BB: That was some football game. I have to give all the credit to the
players. They just hung in there. They kept fighting and luckily we made
enough plays to come out on top. It was about as even a game as you could
get, obviously going into overtime. But both teams had some turnovers, took
advantage of them, got through a real competitive game there and at the end,
what a play. What a play.
Q: How did you draw that one up?
BB: We had a couple of shots that we were kind of holding back on. We missed
one there to Deion [Branch] right at the end of regulation late in the
fourth quarter. Then this other one Tom [Brady] was able to get a little
extra time when he was flushed out of the pocket and had good protection.
What a throw. What a catch. And what a big playmaker Troy Brown is.
Q: The captains met with the officials on the coin flip, what was your
take on that?
BB: I wasn't out there, I don't know. They said that we lost the toss. There
were a lot of things that I didn't understand in that game and that was
another one.
Q: Was Troy the primary read on that final play?
BB: Yeah, really. I mean, if we had time. Yes. If they didn't blitz.
Q: Was it supposed to be a route at that depth?
BB: Tom got extra time and he was able to come out of the pocket. Troy kept
a high angle out there and it's the quarterback's job to lead the receiver
to the open spot. That's what he did.
Q: It's been a long time since a New England team has won down here ...
BB: Yeah, look we can't worry too much about that. Most of the players that
are on this team weren't part of a lot of those games. What's important for
us is that we came down, we played a good football team, we played hard and
we are 5-2 and it wasn't easy. That's what is really important.
Q: What does it say about this team that you are 5-2 and in first place
despite all the injuries you've had? It's pretty amazing ...
BB: There is a long way to go. 5-2, that doesn't mean anything. We have nine
game or however many it is left. There are a lot of games left. So we are
just taking one at a time. There is a lot of football left. This doesn't
mean anything.
Q: The blocked field goal at the end of the game, Richard Seymour seems
like he is doing that a lot more lately ...
BB: Yeah, Richard got good push in there. It is tough off that dirt. We all
know that. But Richard had good push on the play. We have been coming close
every week. Brad [Seely, special teams coach] and I have been telling them,
'Just keep coming.' A couple of them we thought we could have had and the
ball somehow slipped through there in other games, but that rush team has
been doing a good job all year. They've gotten a couple and that was a big
one today.
Q: Do you think the fact that Olindo Mare had that one blocked changed
his focus and caused him to push and miss that second one?
BB: I don't know. You would have to ask him. All we can do is just try to
rush them, come up the middle and make him get the ball up high. I am not
really sure what happened on it.
Q: How about losing your second replay challenge? It looked like that was
a pretty bad call?
BB: The rule is any part of the runner's body except for his hand and his
feet. That's the rule, so I am sure it was a close call.
Q: Did you question that long catch that they made?
BB: In overtime the replays are all by the officials. Normally in that
situation what I've been told on that is that if there is any doubt that
they buzz it and they look at the play and then decide whether it was or
wasn't. But it is out of our control. There is no replay in overtime. So
that's totally their call. You would have to ask them why that wasn't done.
Q: I know you can't challenge that, but did they call down from the
coach's booth? Did they tell you it was out of bounds?
BB: I know it was a close call, but we were trying to get lined up for the
next play which we didn't do a very good job of. You just have to keep
playing in that situation. You can't worry about what somebody else's job
is. Ours is to call plays and to try to stop them. So that's all we could do
at that point. It's not our call.
Q: You were pretty emotional there at the end. Have you ever won a game
on a bomb like that in overtime?
BB: No, that was a big win. That was a big win.
Q: You've won two straight games against this team, close ones. Feel like
your team just has a knack for hanging in and keeping it close?
BB: I don't know. I mean you always feel like you can win the game. You
always feel like when it is close you can make enough plays to win it. But I
don't know about that. You just try to do what you can do at the end to try
to do the best that you can and make the right plays that you think will
make the difference. I mean you do that every week.
Q: Does this team have an extraordinary amount of character?
BB: There are a lot of tough guys in there. We had a bunch of guys that I
know were playing at way less than 100-percent. Some of them came out of the
game and sucked it up and went back in. These guys, they fight hard. They
are physically and mentally tough and boy, I just have to give them all the
credit in the world. This is a special group of players.
Q: How big was Tyrone Poole at the end of the game coming up with the big
play?
BB: Big. Tyrone had a great game. He played well. We left the corners out
there in man-to-man coverage almost the whole game. Those guys did a good
job. We had a couple of interceptions out there and they caught a couple.
But they battled them all the way and it was in tough conditions. It was
hot. It was a long game. But I thought all three of the corners, when Eugene
[Wilson] went out there, Eugene, Asante [Samuel] and Tyrone all did a good
job. That was a big play that Tyrone made, a great play on the ball.
Q: How did you feel you did against [Ricky] Williams?
BB: They scored 13 points and most of those came on a short field. And then
they had a couple of missed field goals. So I don't know. It was good
enough. That's the bottom line. It could have been better, but it was good
enough.
Q: What was your thinking on the first replay challenge on the Brady
fumble?
BB: Honestly, I didn't think we had a shot at getting that one. I was hoping
maybe that he was down, but at that point in the game it was a turnover deep
in our territory. I thought that it would help us even if we lost the
challenge to just have the timeout to be able to settle down, talk things
over and make sure that we knew exactly what we wanted to do when we went
back in there and what calls we were going make. We actually did that a
couple of times in the game where we took defensive timeouts just to kind of
recalibrate the situation and make sure that we had what we wanted to have.
Again, we have some new people in there. We have some different groupings,
some different situations. Romeo [Crennel] and I talked about it before the
game and we just said that if there are key situations like that in the game
let's go ahead and take the time out and make sure that we get it right.
Q: Can you describe your emotions at the end? Relief? Joy? Surprise?
BB: It was happiness for the players and the team. They worked so hard.
Everybody is telling them they can't win down here. Everybody is telling
them it's too hot down here. Everybody is telling them that they have too
many injuries and they can't do this and they can't do that. They didn't buy
it. They just came down here and played their hearts out and I was just so
happy that we were able to come out on top. I thought they really deserved
it. They worked hard all week. |
