Brady on D&C: Ocho wants to do 'right thing'

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who passed for 386 yards and four touchdowns but threw four interceptions in Sunday's 34-31 loss to the Bills, joined the Dennis & Callahan show Monday morning for his weekly conversation as part of WEEI's Patriots Monday.

"When you lose, and you lose the way that we lost, it's a tough one to swallow," Brady said. "It was a long flight home, and I'm sure it will be a long week. But we're the only people that can really do anything about it. We have a long football season ahead. We have a bunch of meaningful games. We'll figure out what we did wrong and try to do it better moving forward."

Chad Ochocinco dropped a sure touchdown pass and was criticized for poor route-running by CBS analyst Rich Gannon, but the receiver told reporters after the game that he was pleased with his progress. Brady was asked if he agreed that Ochocinco is starting to understand the offense better.

"Yeah, he's been working hard at it," Brady said. "I think the last few weeks, he's really been much more involved in the game and playmaking. And we're going to need him. We're going to need every single player on the roster. I have a lot of confidence in Chad. He works hard, he wants to do the right thing, he studies. He spends time after practice trying to get it right. It's just been a lot for the new guys in particular, the rookies and for the veteran free agents, to really take in in a short amount of time. But we're making progress each week, and it's showing up.

"Chad is definitely making more plays for us, and that's important for our offense. They're going to have to defend everybody."

Following are more highlights from the interview.

On if Sunday's loss was a team loss: "That's what football's about. We're in it together. After the game, sticking together as a team, that's what happens. We've got to be more mentally tough than one loss. It's pretty hard to go 16-0 in the NFL. When you evaluate it, you say they made a few more plays than we did. If we make a couple of other plays, it's a different outcome.

"Even if we won yesterday, it would mask some of the problems that we're having. So, when you lose, it really exposes to everybody, OK this is what we need to do in order to win these type games. It certainly is a team loss. Believe me, I sit there and think all night about all those things I wish I'd have done better. When you're the quarterback and you're not getting the ball in the end zone as often as you'd like, and certainly when there's interceptions, you take those hard. But I tell you, it's not going to stop me from going out there and firing the ball around the field. I don't lose any confidence in what I think we're as an offense capable of doing. It's just, we've got to eliminate some of the inconsistencies that have showed up the first three weeks in order to really take our offensive football to another level.

"We showed we've got a lot of guys that can make plays for is. We're going to continually need to do that over the course of the season. If we do that, I think we're going to be pretty proud of the outcome at the end. But if we continue to play inconsistent, and if you turn the ball over -- that was something we really relied on last year to win games, we didn't turn it over much."

On Wes Welker's record-setting day and if he's relying on the receiver too much: "He's a huge part of our passing game. On a day like yesterday, we did have to rely on him. He gets open and he catches the ball and he does things with it. So, you're always focused on getting him the ball. I've got a lot of trust in what he's doing and his playmaking ability for our offense.

"There's no doubt we've got to spread the ball around. Deion [Branch], for example, who I don't think had a catch, I've got to get him the ball more. Because he's a great player for us. I think when you do just throw it to one or two guys, the defense figures it out pretty quick. It takes every single guy on the offensive side of the ball to play an efficient, smart game in order to score points. Rob [Gronkowski] made a lot of plays yesterday, and Wes did. But I've got to figure out ways to get other guys the ball."

For a transcript of the conversation, check the It Is What It Is blog. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page. For more Patriots news, visit the team page at weei.com/patriots.