WIDE RECEIVER DANNY AMENDOLA
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Q: **Did it feel better in the second half with the two of you and Tom?
A:I feel like we made a lot of good plays out there on offense. Every game in this league is close, and it's going to come down to making plays at the end. I felt like we fought hard and got the job done.
Q:Danny, you know who you're replacing, did you feel any extra pressure in this game?
A:I don't really think about that stuff, I just try to think about my job. I love playing with these guys, it's a great team. I've only been here for a short amount of time but I can already tell that these guys are really together. It starts at the top and I'm really excited to be here.
Q:After what happened in the second quarter limping off the field, to come back in the second half and do that. First of all what happened, and how big was it for you personally to come back?
A:I really didn't have my legs under me in the first half. Came in, made some adjustments and just tried to make as many plays as I could in the second half.
Q:How determined were you in the last half? You were obviously in significant pain.
A:You've just got to keep fighting, that's what it's all about. It's a long game, it's a physical game and it's honestly a fight out there every play. We did a good job out there today fighting until the very end. It was a great field goal at the end there by (Gostkowski).
Q:What was it like being with Tom there in the huddle on that last drive?
A:We all know Tom has been in this situation before; he's one of the best. We really rallied behind him, he's our leader and he did a great job today.
CORNERBACK KYLE ARRINGTON
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Q: **Can you talk about some of the opportunities you had on defense, causing turnovers? It's one of those things where every time you get an opportunity to make a play on the ball we run for it. It was just good hand placement, I guess. We were just very fortunate to come away with enough plays to win the game. It wasn't perfect.
Q:How do you balance taking risks on defense? Sometimes you've got to gamble like that. It's a game of opportunity, you've just got to capitalize as much as possible. You've just got to play the situation.
WIDE RECEIVER JULIAN EDELMAN
Q:Did you feel like you were going to have an opportunity to be one of Tom's (Brady) reliable, trusted guys? You've worked with him for so long.
A:Going into it I wasn't thinking about that. You're thinking about the game plan, coaching assignments and trying to bring everything from the classroom to the grass.
Q:How did you feel about your touchdowns? Obviously you were able to find some open room in the end zone.
A:Just trying to do my job and guys were just running the concept. Tom (Brady) called my number on those two.
Q:What about from a team standpoint? Obviously it came down to the wire. You guys had to have the comeback there and a couple field goal drives. How does the team feel right now coming away with a win but not quite the effort you guys wanted?
A:It's the National Football League: it's hard to win any game here. Everyone is pretty good and an ugly win is better than a pretty loss. We definitely have to go back, watch the film and correct. Move on immediately because we have a short week.
Q:Julian, how good did it feel to be back on the field after a foot injury at the end of last year?
A:It felt great, that's why I play the game and I love this game. Any time you get to go out there with the guys that you work hard with, train with and all that kind of stuff it feels good.
Q:Your impressions of (Danny) Amendola's first real game? Danny (Amendola) made some big catches. I'm not the coach, that's his job to evaluate him. He made some pretty big catches in pretty big situations.
Q:What was the mindset going into that last drive?
A:It's a situation that we practice a bunch. What we were doing is trying to score but at least come away with three points and take down the clock as much as we could. Coach (Belichick) made us do that situation time in and time out so we were basically just thinking about our assignments and what we had to do.
KICKER STEPHEN GOSTKOWSKI
Q:How do you prepare for a game winning kick like that? :
A:The hardest part about it is waiting around to go do it, the actual execution. It's just something you work for. Those are the times to prove to your team that you can go out there and they can depend on you. I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity, especially because I have a lot of family in Buffalo and had to get a lot of tickets to the game. Things couldn't have worked out any better for me and I'm very grateful and humbled for the experience. Just to be 1-0 is great. It looked like we were going to let it slip away for a little bit, but we battled back and won, and it's just a great experience.
Q:Vereen's run along the outside made the kick a little closer, did that take a little weight off your shoulders?
A:I don't even really think about it. I don't try to kick the ball any harder on longer field goals, so whatever the situation is I just deal with it. I really just focus on what I've got to do at that time, and if we had to kick a long one then we would've gone out there and done our best to make that one too. It was right in the middle-range. Those aren't as easy as people think.
RUNNING BACK STEVAN RIDLEY
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Q: **It looked like an awkward way to go to the ground there (on the fumble).
A:I can't make any excuses, two balls on the ground is unacceptable. I'm not going to sit on the past. I have to accept where I messed up, made a mistake and grow from it. That's really all you can do, not point the fingers just come back to work tomorrow. I hate it and it's unfortunate but it's part of the game of football that I'm just going to have to keep working, keep driving and keep pushing forward. We've got 15 more weeks in front of us and I'm going right back to work.
Q:Did you know when you fumbled, as it's kind of a rule around here that you were coming out of the game?
A:It was pretty obvious; you can't have two fumbles in one game and expect to stay in. The coaches had to make the best move for the team in this game. They picked the plays they went with and we rolled through and were lucky to pull out the win that we did.
Q:What did you think of the way Shane Vereen came out and picked up the group coming up with some big yards.
A:Shane is a player; I can't take anything from him. He made a few great catches and some nice runs. He's just taking advantage of the opportunities that have been given just like all of us. We try to go out there every Sunday, every opportunity we get is capitalized on and I'm happy for him, I really am. It sucks for me to be in this situation, but as a teammate I pat him on the back and tell him he did a great job helping us win this game.
Q:What did you learn (last year) about how you get back in the coaches' good graces?
A:For me, I never get too high and I never get too low. This was the first game of the 2013 season, all the talk before this was what happened last year. It goes to show you that things change day to day. Coming in after two turnovers I can't blame anybody but myself. Like I said just man up and come back to work. I'm just going to put my nose in the dirt and keep grinding that's all I can do.
Q:Do you feel you have to earn your job back now?
A:Absolutely, two turnovers and I was out for the rest of the game. I'm not complaining I'm just going to keep grinding.
RUNNING BACK SHANE VEREEN
Q:Shane, when Stevan (Ridley) fumbled for the second time did you have an idea that you were going to be getting an increased workload, and did it put it in your mind to step up a little bit?:
A:Not exactly, you can never predict what the coach's decision is going to be, you just have to stay ready and be ready when your number is called.
Q:What does it mean to you to produce like you did on that last drive?
A:I think it's more important that the team won today.
DEFENSIVE LINEMAN VINCE WILFORK
Q:Thursday you've got the Jets, how quickly do you shift focus on then:
A:On the plane. It is back-to-back division games--at least the next one is at home. So we'll enjoy it for probably about another hour or two, but we have to get back to work on the Jets and start on film.
Q:You guys are a very streaky defense and had a streak of turnovers, how do you balance risk and playing smart defense?
A:I mean it's all about film study, seeing what your opponents' tendencies are. Some of them are stronger tendencies that we can take advantage of, certain calls and schemes that we can take advantage of, and you just have to understand the game. The way the game is going, the quarter, time, who you're facing, down and distance--a lot of work goes into it. So it's picking and choosing, but we kind of know from the calls we get from the sideline, mind-frame and what we're thinking how we're going to be. Are we going to be aggressive or are we kind of playing just to get to the next down. There's a lot of work that goes into it, and for the most part we did pretty good at taking advantage of our opportunities. That's one of the main things we talk about as a defense, creating turnovers and getting our offense back the ball. With Tom Brady and those guys over there, they can do good things with it, so the more we can keep the ball in our offense's hands the better shape we'll be in as a team.
Q:You guys got a lot of key players back for another year, do you feel like the way you have gelled had an effect on how you played?
A:Yeah, just knowing taking the field that you have guys that were here last year. We kind of had a year under our belt and now we're starting fresh this year with the same bunch we left off with last year. So we're very excited about it as a defense, to just have guys out there that played together for 16 to 19 games or whatever it was. We're looking for a pretty good season. Today was a good one, but definitely everything wasn't perfect. We had some mistakes, but we'll correct them and move forward and hopefully we'll be ready by Thursday.
