PATRIOTS HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK

BB: You've got to give New Orleans credit; they were obviously the better team tonight. It really wasn't as competitive a game as we'd hoped it would be or we needed it to be. They just did a better job than us in every way. Sean [Payton] did a great job with their team and did a lot better job than I did. They coached better, they played better, they were just the better team tonight. We've got to do a better job than we did. You've got to give them a lot of credit, they were a great football team. That doesn't lessen anything on our end. We've got to do a better job than what we did tonight. We didn't, so obviously we've got a lot of work to do to compete with a team of this caliber.

Q: Some of the big plays, like the touchdown to Devery Henderson, can you talk about what happened?

BB: We obviously blew it. We have several blown coverages defensively that they took advantage of - just eno

RM:ous mistakes on our part and they turned into huge plays. You can't make those kinds of mistakes against a good football team and we made them. We made too many of them.

Q: How much credit do you give Drew Brees in what he did?

BB: I just gave them credit. They did a great job. They're a great football team. They did an excellent job tonight. I'm not taking anything away from them. We've got to do a better job and they're a good football team, a lot better than us.

Q: On the other side, what did you see that they were doing defensively?

BB: They did a good job defensively. They did what they do. They mixed it up, but they basically ran a lot of the assigned coverages that they've been running with. They'd won 10 games, so there's not a reason to change a lot of things and they didn't. And they played a lot better defense than we did. You give their coaches and their players credit. Like I said, we've got to find a way to be more competitive than this.

Q: What did they do on Randy Moss specifically?

BB: They did what they do. They played zone. They double-covered. They played man. They rushed. They did what they do and they did it pretty well.

Q: On the fourth-and-three that you went for down on their 10-yard line in the third quarter, how much of that was maybe the pressure that the Saints offense puts on you?

BB: Yeah, there was no doubt that we needed some points at that point, or at that point of the game. I thought we were moving the ball OK, offensively. I thought we needed more than a field goal - really, the way the game was going - you needed more than a field goal to get back into the game. [Mike] McKenzie made a nice good play over there and we didn't pick it up. It was a good play on their part.

Q: Were some of the things that they were running offensively confusing? Or were they things that you had seen on film before?

BB: You know, they mix it up a lot. They do that. I don't think they did anything that would revolutionize the game, but they do a good job of keeping you off balance with personnel substitutions, their fo

RM:ations change in the tempo of the game and all those kinds of things. They do a good job. As I said all week, they have good players. They're very well coached. They have a good quarterback. When you make mistakes, they capitalize on them, they take advantage of them. You can't make many [mistakes] against them and you can't make big ones. And we made some big ones and they hit us on them.

Q: In addition to them playing very well offensively was is just being able to get Tom Brady out of sync because he just seemed off?

BB: Well, they were better than us in every phase of the game. I don't know any other way to put it. They were better coached. They played better on offense, defense, in the kicking game they covered better than we did. They were better. They were obviously the better team. You guys had a seat, right? You were at the game? They were clearly the better team tonight.

Q: Is it fair to say that some of the mistakes defensively were mental?

BB: Well, they were both, yeah. We busted a couple of coverages and cut guys loose, those are definitely mental errors. They were just mistakes in coverage and we had some plays where we just had them covered, but they caught the ball and made big plays. It was a combination of both.

Q: What was behind your decision to put Hoyer in the game?

BB: Just to give him some experience. We were down 21 points with five minutes to go.

Q: Do you think the Saints can go 16-0 with the way that they're playing right now?

BB: They've got a really good football team. As I said, they've got a really good football team. They have good players. They're well coached. They're fast. They have a lot of playmakers. They played very well tonight.

Q: What do you tell your team to get past this loss?

BB: I mean, we've got to do a better job than we did. To be competitive against a team like this, we've got to do a better job. We've got to coach better, play better. We've got to be better at everything - players, assistant coaches, we've all got to do a better job than this.

Q: Was communication at all a factor in some of those mental breakdowns?

BB: They ended up not being right, however that happened.

PATRIOTS WIDE RECEIVER RANDY MOSS

Q: Did they do anything in their game plan to surprise you today?

RM:: I think besides getting after it though, it's nothing that we haven't seen before. They doubled me a lot. They doubled Wes [Welker] a lot. It's nothing that we haven't seen before. They just put it to us, it's simple as that.

Q: Where do you guys go from here?

RM:: Back to work. That's the good thing about football, once the game is over and you've got 24 hours to reflect back and collect your thoughts. Once Wednesday comes, it's another week. So a game like this, it really hurts. But once Wednesday comes, we're focusing on the Dolphins and putting this one behind us. For right now, it hurts. They put it to us, it's as simple as that.

Q: Offensively did you feel like you ever had any kind of rhythm at all?

RM:: To be honest with you, no. It didn't feel like we had any rhythm. We had little spurts where we tried to gain that rhythm, but we just couldn't put things together. I don't know what to say, they played good football. Something that we haven't really seen on film, we had some self-inflicted wounds we had out there on both sides of the ball. There some things that you can't let a good team like that take advantage of - missed opportunities. They took advantage of them, we didn't. But we got our butts beat by what, 21 or something like that? I don't even know the score, but I know it was a bad one. You really can't let a team like that take advantage of missed opportunities.

Q: How discouraging is it to have two measuring stick games - the Colts, the Saints - and come up short in both?

RM:: Well, we have expectations set high, like we do. We take things one game at a time, but we really see each week what teams are made of. I think we've shown that we're up for a sec, we're down for a sec. We're back up, we're down. So it's kind of wavy right now. I know toward the end of the season, November and December is really when you want to play good football. I got big, big hopes and dreams for this team and I don't think Bill [Belichick] is going to let us down. I know he's going to put it to us this week and further on. We've just got to take our lashes, and keep working hard and see if it pays off.

Q: You guys have talked about needing a road win and three games of your remaining five are on the road. How do you prevent this from getting into the team's psyche?

RM:: I don't really think it's psyche. I think it's just work. I think hard work pays off. I've been in this league long enough, I've been in this league 12 years. I try to work every day in, day out from an individual standpoint. I'm a true believer that hard work does pay off. So it's just putting us back to the drawing board. Like I said, Coach Belichick is not going to let us down. I think he strives for things like this in trying to overcome a lot of obstacles. I look forward to a hell of a Wednesday, really a hell of a week. We'll just go back to the drawing board and see if we can put this thing back together again to get rolling into the direction that we need to.

Q: Do you take any consolation that there are only five games to go and you've been very good as a team of regrouping and going on to the next opponent?

RM:: Around here, I'd say that we really take things one game at a time. I think in the past, the Patriots have run off November and December. But this year you have a new team, it's a different team. Right now, we really have to put this 2009-2010 team together toward the end of the season and try to make this push. I've very, very, very got my mind set on going to work because that's what I love to do. We're in this profession, it is a physical game. So we'll just get back to work, take care of our bodies and see what happens.

PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK TOM BRADY

Q: How difficult a night was it and how shocking was it to see what they were able to do all night?

TB: You know, there's a reason why they're 11-0. They played really well tonight I think as a team. You know, we obviously didn't play up to their level. Coach said it after the game, they're a great team and we didn't play so great. So there's obviously a big gap between us. It wasn't nearly as competitive as we were all expecting, but that's what happens when you don't play very well against a pretty good team on the road.

Q: On that early interception, do you feel like you put a little extra pressure on yourself trying to be so perfect against this team?

TB: Well, you've trying to make the right play. That certainly didn't help us. We had a lot of opportunities out there during the course of the game and we didn't get the ball in the end zone when we had some chances. So you know we've got five games left, we've got a big game against Miami, we're 7-4. We're just not playing as consistent as we would like against these good teams and that's what you need to do.

Q: You said coming into the game that you like the matchups at wide receiver and tight end. What did they do so effectively against Wes Welker and Randy Moss?

TB: Well, I think they had a good plan. They have some pretty good players over there and we didn't execute really well at times. I think we had some opportunities to make plays and we really didn't. Getting down there in the red area, and kicking field goals, or attempting field goals, before halftime having a chance to get the ball even closer in the red zone and not doing it. You play good offense like we do, you've got to match them and those guys played really well. Defensively, they came up with enough stops. They just didn't execute well enough, I think that's what really it came down to.

Q: I guess we've seen teams double Randy and play different coverages on Wes. But I guess what we're used to seeing is you finding a way to make it work. It didn't seem like you were really able to find that right combination tonight, is that the sense that you had?

TB: This is a team game, so there are 11 guys out there. So if the coverages goes to Wes and Randy, then you have to find other guys to get the ball to and you have to run the ball. At times, I thought we did that. At times, I don't think we did that very well. Like I said, they're a good team. They're 11-0. If we don't play well, we're not going to be able to beat those good teams, especially on the road. We've got three road games left, none more important than the one we're playing this week on a short week. There's only one way out of it, you've got to get back to work and try to do it better next time.

Q: You may not like to think about it this way, but do they look like you guys did in 2007?

TB: That's so long ago, we're a totally different team from what we were then. It's good to be in that position, I'll say that. It's fun when you're winning games like that. They played really well and they played a really good game tonight. In order to beat them tonight, we would have had to have played really well also and we just didn't do that.

Q: Can you pinpoint reasons for that?

TB: Well, it's a collective effort. There are guys out there on special teams, offense, defense. It's not like it's one thing. There are just little things over the course of a game that we're not doing well enough. Sometimes throwing the ball, making reads, throwing interceptions - you can't do that. Having enough chances to score in the red area and not getting it done, you can't do that. I focus on what I need to do better and I certainly need to play better than I did tonight.

Q: The only way you can get over this and Randy talked about how much you look forward to Wednesday.

TB: Yeah, and that's what you have to do. You lose games and you have to find ways to get motivated again and get energized. It's in a short week and you have to understand the opponent we'll be facing. They have a lot to play for, we certainly have a lot to play for - 8-4 is certainly a lot better than 7-4. We've got to find a way to get a win this week.

Q: Getting removed from a game when you're losing ...

TB: You always like to be out there, you know. You'd rather be on the other side of it. But it's for the other guys to get a chance to play. They work hard to get experience when the game is in control for the other team. You always like to be out there, but it's good for those other guys to get some opportunities, too.

Q: Was there any talk with Coach Belichick whether to put Brian Hoyer in? Do you debate it?

TB: No, he's the head coach.

Q: How confident are you that this young defense can regroup both physically and mentally and get going again?

TB: Yeah, I don't think it's a lack of confidence. I think we have confidence every time we take the field. We feel like we have a good plan. We had a good week of practice. We felt like we knew our opponent really well. It felt like we had some really good matchups. Then, you get out on the field and it didn't amount to much. We've done it well at times throughout the season. At times, we've looked great. We're just not doing it consistently enough. Believe me, we're all searching for the problems. It's not like we all come in and go, 'Oh, this is the problem, it's one little thing that's going to change our season.' It's got to be everybody working harder, doing their job and finding ways to do things better than we've been doing.