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

Nov 8, 2015; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick watches from the sideline as they take on the Washington Redskins in the second half at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots defeated the Redskins 27-10. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Shortly after their 27-10 victory over the Redskins, the New England Patriots met with the media to discuss the win.

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

Bill Belichick

BB: I thought that was a good win for our team today. We obviously had to grind it out and had a lot of guys step up maybe that hadn’t played as much that had to step in and play, played well and did a good job of being ready to go. We made plays again in all three phases of the game. That was good. Washington is good at what they’re really good at – taking the ball away, red-area defense – we knew that would be a problem and they did a good job there. I thought we had a good drive early, had an opportunity to get on top and play from ahead. That was definitely helpful. Left some things on the field that we could have executed a little bit better, but overall I thought it was a good job by everybody being ready to go. As I said, we had to call on a lot of people, some who haven’t played a lot for us or haven’t played in some of the positions that they ended up playing today and did a good job. Good to win and we’re staying in the NFC East.

Q: When someone comes into your program, is it part of the normal process to get them acclimated to playing a variety of positions?

BB: Possibly. Not everybody plays a lot of different positions. Some guys do, some guys don’t, some guys just play one position, but somewhere along the line you have to have some people that have some versatility. If you take seven linemen to the game or today we took six, or four corners and you’re playing three, you’ve got to have people that can back up more than one spot. That rolls over into the kicking game where you have really 66 positions you have to cover there. When you lose a guy, someone like Jamie [Collins] doesn’t play and then that rolls into that defensive rotation and that rolls into the special teams rotation. You’ve only got so many guys, somebody’s got to double or triple up. That’s the NFL. That’s football.

Q: With more injuries on the offensive line, how good was it to get the running game going?

BB: It’s always good to move the ball and score points, whether we run it or throw it. I thought LG [LeGarrette Blount] ran well. We had some good holes to run through. I thought he made some good yardage on his own. I thought our receivers ran well with the ball after the catch, making some extra yards on their own. It’s always good to run the ball. It’s always good to throw the ball. It’s always good to score points.

Q: Did injuries on the offensive line force you to limit some of the protections?

BB: Yeah we definitely had to make some adjustments. I thought Josh [McDaniels] and Googe [Dave DeGuglielmo] and the offensive coaches did a good job of that. We obviously practiced those situations, but as far as game planning and the way that the game unfolded, there were some things we felt like we didn’t need at that point and so we focused on the things that we were going to use and call, and that’s what we did, and those guys did a good job on that.

Q: What did you think of Cameron Fleming and Bryan Stork’s play at the offensive tackle position?

BB: Well we’ll have to go back and look at the film. I’m sure there are some good things and I’m sure some things that weren’t perfect. They competed hard. We were able to move the ball and get some first downs and score there in the second half. You’ve got to give them credit for that. They did a good job competing. They were ready to go. I’m sure it wasn’t perfect, I’m not going to sit here and say that, but they certainly hung in there and enabled everybody else to be able to run the ball, throw the ball, move the ball.

Q: Was there anything you saw that made you think the onside kick would be successful early on?

BB: We thought we’d get a play out of it. We were kind of fortunate that it was a little mishandled. Jonathan [Freeny] made a good play. Nate [Ebner] kind of reacted quickly to it and Jonathan got on it. [Ryan] Grant actually played it pretty well. He was in position to play it, but the ball, those are always tough balls to handle, as we’ve seen being on the other side of those. Good that it worked out, we got another play in the kicking game, so hopefully we can just try to make a couple each week. Read

Q: What sense do you have as to the severity of Dion Lewis’ injury?

BB: The game is just over, so …

Q: You guys called timeout prior to the Brandon Bolden touchdown. How was that drawn up?

BB: That was one of those situations where we’re ahead and we have our timeouts, it’s the fourth quarter, the play we had called wasn’t a great look for that play, we ended up kind of talking about that and making an adjustment there. Again, that’s one of the advantages of being in that situation. We never want to run bad plays, but we thought we could run one better the one we had called based on the look that we got. I think Tom made a good decision there to not do what we were probably going to do based on the look they gave us. We got a good look on the next play and good execution more importantly by Tom and Brandon.

Q: How important was Brandon Bolden today stepping up and producing once Dion Lewis went down?

BB: Yeah, absolutely. Brandon did a good job for us, and as I said, multiple guys fall into that category at linebacker, on the offensive line. But yeah, Brandon has got a lot of experience on this team in a number of different roles and he’s been through it all – running game, passing game, blitz pickup, special teams – multiple roles in that. He’s a smart guy. You can always count on him. He’s come through for us many times before like he did today, so that’s why he’s a valuable member of this team. We needed him and he stepped up for us.

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