How Did The New England Patriots’ React To Their Win Over San Diego?

Dec 7, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick acknowledges the fans after the Patriots beat the San Diego Chargers 23-14 after the game at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Shortly after the New England Patriots beat the San Diego Chargers, a few players (and of course Bill Belichick) met with the media to discuss the win.

Here are their official transcripts:

Bill Belichick

Opening Statement:
“I’m proud of our team for what they did today. I thought we went out there and fought hard for 60 minutes. San Diego is a good football team. They fight you right until the end. They have a lot of good football players. They’re well-coached. Our guys really responded, being down and fighting back. They made plays in all three phases of the game. Defensively, I can’t say enough about that effort. Without (Dont’a) Hightower, everybody stepped up. (Jonathan) Casillas, (Jamie) Collins, and the defensive line I thought did a good job. The big interception by Akeem (Ayers), a lot of guys made plays there. LeGarrette (Blount) gave us a big run there at the end and put us in field position to put the game away. I thought we hung in there and battled. Obviously there was the big play by (Brandon) Bolden on the blocked punt. I thought Danny (Amendola) did a nice job handling those punts and creating some field position for us there. I’m very proud of the way our team performed. It was a good week of preparation out here in California. They really played hard tonight. It was a good win for us.”

On Jonathan Casillas:
“Obviously Casillas was right in the middle of a lot of communication. Both him and Jamie (Collins) did a great job. Julian (Edelman) is a tough kid, he almost broke that punt return. He made a lot of tough catches for us. Not just the touchdown, but a lot of tough catches inside and ran well with the ball. We had a lot of guys step up: Julian, Rob (Gronkowski), the offensive line. (Tom) Brady came back and made some big throws in the second half. It was a good team out there.”

On long play to Julian Edelman:
“It was a great catch and run by Julian. It was a good look on the play action pass. He got some space there. Tom (Brady) threw it in there and Julian went up and got it. He broke the tackle and finished the play. He got a good block from (Brandon) LaFell. Good job of hustling and finishing the play.”

On special teams:
“(Danny) Amendola and Julian (Edelman) did a good job handling those. They had a couple short punts there and I thought they handled them well. They got a couple good punt coverage plays as well. They did a couple good kick-off plays where we got them down there inside the 20 yard line. We put our defense on the long field a lot. I thought our defense did a good job containing that good field position for three or four series in the third quarter, whatever it was.”

It seems like your team bounced back after the Brandon Browner hit:
“Those guys played hard all night. Defensively, we really competed. It wasn’t perfect. They have some good football players that are hard to stop. I thought the guys competed for 60 minutes and I was very proud of them.”

On having 12 straight seasons with 10 or more wins:
“Right now we have to get ready for Miami. That’s the big thing for us. They handled us down there in the opener. We’ll enjoy this one for a little while but we have to turn the page. We have a big two big division games left at the end of our season. We have to go down to Miami and coach a lot better than we coached if we’re going to win.”

On week here in San Diego:
“I thought it was the best thing we could do. We got a lot of rest. We had a couple good days of preparation on Friday and Saturday and I thought we played hard tonight. They had a lot of energy and were ready to play a full 60 minutes. That’s what you have to do against the Chargers. They’ve had a lot of close games, maybe more than anybody. This game was nowhere near decided until the fourth quarter. It was a hard-fought game.”