Patriots - 26, Colts - 3
Q. Sam, what were your general thoughts today? What did you see out there?
SE: I mean, that's an offense that's unacceptable. Our defense kept us in the game. And we didn't do anything out there to help them out. They were playing their tails off and couldn't get anything going in every phase.
Q. Sam, nine sacks, I think 80 passing yards, or something like that, three points. Have you ever been a part of an offense that has that much struggled to move the ball to score at any level, going back to high school?
SE: I mean, the NFL is a different beast. I don't know, it's a hard game. That's not an excuse. We all got to get better, take ownership, find out what we want our identity to be and build and grow.
Q. What can you do better?
SE: A lot. I mean, everybody's going to look at the nine sacks and think, Oh, that's on the offensive line. And it's -- it's on everybody. You know, route disciplines, route spacing. For me, getting the ball out on time, taking checkdowns when they're there, not holding on too long.
I thought, you know, there were a handful of them that were on me. And it sucks because they're going to take the heat for that. But, you know, it's on everybody as an offense.
When you're running the ball well, they don't know when you're going to be in a passing situation all the time. That helps them out.
When you're on the right route disciplines, you're on the timing as a quarterback and the ball's coming out of your hand, the defense can't tee up. Yes, that's the stat that everybody's going to point at. But it's not representative of -- it's not all on the offensive line.
Q. Do you think there's some instances where you can be more aggressive and just pull the trigger? I know we're mentioning turnovers and all that, do you think there were instances where, you know, you can let it fly?
SE: Well, I need to look back at the film. And you know there's some smart players over there. And absolutely. Got to pull the trigger. You know, you can't get timid. You can't start worrying about what's going to happen if you let it rip. You just got to let it rip. Especially in a game like that. So, yeah, absolutely.
Q. This is a hard game and Bill Belichick has a long track record of doing this to quarterbacks. Was there things that he was doing or the defense was doing that caught you guys off guard or that you just didn't anticipate until you were out there?
SE: No, I thought we did a good job upfront. They had a few wrinkles in their -- upfront in their schemes and a few of their blitzes. But we did a good job adjusting and picking up twists. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary. We just didn't operate and do what we needed to do.
Q. Has there ever been a quarterback -- you or anybody else that can do better in terms of seeing the pressure before the snap, anticipating -- and I don't know how those protection calls work -- but is there anything more that could have been done from the quarterback perspective or is it just, you know, a collective thing?
SE: Yeah, I think I can do a lot more. And I can do a lot more to help everybody; getting the ball out on time, getting the ball out of my hands quicker. We can do a better job of -- I can do a better job, I guess. I think we were in the right calls, we were ID'd well. But I can definitely do a good job -- a better job of getting the ball out.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports