Patriots 45, Browns 7
BB: All right. That was really a great day here for us today. On so many different levels but I'll start, kind of start at the top here. You know, the relationship that our team, our organization has with the TAPS Foundation has been very meaningful for all of us for a number of years, and proud to work with James Patrick Darcy's pin here today.
All of our players and coaches have been involved in that and all week, and I know they had Mr. Kraft and the organization had some events for them and things like that. But it was awesome to see that, to recognize the military, to have Admiral Gilday here. Always like to see a lot of those gold bars on those any of the uniforms. Always sends chills down my spine. Just the whole week, the Veterans' week, the Salute to Service Day and all that that brought.
And you know, thankfully we did our part and I thought the team really played well today. There were so many outstanding plays and players and the preparation we had this week, really you can put everybody and talk about just about everybody in there. Long touchdown drives. You know, turnovers, competitive plays in the kicking game. Just kind of big plays after big plays from so many different people.
So just really proud of the way the team prepared, the way they competed and you know, we just as I told them after the game there, it's Wednesday night and tomorrow's Thursday and on a did you know day schedule. So we have a lot of work to do here in a short amount of time. So just enjoy this one briefly but we've got to move on and turn the page to Atlanta very quickly.
It was a good day for us today and hopefully we can fill the tank back up and be ready to have another good, quick week here and be ready to go on Thursday because that will be a big challenge for us heading down there. But proud of the way these guys played today and proud of the way they competed. Just say, you know, our thoughts and our prayers are with Troy Hill and you know, it's always something that none of us ever want to see, and so he was here very briefly but hope that he's okay, along with Baker and Schwartz and whoever else.
Q. After falling behind 7-0, how impressed were you to come back 45 straight points, the offense, and Mac Jones specifically on his performance today?
BB: It was a complete offensive effort. You couldn't single anybody out. Browns have a lot of good defensive players, a great corner, a couple good defensive ends. You know, a lot of other good players, too and they brought a couple guys back this week defensively but I thought we ran the ball competitively, threw the ball competitively. Finished drives in the red zone with touchdowns. You know, it was a good team offensive effort all the way across the board in every area.
Q. You mentioned a lot of guys contributing today, Jakobi Meyers contributing, and guys coming from the sideline to celebrate. What did it mean to see him score his own touchdown?
BB: It's great every time we score, but yeah, Jakobi has been a part of a lot of big plays that have put other guys in a position to do that and good to see him score. But the most important thing is the contributions that everybody made to the team winning the game and giving a solid performance for four quarters out there. I think everybody's just happy that that happened, and they should be, because they worked hard to make it happen.
Q. After the opening drive TD by Cleveland, was there an adjustment you made defensively to stop the running game by the Browns?
BB: Yeah, they had a good plan there. They hit us on a couple -- two power plays, one zone play. We had a chance to make a stop there on fourth quarter and they converted that on the back of the end zone.
That's the NFL. You know, teams come in with plans and plays and if you don't play things well or haven't coached it well, then you have to fix that, and then they move on to something else and you move on to something else. That's kind of wait it is every week.
Q. 38 seconds came off the clock with the scores and the pick, how big of a momentum switch was that for your team at that time?
BB: It's always good, you know, when you can get those bonus points from your defense or special teams. It's hard to count on those. But when you get an interception return like Phillips had in L.A. or JC's return in Carolina or Kyle's return to, whatever, five-yard line, whatever it was, to set up a quick touchdown, it's hard to count on those.
But when you get those, those are, you know, bonus points and certainly if you don't get it all the way to the end zone, then being able to take advantage of it and finish it with the scoring, the offensive scoring drive, good complimentary football, that's what you need. You need the other side of the ball to finish the job, whether it's getting the field position, making the stop, getting the ball in the end zone and we did that today fortunately.
Q. Six wins doesn't get you in the playoffs, but from a month ago, having played two road games in a stretch, Carolina and L.A., talk about what you've seen over the last month. Seems to be in all areas of the game.
BB: I've asked the players to work hard every day and they have tried to do that. But right now, none of that really means anything. We'll just have to come in here tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, head to Atlanta and be ready to go against the Falcons. What happened today or what happened in September or some other game, it doesn't really -- I don't think it really matters at this point. It's really what we do from here going forward.
But players are doing a good job of studying. They are doing a good job of working together and anticipating things that are going to happen so we can react a little faster and play more aggressively. Players are doing a good job of trying to practice and understanding how important that practice execution sets up the performance in the game.
But we'll have to keep doing it. We're running up against another good team this week and if we don't, then things won't go well. We'll see how we do this week.
Q. Tough decision before the game with six offensive linemen. What went into the decision with the five that you picked and why did Michael end up being the sixth guy there?
BB: Yeah, well, we have a lot of good players there and it was good to get Trent back and we'll see how things go going forward. It was good to have Trent back out there.
Q. Considering Rhamondre's status this week, not practicing three days and getting his first 100-yard game, anything surprise you on the field considering he didn't practice?
BB: Caught well, made good yards after contact. He's been doing that for several weeks. So you know, glad we had the opportunity to get a run call and for him to get the carries that he did. He stepped in for Damien and he did a great job. Again, it's good to have depth and we have depth in the backfield and count on all those guys and they have really come through for us.
Q. Ja'Whaun tied a career high. Can you talk about the importance to your defense?
BB: He's done a great job for us all year. You know we ask him to do a lot of different things and he's worked hard to adjust to some new roles that he's had on this team in terms of technique, playing responsibility and some different assignments and so forth but embraces it.
He always tries to know how he can help the team, how he can do his job better and help somebody else or help do his part on whatever the play happens to call for him to do. Punt return team, you know, whatever it is. He's right there always ready to go and he's given us a lot of quality plays. I'm glad we have him. He's been a really good player for us.
Q. Brandon Boldon, how much has he taken on that James White third down back role, and going back to Stevenson, the injuries he had, how much do you check on a player throughout the course of a game to make sure he's okay and can finish it out?
BB: Well, those are all medical things. I don't check anybody out. I don't think anybody wants me playing doctor with them. That's not really my job. I'm not very good at that. But that's why we have our medical staff. They monitor that.
But Brandon, I think Brandon's really such -- I think we all have such admiration and respect for what he's done. He has not relinquished any of his roles in the kicking game and he's taken on some huge roles for us offensively, and again, as we've talked about, those are very challenging, difficult and demanding roles from the assignments and multiplicity of what can happen and does happen, week-to-week, game-to-game, play-to-play. He's handled it great and at the same time he's out there in the kicking game giving us quality plays in that phase of the game as well, too.
Extremely fortunate that we have him and Brandon prepares hard, works hard and has been a really good player for us for a long time and I'm really glad we have him.
Q. It's never easy going from Sunday to Thursday but is there an added level of difficulty because you haven't seen the Falcons since October of 2017. Does that make it a more difficult preparation?
BB: Absolutely. Yeah, this is a team we don't know very much about. Coach Smith has gone down there and really gotten things going down there. You know, Tennessee, but what I've seen, it's not really Tennessee is a different team than what the Titans were when he was there. It's just put together differently and Coach Pees, defensively, again, there's some carryover, some familiarity, but not really. We've got a long way to go on the Falcons and what they do, even though we're familiar with Coach Smith and Coach Pees, that team looks a lot different than the Titans from what we looked at from them in the past.
We did some work in the off-season and we knew, of course, this was going to be a short week so we tried to prepare for some off-season work on the Falcons but it appears that that's not going to be all that -- it will be relevant but not all that relevant and obviously they have some outstanding players starting with pits that is going to be a major problem, a guy we haven't faced and a guy they have done a great job of utilizing in different roles and has had tremendous production. Ryan is having a good year. You know, they can certainly move balls and score a lot of points. They are very dangerous.
Q. Fair or not this week, Mac found himself in the middle of an ongoing conversation, criticism over that play from last week with burns. The only reason I bring it up, from your perspective, what are you learning about Mac the way he navigates through different things we see on the field but you see off the field, just the way he handles things, whether it's criticism or new things in the NFL?
BB: That's the NFL for all of us. We all deal with things every week and Mac has done a good job of it. So has everybody else. We all learn. As I said, there's different challenges every week from each and every team and every situation. So just do the best we can with them. Yeah, he's done a good job.
Q. The plan to neutralize Garrett seemed to incorporate everything, running, pass direction, run and block, is that what you needed to do to slow down the rush today?
BB: Well, again, I think Josh, as usual, did a great job pulling to the game plan and calling it a game. But yeah, there's more than one player out there. You have to deal with all 11 guys. You have to deal with Walker, all the rest of them down the line.
It's a lot more than just one guy. They have some very good players. You have to deal with them for sure. But I think really, it's about the entire team, game planning, coaches, coaching staff, the players, just executing the game plan, executing the plays at a good, high productive level. That includes everybody, the line, tight ends, the back, the quarterback, the receivers, fullback and all the guys that played roles in that. They all had different roles on different plays, and you know, we did it a little bit better than they did today.
But it's really a team performance. I don't think it's just about one. You just can't block one guy on defense and think everything else is going to work. That's just not enough.
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