New England Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel addresses the media during his postgame press conference at Gillette Stadium on Thursday, November 13, 2008.
Q: Well Matt, you did your part.
MC: Well, it's not enough in a tight one like this, unfortunately.
Q: Is it heartbreaking to lose a game like this after you fought back from such a deficit? Can you take us through your last drive?
MC: It just was one of those things we practice. Coach Belichick puts us in those situations all the time and we were able to execute the two-minute offense well. We were able to hit the underneath stuff and continue to move down, and move down and give ourselves the opportunity at the end to score a touchdown.
Q: Early on were they doing anything defensively to surprise you guys?
MC: Not really. We went in and the coaches prepared us well this week. They are very familiar, I'm sure, with their coaching staff and their scheme and so going into it, schematically, we had a good understanding of how they were going to try to attack us.
Q: Did you guys learn something about yourselves as a team in the comeback?
MC: I think anytime you can come back from a 24-6 deficit it's a building block and something every team should be proud of. Obviously we never want to lose, but it's definitely something we can take away and hopefully not have to use down the road, but we might have to use down the road. To show that kind of fight and tenacity, I thought that was great for the team.
Q: Can you talk about the drive at the end, as far as building confidence in you and the unit?
MC: I hope I've earned the confidence of these guys on the team throughout the course of the year. That was a situation that we've practiced a lot, to go down and be able to execute and score that touchdown when we needed to. I think that is a confidence-builder for us offensively.
Q: How frustrating is it to stand on the sideline during overtime like that, especially when you had the kind of momentum that you did?
MC: It's the flip of the coin. It's very frustrating because you want to be out there and you want to have the ball in your hands and you want to have the opportunity to win the game. Unfortunately we didn't have that opportunity, but offensively we had our opportunities in the third quarter and we weren't able to take advantage of those opportunities. I think there were scoring opportunities left out there.
Q: Can you comment on Randy Moss's catch at the end?
MC: That's what Randy [Moss] does. He made a magnificent catch and he was able to keep his feet inbounds. That's why he is as special as he is.
Q: Do you think you showed a dimension as a team that other teams maybe didn't think you possessed?
MC: I don't know. We've spread out teams before and we've thrown the ball well before. This was just something that happened. We were down and the coaches felt it was the best way to try get ourselves back in the ballgame, so I don't know if we'll use this going forward or not.
Q: What did they tell you on the sidelines before that last play?
MC: Don't take a sack and make sure to get it in the end zone.
Q: Which you already knew.
MC: Trying to reinforce it.
Q: You didn't go to Randy Moss at all in the first half. Was that because of double coverage?
MC: They did a good job. They were doubling for most of the game—almost all of the game, so that just gave other guys opportunities. We understood that going in, that they were going to probably try to take him away, and he had a great attitude throughout the course of the game. He was very supportive and he made the big play when we needed him to make a big play.
