Bills 38, Patriots 9
THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions for Cam Newton.
Q. I'm sure you're disappointed in that game. Maybe share some of what you're feeling right now. I don't know if it's the right time to ask, but do you think you'll start next week's game if you want to, where your head is at?
CN: It's disappointing. But, you know, I'm just doing what I'm asked to do, trying to be the best player for this team I can possibly be. That's what it is.
Q. The struggles, does it feel like they are different from game to game or does it feel to you there's a thread that connects from one week to the next? Has it been hard to figure out how to reverse that?
CN: I don't understand your question, sir.
Q. You've had some struggles throwing the ball over a period of weeks. Is it something that the Bills did specifically tonight or has it been something that you've struggled with over the course of the season? Is it the same thing you're struggling with or different from week-to-week?
CN: I'm just trying to do and be the best player that I can possibly be for this team. That's what it is. It's nothing that another opposing team is doing. But I'd be the first to say that I need to get better, and it starts with practice.
Q. You recently said you feel like you're still on a job interview here. How do you feel like you're doing? Do you feel like you've done enough to prove to the Patriots that you deserve the job not just in week 17 but in 2021? Do you feel on a bigger scale you've done enough to prove that to the league with the contract expiring?
CN: I don't care about no contract. I just want to win.
Q. I'll narrow the question down a little bit. Do you feel like you've done a good job in this job interview this year?
CN: That's not for me to answer.
Q. You've talked obviously it's about winning. How much frustration, disappointment, anger do you have right now in the fact you can't go out as an offense and produce, do what you did earlier in the season? How difficult has it been on you personally emotionally as you go through this? Can't be easy.
CN: It's extremely frustrating, knowing what you're capable of, having belief in yourself, it's just not showing when it counts the most.
Q. On the broadcast they showed a graphic stating your daily schedule. Said you wake up at 4:20 in the morning, out of the house in 10 minutes, not asleep till 11:30. Is that your normal schedule?
CN: That's been my schedule for 90% of the time I've been here. So you can kind of understand the frustration I do have when I don't have the outcome because I'm sacrificing so much. Talking to a person who ain't seen his kids in three months.
Obviously the contract is what it is. Submitting myself to this team is something I've been doing since day one. Being accessible. Yeah, it's frustrating. It makes you mad. It makes you angry knowing that to be a trusted teammate you first have to submit to authority and submit to what the coaches are asking you to do. I feel like I have done that.
I'm not in the place of blame. I'm more or less venting right now because, yeah, I've sacrificed so much this year. I mean, it hurts when you have the outing that you have tonight, just to go home, then start it over for a whole 'nother week, yeah.
Q. Bill Belichick has stood by you all season, singing your praises up and down. Even tonight he was asked why he benched you. He said it was a combination of things. He was defending you. What does it mean to have him consistently standing up for you? Did you expect that?
CN: I mean, I think the feeling is mutual. I'd be first person to tell you I to need to play better. At the same time it's just things that if I'm asked to do something, that's what I'm going to do. I've never been a person to be controversial in the locker room, contrary to any other person's belief. I try to be the best teammate I can possibly be. That's what I will continue to do.
I will keep getting better each and every week, getting more comfortable in this offense for the last week that I possibly can. Let's see where it gets me.
Q. On the daily schedule, have you always been a person who doesn't need a lot of sleep?
CN: Yeah, that's always been an issue of mine. But it is what it is. You know what I'm saying? Obviously it ain't the sleep, because of the success, yeah.
Q. Bill said you did a good job for the Patriots tonight, that you weren't the problem. Would you agree with that assessment?
CN: No, I wouldn't say that. I would say any time -- I'll put it like this: You don't get pulled out just because you're having a standup game. I can tell you that. I'd be the first person to say that.
There are some things I feel like I could have done better. But what my standard is for myself, it's never to just blend in and just be the status quo. There's some plays that need to have been made on my part that I feel like I could have done a better job at doing. You just have to review the film and get back to it.
As a signal caller, as a person who is a dynamic player on this team, I need to impact the game more, and it just didn't happen tonight.
Q. Jarrett was asked if he'd like to play a full game next week. He said obviously every player wants to play, would love the opportunity to play. Would you also like to play a full game next week?
CN: I'm not going to get into no back and forth with nobody. Like I said, my job is to be the best teammate I can possibly be, be the best player I can be for this team, and that's what I'm going to continue to do.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports