How Did The New England Patriots React To Win Over Cowboys?

Oct 11, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick smiles after the game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. The Patriots beat the Cowboys 30-6. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Shortly after the New England Patriots crushed the Cowboys yesterday, Bill Belichick and a few players met with the media to discuss the win.

Here is the official transcript: (via Patriots.com)

Bill Belichick

"“It’s a good feeling to come down here and win.  I’m really proud of our team today. I thought we got great complementary football from all three phases.  In our offense, defense, special teams, the way we started the game.  We had a quick series on defense.   Good punt return. Put our offense in good field position.  We had several of those during the day.  Couple of turnovers in the second half but real good field position.  The kicking game – Stephen kicked the ball well.  We had a big punt.  Good coverage by Sheard and a great kick by Ryan.  I thought that was really big for us. Defensively, we didn’t give up many big plays.  We played ok on third down.  Got off the field quite a bit in the first half.  Gave our offense some field position and we really took advantage of it.  The Cowboys are a really good football team.  Defensively, they gave us a look that we really hadn’t seen them do before.  They played a lot of the game in a dime defense.   Kind of a 3-2 look with McClain and Lee in the middle.  I thought Josh and the offensive staff did a good job, and the players, making some in-game adjustments to deal with the look they gave us, there.  Overall, good to come down here and win.  I thought we got real good contributions from everybody. Had a good week of work, practice.  These guys were ready to go.  The players played a solid game.  I give them all the credit in the world. They did a good job.” On the front seven. “It was a big challenge.  They’ve got an excellent running game. Good backs, really good offensive line, obviously a good tight end – Witten – fullback.  It was just team defense.  The guys on the edge did a good job, they didn’t give up a lot of easy yards outside.  I thought we did a decent job on the line of scrimmage.  They hit us on some cutback runs for some four-and-five yarders that we could have played better, but overall, not bad.  I thought we tacked pretty well today.  This is a good team, a lot of good runners.  Beasley, Whitehead, obviously the backs, McFadden, Randle.  Getting those guys on the ground isn’t that easy.  I thought overall we did a decent job of that. Our front played well.  Really worked hard on run defense going all the way back to the bye week last Wednesday.” On the play of Jamie Collins’ and how Jerod Mayo and Jonathan Freeny played after Dont’a Hightower’s injury. “Again, I thought we had good team defense.  Our secondary played well.  Linebackers were in on a lot of the plays up front.  It was competitive with their good offensive line.  Jaime, I don’t know what he had out there but he was in on a lot of them (tackles).  Had couple of good pressures.  Sheard gave us some pressures as well.  We had a good mix of run defense, pass rush.  We had a lot of different guys step up and make plays but Jaime seemed to be all over the field.  There was a good play we had on the fumble where Sheard jammed Witten, kind of kept him from getting into his route.  Good game, good team defense.” On the play of Dion Lewis.   “Dion’s been giving us a lot of productive plays, both running and passing.  Some inside plays, some outside plays, some run-after-catch plays.  He’s been doing it for us all year. He’s a hard guy to tackle.  He’s tough when he gets a little bit of space.” On Tom Brady’s toughness and resilience after taking so many hits in the first half. “Tom’s one of the toughest players in the league.” Was the number of hits he took in the first half a concern? “It’s a combination of things.  I think we need to do a better job overall with our offensive execution.  Getting rid of the ball, getting open and blocking, so it’s a little bit of everthing.” Did you expect Greg Hardy to have such a good game? “He’s a good player.  I said that all week. McClain, too.” On the Cowboys starting the game with three linemen instead of their usual four.  “It was a new look they hadn’t shown before, that was that 3-2 dime defense with Lee playing inside.  It was a new look.  It took a little while for us to adjust to it, to get a handle on what they were doing.  I thought that our players and coaches did a good job making those adjustments during the game and throughout the game.  It was definitely a different look and they obviously were going to come up and get on us and match it up. That caused us some problems but we scored 30 points.  I think that caused them some problems, too.  Competitive game.” What adjustments did you make at halftime? “Like I just said, we made those adjustments from the first series. We didn’t wait until halftime.  There’s nothing magic about halftime.  As soon as we see what they’re doing, we need to get ready to address it.”"

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