Patriots defensive lineman Vince Wilfork addresses the media during his postgame press conference at Gillette Stadium, on Sunday, December 19, 2010.
Q: In the end there did you like the pressure at the end to force the stop?
VW: It is something that we always talk about as a defense, offense or whatever situation. As a defender, I love being in situations like that. It gives you a chance to win a ball game. I think we came up big. This game wasn't perfect [but] at the end of the day W's are what count. Good teams find a way to win, especially in December. I tip my hat to Green Bay because they came out here fired up and played a hell of a ball game. [Matt] Flynn did a hell of a job. Looking at this week he ran the offense pretty well. We weren't shocked that he was going to come out and perform well it was just all about us executing. At times we did it well and at times we didn't. Like I said, good football teams find a way to win. You saw today, people rose to the occasion. When the offense needed to score they scored, and when we [defense] needed to make a stop we made a stop. Special teams came up big so I am not sad [with] a victory. I am not worried about how we won, but there are things that we can clean up and get better at. We won, we will look at corrections and move on because we are going to have to win more ball games than this if we want to get where we want to be.
Q: Talking about special teams, do you want to talk about [Dan] Connolly's return?
VW: He should get the game ball, I am telling you that right now. To do what he did ... He really got us pumped. Just to see a big guy running down the field like that - if it were me I would have had to take a time out or get subbed in or something but he went out and finished the series. The offense capped it off with seven points. Hats go off to him; he deserves the game ball in my mind.
Q: Did you teach him how to carry it?
VW: He got us to where we needed to get. He got us seven points. Coming into this game we talked about field position, special teams, defense, offense and taking advantage of situations. At times it was shaky but at the same time we made the plays we needed to make at the times we needed to make them. I'll never sit here and complain about certain plays. When you play football the only thing that counts in the end is if you win or lose. I don't care how great you are. If you lose, you lost, and I don't care how bad you are. If you win, you won a ball game. We won a tough ball game. The last couple of weeks we have played some good football teams and handled them pretty well. To give up 27 points and play a little inconsistent at times, people may be upset. Do I want to blow [teams] out every time? Yeah, but it doesn't happen like that. We got the W. There are some things that we can definitely learn from in this game but I am not taking back that we played our tails off. We got off to a slow start but we made plays to get the job done and now we sit back with a W and we want to enjoy it.
Q: Can you use this game as a wake up call for Buffalo?
VW: Buffalo has been playing some tough games all year. All year they have been playing pretty good ball. They have put up some good points and they are very explosive on offense. [Ryan] Fitzpatrick, he has been throwing the heck out of the ball. The running game, [Fred] Jackson is probably one of the most underrated [running] backs in the league. He's a hell of a back. We are going to have to play some ball. Especially in a division game you can't look at a record and say, 'this is a win'. You can't do that, especially in the NFL and this being a division game. We have to come to play in Buffalo. Like I said, good teams find a way to win especially when it is late in the season. We have to rally around each other and continue to do what we have been doing, which is preparing well, practicing well, and being good in situational football and being able to execute. It is going to need to continue next week.
