How Did The New England Patriots React To Losing To Denver?

Shortly after the Patriots lost in the AFC Championship on Sunday, players and coaches met with the media to discuss the game.

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

Bill Belichick

“First of all, I want to congratulate Denver on an AFC Championship. They have a good football team. They’re well-coached. They have a lot of good players. They played a bit better than we did today. I’m proud of our guys. They fought right to the very end, like they always do. We just couldn’t quite make enough plays, obviously. It’s disappointing. It was a disappointing result. There were a lot of big plays in the game. Any one of them probably could have made a bit of a difference. I just think we all feel, as coaches, players—it’s such a fine line today between winning and losing that we all could have just done a little bit more and it might have had a different result, but it wasn’t. It’s a crash landing to the end of the season like there usually is in the National Football League.”

On not capitalizing on red zone opportunities
“It’s happened.”

On Denver rushing four players
“They did a good job and we hadn’t run the ball well enough to take them out of much of that. They have a good pass rush. Their coverage was tight. They did a good job. [Broncos Defensive Coordinator] Wade [Phillips] is a great coach. He does a great job and they have good players. Defensively, they’re a really good team. We knew that.”

On attempting two fourth down conversions in Denver territory
“It was the score and situation in the game.”

On if he has any regrets on fourth down attempts
“No.”

On K Stephen Gotskowski’s missed extra point
“There are a lot of plays in the game. A lot of big plays in the game. We had a chance at the end. They made they play.”

On if he would reveal his words to Broncos QB Peyton Manning on the field at the end of the game
“No.”

On the defensive performance
“We did a lot of good things, defensively. We gave up two touchdowns on double moves and the field goal at the end of the half. There were good plays and then, you know, a couple of ones that you wish you would have back. We could have made a red-area stop or that field goal at the end of the half. That ended up being a big three points, too, which we didn’t help ourselves on that on offense or the field position with the punts. It was a combination of things. We’ll look, but a lot of guys played well on defense. I’ll have to look at the film and see how it turned out. I think a lot of guys played well. We did a good job in the running game, but that short yardage play—that was another three points. In the end, it just wasn’t quite enough.”

Tom Brady

On the consistent pressure he faced today
“They’ve got a great rush. They’ve got some great pass rushers, they’ve got interior pass rushes, they’ve got some outside rushes. I think you complement that with good coverage. It was just tough for us to ever get into a rhythm and finally to score some points here at the end, and then for it to come down to a two-point conversion is a tough way to obviously end the season.”

On the interceptions
“It was just a bad decision. [TE] [Rob Gronkowski] went in on him and was breaking out, and I think [LB] Von [Miller] knew that and he did and he made a good play.”

On if he expected Miller to drop
“They rush more often than not, but those are the things that quarterbacks have to see.”

On the defensive line
“It was a tough day, hard-fought game all day. They’re a very good defense. They played well all season. They’ve got good coverage, they’ve got a good rush, put a lot of pressure on you. We made a lot of plays. There were just a lot of plays we didn’t make. A lot of fourth down plays that ended up costing us. We made a couple, but again there were too many of those and we never could play with a lead, we never could play on our terms, so it was an uphill battle all day.”

On the problems they faced on fourth down
“I think you make some, you’re not going to make them all. We hit the fourth and 10 to Gronk, we hit a fourth down for the touchdown. I just don’t think you’re going to be 100 percent in those situations, so unfortunately we had four or five of them, they just didn’t go our way. They cost us points and cost us an opportunity to move on.”

On the talk at halftime
“We were happy we were still in the game based on the way we played offensively. We just could never really get in a rhythm with what we were doing, so it was a tough, hard-fought game. They did some good things defensively. We had some plays offensively I think we should have made, and we just didn’t make them.”

On when he did have time to throw the ball
“Yeah, I think you get into some rhythm out there, and then when you do have time you’re still in that quick rhythm. There were definitely times where I had opportunities to hold the ball and didn’t really have great awareness of where people were around me. Maybe sometimes I had more time, so I’ll look back on all those plays. It was a disappointing loss because this team fought pretty hard just to come up short on a two-point play. It would have been a fun overtime had we had the opportunity, but we just came up one play short.”

On his injuries
“It’s football. I think there were a lot of plays I got hit pretty hard today, so it’s just football.”

On his offensive line
“They hung in there all day, and I think that’s the strength of their team. Our strength was trying to get the ball to our skill guys and let them make some plays in space. It’s a tough front, and they’re good players. They’re teeing off on the cadence. We’re trying to keep changing it up. And on defense sometimes you just got to get one play and you end the drive, so I think they did a great job today.”

On the end of the season
“It’s pretty special to play in this game. Obviously, to advance to the next game, that’s why we all play and work so hard, so it’s disappointing not to have the opportunity to do that. It takes a lot of good football to do that and beat some great football teams. We lost to a very good football team today. I wish that two-point play would have been different. I’m sure everyone could look at different plays throughout the game when it’s that close and say, ‘man, I wish I would have made that play.’ But I’m proud of the way we fought, and certainly fought to the end.”

On kicker Stephen Gostkowski
“He’s a great player. He’s the best. Everyone misses them at some point. There was plenty of football left. We knew what the situation was.”

On Gronkowski battling dehydration to make plays
“Yeah, he made two great plays, both on fourth down. He split the defense, they were trying to double him and ran right through it. And then a touchdown. I still don’t know how he caught that ball. I was kind of retreating, retreating, trying to buy some time and just saw him break out and let it go. It was a great play. He toughed it out all season, so I’m proud of him. He’s a great player.”

On Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning
“They’ve got a great team, so he’s a great player and someone I’ve always admired.”

On the fourth and one play to wide receiver Julian Edelman
“Yeah, they were looking for the sneak, and we had to do a misdirection. It wasn’t really Julian’s guy who got him, it was the guy who fell off, so he made a pretty good defensive play. He had the other guy in man coverage and just kind of was there waiting for it.”

On if the pressure he faced was similar to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl
“That was a little different. That was certainly different. This is a different game. When you play quarterback, you’re going to take hits and that’s part of it. You’ve got to stay under there and make the throws. There’s no excuses for me not getting the job done. Our guys fought hard. I’m proud of all the guys for what they tried to accomplish today, and like I said we just came one play short to a very good football team.”

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On the plays that haunted them later in the game
“There’s plays that are being made back and forth, so you’ve got to move on from those. I think we did a good job of that today. We had some good momentum there in the fourth quarter. We were moving the ball. We just didn’t quite get it in when we needed to.”

On if the Broncos’ defense played according to their tendencies
“I’ll have to see the film.”

On what is next
“I’m not sure, so I don’t know. Get over these bumps and bruises, that’ll be the first thing.”

On the fans back home
“It’s been such great support all season. I’m proud of how we fought today. We went right to the end, we just came up a little bit short. I wish the outcome would have been different. You’ve got to play really well to earn these victories. We just came up a little bit short, so thank you.”

On not being able to be back-to-back Super Bowl Champions
“Well, I want to win it every year. I’d love to finish in the last game of the year and win it. It’s a pretty tough thing to do. Hopefully I have more opportunities for that. This team fought really hard, we just came up short.”

Next: Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola Talk