Patriots 20, Cardinals 17
BILL BELICHICK: It's good a win for our football team today. We got a lot of contributions in all three phases. Played good complementary football. Took advantage of some opportunities.
Just got to give these guys a lot of credit, how hard they work every day, how well they prepare. Couldn't have started much worse than it did. We just kept battling for 60 minutes. Showed a lot of mental toughness, physical toughness, just determination. Played some decent situational football at times.
Really proud of the way these guys competed. Give them all the credit in the world for the final result. They played hard, competed for 60 minutes, made enough plays at critical times in the game to win.
Leadership we've gotten from captains and some of the other veteran players here in the last few weeks has been awesome. I think that's really helped bring some other players along to prepare better and ultimately perform a little more consistently.
A good way to wrap up the Thanksgiving weekend. We got two big games in L.A. next week. Try and enjoy this one for a little while, then move on to the Chargers.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.
Q. In the first part of the game, there seemed to be some problems with edge containment on swing passes or runs. Definitely got better as the half and game went on. Was that a matter of adjustment or adjusting to the quickness and speed you were facing?
BILL BELICHICK: Yeah, you identified a definite problem that came up early in the game. Kliff does a real good job of that. He does a good job of creating conflicts for the defense, putting the defense in tough spots. He did that.
They got the ball outside, they hurt us with some outside runs, a variety of them. It was a challenge the whole game. But we played them a little better as the game went on. Steve made a couple good calls that put us in the right defense against a couple of those, as well. That was good, too.
But, look, they're fast. I'm not going to say that the speed of the game wasn't an issue. I mean, it's always an issue when they have fast players, which the Cardinals do. I think it was just more that they got us on a couple of scheme plays. They have you thinking about a lot of different things between the passing game, the RPOs, the running game, misdirections and so forth.
It's hard to play real aggressively against them because if you're a step or two late on one thing or another, then you've really got a problem. You try to play it (indiscernible) on it. Sometimes you're a step later on where you're supposed to be.
I thought Chase and John Simon, our safeties, A.P., Dugger, Devin, Anfernee outside as well, those guys did a good job. But it is definitely challenging. This is a good offense, well-coached, they present some different conflicts for the defense.
Q. What kind of explanation were you given on the Anfernee Jennings illegal blindside block? After you went into the locker room with the big goal line stop, to come out in the first series, force the punt, looked like you had a punt return for a touchdown, how big of it was for your team to hang in there, keep fighting the rest of the way?
BILL BELICHICK: Well, the stop at the end of the half was a big one. Like the inside zone came, cut it back. I think Bentley made a good, strong tackle. That was obviously a huge, huge play for us.
But in the third quarter we got them into a longer yardage situation, got off the field. The two returns in the game helped us field position-wise. Disappointed that the punt return got called back. We'll just have to (indiscernible) off that a little bit, I guess.
It was a good job on special teams today. I thought we covered well, we returned well, we made our kicks. Nick made a huge kick there at the end of the game, just like against the Jets, so...
I thought our special teams had a good day for us.
Q. What explanation did you get?
BILL BELICHICK: Basically a blindside block. That's what they called it, right? Wasn't it a blindside block?
Q. Yes.
BILL BELICHICK: That was the explanation.
Q. You got a big performance from Adam Butler. Can you talk about him a little bit.
BILL BELICHICK: Yeah, we missed Adam last week. Adam did a real good job of penetrating the inside part of the pocket. I think that certainly helped our pass defense, not just the sack but some disruptive plays in there. Just made it a little tougher for them to execute the passing game.
He did a nice job. He's good at that. He's good at penetrating the inside part of the pocket. When we have that for him, it makes a big difference for our defense in those passing situations.
Q. DeAndre Hopkins was held to 55 yards. You talked the other day about he has some freedom in the offense, options. Looked like there were some plays, third and six, third and eight, Steph gave him a little bit of a cushion. Are you comfortable with how explosive he can be down the field?
BILL BELICHICK: I think you got to mix it up on this offense, this quarterback, certainly on Hopkins. Saw the same thing from him all day. I'm not really sure how good that is.
We played some man, we played some zone, we blitzed 'em, pressed 'em, we rolled into 'em, we didn't roll into 'em. Like I said, you just have to mix it up on them. One thing Steph did was compete well, forced some throws. They hit a couple. They didn't hit all of them. Tackled well after the cut. Didn't have any explosive plays there, so...
I mean, offense... As good of a receiver as we're going to face all year.
Q. I wanted to take you back to the goal line stand there. It seemed like you had a conference with Steve and Jason McCourty. Without giving away any strategy, what was that conversation like?
BILL BELICHICK: Well, we took a timeout there after I think they had taken a timeout, after we had seen the formation. There were a couple things that we were alert for down there. We just tried to make them aware of it, make sure we had what we felt was the right or best call for that situation.
Obviously our defensive line did a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage. Like I said, I think Bentley scraped and made the tackle, made a strong tackle, kept Drake out.
There's a lot of things to cover down there, multiple runs, the quarterback is a potential runner. Hopkins is out there. There were several things that, depending on how they aligned, several things we were ready for. Once they aligned, thought we could eliminate a couple of them. Just wanted to make sure we had everyone straight.
Q. Considering that you guys have had a handful of games this year where you haven't been able to make the plays in crunch time in the fourth quarter, how good did it feel to execute and come away with a last-second win today?
BILL BELICHICK: It was great. Yeah, it was great. After the interception, big stop there on whatever it was, forced the field goal. Looked like we had a good rush on the field goal. Missed the kick there. We didn't really have a good series offensively.
Cam pulled the ball on the run play, got outside, made a big play there. We got seven or eight yards, whatever it was, to get the ball into Nick's range. We didn't have any timeouts.
I thought that situation, again, Cam did a nice job of putting us in position coming down to the final kick. Nick came through again. That was great for it all to work out there.
Q. You won, but the offense I think objectively didn't play very well today. 179 yards. Cam threw for under a hundred yards. Would you consider going to Jarrett at some point or is Cam still firmly your quarterback?
BILL BELICHICK: Yeah, we just kind of keep working to get better. Cam threw for 350 last week. The most important thing is we made the plays we needed to make to win. That's what the goal will be every week.
Q. You got some big plays out of Donte Moncrief and Akeem Spence. How happy have you been with some of the guys added through the roster through signings or elevation through the season?
BILL BELICHICK: Yeah, I'd say a little bit surprising to tell you the truth. Some of the players that have come in, how they've kind of been thrust into some roles. They've worked really hard to try to pick things up, be ready to go.
Certainly Donte has taken advantage of some of the opportunities that he's had. Akeem, got some opportunities as well. Other guys that fall into that category, too.
We'll see how it goes going forward. That's a lot of what this league is, is opportunity and being ready to go and taking advantage of it when it comes. Really got to give those guys a lot of credit for preparation they put in, especially not having the foundation and background in our system that some of the other players do.
Josh and Cam Achord, Steve, DeMarcus, working with those guys, just bringing them up to speed, getting them ready for the game, getting them in a role they can handle so they can help us. We've had multiple guys do that.
Certainly the kickoff return by Moncrief, it was a big play for us. He did some other good things, as well, in the kicking game. It's always good to get those contributions.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.
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