New England Patriots 20, Arizona Cardinals 17
Q. Coach said the Patriots were keying on you. What were they doing specifically?
KM: Yeah, I think they were just, you know, whenever, obviously the zone read opportunities, they were just playing me. Made me hand it off. I mean, it is what it is. My read is to hand it off if they play me, and that's what I had to do.
Q. How much of your game did you have to change either in advance or in the moment from any lingering injury?
KM: I mean, I didn't -- I didn't adjust anything, like I said, if they play me, I have to hand the ball off. You know, thought I probably could have checked it down maybe a couple -- once or twice more than I did, you know, in the pass game. But other than that, there wasn't really any situations where you know, I shied way from a hit or anything like that. I mean, they hit me a couple times anyway, so I played with -- like I said, I wasn't going to play if I couldn't be myself.
Q. There were a lot of plays that helped define this game that didn't go for you. Was one of the biggest ones for you not getting point at the end of the first half? Is that what's going to stick with you the most?
KM: Yeah, I'm not going to speak on it too much, but that's an unfortunate turn of events. You know, obviously we get points right there, we put ourselves in a better situation.
Q. Going back to that last second Wednesday before the half, what you just talked about, was there an option for to you check out at any of those plays and do something different than what was called?
KM: You watched it?
Q. I did.
KM: Yeah, I mean, I didn't see anything wrong with the play calls. We just didn't execute.
Q. We asked cliff this and he says you quarterback sneaking is not really in the game plan. How comfortable are you with that if he was to call that and you had to sneak the ball?
KM: I mean, if the game's on the line, I mean, I'd do whatever to win the game. There's no question there. We just -- that was not the calls that we called. Again, the plays were there to be made. We just have to execute.
Q. Curious whether you were missing Larry Fitzgerald in the red zone today.
KM: I mean, I said it before the game, obviously not having Larry, that was a huge loss for us, but at the same time, we have a next-man-up mentality and we have to step up. We knew coming into this game we weren't going to have Larry, so like I said, I think the plays were there to be made. We just did not execute.
Q. In those tough situations for Zane where he's missed a field goal, is there anything you say to him after the game as leader on this team?
KM: I mean, you know, it's one of those positions where you don't get that many opportunities, so it's not like -- I'm sure it's very mental. I have never been a kicker. I can't speak on it. I don't know. But no, I don't -- I'm not down or I don't go and bash them or anything like that. I know how tough it is. It's a tough game. He made every other kick. You know, it just didn't happen to go his way.
I think we had a lot of other opportunities to make that game easier on ourselves, and we didn't.
Q. Just looking at the last stretch of games coming into the end of the season, what would you like -- where would you like to see the biggest change made?
KM: I think we just lately, or you know, in the games that we've lost, we have just kind of found a way to shoot ourselves in the foot, you know, in a lot of games that we feel like we should have won or like I said, we come out and we shoot ourselves in the foot and it's not a good feeling to keep doing that over and over again. You know, we got to clean it up. It's pretty obvious. I think everybody watching it, sees it.
Q. With the way Seattle has played you and then the way the Patriots did, people taking away the run, what's the counter to that? How do you make them pay?
KM: I feel like I should -- I mean, I don't think I have to run for us to be successful. I mean, I'm very confident about running backs. It just is what it is. They choose to take me out of it. I've got to hand the ball off. I can't control the ball after that. I've got to hand the ball off.
Q. Just to follow up here, you guys are 6-5 now, five games to go, how is the attitude on the team and how is your attitude going forward?
KM: Got to remain positive. You know, this is a very tough league. It's tough to win in this league. You can be beat any Sunday, obviously. Just got to remain positive, one day at a time type of mentality.
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