Bill Belichick addresses the media during his press conference at Gillette Stadium.
BB: After going through the films this morning, I think it was pretty evident that we didn't get the kind of start in the game that we were looking for. That was the theme that we kind of hit on during the week and it's something that Buffalo was very good at last year. They were one of the top scoring differentials teams in the first quarter. We didn't do a very good job there. I guess I need to do a better job of getting that point home. In any case, I thought our players did a good job of responding to it, even though we were in the hole. We were in a 10 point deficit there early in the game and then at halftime. They responded. They fought through it. They played well in the fourth quarter and made enough plays to win. I congratulated and complemented them for that, but at the same time it's not the kind of situation that we want to be in. It will be a hard one to get out of. We probably won't come out of it this well very often. I think there were a lot of things that we need to do better. There are some things that we can learn from on the film, some good teaching situations, some unusual situations that came up in the game, it’s something that we had to adjust to once we got them straightened out and we were able to handle it and play a lot better, but we need to react to some of those a little bit quicker. There were a number of players in the game that gave us some big plays at key times. You always need that to win. In the kicking game, I thought Buffalo had one of the best special teams units in the league, like they always do. I thought we played pretty competitively there. They had the one long kickoff return for good field position, but the rest of the time I thought we covered kicks pretty well. That was a positive for us, especially against such a good return team like that. That's kind of where we are on the game. I hope that we’ll be a little bit further along next week and we can use this week to build on and correct some of the mistakes. We go down to New York now. They got off to a good start. Right now both teams are playing for first place this week and we need to go down there and play a better game than we played yesterday. We know that and that's what we're going to work towards. On the Deion [Branch] situation, I would just sum it up with a couple of brief comments. It's been a long process. I think that we tried hard to get it to work out. I think their side and Deion tried hard to make it work as well, but in the end it just didn’t work. It just didn’t happen, so we made the trade with Seattle today. That’s where we are on that one. I know that there will probably be a lot of questions on that and, again, it’s been such a long process and it kind of got complicated there at the end going through all of the things that have been talked about and represented that getting into a lot of details on that is something that I think would be too hard to do and I don’t really think it’s the right thing to do at this point. The bottom line is it just didn't work out and we traded him to Seattle.
Q: How would you characterize the organization's feelings? Is it relief? Disappointment?
BB: I don’t know. Just the way I characterized it, that’s how I would do it. I don’t have one word to describe it.
Q: Are you disappointed that it couldn't get done?
BB: Really, I don’t know what else I can add to what I just said. We tried. It didn’t work out and we’ve moved on.
Q: He was a big contributor on this team.
BB: Hey, no question. There’s no question about it.
Q: I'm assuming that there’s some part of you that would feel bad that you didn’t work it out with a guy who has been a key player on this team.
BB: That’s the way I thought I put it. We tried, it didn’t work out. We tried. It just didn’t work out.
Q: Were you able to speak to Deion?
BB: I’ve spoken to him, yes.
Q: During this whole time, did you speak to him?
BB: Yes, I spoke to him a number of times.
Q: What were those conversations like?
BB: Well, I wouldn’t get into any personal conversations between a player and a coach. I think that’s what player-coach relationships are, it’s between the player and coach.
Q: Does it concern you that another player who is unhappy with his contract and unhappy with an offer can force his way out of town via trade?
BB: We dealt with this situation…I think everybody dealt with it the way that they thought was best, both sides, and it ended up the way it ended up.
Q: Can you confirm that it was for a first-round draft pick?
BB: I think it was a high pick. You got the announcement, whatever we said. Whatever it is, that’s what it is.
Q: You’ve had two of your best players hold out in the last two years. Do you have to reconsider the evaluation of your players to prevent this from happening again?
BB: I think each player, each individual contract, is it’s own situation. We’ll do what we think is best for the football team, in every situation for the team. Always.
Q: Did you feel like this was important to get out of the way and in the past?
BB: No, I didn’t say that.
Q: How much thought was given to getting him back in Week 10 so you could at least get something out of him this season? Was that a tough decision?
BB: We arrived at where we are because we thought that this decision was the best one for the football team at this point in time, so that’s where we are.
Q: When was the last time you saw Deion around here working out?
BB: He was here for part of the off-season program.
Q: Where do you go from here?
BB: Where do we go from here? It’s the Monday after the Buffalo game. We’ve watched the film. We’ve made our corrections. When we go back out on the practice field Wednesday we’ll work on those things and get ready for the Jets.
Q: What do you think of your current receiving corps?
BB: I think they’re the same as they were yesterday.
Q: With Doug Gabriel being inactive for the game yesterday, was that move more of him not knowing the offense or was it because of his hamstring?
BB: As usual, we dressed the players that we felt would give the team the best opportunity to win the game. That includes a lot of people and a lot of factors. We did what we thought was best for the team yesterday. That may or may not be what it is next week against the Jets. We’ll just have to see.
Q: Were you concerned about losing the arbitration hearing?
BB: I haven’t thought about it.
Q: You haven’t even thought about it?
BB: I’m not a lawyer.
Q: You haven’t even thought about the process?
BB: About the outcome of it, I have no control over that.
Q: No one advised the team in any way legally?
BB: I have no control over that. If I were asked to answer a question, then I would answer it truthfully. That’s what I would do.
Q: With the grievance to be handled this week, did the team want to avoid going through that process and having to deal with it?
BB: I don’t think that was that big of a factor, no.
Q: What is the likelihood that you would seek a trade for a wide receiver?
BB: I don’t know. I’ll say the same thing I always say about the team, at any point we have to improve our football team, at any position, we would consider it and we would, up until the trading deadline, whether it’s signing players or trading them or whatever we can do. Anything we can do to make the football team better, we would consider that. That’s the way it always is.
Q: How does the 2007 pick help you now in 2006?
BB: We did what we felt was best for the football team in this situation. That’s what we thought was best.
Q: Did you make any last minute offers to Deion?
BB: I’m not going to get into that. I just said we tried. I’m not going to get into any negotiations with Deion.
Q: How did you tell the team about Deion? Do you tell them all at once?
BB: I notify them of all the personnel decisions that we make on this football team in as timely a manner as I can. That varies from situation to situation.
Q: So you told them this morning?
BB: I told the team, yes.
Q: Did you tell them last night or this morning?
BB: I can’t remember. [Laughter] No, it was today.
Q: Randy Moss gave his assessment of Doug Gabriel. What is your evaluation of Doug?
BB: We evaluated him, so we think he can help our football team. That’s why we traded for him. Just like every other player that comes on to our team, I think they need to learn our system, learn what their assignments are and get in tune with what our plays and adjustments and timing of the plays and so forth are, and we’ll try to use them as we feel in a situation, or at a time when we feel like they can help the football team.
Q: How has he done with that, picking up the system and all?
BB: Good. He’s worked hard on it. A smart guy. He works hard. He has some experience.
Q: The evaluation of how quickly Doug is picking things up, is that the type of thing you only see in the game?
BB: I think practice preparation becomes game reality. I think if you do it in practice, you have a chance to do it in the game. If it's not done correctly in practice, in my experience, it’s pretty unlikely that all of a sudden it’s just magically going to occur perfectly in game conditions. That’s pretty unlikely, from my experience.
Q: Is the converse of that sometimes the guy does it in practice, but under the increased stress of the game it doesn’t go right?
BB: Sure, of course. There are plenty of things that go right in practice that don’t work perfectly in the game. I think if you do it correctly in practice, then you’d have the opportunity to possibly do it right in the game, if you can execute it well and things go consistently with what they did in practice, but no that doesn’t guarantee it by any stretch.
Q: Obviously, Chad [Jackson] has struggled a little bit to stay on the field with injuries. What has he done off the field to get himself ready to play even though he hasn’t been able to be out there all the time?
BB: All of the things that all of the players do, all the meetings, all the film, meet with his position coach, work on things that he can work on.
Q: I remember he told us in the spring about the test that you guys gave him and he did really well on it. Do you see that kind of aptitude from him now that you’ve had him here for a few months?
BB: I think Chad is a good learner. I think he’s a smart kid. I think he understands the passing game and concepts. We saw that in the spring when we installed most of our passing game in the spring camps. You have to go out on the field and do them, but in terms of learning it, I think he can learn it.
Q: How does he compare to some other rookie wide receivers that you’ve seen just as far as being able to mentally pick things up?
BB: Again, a lot of any player’s game is his ability to improve and be consistent. We’ll have to evaluate that when we get an opportunity to do it.
Q: How did Tom [Brady] take the news about Deion?
BB: I wouldn’t speak for Tom. I think Tom is perfectly capable of answering any question that you want to ask him.
Q: How concerned were you about Tom's reaction?
BB: We made the decision that we felt was in the best interest of the football team. That’s who I represent.
Q: Was this a more difficult situation than the Lawyer Milloy situation?
BB: You want me to rank them?
Q: Yes, I do. [Laughter]
BB: I think I’ve said about all I can say on it really. I don’t have much more to add. I told you what I thought. I told you what happened. That’s basically it.
Q: Are you comfortable with the receiving corps you have now?
BB: We’re going to go down and do the best we can to put the best football team on the field against the New York Jets. Whoever those 45 players are, that’s what we’ll do. We’ll put whatever we feel is the best football team on the field against the Jets, that includes every position.
Q: After looking at the tape, do you feel like you guys were held back at all because you only had three wide receivers active yesterday?
BB: Again, we put the best team we thought we had out there yesterday. That team did what it did. Ran the ball. Converted some third downs. Scored some points. There were other things that weren’t as good. That’s what that team did. It’s a team game. Part of that running game had to do with the wide receivers blocking. Troy Brown, I thought he did one of the best…he blocked as well as we’ve had a receiver block in quite a while here. He had a lot to do with some of the yards we gained in the running game. It’s a team sport.
Q: On the first play of the game, what went awry on that play?
BB: Let's just say it was a combination of things, which it was. We obviously blew it and paid the price.
Q: Were you proud of the way your team responded in the second half of the game?
BB: I told them that. I told them that. I thought that they responded well to an adverse situation and played well in the fourth quarter. We had the ball most of the fourth quarter and scored some points and made some plays and we were able to come from behind and win. That's good. They should be proud of that. I just don't think that's the situation we want to be in very often, if we can help it. I think we have to do to a better job in the early part of the game of not putting ourselves in that situation. But they did, they battled back. They fought hard and they made enough plays to win and they deserved to win based on the way they played at the end of the game. Take the ball with six minutes to go, run out the clock. Again, I think there are a lot of things that we can do better and it starts with me and that goes to every player who participated in the game, and the coaching staff as well. It’s the first game. There’s a lot of mistakes that we all made. There’s a lot of things that we can do better and those are the things that we’re going to work on this week and I hope we can get more of them right down there in New York next week.
