Houston Texans - 27, New England Patriots - 20
BILL BELICHICK: All right. Well, it was a disappointing outcome for us today. Had some opportunities throughout the course of the game and just couldn't do enough with them in all areas. Offensively, we moved the ball, but just -- let me just open it up first here. So, as I was saying, defensively, obviously all the areas of the game, the passing game, we didn't do a good enough job there, especially in the first half. We had some opportunities to convert on third down in the red area and we just weren't able to do it. Then Watson had a good day, like we have seen him have before. They have a lot of good skill players, tight ends and receivers. So we just didn't do enough, didn't do enough at the critical times to, that we needed to. So it's disappointing, but we'll turn the page here and move on. Still have a lot of confidence and belief in the team. If we just do things a little bit better then the results will be different and better. But, I don't know, we just couldn't do it today.
Q. It seemed like there were a handful of plays today, particularly the last fourth down on that last possession you guys had, where the Texans had a blitzer come in unblocked, unchecked. It felt like there were a lot of unblocked blitzers today, just what was the issue there?
BILL BELICHICK: I wouldn't say it was a lot. I think it might have happened a couple times. But, yeah, we just got to identify it and block it. They did a good job of timing them up and we just obviously have to collectively as a team execute better against those plays.
Q. Have you had a chance to visit with Rex Burkhead at all since the game ended and any update on how he's doing?
BILL BELICHICK: Yeah, I talked to him and, so we'll wait and get medical confirmation, but obviously, it's a knee injury.
Q. Harris was getting a decent amount of usage early in the game, but then that seemed to tail off. I know he came in with a couple of injuries. Was that, were those things related?
BILL BELICHICK: No, I don't think so.
Q. And it seems like in this game and maybe some games earlier in the season as well there have been more missed tackles than usual. Is there anything specific that you could point to for why those might be occurring?
BILL BELICHICK: No. No. Something we have to keep working on.
Q. You average five yards per carry on that opening drive and then your average in your run rate went down significantly. Did you see that as a function of the game script getting out of hand, where you're down by 11 at half, or was that a conscious game-plan decision?
BILL BELICHICK: Well, I think that Houston, the Texans made some adjustments in the running game and I think we had some good opportunities in the passing game, which we took advantage of. We threw the ball pretty well. So I think that's -- we were able to move the ball. That really wasn't the issue. We had, some penalties stopped us and then we had some missed opportunities when we moved it across the 50 or into the scoring zone.
Q. What did you see in the second half that was particularly encouraging given his production, I think, in the half was maybe the best in maybe over a month.
BILL BELICHICK: Sorry, what was that?
Q. Cam's production as a passer. He was hitting at all levels of the field and seemed to be playing as well as he had in a month or perhaps longer. What did you see from him in the second half when the game opened up a little bit?
BILL BELICHICK: I think he's been playing very consistently here for awhile. So we have seen that from him for I think a number of games here, really since the San Francisco and the Buffalo games. He's had decent games for us, so have the receivers.
Q. On third down through, it looked like most of the first half when you guys were on the field defensively, it looked like just trying to run, or rush three or four players in those situations. Did you feel like you were putting enough pressure on Watson and how hard is it to strike that balance between having enough in the secondary versus just trying to make the quarterback uncomfortable there?
BILL BELICHICK: Yeah, well, I mean, those are the choices you got to make. They got a lot of good receivers. They got a good quarterback. They have done pretty well against pressure. It wasn't very good for us last year. We mixed it in there some, but they did a pretty good job with all of it, to tell you the truth.
Q. Along those lines, I wanted to ask you about Deshaun Watson, just his ability to create new throwing lanes and to improv a little bit. How difficult was that to defend tonight? How good is he with that?
BILL BELICHICK: He's very good. Yeah, he's very good at it. He's a big, strong kid, hard to tackle, gets outside the pocket, creates some space out there. And the lines are very long. They just kind of get in the way and Watson makes things work out. He's got good pocket presence and he's a really good quarterback and he had a really good day today. All the yards they gained weren't in the passing game either. It was him running or him throwing. It was the entire offense. He did a good job with it, obviously.
Q. Obviously, a disappointing stat defensively. Can you talk about your defensive effort there in the second half?
BILL BELICHICK: Yeah, well, it was certainly more competitive in the second half. We still had a couple of second and long and third down conversions that allowed them to get into field goal range. But it was good to keep them out of the end zone in the second half, other than the two field goals. But we gave up too many points in the first half and just couldn't make the stops there in the second half to keep them out of field goal range. So I mean, it got better, but it wasn't in the end. It just wasn't good enough. Watson and their offense was, they just out-coached us and outplayed us today in that phase of the game.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports