Patriots - 25, Texans - 22
JUSTIN REID: This one hurt a lot. The game was right there. We had control of the game and we let it slip through our fingertips. Couple unfortunate plays, plays that they made, and credit to them to go close the game out. Wish we had some back, whenever games end the way they do like that.
Q. To you, what was the turning point?
JUSTIN REID: Man, after we capitalized on the flea flicker, I felt like after that, on both sides of the ball, we just didn't make the plays we were making the first three quarters in the game.
And for us to go forward and be the team that we want to be, we gotta start capitalizing in the fourth quarter and start playing our best ball in the fourth quarter in order to finish opponents off. And not let events like today happen.
Q. [Question on the final drive by New England].
JUSTIN REID: We had some communication -- considered letting them score on purpose. We were out of timeouts try to preserve some time on the clock. Makes sense, at least give our offense an opportunity to go out on the field and tie the game up and send it in overtime.
When it came time for the snap, the message was we're just going to play style defense and stop them from scoring and try and make a play on the ball instead of trying to rip it out some way or another. And then they ended up, credit to them, closing the game out and getting the field goal.
Q. That was before and after that penalty, that was the communication you guys had?
JUSTIN REID: Yeah, when the penalty happened is actually when it switched back and we said we were going to play style defense instead.
Q. The penalty, were you able to see it, or have you seen it since the game, on Maliek? What do you think happened there?
JUSTIN REID: Yeah, it's just unfortunate. And I don't want ever -- Maliek has made so many plays for us, being the aggressive guy he is. But it's so unfortunate that the play happened. But those plays do happen sometimes. And those are the things we've got to work on and clean up, as I mentioned, just being able to close out the fourth quarter. But he's a smart guy and he's going to get it right. And he took responsibility for it. And looking forward I know he's going to make the right decisions going forward.
Q. [Question about the secondary and moving the lines around, how things are gelling together].
JUSTIN REID: Making plays on the ball. Terrance Mitchell, that punch he had on the goal line, that was a phenomenal play. That's just incredible. Lonnie Johnson getting the pick. I unfortunately stole the second pick away from him. I had no idea he was there. I was going for the ball myself.
But the defense has been flying around, been making plays on the ball. If we got every turnover and fumble no doubt in my mind we'd lead the league in turnovers. We've got to do that. We have to do it and not let offenses bleed us down in the run.
Q. (Indiscernible). How do you guys move on and where do you go from here?
JUSTIN REID: Kind of the same as last week. Despite the loss, guys really responded. I feel we played much better football all around. Although there's still some mistakes and things we can clean up obviously on film. But guys took the message last week and really ran with it and we had a great week of practice, and that's just going to have to be the same message now.
And we have so many veterans on the team that that's a benefit for us in that guys have been on both sides of these situations and have the maturity to take it in stride and just put our best foot forward going into next week.
Q. How are you all holding each other accountable for penalties without doing the finger pointing, trying to balance that?
JUSTIN REID: There's no finger pointing. Basically to a man. We're all grown men here. We know what happened in the game. He knows what happened with the penalty. And it's just playing football. He's going to make ten plays before he makes a flag like that. You know what I mean? It's what happened on this one series. But we're going to have to clean it up.
Q. You talked about the difference in the fourth quarter. You mentioned like last time how you guys are kind of getting run down. What do you attribute that to and how do you correct that?
JUSTIN REID: Just gotta be more stout. As far as the run game, I think the beginning of this season we've been real excellent in the first two quarters and third quarter. Fourth quarter started to falter a little bit.
I thought through the third quarter we did a great job. Through the fourth quarter we needed to stop the bleeding on the run, just give our offense another opportunity to get the ball back and make something happen.
Q. [Question about stopping the run].
JUSTIN REID: They're professionals. They get paychecks too. They started making some plays on us with the play-actions to really open up the run a little more, try and back us off. But they have great coaching over there, too. You know what I mean? They had a lot of concept plays that allowed their offense to play to scheme more than let it be a one-on-one game where they might be at a disadvantage.
Q. Where do you feel like you guys go from here now that you're on a four-game losing streak?
JUSTIN REID: Just focus on the next game. That's really the only thing we can do. We can't sulk about what happened. What happened is in the past, we can't change the past. The only thing we can do is change how we prepare for the future.
We'll have a positive attitude about it. We're going to lean on our veteran leadership to hold ourselves accountable and make sure we're ready to play. We have a divisional opponent coming up. As crazy as this four-game losing streak is, we still have a shot at the conference, as far as our division. That's all we can do.
Q. Mac Jones?
JUSTIN REID: Talented kid. Talented kid. He's in his rookie season. He's going to learn and continue to get better. We try to take advantage of him being a rookie just not having the experience. Showed him different looks, trying to steal balls away from him. Could have had three.
But as he keeps getting older, gets more experience he's going to be a great quarterback. I think the Patriots did a great job picking him and they're going to develop him and he's going to be a good quarterback for them for years to come.
Q. You mentioned the flea flicker, how it felt after that. What were you sensing on the sideline? How do you manage a game sliding in another direction, momentum-wise? How did you sense that and how do you fight that?
JUSTIN REID: Yeah, it just happened slowly, you know what I mean? It was like a missed tackle here or missed play here, an opportunity there. We just have to have those. This is the National Football League, and games are won and lost by inches, as we showed you in the fourth quarter. We have to make those plays.
Q. As you look at the film later this week, how will you all be able to correct some of those big plays that you all have been giving up? In the past couple of weeks, but today they had the middle wide open and receivers made plays right there.
JUSTIN REID: They capitalized on some of the play-actions. And we also capitalized, almost did, on trapping them into throwing the seam, making it seem like it's available when it's not. It's a little bit of a chess match back and forth between that, making them feel like it's open when it's not. But also making sure we cover our backs. And when we get the play-actions making sure we're getting the drops and safeties are also there to make those plays.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports