BB: I think the tapes today indicated
pretty much what we all saw out there yesterday. It was a hard-fought game.
Both sides made some big plays in the game. We're just fortunate that we
were able to make a few more than the Jets did yesterday. I thought that we
did some good things in the running game. That was a great drive at the end
of the game, to eat up a lot of clock there, plus gain some good field
position by the end of the drive. That was certainly a key play in the game.
We had some lapses there in the third, and early in the fourth quarter. The
Jets have some outstanding players and they were able to take advantage of
them. We have a lot of things we have to work on. We're 2-0, but we still
have a lot of areas of our game that we can improve on and sharpen up, so
that will be a focus this week. And, of course, Denver, we know
they're an outstanding football team. They beat us twice last year. We
really need to intensify – not that we don't do it every week – but really
intensify our preparations for the Broncos, seeing what kind of challenge
that will bring for us. We'll try to get past the Jets as quickly as
possible here and really move on to Denver.
Q: What came together for you on that
last drive?
BB: There were just a lot of
well-executed plays. Third down conversions, I think we had four of them,
the screen to [Kevin] Faulk on second and long. There was some
good blocking at times in the running game, enough to get us into some short
yardage situations. [Corey] Dillon hit an inside run up the
middle for a first down. It was a combination of a lot of things. We hit
some different receivers and hit some different running plays. In the end,
it was good execution at the times when we needed it the most. Third down
conversions, of course those are key anytime you get to third down. It only
takes one mistake and you're off the field at that point, so to be able to
convert on those four third downs, that was big.
Q: How much did it help that you were
in third and shorts on that drive?
BB: That was the game. I think we
were 0-for-whatever on third-and-six plus. When we were less than six, we
were pretty high conversion. I forget exactly what it was. Eight out of 11,
whatever it was it was pretty decent. Our percentages were much better when
the yardage was shorter and that's the way it usually is. It just gives you
more options, just anybody can pick up the first down. Whereas, when it's
long yardage realistically you probably only have two or three guys that can
get it, if you send them deep enough.
Q: What was the team's reaction to
seeing the Corey Dillon play where he picked up the first down and
ran over the safety?
BB: We showed it to the team on film
today. They were pretty excited about it. It was a good run. I don't know
how many people saw it, the defensive guys were back there trying to get
ready to go back on to the field for the two-minute drive if the Jets got
the ball back. He hit Rhodes pretty hard.
Q: Did you hit the three-second
rewind button on your TiVo and rewind it?
BB: I don't have TiVo. [Laughter]
Q: Is it easier to correct mistakes
when you get beat by one big play rather than grinding out a 17 play drive?
BB: I don't know. They are both hard.
Usually a 17-play drive you probably have several chances along way to stop
them. A long play like that, we had a couple of chances within the play,
both plays really, [Laveranues] Coles' play and [Jerricho] Cotchery's play. We made mistakes and we all made them. I made them.
The coaches made them. The players make them. These are all things that we
can improve and learn from and that's what we'll try to do. I think that
every player that participated in the game and every coach that participated
in that game looks back at their game and says, 'These are the things that I
could've done better. These are things that I need to work on.' I think
we're all saying that today. I'm glad we're saying it at 2-0 and not 0-2. I
think that's what we're all saying.
Q: Was there a reason why you showed
the team Dillon's play?
BB: I show the team a number of
plays, for the whole team after a game, just plays that, for whatever
reason, I think need to be [shown] and I point out to the team. That's what
we usually do. 10, 15, 20 plays. Whatever it is.
Q: I know you stress playing
physical, was that play maybe an example of that?
BB: Yes, that was a good example of
it. Yes.
Q: How about the punting game? It
seems like there was a shift there at the end of the second quarter.
BB: Yeah, it was. That was a big
field position swing. I thought that Josh [Miller] punted the
ball well. I thought both kickers hit the ball well for us. We covered
pretty well. We covered the kickoffs well and covered the punts well. We
didn't get a lot of return opportunities in the punting game. Most of those
were plus-50 and we were fair-catching down there and [Ben] Graham is very good at that. I thought both our punter and our kicker hit the ball
well, good hang time and the punting certainly helped our field position.
That was big.
Q: On the missed field goal, did Stephen [Gostkowski] need to get more of a lift?
BB: We had too much penetration. I'm
sure every kick can always be higher, but I don't think that was…everything
can always be better. Don't get me wrong. But there was a lot of penetration
on the play. It was a combination of things. Bad coaching. Bad playing. It
was bad everything. It was like getting an extra point blocked.
Q: How do you school rookies on
trying to stay even keeled, not getting too emotionally high or too low?
BB: We try to take care of that, the
head coach, the assistant coaches, other veterans on the team. We do a
pretty good job of bringing them down. But, no, I think you kind of have to
even it out. When you win everything is not great. Usually when you lose
everything is not terrible. A lot of times when you lose, you just didn't do
enough good things to win. It wasn't like everything was bad. When you win
everything is not good. There are mistakes in wins too. The longer you play,
the longer you coach, the more you realize that. There's a fine line. You
just have to do as many things right as you possibly can to give yourself
the best chance, but ultimately there is room for improvement every week.
Any young players that don't realize that, we try to get that point across
collectively. I don't think anybody is shy about bringing it up.
Q: You showed a lot of 4-3 yesterday,
rotating guys in and out like [Tedy] Bruschi and [Tully] Banta-Cain, was there a reason for that?
BB: They've all been playing, other
than Tedy, but you know he was going to play. Those other guys have
all been playing. Our defensive linemen have been playing. We've utilized
quite a few different people on defense. It wasn't anything specific. Some
of it was by certain groupings. Other times, it was just a warm day, we just
wanted to try to keep everybody fresh.
Q: I saw a lot of substitutions on
offense yesterday. Was that you guys just trying to find the right fit on
offense?
BB: Personally, I think when you go
to a game with 45 players, optimally you'd like to be able to use everybody.
You'd like to be able to use all 45 guys and have them contribute and do
things that they do well and you can almost always find somebody that does
something a little bit better maybe than somebody else. If you can get them
into the game in that situation and maintain your rhythm and your continuity
and all of that, you might be able to use that matchup to your advantage.
Maybe if you had the perfect team you could do it, but I don't know if you
really want to take 45 players to the game and just play 36 of them. It just
seems like you could get something out of those other players, hopefully. If
we can, then that's what we try to do. We're not trying to get anybody their
letter sweater. This isn't like high school. But if we can use them and they
can help us win, we're going to put them in there. That's how we look at it.
Q: How has Mike Wright progressed from his rookie year?
BB: A big jump. The normal first to
second year jump that you would like to see a player have, I think Mike has had. He had a great offseason program. I think he learned a lot last
year, our style of defense and the techniques and all that. Pepper [Johnson]
has done a good job with him. Mike has worked hard. He's worked hard in the
offseason. He's had a really good training camp and played well in the
preseason. He's moved his game up and he's fighting for playing time and
he's getting it and he's earned it.
Q: Does he have more position
flexibility than you thought?
BB: Yes. We started him at end and he
was really our backup nose last year. We played him a lot inside right
behind Vince [Wilfork], at least in practice he didn't get
that much playing time there, but he worked at the backup nose spot and end.
He does have flexibility to work in both spots and I think he's a lot more
comfortable this year than last year. It's a lot to ask of a rookie to learn
two spots. There's a lot to learn at just one, but again, Mike got
off to a good start. He got a good jump on things from last year in the
offseason, to spring camps and coming into training camp and he's shown some
good versatility and flexibility. He shown improvement in his game, both as
a run defender and as a pass rusher and he's helped us in the kicking game.
He's really becoming a more productive player and a bigger contributor for
us. I hope he keeps working hard and I think that will continue.
Q: How much of his jump can be
attributed to him gaining strength?
BB: He was pretty strong coming in
last year. You know, it never hurts and he has gained some strength. He was
pretty strong to start with. I think his strength was his strength last
year. I think what he's done more than anything is he's improved his
techniques and his recognition. He reads things quicker. He uses his hands
better. He plays with better position, better technique, but he's a strong
kid to begin with.
Q: Did Chad Jackson do
anything besides the obvious that you were pleased with?
BB: Yes. I think that Chad did
some positive things. He was in there for a decent amount of plays. Some
good. Some could have been better. Really it was like his first preseason
game, only it's not. There are things that he learned yesterday and I think
that he's done better in practice, he really hasn't been practicing all that
long either. The more he can stay out there, the more he can get reps, see
himself do it on the field, see himself on the sound and correct it and go
up there the next day and get a better and that's how you make progress.
He's been pretty diligent in paying attention and learning things and
watching what's going on, but he just hasn't been able to do it and I think
that any time that we can see ourselves doing something it's a lot easier to
learn how to improve it and correct it as opposed to watching somebody else.
That's good too, but it's not quite the same as doing it yourself.
Q: Was it a good sign that Tom [Brady] showed confidence in him to make that tight of a throw there
on the sideline?
BB: Yeah that was tight. Tom will throw it into tight coverage. Tom has confidence in his arm and he
should. He's a good, accurate passer, both long and short. I think Chad made a good play on the ball, he had maybe a half a step there and he kind
of used his body there to squeeze the corner out and get in there and take
it away from him a little bit.
Q: Yes, but Tom's confidence
in Chad's ability to take the ball away from the defensive back and
make the catch?
BB: I think any time the quarterback
throws the ball, the worst-case scenario for him is to throw it so that only
his receiver or his man catches it. If he misses it, he misses it in the
place where only his guy can make the catch. That's the way any good
quarterback will throw the ball. If it's tight coverage, as long as the
quarterback is throwing it to only where the receiver can get it, even if
it's a great catch, and that's where he is going to put the ball. That is
how I would characterize that throw. If Chad had not gotten it, I
think it would have been incomplete.
Q: What did he show you catching the
touchdown pass after missing the pass just a few plays earlier?
BB: The touchdown was a scissors
route. He was wide open. It was a nice play. I think a lot of players could
have made that play, run in the end zone and nobody is around them and catch
the ball. That's great, but that one down the sideline was a much tougher
play.
Q: Is it good from a confidence
standpoint for a rookie?
BB: Hey, it's great. Nobody is
happier when we score than I am. I'm not saying that. It's not the greatest
catch that I've ever seen in my career. Don't put it that way. It was nice
to see him catch the ball, don't get me wrong. It was great to see him score
a touchdown. That was awesome, especially at the end of the half, the
two-minute drive, take advantage of the field position on the punt and turn
that into seven points. That was great. It looked like they might have
missed the coverage there and he came wide open in the end zone.
Q: Were you happy with your 4-3
defense?
BB: I think we did some good things
on defense. I think there are other things where there is room for
improvement. Anytime you get up 17 points and give up some of the yardage
that we gave up in the passing game, I think we can play better than that.
That's not taking anything away from the Jets. They have outstanding
players. They have great receivers, a great quarterback, they're well
coached and all that. I don't mean to take anything away from them, but I
think we can do better than that. I'd like to see us do better, especially
on third down. I'd like to see us play better team defense, not every pass
completion is the responsibility of the secondary. It's the responsibility
of the entire defense, that includes the guys that are rushing and the
underneath coverage and the defensive backs and everybody else. We had some
penalties on defense. We had five or six penalties on defense, whatever it
was. That's five more than we've had in the last…throwing out those personal
fouls in the Giants game, that's five more than we've had in the last three
or four games combined. There are a lot of things that we can do better and
that's across the board, from the defensive linemen, to everybody else, the
secondary.
Q: Is play-to-play consistency a
little bit of a problem right now?
BB: We can play better. We can coach
better. We can all do a better job. That's what we're working towards. I
don't think it's as good as we can be. That's always our goal. I don't think
it's bad, but I don't think it's as good as it can be. I'm encouraged by
some of the good things that we're doing. I was encouraged by some of the
improvement that we made from the first week to the second week, but clearly
we still have a ways to go and there are a lot of things that we need to
work on.
Q: Is there a such thing as a killer
instinct in football?
BB: I think football comes down to
execution. I think that's what it comes down to. So whether that's playing
with confidence to win a close game at the end of the game, whether it's
making the plays to take a close game and push it to a game that's not that
close, whether it's to come from behind, all of those. You can tag any of
those terms you want to those game. What it really comes down to it as a
team that can execute and make those plays whatever they are, whenever they
need to be made. Whether it is running out the clock, coming from behind,
stopping the team, blocking a kick, whatever it is. It's being able to
execute it and execute under pressure at the right time and the critical
times in the game. Those are the teams that win. I really don't think it was
a case of we thought the game was over and we didn't care, jogging around,
marking down plays, I think we just didn't play some plays as well as the Jets played them and the Jets capitalized on their good plays and our
poor ones. The play to Cotchery, it was fairly tight coverage, not as
close as it needs to be. We hit him. He didn't go down and he bounced off a
guy. It was a great play on his part and it could've been better on ours. We
should have wrapped him up. On top of that, we rough the passer. We probably
would have had a chance to get to him and disrupt the throw a little bit
more so it wouldn't have been such a good throw by [Chad] Pennington. There's a lot of things on that play that could have been
better.
Q: Do you count that as a missed
tackle?
BB: He didn't go down. Again, there's
a lot of things on that play that could've been better. It could have been
coached better. It could've been covered better. It could've been rushed
better. Where do you want to start? We all need to do a better job. Hey,
when you give up a 71 yard touchdown, believe me, there's plenty of
responsibilities to go around for a play like that.
Q: How much more do you emphasize
turnovers this week going up against Denver?
BB: Believe me it will be out there.
It's been out there the last two weeks, too. We've been saying the same
thing. That's how the Jets beat Tennessee last week. Three
turnovers and had some big plays passing to Coles again and [Brad] Smith on a reverse. That's their team. That's what they do. Denver,
it's the same thing. That's a fast team on defense. They turn the ball over.
They can run it. They have big play receivers, [Javon] Walker and Rod Smith. The tight ends. The quarterback can run. We know that
if you give them any space and you're going to pay for it. If you're a
little late on your pick up or you don't take the guy up or you miss an
assignment and cut a guy loose, we know what they can do to get we've seen
that before. It's pretty much that way with every team in the league.
Q: Is it heightened even more just
because it's Denver?
BB: Yeah, well, they beat us twice.
That was a big part of how they did it. They hit us with big plays on
offense. They turned the ball over on defense. They won the field position
battle. They did all of the things in those two games that they needed to do
to win and we didn't do enough of the things that we needed to do to win.
Q: What's your reaction to how
scrutinized the postgame handshake was?
BB: I don't care. You can scrutinize
it all you want. Knock yourself out.
Q: With all the cameras around, I
didn't know if you censored yourself.
BB: I'm just trying to coach our
team. I'm just trying to coach the Patriots and make them a better
football team and I have a lot of work to do. That's really all I care
about. It's really not that big of a thing. I was thinking about the game,
thinking about our team, thinking about what we need to do to win. That's
what my job is about. That's what I care about. Let me know the next time
you see two coaches kiss out there at midfield.
Q: [Laughter] Is Corey Dillon doing okay today? It looked like he got hurt on the last play of the game.
BB: We didn't practice today. We came
in and watched film. A lot of guys had some bumps and bruises after the
game. We're not going to practice tomorrow. We'll go out there on Wednesday
and see how everybody is and do the injury report on Wednesday. That's the
way we always do it. Obviously, if a guy came in with a broken leg or
something, we might know it was broken. But everything else, it's a physical
game, it's a tough game, there's a lot of contact out there. Bumps and
bruises. They're sore. [We'll] come in and see how they are on Wednesday.
That's all I can tell you.
Q: League rules, right?
BB: Well, that's just the way it is.
You go down there and talk to the Jets. You can go in there and talk
to our guys. I'm sure there are plenty of sore guys on both teams. They had
a lot of physical contact out there. It was a tough game. They should be
sore. We hit them. They hit us. I'm sure there are some sore body parts. |
