PATRIOTS HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK

POSTGAME VIDEO CONFERENCE

November 16, 2020


New England - 23, Baltimore - 17

BB: All right. First of all, it was a great win by these guys tonight. Really proud of the way the team competed coming off a short week and getting ready for a team that's obviously not only a good football team, but a hard team to prepare for offensively, defensively and in the kicking game, they present a lot of schematic problems. I thought our guys really put a lot of extra time and effort into the preparation and then went out there and competed really hard for sixty minutes. It was a tough, physical game and proud of the way our guys played. We ran the ball pretty competitively, stopped the run competitively, took advantage of our scoring opportunities and just played a good solid sixty minute football game, which is what it takes against the Ravens. So really proud of the way the guys competed and I think we just got to continue to work hard and grind away and see if we can improve and do some things better next week than what we did this week. But we'll just keep making steady progress and we're definitely headed in the right direction here. So great to win, but look forward to the challenge of getting ready to go again next week and developing some consistency here.

Q. Along those lines, how proud were you of the guys for how they fought through the conditions and everything tonight and what was it like out there?

BB: It got progressively worse as the game went along. It wasn't bad at the beginning and then just a little precipitation, a little rain there at the end. But, again, we practice in that during the course of the year and handle the wet ball and all that, so whatever we get, we get. I thought that the hardest part was really the, Jake handling the ball on the punts and the field goals. Those are tough plays. But just in general, David and Cam on the shotgun snaps and the ball handling there, they did a good job on that. Gunner, ball handling there. Some of the Ravens had some trouble with that, but I thought overall we executed those pretty well, which was good. It was good.

Q. What about the defense's ability to control the run game tonight? It seemed like the guys on the edge, especially John Simon really had a good game with the discipline on the outside there.

BB: Yeah, I thought overall we played the running game fairly well. Jackson got a few yards outside and on some quarterback scrambles that were really pass plays. But overall Ingram, I think he only had a few yards, Dobbins only had a few yards, Edwards, had a couple of cutback runs that hurt us and Jackson scrambled around a little bit, got a few yards there. But yeah, overall, certainly played much, much better than we did last year. John or Lawrence Guy and Carl Davis, Cowart, Adam, Wise, those guys did a nice job of really taking care of things inside and, as always with the Ravens, a lot of problems come on the edge of the formation. So it was challenging for us, but overall we were at least competitive on it.

Q. We saw Chase play a different role tonight. How did that come about and how do you think he responded to playing that kind of new role?

BB: I thought Chase had a really good week of practice and he did a good job of, in his role, which again, this is, when you play the Ravens you have to play good team defense, just nobody can stop one, one guy can't stop what they do. They have too many options in the running game and they create too many -- they can hit too many spots all at once on an individual play. But Chase had a great week of preparation and played hard and we'll see what the film looked like, but he was definitely aggressive and I think he did a good job in the role that we asked him to do. He and John Simon were really key guys for us along with the defensive line that I mentioned in trying to handle the running game.

Q. Just a thought on the complementary football that you guys played in particular with the minute to go in the half, you get the touchdown pass from Jakobi to Rex and then with seconds to go in the half, you get the JC Jackson pick as they were driving and then you come up with a four-play 75-yard drive to start off the second half. How important was that, the complementary football, especially in that swing there first to the second half?

BB: Yeah, it was huge, like it always is, those points before the half. And then if you can pick those up at the start of the third quarter you have a chance for a swing there. So our offense did a great job before the half and then drove the ball and hit a couple of chunk runs there and we were able to complete enough in the passing game to complement the running game. So Josh and the offensive staff had a great game plan and Josh, as usual, called a great game, and did a nice job of keeping the Ravens off balance defensively. But that complementary football, offense, defense and using the end of the half situation, I thought it worked out well for us tonight.

Q. We have seen plenty of trick plays, if you call them, with mostly, a lot with Julian Edelman. We know his background as a passer. I was wondering what Jakobi has done to earn the trust to get that call in that spot?

BB: Well, he can throw it, so I mean, I think you saw that. He made a nice pass and a great catch by Rex.

Q. You mentioned in the outset the running game and the run defense and I know this comes up in any game that you play, but given how you're built and how the Ravens are built, how much of this game was really kind of determined there at the line of scrimmage?

BB: Well, the Ravens threw for a couple hundred yards and they converted some third downs and all that, so, you know, it certainly wasn't all runs, but that's a big part of it. You try to play the running game well against the Ravens and try to get them off track and create some longer yardage situations, but again, they're a well balanced offense. They have a good quarterback. They have a good running game and really have good receivers and good tight ends, so they're not an easy team to stop. But I thought we were competitive in all areas and ultimately made enough plays to win, but it's not easy. Like I said, they're a good offense.

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102989-1-1044 2020-11-16 05:16:00 GMT

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