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Replay: Patriots Unfiltered Tue Dec 10 - 02:00 PM | Wed Dec 11 - 11:17 AM

Bill Belichick Post-Game Press Conf - 11/17/2002

To read a transcript, click below

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BB: I would just like to give the Raiders credit tonight. They did a good job. They made more plays then we did. That's why they deserved to win the game. We just couldn't make enough plays to win the game, couldn't make enough plays at the right time to take advantage of the opportunities that we had. We played a good football team and we played hard to the end, but in the end, we couldn't make enough plays in any area of the game. So it's a tough loss. It's disappointing. I thought we had some opportunities, but we just weren't able to do enough. That's pretty much the story. I don't have anything on any of the guys that got banged up. We'll have to wait and see how they are later on.

Q: What did the Raiders do defensively to keep your offense out of sync?

BB: What they normally do. They played the way they normally play. They put some pressure on us. We had some chances to hit a few plays and we missed them. They did a good job with their pass rush. We ran the ball a little bit there at the end of the first half, but weren't able to get it into the end zone. In the end, they made enough plays and deserved to win.

Q: You had trouble getting off the field on third down again tonight. Why do you think that is?

BB: Look, that's a good football team. That's as good an offense as there is in the league. They're going to make some plays. The big thing is to keep them out of the end zone and we didn't do a good enough job of that.

Q: On the onside kick, is that not what you're looking for in terms of the bounce and is there any way to call that off because it was one on three on that side?

BB: Yeah, well obviously you want to try to put the ball in a spot where it's tough for them to handle. You hope it takes a bad bounce. It bounced right up in the air right to [Tory] James. So it's just like when you onside kick it, whether you kick it to the weak side or the strong side, you're looking for a bounce that is hard to handle. That one really wasn't. I don't know. We've worked on it. It's one of those things where sometimes it looks good and the ball rolls around and it's tough to handle and every once in a while you get one like you did tonight and that's the way it goes unfortunately.

Q: Did they do anything to surprise you?

BB: They played well. The Raiders played Raider football the way they play. They do what they do. They did a good job. They had a lot of quick throws. They got the ball to [Charlie] Garner in space. He got a lot of sub runs. They brought the big guys in and ran some power stuff. They played man coverage. They ran their zone, ran their blitz zones. They played the way they play. They did a good job. Give them credit. They played well.

Q: Bill, did you think the game changed on the strip sack just before halftime?

BB: That was a big play. There's no question about it. That was a big play. It's a 10-6 game. It ends up being a touchdown and ends up being the difference in the game now. So we could have helped ourselves a little bit defensively there too, but you give them the ball on the 8-yard line and put them on a short field, a lot of good things aren't usually going to happen when that happens. So it was a big play.

Q: They put it away on the first drive of the third quarter when they went 85 yards in you?

BB: That was a good drive for them. They went 15 plays or whatever it was and 85 yards. They executed well and moved the ball down the field on that drive. There's no question about it.

Q: Was there anything specific about that drive that made it successful?

BB: When you move it 15 plays, it's not one play. It's a lot of them that cumulatively move the ball down the field. That's what it was?

Q: Could you talk about the fourth down pass play that you missed and did you think about the quarterback sneak?

BB: We threw the slant and we had a shot to hit it. We didn't make that play. Like I said at the beginning, we just didn't make enough plays. That's one of the things you have to do. When you have to tight coverage, you have to throw it in there and you have to catch it in tight coverage. I don't think you can run the quarterback sneak every time it's fourth down.

Q: It looked like David Patten was open on the play. Is that a throw Tom doesn't make well?

BB: I don't know. I've seen us hit plenty of those. We didn't hit it tonight. I've seen us hit plenty of those. That's why we threw it. That's why we had it and we just missed it.

Q: How would you rate your quarterback's play tonight?

BB: We didn't play well enough as a team. That's why we got beat. The Raiders played better. Their team beat our team.

Q: Did they do anything specific to disrupt Brady?

BB: I thought they played well.

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