Brady: They all count the same
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was in a considerable sunnier mood during his postgame press conference today than he was a week ago, when he didn’t attempt to hide his frustration with the Patriots’ 28-14 loss to the Jets.
That’s the difference a win makes.
After the Patriots’ 38-30 victory over the winless Buffalo Bills, the Patriots quarterback made a point to note that all victories count equally, no matter the opponent.
“At the end of the year when you look at your record, going ‘Oh that was a close game, it counts for a half a win.’ A win’s a win. It doesn’t really matter if you win by 50 or by 1,” said Brady, who completed 21 of 27 passes for 252 yards and three touchdowns as the Patriots improved to 2-1.
“Because the following week, it really makes no difference how you did the previous week. It’s like a chapter. Once this chapter’s over, you move on. You don’t sit there and reflect, ‘Well last week we lost by 30. This week we won by 7, so we’re still a crappy team.’ No, you’re 1-1. The goal is to win the game. It’s really not a matter of ‘That was a great looking win or that was a bad win.’ You’re trying to win.”
Brady also expounded on his role as a leader on a team that is leaning on a number of young players in key roles, noting that it’s something he is aware of not only on game day, but pretty much all the time.
“It’s a daily basis,” Brady said. “It’s practice. It’s meetings. It’s walk-throughs. It’s games. It’s Mondays. It’s Tuesdays. It’s not like you can be very inconsistent. It’s not like coach [Bill] Belichick is very inconsistent. What we get from him on a daily basis is we are expected to perform every day. So I think that’s how you get the best out of your players. It’s not like, ‘Hey guys, everything’s great.’ And the next day, ‘Everything sucks.’ And then ‘everything’s great.’ And then you ride that roller coaster. You can’t do that. It’s a long season. We’ve got to continue to make improvements. You build on the good things. And you figure out what the bad things are and try to make improvements on them.”
One of the particularly good things for Brady Sunday was a 9-yard run to pick up a critical first down in the third quarter, which concluded with an animated reaction from the quarterback.
“I was just excited,” he said. “I always say I’m the slowest guy on the field, so it’s probably the last thing [the Bills] were working on. I just got out and there was nobody there so it was a pretty easy first down. They were in man coverage and I got flushed a little and it turned out to be a good play for us.”
Brady, who had criticized the fans for leaving early during the Patriots’ opener two weeks ago, said he was pleased with the Gillette Stadium crowd today.
“I thought they were great,” he said. “I really did. I thought they were loud. It’s a great advantage for us when the crowd’s loud. They were really into it. There was some musket fire today, so that got it pretty loud. I’d say seeing [Brandon] Meriweather and Tully [Banta-Cain] on the big screen [exhorting the fans] isn’t the best-looking thing in the world, trying to get everyone fired up.”
Here’s a look at some other quotes and comments from the Bills and Patriots following the game.
PATRIOTS COACH BILL BELICHICK
On his general thoughts about the Patriots’ 38-30 win:
“Good win. Good division win. We did some good things out there but we’ve still got a lot of work to do. We had our moments where I thought we did things real well and other times we didn’t and they did. I’m still looking for a little more consistency, but it’s good to come out of there 2-1 and now we go down to Miami. So that’s where we’re at. Typical Buffalo game. It’s always tough against those guys.”
On winning a high-scoring game: “I don’t think you ever know how the game is going to go. You just go out there and try to do your best in all three phases every week. Whether it’s 3-2 or 50-49 or whatever, you just try to come out with a few more points than they do.”
On the Patriots’ success on third down (they converted 7 of 12 opportunities): Well, we’re always trying to run the best plays we can, believe it or not. We’re always trying to run the best plays, whether it’s first down, second or third down. Our efficiency was good in the second half. We had our moments. We had some good ones, some didn’t work out so well, but overall we were pretty productive on third down. We got a couple plays working in our spread offense, so that was good. It’s not perfect though. We’ve still got a lot of things to work out.”
On the running game, which accumulated 200 yards: “It was a lot better than the two yards a carry we had last week. It was productive. We got production from a lot of different types of runs. We got outside, got some inside plays, reverse . . . so I think we got a good balance out of all of it.”
On Devin McCourty’s performance so far as a rookie: “I’ll take a look at the film from today, but Devin is working hard. He’s a tough kid. He really studies the material and tries to play the technique, tries to play the defense just the way you want it played. There are still a lot of things that he or any rookie would need to learn or get experience on, but he’s a quick learner. He’s got good instincts. He tackles well. He’s tough and he runs well, so he’s got a lot of things going for him. He’s doing a good job. There’s still a lot to learn and a long way to go.”
On Danny Woodhead: “Danny really did a good job. Came in here and started grinding through it on Monday, and then Tuesday the off-day, and then Wednesday . .. he had a pretty good week. We put him in the offense in practice on Friday, and he was pretty good on all his assignments and everything he had to do. We didn’t ask him to do everything, but he’s working pretty hard at it. He’s a sharp guy.”
On the cornerback situation with Darius Butler and Kyle Arrington: “Both guys played. Kyle has been practicing well and we thought we’d give him an opportunity early in the game and made a couple plays and we stayed with it. But we have confidence in all of those guys, Darius, Jonathan (Wilhite), Devin (McCourty), Kyle, whoever else.”
PATRIOTS WIDE RECEIVER RANDY MOSS:
On playing well in the second half: Just determination and will and wanted to, that’s all. I think I said last week that I couldn’t wait for this week to get here because I knew what type of preparation we needed to be able to play a divisional game. I also knew Coach Belichick was going to work us pretty hard this week. Really, the second half, really playing four quarters and coming in after making your halftime adjustments, that’s just will and determination and just going out there and wanting to do it. They called the plays and we have to go out there and execute it as players. I think in the past we’ve stubbed our toe. But today was just good from all angles. We were able to put some points on the board in the second half, so hopefully we can build off that.”
On wearing injured teammate Kevin Faulk’s No. 33 jersey in practice Friday: “Kevin and I have followed each other since 1995 and I was asked a couple questions about his jersey, and I really didn’t want to go into that. Me and Kevin have a long history, before I even became a Patriot. What he’s accomplished here as a Patriot speaks high, high volumes, but being able to lose him for the year is very disappointing. I don’t really have an answer or an explanation for wearing his jersey. That’s my boy and I just wanted to put his jersey on to represent him. There wasn’t anything behind it, really.”
On his concerns on how the Patriots would fare on third down without Faulk: Any time you lose a player like Kevin Faulk, you have to go back to the drawing board. I’m not saying that because he’s a teammate of mine. Game recognizes game. I know he’s a hell of a ballplayer. With bringing in Woody (Danny Woodhead) . . . I like Woody. He’s a little stub guy, a little short guy. He runs hard and has some nice cuts. I’m not disrespecting him, and I know it’s hard to replace Kevin Faulk, but hopefully he can come in and be Woodhead and not try to be Kevin. I think we liked things we saw out there, not just from him — from an offensive perspective. We win as a team; we lose as a team. You can always hold your head up high when you win and lower it when you lose. We’ll just go back to the drawing board and hopefully we have a game plan for the Miami Dolphins.”
PATRIOTS RECEIVER WES WELKER
On playing a strong second half: “Yeah, we were able to go no-huddle that first drive of the second half. It really picked up the momentum for us and we were able to drive it down and score [on our first possession]. That was kind of the case the whole day and we just can’t shoot ourselves in the foot and put ourselves in bad situations. We have to be able to drive it down and put points on the board.”
On the Patriots’ unpredictability with its offensive personnel: “We were able to kind of change it up and kind of catch them in some smaller-guy sets with our big guys out there, or vice versa, and really just trying to take advantage of some mismatches.”
PATRIOTS CORNERBACK KYLE ARRINGTON
On making his first start of the season: “First drive being out there was kind of, I had to get into the game a little bit. After I felt comfortable. It didn’t feel too bad at all.”
PATRIOTS SAFETY BRANDON MERIWEATHER:
On recording his first interception of the season: It’s always nice to get a pick. It’s nice to get any. It’s always nice to get any turnover, period. But to get it at the time that it came, it’s just that much better.”
PATRIOTS LINEBACKER JEROD MAYO:
On whether the offense has to pick up the slack for a young defense: “We’re young, but these guys are hungry and they’re willing to learn. We have a great coach in coach Belichick, and he’s putting us in positions. We just have to execute better and make plays.”
PATRIOTS RUNNING BACK DANNY WOODHEAD: On what it felt like to get his first career NFL touchdown: “More than anything, it was good to help the team out. I’m not so concerned with getting my touchdown or whatever. I’m more concerned with getting the victory. We got the victory, that’s the most important thing.”
On if he feels like he’s fitting in with the team yet: “That’s the great thing about the guys in this locker room and the organization and the coaches, they made me feel comfortable right from the beginning and it’s made things a lot easier. So, yeah, definitely.”
On playing with Tom Brady for the first time: “It’s something a couple of weeks ago, I never thought would happen. But it’s definitely been great and there are a lot of great players on this team that have really just helped out and made the transition so much easier.”
PATRIOTS RUNNING BACK BENJARVUS GREEN-ELLIS:
On rushing for 98 yards: “The line — actually, everybody did a good job out there. I was just trying to do my job and run through the holes they created.”
On Danny Woodhead: “Y’all seen Danny. You know . . . it’s self-explanatory.”
BILLS QUARTERBACK RYAN FITZPATRICK
On the Bills’ approach to on offense: “Going into this game, I think what we had talked about was getting into a rhythm and keeping the offense on the field, generating first downs. You know, we did a good job of that today. Too many field goals, and the one play that kills me was that turnover in the red zone, just a ball where Roscoe (Parrish) was open and [Patrick Chung picked] it off, and then they bring it back and score. That kind of changed the game.”
On his two interceptions: “The one to Roscoe [Parrish] sailed on me a little bit and we’ll go back and look at it, but you know, basically, I’m not upset with either one of the decisions. You know, both throws and how they ended up were both high, which is upsetting. The throw to Roscoe, I could throw a hundred times. I could throw it in my sleep and I’m just disgusted that that one sailed high.”
On the missed opportunity to get a win against the Patriots: “It still hurts. Every guy in that locker room hurts right now, because we felt like, throughout the whole course of the game, we felt like we had a chance to win, and we came up short.”
BILLS RUNNING BACK C.J. SPILLER
On any silver linings for the Bills: “I thought the whole week, this was our best week of preparation, so it really wasn’t no surprise what we done out there today. Of course we wanted to get the win, but overall, I thought this past week was the best week of preparation going into a game and giving us a chance to win the game, so we’ve just got to build on that.”
BILLS LINEBACKER KEITH ELLISON:
On the unpredictability of the Patriots’ offense: “They do a good job of changing up their tendencies. You know, running when they think they will pass and passing when you think they will run. You have to give them credit for that.”
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