Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Darrelle Revis React To New England Patriots’ Loss To Miami Dolphins

Sep 7, 2014; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; New England Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis (24) recovers the fumble from Miami Dolphins running back Lamar Miller (26) in the first half at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports

Rob Gronkowski

Obviously not the result you would have wanted, but how did it feel getting out there again?) – “I mean it feels good to play football again, to be out there with the team. Being out there with your teammates, you win as a team, lose as a team. I just got to keep on improving every single week. I got a lot of things to work on. I got to keep working hard out there in practice.”

(How does your knee feel after this game?) Obviously not the result you would have wanted, but how did it feel getting out there again) – “Everything feels good. I mean I feel good, so we’ll just keep on playing and have a good practice week, this week, and just got to keep working hard to get better. Definitely can improve in a lot of areas.”

(Take us through the touchdown and how that broke open and how good that felt to get that first spike of the season) – “Yes definitely. Obviously it feels good to get the first one. Just literally a little slant and [QB] Tom [Brady] scrambled and he scrambled and saw me going across the endzone and he hit me on the pass. I just got to keep on improving, keep on making plays like that. We got to make more plays, as a team and got to keep on improving.”

Rob Ninkovich

(Are you surprised at how well they handled the ball?) — “Anytime you’re a defensive player, you don’t want to give up as many yards as we did running the ball. Their defense is tested off the run and measured off the run so we have to get better.”

(Was the heat a factor? The humidity?) — “I’m not making any excuses on weather. We played in the same temperature they did. It’s football.”

(Their running game, once they get momentum and they feel comfortable do they go back to it?) — “Any offense that has success is going to repeat those plays and go back to them. We have to do a better job of recognizing what is working for them and how to stop them.”

(How frustrating were those penalties?) — “Defensively it’s tough when you get to the quarterback and you get a penalty. We have to do better when we get there.”

Vince Wilfork

(Your initial reaction to what happened in the second half) – “We just didn’t play well enough. First half we went out we created plays, we made plays, we played together good football. But second half we just didn’t make enough plays. They made a lot. They capitalized on our mistakes. That was the ball game. We have to do better. We can’t hold our heads down. It is a long season. But we definitely have to get better. And we will get better.”

(Anything the Miami Dolphins were doing specifically in the plays) – “Everything they did we knew. We thought we had a good game plan for it and obviously we didn’t. But anytime somebody comes out of a ball game like that is not good. We have to get back to the drawing board. It’s what it’s all about. Going back to the drawing board, look at the film; look at the corrections, being better in situational football. And go from there. But it is a long season. It’s tough; it’s always tough to go on the road in the division. Especially down here. They always play us tough. First game of the season. No excuses though. They played their tails off, they rallied, and it showed.”

(Conditional issues in the second half … from playing 60 minutes in this heat) – “No, not at all. There wasn’t an issue with the heat. There were hotter days in Boston than this. No excuses. They beat us fair and square. They didn’t do anything, they didn’t trick us, and they didn’t do anything that we didn’t think they were going to do. They just capitalized on opportunities. We didn’t play well enough for the second half and that is what really cost us.”

Darrelle Revis

(Not the end result you’re looking for, but how did it feel to be with a new team and how comfortable did you feel?) “It’s not a good day for us. We didn’t play too well and that’s the taste we have in our mouth today. It doesn’t matter about my first day, it would have been way better if we would have come out with a victory. We’re worried about the loss.”

(Why did they have more success in the 2nd half?) “They started fast. We were trying to keep up. They executed well, they played well and made more plays than us.”

(…On penalties) “I don’t know how many penalties we had, I’ll figure out after this or tomorrow. Based on how the game was going, you can tell there was a lot of penalties thrown but I don’t know all of them.”

(Was it even more frustrating for you personally because you couldn’t be out there those last two series?)“Very frustrating. I couldn’t be out there and help the team out in desperation mode at that time.”

(When you see them dominate the running game from your perspective, what made them so successful in that second half?)“The read option is very tough to defend. One thing we tried to do was stop the run but at the same time you have to take your hat off to Miami. They executed well, blocked well, and I don’t know the stats, I don’t know how much they rushed, or the receiving game. But they out-executed us at times when we needed to stop them.”

(What’s the challenge… it seems like they ran a ton of crossing routes…?) “Yeah they ran a lot of crossing routes, coming from both sides. You try and rub a corner or a safety – [TE Charles] Clay ran a number of them and caught the ball and [WR] Mike Wallace as well. We have to make corrections and have to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do next time we play them down the road.”

(It was tough from our vantage point – did you get hand on it?) “Yeah I actually knocked the pass down and thought it popped up like the post he ran earlier in the first half – I don’t know, I have to see the film. My teammates were telling me it hit his knee and popped back into his hands. You don’t want those happen – sometimes they happen – but the only thing you can do is, I don’t know. Sometimes the plays happen and you have to tip your hat off to Mike [Wallace] for keeping focus and coming up with it some weird way. I’ll look at it tomorrow and figure out what I can do better to defend it better.”

(How surprising was the defensive performance based on what you’ve seen with this team?) “It’s tough. We have high expectations has a defense. We expected to get a W, but we have to respect the other team – we have a lot of respect for Miami. At the same time it is a sour taste in our mouth. We have to get back to working hard and continue to do that, one game one week, this week is Minnesota. We have to focus on them and continue to get better as a team.”