How Did The New England Patriots React To Beating Tennessee?

Dec 20, 2015; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick watches from the sideline as they take on the Tennessee Titans in the first quarter at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Shortly after the New England Patriots beat the Tennessee Titans 33-16 yesterday, the team met with the media to discuss the win.

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

Bill Belichick

BB: Well again, always good to win. Twelve wins, that’s on the right track here. We did some good things today. We got contributions from all three units – a couple of big plays in the kicking game, couple big plays on defense, turnovers obviously and a score on defense, and made some plays offensively as well and took good care of the ball there. A lot of positive things, still a lot of football left here, a lot of things we can improve on and we’ll keep working on that, but had a lot of guys step up and play and fill roles today that maybe they hadn’t done as much of or maybe hadn’t done any of in the past. That was good, too, but that’s what you need from your team. It’s a long season and we need a lot of different guys to contribute.

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Q: What did you think of the way the backs contributed, especially without LeGarrette Blount?

BB: Good, glad we’ve got all of them. All of them helped us – Joey [Iosefa] and Brandon [Bolden] and James [White]. That’s what we need – going to need guys to do different things – same thing with the receivers, same thing with the tight ends. We have confidence in all those guys. Sometimes it’s different combinations or different roles, but all of them work hard and the backs, they gave us some good plays today.

Q: Tennessee came into the game really tough on third downs. Did you want to make it nice and easy on the offense today, like you did against Houston?

BB: Well I mean, Tennessee, they give you a lot of problems and it was a hard week of preparation based on all the different things that they do on offense and defense – the schemes that they run and the players that they have. I thought we tried to prepare hard for a team we didn’t know very well and just go out there and execute. We got off to a good start and then weren’t able to sustain it quite as much as the game went along, but in the end it was enough. They do a good job. They give you a lot of different schemes on offense, a lot of different personnel groups, and defensively they have a very proven package of plays and schemes that they do a good job on.

Q: On the long James White play that got called back, what should Keshawn Martin have done differently?

BB: That’s a good question. You should talk to the league about that. They’re the ones that call it, so let them talk about it.

Q: On the hard-hitting question front, what’s on your Christmas wish list this year?

BB: Yeah, I’ll kind of leave that stuff on the personal side. I’m trying to get the team ready to go next week against the Jets. We’re just trying to get the team ready to go against the Jets, so I’ll just leave the personal questions aside right now.

Q: What was it about Joey Iosefa that caught your attention coming out of Hawaii and what did he show you while on the practice squad to deserve the opportunity he got today?

BB: We got Joey back in October, and he’s a grinder, hard-working kid. He’s gotten in a lot better shape since he’s been here, dropped a little weight, worked hard, obviously learned a new system, wasn’t here in training camp so he put in a lot of extra time, got in a lot of snaps on the practice field and kind of earned his way to get a chance out there today based on hard work and consistent play in practice and the opportunities that he’s had for us. It’s a real credit to him hearing that, and obviously unfortunately he got an opportunity because of some of the injuries that we’ve had, but he can’t control that. All he did was work hard and I thought he gave us a solid account of himself today. It wasn’t perfect, but he did what we asked him to do and he made some tough yards.

Q: What was the reasoning behind Bryan Stork’s availability today?

BB: It was a coaching decision.

Q: Was there any consideration in the fourth quarter of the game of maybe sitting Tom Brady or Rob Gronkowski?

BB: Trying to win the game – just trying to win the game.

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