How Did The New England Patriots React To 17-9 Loss To Buffalo Bills?

Dec 28, 2014; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (10) hands the ball to running back Brandon Bolden (38) during the second half of a game against the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

Jonathan Casillas

(On the roughing the passer call)
“It was a tough call. I’ve been hit with that one time prior – it was with Russell Wilson he’s a little shorter. I thought I was okay but you can’t really do too much to the quarterback nowadays which is the game we play now. It was a tough call. I think it was a bang-bang call. I’ve got to know to get my aiming point lower because they do focus on quarterbacks.”

(On the significance of his playing time today)
“It was huge. I think it was huge for myself personally and also for the team as well to kind of see what you’ve got. Myself, Darius Fleming, Duron Harmon, a lot of younger guys – I’m not that young, but I’m young in this team basically just getting here a month and a half ago – it adds value to the team going deep and showing that the team does have depth. I wore the [communication] dot today later in the game. I think if anything does happen to either guy – Jamie [Collins] or I – hopefully god forbid anything does, you’ve got to have somebody that has played in the game. I’ve got some experience and I was able to wear the dot today and I think it went pretty smooth.”

(On his performance today)
“I didn’t play that well today. I think I missed a couple routine tackles that I should have made. [Fred] Jackson is a great player; he’s played a lot of football in this league. They are routine tackles that I missed, and then the roughing the passer really hurt the team. I can’t do that. I can’t put our team in bad situations like that. We [were] looking to stay undefeated at home and that didn’t happen today. I’m a very prideful person and I feel like my play didn’t help us today.”

(On wearing the green communication dot)
“I felt like I did a pretty decent job at that. That’s my first time actually wearing the dot. I mean in practice I’ve had it, [it was] my first time in the game. It’s definitely a learning experience. I think I did decently communication-wise in getting guys lined up and getting the calls out and everything.”

Jimmy Garoppolo

(On playing in the game)
“It was a good experience – getting out there and actually getting in [instead of] a preseason game and getting some live reps will only help going forward.”

(On if he takes pride in his ability to run and scramble)
“If I have to do it, you have to do it. It’s one of those things, you never know on a play if you’re going to have to or not, so you just have to be ready for either one.”

(On if he has to think about whether to run or stay in the pocket longer)
“It’s kind of instinct. It’s something that just kind of kicks in during the game. If you think about it, you’re going to get hit.”

(On how he rates his performance)
“You know, there’s plenty of room for improvement – there’s some good things, bad things, and things to learn from and it will only help me going forward.”

(On how much more comfortable he felt in comparison to the preseason)
“There’s not – no comparison really. Having so many weeks to learn, and progress in a good way, it definitely helped me.”

(On adjusting to the speed of a regular season game)
“You have to get acclimated fast. You get tossed in there and that’s my job as a backup to be ready to go whenever and the speed is what it is. You just got to play with it.”

Brandon LaFell

(On if the offense can take some positives from the game)
“We didn’t play too good; it was the offense last week, so we tried to come out here and get into a rhythm and get some plays, get some momentum, and convert some third-downs and just move the ball and get into a rhythm going into the postseason. So, we did a little bit of that, but, also, we left a lot of plays out there; dropped a few passes, got a couple of penalties, and got in our own way and got to give credit to those guys – that’s a good defense.”

(On how different the offense plays without tight end Rob Gronkowski in the lineup)
“Man, it’s a big difference. You know that the middle of the field is not so much open when you go across and Gronk is not there. It’s a lot of double-teams, a lot of sitting back in zone, trying to wait and catch us, instead of a guy or two over the top of Gronk or Gronk getting doubled-teamed, so it’s a big difference.”

Devin McCourty

(On the game)
“It’s football. We’re working to get better, trying to do whatever we’ve got to do, stick to the game plan and play good football. We fell short today, so there are definitely some things we need to work on going forward because, like I said, it’s all about winning now.”

(On if the team developed any bad habits)
“I don’t really believe that you can get bad habits in football. I think everything is all about preparation each week. You do everything great one week, it doesn’t mean next week you created good habits and it’ll happen again. We’ll have to regroup, have a good week of practice this week coming up and then go from there.”

(On Jimmy Garoppolo)
“I think Jimmy has worked extremely hard this season to keep getting better. It was good to see him out there and be able to make some plays. But I don’t think his play surprises anyone around here. He’s been working hard, he’s been getting better each week, and it was good to see him out there.”

(On what the team will take away from the game)
“We’ll break down the film and see. Right now it’s, ‘We lost the game,’ but we’ll break down the film and see the things we need to work on, the things we can do better and then focus on it from there. It changes now. It’s all about winning the rest of our season. We definitely need to take what we need to take from this film and then focus on what lies ahead.”

(On if going into the bye week with a loss changes things)
“No. I think as a team we understand what the playoffs are, so I don’t think if we’d have won, it would’ve been any different. We understand that if we want to have a chance to win going forward, we need to fix all the things that coaches come in here with us for this week coming forward because whatever they bring to us and say, ‘This is what we need to work on,’ it’s probably going to be the difference between winning and losing going forward in the playoffs.”