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

Malcolm Butler

(On if the team was playing as one big family this week)

“That’s the case every week. We know we were going to need [to win] this playoff game, so we came together as a team in all three phases, went out there and handled our business.”

(On avoiding outside distractions)

“Nobody outside of this locker room can help us win. They can help us lose, but they can’t help us win, so we ignored the noise. The only thing that matters is your coaches and your teammates, so we just rolled like that.”

(On the plan to limit Chiefs QB Alex Smith)

“Just contain him as much as we can. He’s a great athlete. To be honest, I didn’t know he could run like that, but the guy can move. So we had to stay with our receivers throughout the scramble plays. He hit a couple of those, but we tried to limit him as much as we could. It was all about going out there making plays. That’s all it was about.”

Sebastian Vollmer

(On how it felt to prepare for this game)

“Hopefully you always practice well and you have a good week. You always go into the game with a lot of confidence and you want to execute your game plan. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, then you have problems. I think the feeling is the same.”

(On the week of practice)

“It’s a whole week. It’s a lot of days. It’s the playoffs. Everything kind of steps up a little bit. I think we did too.”

(On the injuries)

“Everyone is out there that can [play]. Again, it’s the playoffs. It’s a lot of months of football and no one feels 100 percent, but it’s part of the game.”

(On the Kansas City defensive line)

“They’re a good defensive line. They have been [all season]. Things like doing your job, blocking. I don’t think there’s a secret sauce for it. Just doing what you can and what you’re asked to do.”

Julian Edelman

(On his return)

“It felt good. Any time you go out with your teammates and get a win in the Divisional Round against a really good football team, it feels good, so it’s one of those things that we’ve got a lot of work to do. Next game is going to be the toughest game of the year and you’ve got to get ready for it.”

(On how it feels to get hit, give hits, and go through that process again)

“It’s the same. You know you get bumps and bruises and it’s part of the game, so it was good to get out there.”

(On if he got more comfortable as the game progressed)

“Yeah, a little bit. I dropped some balls that I shouldn’t of – trying to do stuff, trying to make a move before I caught it, but I just had to slow down and get back to the fundamentals and I’ll be working those out this week.”

(On if the dropped balls were due to lack of play or finding a rhythm)

“That was just me trying to be too fast.”

(On his confidence to physically perform going forward)

“Very confident. We played a good complementary game as a team. We got a lot of work to do. We got a lot of situations that we could have done better on, but it was definitely good to go out there and get a win.”

(On the performance of Rob Gronkowski)

“Beast.”

(On getting thrown the ball during the first possession)

“It was good. We had a good week of practice and practice execution became game reality and it was good to get out there and get a catch on that first drive.”

(On if he felt any satisfaction going through the rehab to return to this game)

“No because I dropped some balls that I shouldn’t have. You can always play better and to go out and play good in the next game, you can’t win ball games doing those kinds of things, so, I’m personally going to have to get back and do a lot more.”

Jonathan Freeny

(On the improved third-down defense in the fourth quarter)

“Yeah, that was very important. Every third-down is important but especially late in the game when you need it, when the game is getting closer and closer. Just for us to step up and get off the field, that was big and try to get the ball back into our offense’s hands.”

(On his feelings seeing Chandler Jones leave with an injury late in the game)

“Any time one of your guys goes down your heart goes out to them because you know these guys that you have blood, sweat, and tears with all year since training camp, OTAs, all of those things. You’ve been working with these guys so any time one of them goes down and they have an injury your heart goes out to them.”

(On if forcing the third quarter turnover was a big moment)

“Yeah, that was definitely a big momentum change. We got the ball back on the fumble and our offense went down and scored. I think it might have put us up by two touchdowns – I’m not sure exactly how much – but yeah that was a big swing in the game. If it wasn’t for that then there’s no telling how that game would’ve ended there at the end so that was big for us.”

Rob Gronkowski

(On if he felt prepared when he got out there after missing time this week)

“Yeah, definitely. Just being around the guys all the time, being with the coaching staff, we prepare well together as a team, as a unit. It felt like we were all ready to go and on the same page.”

(On how important it was to get into a rhythm early)

“You always want to get a fast start, especially being together with everyone, Julian [Edelman], Danny [Amendola], everyone back out there on the field. We were all just clicking on that drive and it was great to get a touchdown [on the] first drive. That’s how you always want to start.”

(On Julian Edelman’s return)

“Yeah, he’s a great player. I’m super proud of him, the way he worked to get back, the way he worked to get ready for a playoff game. Obviously I’ve been through some injuries and I’m telling you it’s just not easy to come back right in midseason and just have a performance like that. You’ve got to give him credit for all the hard work he put in to be ready and help this team.”

Duron Harmon

(On how important is was to hold Kansas City to field goals early on)

“It was very important, just look at the score. If we didn’t hold them to field goals, we could have possibly lost that game. The game was a lot different toward the end, so holding them to field goals really helped us. Any time you can hold a team to a field goal in the red zone, it’s a four-point swing, so we can say we took eight points off the board from them and we won by seven. If we didn’t, it could have been a whole different game.”

(On the fumble recovery)

“That was huge. It was huge because they were driving the ball a little bit. I want to say they were in the plus-territory, so that was a huge momentum swing. I believe we got points off of that so it just helped our team in general.”

(On Kansas City QB Alex Smith)

“Like I was saying earlier this week, he had 500 rushing yards [this season], 30 first downs and averaged around six yards per carry, so we knew that’s what he wanted to do. That’s how he makes plays, he makes plays not only with his arm but with his feet so we knew we had to try to contain him as best as we could. We did a good job.”

(On how it feels to make the AFC Championship game three years in a row)

“It’s crazy. Three years in a row, we’re going to the conference championship. It’s a testament to this organization and coach [Bill] Belichick – what he’s done here and how he prepares us. I’m just excited to be a part of it.”

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