Tampa Bay 19, New England 17
Q. End of the game, anything you can share with us about that moment?
MJ: Yeah, after the game, got a chance to congratulate him on the win and he's a great quarterback and yeah, he played well tonight and that's pretty much all there was to it.
Q. Did he say anything to you?
MJ: He just told me to keep my head up and keep working.
Q. We've seen stretches especially tonight where the offense is moving very well and you've got motions going and guys open, you're hitting receivers. Do you feel like this offense is getting closer to the group that you want it to be?
MJ: Yeah, I do. I think we moved in the right direction. You know, we made plays and played hard the whole game and I turned the ball over. That's one of the problems, you know, turnovers can kill you, and you know if you turn the ball over, if you don't turn the ball over, you have a 90-something percent chance to win, and it's just statistics but I have thought we moved the ball, passing well and the run game needs to improve and we'll come up with ways to do that. I thought everyone fought really hard. It sucks we lost but yeah, look at it, like you said, that we're making some progress.
Q. Obviously Tom has been a big topic for a while and especially leading into this game. You see the atmosphere and people obviously cheering for him and he sets a record. How are you able to stay composed and this past week and throughout the game?
MJ: I think just focus on what's important now, is kind of what I tell myself and on Tuesday that was practice. On Wednesday it was practice. Thursday, practice. Friday practice. So I just try to focus on how I can get better in the past week and everything else is a distraction. I just try to block the noise and everyone on our team tried to block the noise and I wish I played a little better so that we could have won but it is what it is, and hats off to the other football team for getting the win.
Q. You had trouble running the ball tonight, in fact, only eight carries for minus one yards. How difficult was it for you in terms of Tampa Bay was doing because they knew you were not going to run the ball in terms of what you had to adjust to to keep the passing game going?
MJ: I think just where we're at, you know, we just kind of had to do what we had to do and try to throw the ball more and I'll have to look at the tape. I don't really get a chance to look at every detail of the running game but obviously we're disappointed with that. I play a part in that in trying to push everyone during practice and we can play better than that, passing or running, and we will, and I think it's all about communication with the coaches, the players, everybody, just to find ways just to fix the issue and we have to first identify the issue by watching the film.
Q. Just talk about the play of the tight ends, and just look like both of them were in sync tonight for the first time this season?
MJ: I think the tight ends played well. You know, we have got to keep going together as a team. It's not two people or one person. It takes all 11, and we made strides in that, but we've just got to pick up the consistency part and that's skill players, offensive line, running backs, everybody. We will and it just goes back to watching the tape.
And I was proud of how those two guys played and a lot of the guys on our team played and played hard and wasn't our night and didn't go our way.
Q. You're going up against the best quarterback ever and I thought you played extremely well tonight, very efficient moving the ball down the field. Talk about the game plan Josh McDaniels had, especially when it came to throwing the ball and especially the trick plays.
MJ: Yeah, I think Josh did a great job this week preparing everybody for what we wanted to do and how we wanted to attack the game. You know, I think we executed well. We're obviously not good enough to win but Josh did a great job and I think it was good for us to learn that we didn't put it all together but we got close to putting it all together and playing a full game together and when we can do that, I think positive things will happen.
We didn't; we can be 90 percent or 85 percent and you lose. We don't really do moral victories. Those are always forgotten. But you just kind of have to take it for what it's worth and move on.
Q. We were just chatting with McCourty who said you've earned the trust of everyone in the locker room and he doesn't see you as a rookie at all. What does that mean to you?
MJ: Yeah, I think just coming in and learning from a lot of the older guys, I have a long way to go, and I just try to put my best foot forward every day, and we all want to win. So it sucks right now, but I think we have to take it for a positive and just trust our leaders.
We have great leadership on the team, and I can do a better job in practice just being vocal, getting everybody going and I think we made strides but we just have to listen to our leaders and not lose hope. We have a long season ahead and there's a lot of work to do and we have a lot of progress to make, so we will.
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