What Bill Belichick had to say about the Patriots clinching a playoff berth
"This is what you play for. You play to keep playing."
The Patriots officially clinched an 11th straight playoff appearance with Sunday’s 34-13 win over the Bengals. Bill Belichick praised his team’s decisive win in the turnover battle, as New England recorded five takeaways while giving none to Cincinnati.
“Anytime you can have the kind of advantage we had in turnovers, and be able to get some of those in the end zone, that’s a good thing,” Belichick told reporters after the game. “Proud of the way our team competed.”
Despite being pregame favorites, the Patriots were unexpectedly trailing after the first quarter, 10-7. And after the Bengals’ defense forced a turnover on downs, things appeared to have gone from bad to worse. Yet New England’s defense rose up to make a fourth-down stop of its own on the ensuing possession.
“They were big momentum plays,” said Belichick of the defense’s fourth and one stop on Bengals running back Joe Mixon in the second quarter. “Certainly we were on the run a little bit after the first drive and they made a stop on third and [two], and then came in there with our goal line defense on fourth down and looked like we got a real good surge inside. Adam [Butler], Danny [Shelton], that was a big play for us.”
Belichick also singled out Matthew Slater for his work in causing a fumble on Bengals returner Alex Erickson. The turnover helped New England get a field goal before halftime and take a 13-10 lead.
“Matt works very hard on those plays in coverage,” said Belichick, “downing the ball, timing of the tackle and the contact of the receiver and s0 forth.”
One theme of the game was that both teams — who haven’t run the ball well for much of the season — averaged more than five yard per carry. Belichick admitted it wasn’t his defense’s best performance in stopping the run, though he credited Mixon for some of Cincinnati’s success.
“We’re working at it,” Belichick noted of the run defense. “I mean we’ve played the run pretty solidly all year, but had trouble today. I mean I don’t think too many people would’ve predicted both teams would rush for over five yards per carry, or whatever it was. I don’t know, it seemed like something like that. It was a lot. We ran the ball well, and they ran it better than we wanted to run it, but again I think you have to give Mixon a lot of credit.
“This guy’s as good as any back we’ve played all year,” Belichick added of the 23-year-old Mixon.
Still, the major takeaway from the game for the Patriots was clinching a postseason appearance.
“This is what you play for,” Belichick said. “You play to keep playing. You win three, four, five games, I mean there are big wins along the way there, but you don’t really get anything for winning that, five, six, seven wins in this league. That doesn’t matter, but when you can win enough to play in the postseason, that’s one of our goals. So it’s a good thing. We’ll be able to continue our season.”
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