HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK
Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, October 6, 2019
On the game:
"Well, I thought they had a solid effort from all three phases today and that's really what you need to win on the road. [We] ran the ball better. Scored 33-points. Played our kind of defense and had good filed position. Good solid team effort. Proud of the way the guys prepared this week. Players went out there and really thought we improved our execution. It's not perfect, we still have a long way to go but we're making progress. Good turnaround this week we'll have to grind through it here. Good to come out of here with a win."Â
On the defensive effort:
"Well we have a lot of good players played hard, we hit the quarterback. Played pretty well on third down. Still things we can work on and things we can do better, missed a couple opportunities. It's a really good group that communicates well. Good effort and good awareness. Very fortunate that we have a lot of good players."Â
On fan support in today's game:
"It was amazing. Oh my God, there were so many Patriot fans here it was surprising and overwhelming. It was great seeing that and appreciate the support from all of the traveling Patriot fans, or maybe they're from here, I don't know. Great to see them it was awesome."
On the first two drives in the second half:
"We did some good things. Some things we can improve on. Those drives were big, took it from 12-7 to 26-7, or whatever it was. Those were big drives combined with some defensive stops. [We] missed a couple of opportunities with some field position in the first half. Put together some good drives and combination of runs and passes. Tempo. Offense did a good job. [Offensive Coordinator] Josh [Daniels] did a good job organizing it this week. There were some things he had to work through. It was good to have two tight ends out there and a full back and be able to get some production out of that group."
On making adjustments after the 65-yard touchdown run:
"It happened early. It was obviously a bad play. We can certainly coach it better. We can play better. They bounced right back. They had a higher level of determination to execute better. Like I said, we fixed a couple things. The Redskins used a lot of 10 personnel, lot of four receivers, we knew they were down a tight end. We anticipated some of that. Not as much as they did. We probably could have done a little bit to prepare for it. It was good job by the secondary adjusting to those formations. We made a couple calls in the second quarter and at halftime to handle it better. The players did a good job adjusting to that."
On what lead to the decision of using two tight ends:
"We always try to take the match up and the game plan we feel will be the best game plan for the game. It's what we do every week."
On if they will evaluate the kicker position this week:
"I don't think so. We just need to do things better. We can do them better in all phases of the game – offense, defense and special teams. We'll keep working on it."
On biggest challenge of playing on Thursday:
"It's a combination. A: Understanding of the Giants and getting mentally ready. They have a very challenging schemes on offense, defense, and special teams. We saw them earlier in the preseason but that really didn't do much. The mental part of it is challenging, certainly the physical part of it. When you think about, tonight's Wednesday and we play on Sunday. It's a lot for the players to rebound from. I'm sure they will do everything they can to be as physically ready as possible. So it's a combination of two things, you have to just balance it. One without the other is not enough so you have to try and get both. We will do the best we can on short notice and the players will do the best that they can to get ready in the less amount of time that they normally have. It's the same time the Giants have, it's the same for both teams. [We will] do the best we can to be ready to go."
QUARTERBACK TOM BRADY
Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, October 6, 2019
On their performance in the second half:
"Typical halftime, just make some adjustments. And I thought we did a better job executing. So not much other than that, I mean, just playing better football."
On the fan support here in DC:
"It was ridiculous and pretty amazing. It felt like a home game. And right from the time that we got to the hotel yesterday afternoon, to run in after the game, it was pretty sweet. We appreciate all the support down here and it felt good to come down here and get a win in front of them."
On what happened in run play when he was checking his knee brace:
"Well, just sod gets stuck inside of the brace. It just jammed, it's like turf just stuck trying to push it out. But it's like super glued in there. Yeah, I appreciated [CB Josh Norman helping me out]. It probably looked pretty bad because it just stops. But the metal the brace on the side just digs into the turf. And I should slide on my right side, but on the turf it usually doesn't do that but on grass sometimes it sticks. Gotta get a new brace."
On why the run game was more effective in the second half:
"I'm not sure I'd be guessing if I said something now, but it was good to see. I think one thing that did help was the play count got up there pretty high. We had quite a few plays by halftime. Anytime you feel like you do that, you feel like you're going to wear the other team out and those three-yard runs become six and then finally, you can break one and [RB] Sony [Michel] did one, Sony broke a long one going with down our sideline for a touchdown run. It was great to see he ran hard and ran his butt off, so I am proud of him."
On being 11-0 when Michel rushes for a touchdown:
"Good, we are going to start him off and just give him the ball and put him in the end zone in the first quarter and everyone can go home."
On the play of the defense:
"They got a lot of great players on the field whether offense or defense they are going to be helpful to us scoring points. We obviously have a great strength in our defense. [They] turn the ball over and they just make it so hard to complete every pass. And we realized that in training camp, and it's just amazing to watch those guys play right now. So we just gotta keep it going. And hopefully we can we can pick up on offense."
On if his brace broke:
"Yeah, there's a bunch of little buckles that get all contorted and stuff, so we'll get it back next week."
On feeling his way with the offense:
"It could be a lot better. I guess that's how we feel."
On how they plan to get mentally ready for Thursday with the quick turnaround:
"I think that's something we're all prepared for and talked about and just it's quick. So, use the time every bit from now till game time to get ready physically and mentally and, you know, go play a good football team and try to get to 6-0."
WIDE RECEIVER JOSH GORDON
Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, October 6, 2019
On second half performance:
"It felt good. Good run game, good ball movement, once we started getting in that rhythm things started opening up. We wanted to finish strong, most importantly, finish every drive. I think we wore them down, kept the pace, kept the tempo going and then something changed. It was great."
On heavy running attack in the game:
"When we get to this juncture, it depends on how we want to see things develop. In the second half, we were able to start the run game up, get the guys going in the run game and with everything else – downfield blocking, offensive line. Tremendous effort."
On attitude change after success in running the ball:
"The game is easier when you're running the ball. The routes become easier, not nearly as tired and morale is high. We're just happy the offensive line was pushing down field and the running backs were running hard. It's good ol' fashion football and when you're playing the game, you love to see it."
On Patriots being able to adjust:
"I guess that goes on [Head Coach Bill] Belichick, [Offensive Coordinator Josh] McDaniels, [QB] Tom [Brady], guys who see the field and they can make adjustments on the fly or second half adjustments, they kind of see it. See what the feel is for the defense, what we studied in practice, what has changed in the outcome of the game and making adjustments on the fly. We prepare for that each week and sometimes it works out."
On Patriots fan presence:
"It was confusing. It felt like a home game, just like Foxborough [Ma]. To be honest, I'm just grateful to have that support, our fans traveling, maybe we got some Redskins fans. It was awesome though, I'm blessed."
SAFETY DEVIN MCCOURTY
Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, October 6, 2019
On settling down after giving up an early touchdown:
"It's football, we had one bad play defensively but it was really just a good play call. It should have been a 15-yard or 18-yard gain with a tackle. We got to the sideline and talked about it then we moved on. It was one play, we're going to continue to play good defense and from that point out we did a good job adjusting. They came out in a lot of four wide receiver sets and Sims (Steven Sims) being able to do some counter plays but we did a good job adjusting."
On if Washington did anything unexpected on offense:
"No, it was just a lot more four wide receiver sets without [TE] Vernon Davis in the game. We knew it was a possibility that they would do some different things. [Davis] usually plays 85 percent of the plays so that takes some adjusting."
On the two turnovers created by CB Jason McCourty and DB Jonathan Jones:
"We talk about creating turnovers each and both of those were great plays. [Jonathan] Jones going for the punch was a great play to get the ball out especially in that part of the field and the same thing for [Jason McCourty] to jump the route was huge for us defensively. That's what got the game going for us, being able to turn the ball over and then coming back in the second half ready to go. Defensively if we turn the ball we know good things will happen."
On 11 team interceptions and opponents lack of success passing:
"We always talk about turning the ball over and limiting points. [Head Coach] Bill [Belichick] says if we don't give up points we won't lose. As a defense we care about giving up points, if you look back at the game we had one bad play and it came down to tackling. If we do a better job of that we give ourselves a better chance to make them drive down the field instead of one big play. That's some we have to keep trying to do week in and week out while we continue to get better."
On Patriot supporting in the stands:
"It was awesome especially compared to last week going to Buffalo we weren't greeted nicely and coming here today saw a lot of Patriots jerseys in the stadium. That's always a plus when you come on the road and you get a lot of people traveling to support you, as a team we really appreciate that."
PLAYERS IN THE LOCKER ROOM
WIDE RECEIVER JULIAN EDELMAN
On what [QB Colt] McCoy does well as a quarterback:
"Honestly, I don't know. I've only been playing here, so what they tell me to do I try to do that as best as I possibly can and go from there. These are way above my pay grade questions."
On the culture the Patriots have developed over the years:
"I mean, there's a standard. People expect you to go out and work hard, practice hard, play hard and if you do those things good things happen. That's something we try to emphasize here. We go out and practice each week, and when we have good weeks of practice it usually carries over in a game."
CORNERBACK STEPHON GILMORE
On how the defense reacted after the long touchdown run by the Redskins to start the game:
"We went to the sideline and made adjustments and looked at what went wrong, then went out the next series and just tried to do better. It's football, there is going to be adversity. Worst thing you can do is shut down, it's one play, plays are going to be made in a football game. I think it would be naïve to say that every play they're going to go three-and-out. We know its football and the biggest thing for us is to just comeback from that adversity."
On not giving up points in the second half:
"We want to build on that. We didn't start how we wanted to, but we finished how we wanted to."
