New England Patriots 54, New York Jets 13
Q. Mike, what was the moment like when you saw Zach go down?
MW: First you worry about your friend on the ground, worrying about his well-being, how he was faring. Now you realize, All right, it's my shot to go in there, help execute the offense.
I told myself not to do anything out of the ordinary, just play within the system, complete the balls, get the balls to our play-makers and kind of go from there.
Q. Did you talk to Zach at all?
MW: I didn't get a chance to talk to him on the field. I just spoke to him in there. He's in good spirits. He congratulated me. He was good. He was good.
Q. Did the touchdown pass maybe settle you down a little bit?
MW: Yeah, I would say so. I mean, it helped me settle down a little bit. Still, I mean, kind of all happened so quickly. You get to the sideline, then you realize. We start talking about what we're thinking, things of that nature.
I think the more drives I got, the more completions I got, I started to settle a little bit more into the game.
Q. How do you feel you played overall?
MW: I think overall personally there are things to build on. I think we did some good things as an offense. We executed, moved the ball downfield.
As in any game there's going to be plays you want back. I think the most important thing is going into the film room tomorrow and correcting those things, building upon it, not letting today beat us twice.
Q. Are you confident if Zach is out for any amount of time you can lead this team?
MW: I think once we figure out what's going on with Zach - cross that bridge when we get there sort of deal - yeah, I'm confident in myself.
I'm mostly confident in the guys we have in that locker room, the leaders we have. The coaching staff, too. Have to make the corrections necessary and keep going and being professionals and working our tails off and trying to get this thing going.
Q. (No microphone.)
MW: Josh has been awesome. I think the QB dynamic that we have in our room between myself, Josh, Zach obviously, Coach Cavanaugh, LaFleur, Rod, everyone brings a different thing into that room. We work real well together.
I think Josh was awesome on the sideline for me today. Anytime you're playing, you want to look to the player's aspect to get a different point of view on the game. And Josh was awesome.
Q. Any one particular pass that stands out you wish you had back?
MW: Yeah, there was a couple. I think the one to Ryan Griffin over the middle. I haven't been able to watch the film yet, but it felt as if it came out kind of high and hot. Those are something you want back. That's just off the top of my head.
Q. We saw the work you did in training camp. We don't watch practice during the regular season. How much work have you gotten with the ones?
MW: In the regular season Zach will get all the one reps and I'll get the scout team. Still working on football mechanics, pocket movement, might be other team's offenses. At the end of the day a curl is a curl and a slant is a slant.
It's definitely different, don't get me wrong. I don't want to make any excuses for myself. Every other backup goes through the same thing.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports