PATRIOTS HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK
Q: I know you were asked after the game about the high number of targets to Josh Gordon and Julian Edelman and the idea of trying to distribute to others. You said that unless it's a screen pass, you don't have a play where you're throwing to a particular player. As you reviewed the film, what is your level of concern in the idea of getting more people involved with more targets in the passing game?
BB: Well, our main concern is to score points and win, so whatever falls into that category I'm for and that's what we'll do.
Q: On the opening kickoff return, what did you see on the coverage that opened things up for the big return for the Titans?
BB: Well, the play was pretty much symptomatic of the whole game, so bad coaching, bad playing, offense, defense, special teams, running game, passing game, kicking game. We just didn't do a good enough job. I didn't do a good enough job. It starts with me. We didn't do a very good job of coaching, didn't do a very good job of playing, so that's pretty much all of it. Whatever area you want to ask about, it's, I mean, I'd say that for all of it. None of it was good enough.
Q: James Develin had a big day yesterday. He had a couple of tackles and it looked like a forced fumble on special teams. What have you seen from his development in that area of the game?
BB: Well, James is a very hardworking and dependable player. He will certainly do whatever role he's asked to do on our team, and he's been asked to do multiple ones. He's a smart, well-prepared, versatile player that, as I said, will do whatever he's asked to do. So, he contributes for us in the kicking game and in different situations offensively. We all have a lot of confidence in him and we know he's worked hard and prepares as well as anybody to do his job, so he earns everybody's confidence and respect from his daily performance to do that.
Q: Is there anything in particular you can point to with the pass rush as to why you were able to generate so much pressure on Aaron Rodgers last week and not able to replicate it the same way against Tennessee?
BB: Quite obviously, the game situation has a lot to do with that. When you're behind and you're throwing a lot, like we were yesterday, they were going to get more rush opportunities and get more pressure. When they're ahead, they can play an offense that is more balanced or maybe even a little more favorable to the run and there were less opportunities, and certainly less predictable opportunities, because of the scoring situation and vice versa. When you're playing from behind, you don't have a lot of opportunities to rush the passer. You know, we sacked [Marcus] Mariota on a third down play at the end of the third quarter, somewhere in there, but we didn't create enough of those situations and didn't do well enough in what we did. That's a big part of it is opportunities, and we've got to do better with the opportunities we have, obviously, however many there are. So, I think I've already talked about that.
Q: In the third quarter, when you guys had the ball at the Titans' 41-yard line, it would have been a long kick, but I was curious if there was any consideration at all, instead of punting, to putting Stephen Gostkowski out for a field goal? I think it probably would have been about 58 yards. Was that even a consideration, or was it an easy call on the punt there?
BB: I wouldn't say it was out of range, but I thought it was the best thing to do was to punt the ball in that situation.
Q: Do you envision making the call to activate Duke Dawson to the 53-man roster from injured reserve?
BB: Well, we have to make a call on it one way or the other, so yeah. We'll do that in the required period that we have to. Yeah, we'll see how it goes.
Q: Was the increase on Deatrich Wise's playtime game plan specific or has he been showing traits that would lead you to want to get him more time on the field?
BB: Yeah, probably a little bit of a combination of both. He's in on all of our groupings. He's in all of our groupings anyway. I think there may have been a couple of games that he played a little more than this, but we were in a lot of, obviously, a lot of early down defense, so he played a lot of snaps in that. I think in the end, he's probably, I would say just generally, somewhere around in the 50-percent playtime range. Not necessarily in each game, but probably over the long haul. Plus or minus that in any individual game with the depth we have at that position with Trey [Flowers], and [Adrian] Clayborn, Keionta [Davis], sometimes our outside linebackers play the up position like that - [John] Simon or [Kyle] Van Noy and [Derek] Rivers. We have a number of different people that play through there, so nobody really plays - I mean, there's a certain number of snaps that probably they're all going to get somewhere along the line depending on who's active.
Q: What has Julian Edelman meant to the offense and are you impressed with his contributions considering he's coming off the ACL injury?
BB: Well, yeah, Julian always works hard. He's very competitive. He's a tough kid. He competes hard and does a good job for us offensively and in the kicking game. He plays hard and makes yards after the catch and is a tough runner, so he's a very dependable guy for us. He's obviously an important player on our team.
Q: What are the challenges when your typical outside cornerback in Stephon Gilmore shadows a receiver - in this case, Corey Davis - who moves inside and is working mostly out of the slot?
BB: That's come up a number of times this year. We see that from most teams. Somewhere along the line their players will move around going all the way back to [DeAndre] Hopkins in Week 1 and pretty much all the way through the year. Steph's a good player. He has experience at every spot. More on the outside, as you referenced, than on the inside but he's been inside plenty. If we're matched up and that's where they put the guy that he's on if we're matched then that's where he goes.
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