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady connection)
"Obviously, they have good rapport and Tom Brady knows how to get him the ball. He [Brady] always puts it in a good location where he can catch it. He [Gronkowski] knows how to use his body and they did that today. I just have to do a better job of anticipating and try and swat the ball. He has a good rapport with his receivers and he knows where they will be when they run the routes against certain coverage. He knows how to get them the ball and he had some pretty good throws today."
(On the loss and being 3-5)
"Right now we definitely are frustrated, upset, and disappointed, all of those emotions. Like I said we have the bye week coming up so we will have an opportunity to get our minds right and get away from it, refresh and recharge. We will come back and get ready to play the last eight games."
D.J. Williams, Linebacker
(On the loss)
"This was tough, they're all tough, but personally I'm embarrassed with the performance; it's personal. We've got to take this bye week and refocus come back and fix the problems."
Willie Young, Defensive end
(On the Patriots scoring 21 points in a minute at the end of the first half)
"Fast. It was as fast as [Tom Brady] could get rid of it. We just have to keep everything together. It's not time to blow your top yet, we just have to keep everything together. I sound like a broken record, but we have to keep everything together and continue to work together."
(On Brady always knowing where the best matchup is)
"I wasn't looking at all that. I'm looking at offensive line, running back, quarterback. I'm not looking at nobody else. Obviously we have to do the best we can to try and get to him as fast as possible. We had a couple of hits on him, some pressure here and there, but obviously we have to be more consistent."
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"
