Patriots coach Bill Belichick was mostly happy with his team's 31-21 victory over the Broncos, but as always with the coach, there's room for improvement. The Pats had to hold on to protect what had been a 24-point lead.
"It was a good solid win for us," Belichick said. "We've still got to work on playing 60 full minutes and doing everything right all the time, but we did enough things today so it was good to come out of there with a win. That's a good football team."
Belichick praised his backs and offensive line after the Patriots churned out 251 yards on the ground, playing mostly in a no-huddle offense. Belichick said the idea with the no-huddle, was not to only past fast but also to keep the Broncos from substituting defensively and he was happy with the execution.
"We played at a good tempo, we played fast," he said. "[The linemen's] conditioning and hard work all through practice, training camp and all that, to go out there and not only block them, but play at a high-tempo and do it with good conditioning, good technique and all that was good."
As for the matchup between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, Belichick had praise for both quarterbacks. "That's two great players, obviously. Two great, great players," he said. "They're both great. There's nobody I'd rather have than Tom Brady, but Manning's a great player."
Belichick was also asked about the decision to go for it on fourth down in the fourth quarter from the Denver 37-yard line. Brady was sacked on the play, giving the Broncos a short field to work on and they eventually scored making it, 31-21.
"[It was] too far for a field goal and the ball was on the 30-whatever-yard-line, so I was trying to pick up the first down. We didn't have very far to go," Belichick said. "We would have gained some yardage possibly, depending on how good the punt was. I thought we had a good chance to pick it up there, we just didn't do a good job on it."
For more Patriots news, visit the team page at weei.com/patriots [1].
Links:
[1] http://www.weei.com/teams/patriots/home
[2] http://www.weei.com/category/boston/patriots