After an intense full-pads practice on Tuesday, Bill Belichick gave his Patriots players the day off. So just what did Belichick and his staff do with the day?

"We played golf - golf, bowling, a little badminton tournament, ate some watermelon, played cards...(It was) all about the Jets, other than the pony rides and canoeing," he quipped.

See, the man can be funny.

At any rate, here's some of the other topics he touched on:

The ramifications of Monday night's game
"There’s a lot of football left. There’s still a third of the season to go. There’s a lot of football left. It will be a different story every week. This happens, that happens, something else happens, it will be this, and next week it will be another one, and next week there will be another one. There will be five different scenarios in the next five weeks. I’m not worried about that."

If Pats players are energized after some time off
"I think anytime you have some time off, you have that energy, but you also have to get back into it. So, it’s a little bit of both. There’s an energy, but there’s also getting back into the flow of it. When you’re doing it every single day, there’s something to be said for that and there’s also a little bit of a grind to doing that – it’s sort of the flip side of it. If you can’t get ready for this week, then I don’t know when you can get ready to go. If you like football, this is a good week to be playing."

The growth of Mark Sanchez
"Like any young player, you can see his improvement. He’s shown a lot of poise this year in big games, games at the end when he’s had to drive the team or make plays at the end of the game for them to win, and he and his teammates have made them. He’s done a good job of managing games, making big plays when he has to. He’s taken care of the ball better this year. He’s improved in all areas. He’s got good players to throw it to in Santonio Holmes, [Braylon] Edwards, [Jerricho] Cotchery, [Dustin] Keller, Brad Smith, [LaDainian] Tomlinson, Shonn Green – there’re a lot of good players there."

If it bothers him as a defensive-minded coach that his team is 31st in total defense
"We play to win the games. That’s what our goal is...There are a lot of things that we can do better as a football team – things we can do better as coaches, players, as a team – absolutely. There’s a lot of room for improvement."

Why Aaron Hernandez was successful in the Week 2 game (6 catches for 101 yards):
"A couple of times he beat man coverage and broke a tackle. He broke a tackle on two of those catches. So, anytime you can break a tackle in man coverage, it’s usually a ways until the next guy can get you because everybody’s tied up in man-to-man. So, there are opportunities for big plays in man coverage if you can get by the guy that’s covering you, either get open or he misses the tackle or whatever it is. The flip side of it is, usually, after you catch the ball in man coverage, the guy’s usually close enough that he can make the tackle and you can limit those yards as opposed to zone where sometimes there’s some space in the zones depending on the route and the throw and so forth. If you can split those zones, there are more run-after-catch opportunities. That’s really the way it always is in man-to-man coverage."