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

Nov 8, 2015; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) reacts after a touchdown during the first quarter against the Washington Redskins at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Tom Brady

Q: When you see a guy like Dion Lewis go down, what are your initial thoughts?

TB: It’s such a physical game and tough to lose such a special player. I hope he’s OK. I don’t know exactly what it is, but we’re all hoping for the best.

Q: What caused you to call a timeout just before the touchdown to Brandon Bolden? What did you see originally?

TB: We had a particular play called in, and I wasn’t sure. Sometimes I have a decent idea before the play kind of what the degree of difficulty is on the play. So had we run the play, it could’ve worked. But I thought with the lead and the timeouts that we could think about it a little bit more. And then we changed the situation, and Brandon made a great play. We work on that a lot, and it was great to see him in there and make a big play for us. He’s a great player. I love Brandon and everything he brings to our team. He’s been here for a while. He has great leadership, just a great player, great friend, and it was great to see him with the ball in his hands at the end of a play like that.

Q: Was it a deliberate part of the game plan to get the running game going?

TB: It was great. We possessed the ball quite a bit during the first quarter and had some great drives there, and the run game was a real big factor. The more balanced we are, the better it is for the quarterback, so it was great. He made some big runs, especially when there wasn’t a lot there. But [the way] he runs, it’s running through guys. He had a great kind of run where he spun out of a bunch of tackles and ran for I don’t know, 15, 17 yards or something like that there in the third quarter on a big touchdown drive. It was great to see it. Hopefully we can do more of it.

Q: Are you a little worried that the injuries on the offensive line will start piling up?

TB: Those guys, they play so hard. I mean, we went into the game with six offensive linemen. So you just hope for the best, and then obviously with Seabass [Sebastian Vollmer] going down, it puts a lot of strain on those guys. And a lot of guys scrambled to figure out exactly what we’re going to do. And they played really hard, so I’m proud of them. I mean, for Bryan [Stork] to play right tackle, he hadn’t played center this year and he goes in and plays right tackle. It’s like unbelievable, and then Flem [Cameron Fleming] to go to left tackle, which … I don’t know when we thought about doing that, but that’s what happens when you’re a little bit under pressure.

Q: Do you start to simplify to some extent when you start having to make changes on the fly like that?

TB: That’s a good question. It’s always a little bit challenging when you kind of put multiple variables into play. And obviously without those guys practicing at all at those positions, it’s not like you want to run a bunch of things that … I mean, I guess we’ve never practiced anything with those guys in there, so anything we call would be new. But there are a lot of game plan things that are nuances to the plays that you just don’t get opportunities. So that’s why I thought we did a good job. We stayed really balance, took advantage of some third downs there in the second half, which was great, which allowed us to continue to run the ball. And then that big touchdown drive that we finished with that touchdown to Brandon was just a great drive by all those guys up front. So that was pretty critical, and it was great to kind of finish the game strong.

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