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Bill's take
Comments from Bill Belichick's post-game press conference:
Opening statement
“It’s a good win today, it’s always tough against the Dolphins. It always is. It was a hard-fought game. Luckily, we were able to come up with a couple of turnovers, and were able to capitalize on them offensively. They are a hard team to move the ball against and they can move it offensively, as we saw there, especially in the second quarter when we had a hard time with them. That is a good football team, it was a tough game, and I’m proud of the way our players played. We came back off a couple of tough weeks here with Denver and Cincinnati, and then Miami in town. They’ve worked hard, they prepared well, and I thought for the most part we got a competitive level of execution. It was pretty competitive. It’s good to win, it’s good to win in the division. We have a little break here coming up, so hopefully we can get some things improved and corrected. We need to, and be ready to play a better football game against Buffalo. It looks like from what I’ve seen the last couple of weeks that they’re improved. That’s where we’re at.”
What was Miami doing defensively that made it hard to move the ball?
“They’re just good. They have a lot of good football players. They pressured us. They mixed it up, like they always do. They pressured, they covered, they blitz zoned. Their front seven is tough. They’re tough to block. They can rush the passer, their corners are really competitive – they get up there and jam you the whole game. It’s hard to get away from them. They’re a good defensive football team. They hardly give up points to anybody. Luckily, we had a couple of turnovers that set us up in good field position, but we had trouble moving the ball against them, like everybody does. Nick [Saban] does a good job, their players are good – Jason Taylor, he’s tough. Their inside guys – Carter, Traylor, Wilkinson. They’re all tough.”
Mike Wright had a good day on special teams. Could you comment on his performance?
“I think it might have been marred by one penalty if I’m not mistaken. Otherwise, Mike has done a good job for us. He’s come along, didn’t really play in the kicking game at all as a rookie. This year, we put him on a couple of different teams. He’s a physical guy, plays with great effort. He’s tough. The rules being what they are now, where you can’t block guys below the waist, the people that are big like Mike – who can run and are physical – it’s hard to block them without cutting them. He really uses his size to his advantage. He’s aggressive and surprisingly for his size he’s pretty athletic and agile in the open field. He’s given us a good, physical presence in the kicking game.”
How big were the turnovers today and then being able to convert on them?
“It was huge. We’ve been going for too many games here at the start of the season without any turnovers. Then they’re kind of coming in spurts here. We got a few last week and we got some this week – four today, with the punt situation on fourth down, where we were able to tackle the punter. That gave us good field position, not that we were able to convert it. At least we had the ball at midfield instead of our own 5 or 10-yard line. That’s huge. Those turnovers are huge. It puts you on a short field and offensively, we did a good job capitalizing on a couple of our opportunities there. That was big. The blocked field goal was big, keeping them off the board. Mare missed one there at the end but it could have easily been a one-score game. Our special teams and field-goal rush, that was big getting the kick there early. It’s tough kicking conditions out there. I’m sure part of that was that it wasn’t a perfect kick. Still, it’s good to keep them off the board.”
Harrington for Culpepper – how much of a difference is that change?
“They basically ran their offense. Both of them are good quarterbacks. I thought Culpepper played well last week at the end of the Houston game, brought them back. Harrington made some good throws today, hitting Welker down the middle, and did a good job on a few of those possession passes. They’re both good quarterbacks. They have a good offensive team – good skill position players, good receivers, good runners. McMichael [at tight end]. They’re a tough team to match up on. You have to try to get some pressure, and force the ball out early. We were able to at least limit some of the completions to short yardage. Harrington, we talked about him all week as it looked like he was getting more practice time. We upped our preparations, but we always have to be ready for the backup guys.”
Did you do anything differently on Welker in the second half?
“We doubled up a little more in the second half. We doubled some in the first half. I think Ellis and Artrell, and guys that were on him, just trying to mix it up a little bit. He’s tough to cover. He was their second-leading receiver coming into the game and probably their leading receiver now after he tore us up. He’s a hard guy to handle. He’s quick and he’s fast, and he catches the ball well. You don’t want to give him too much room, but you get up there too tight on him, he can run by you.”
Did they make more of an effort to get the ball out quickly?
“They do that anyway. They like to run the ball and throw quick passes. You just don’t want to give up any big plays on those shots, and be competitive on the underneath possession passes…”
On Stephen Gostkowski’s performance...
“I think Stephen has really kicked the ball well all year. He’s had a couple, like everybody, that could have been better than others. But he kicked off great this week, had a couple good field goals this week. Maybe the kickoffs weren’t quite as good [today]. But he’s been a good, consistent player for us, since all the way back in the preseason games. We have a lot of confidence in him. He’s just getting better, he and [snapper] Lonie [Paxton] and [holder] Josh [Miller] – that operation is getting better. Hopefully we can continue to build on it. We know the conditions are going to get tougher here as the year goes on, with the wind and the weather and all that. We’ve had some nice days, but we know those aren’t going to last. We all know that. There are more challenges ahead.”
Was it tough footing for a kicker today?
“You saw the field. Tough footing for everyone.”
Going for it on fourth down with a couple minutes left and a 10-point lead, what was behind that thinking?
“We tried to kick a field goal against the Jets [in Week 2]. Really, thinking back on it, that was a poor decision on my part. It was the only way we could lose, was to get a kick blocked and get it run back. [Today], they’re a long way away with no timeouts, and really one play ices the game for us. We were able to make that play, and if we got another chance with the Jets’ situation, I probably would have gone for it on that one, too.”
Troy Brown played defense last week and today he’s the leading receiver … could you comment on his performance?
“He’s amazing. He kind of splits up the week in practice and meeting time. He does the offensive stuff and then comes over and does the defensive stuff for a day. Then he kind of splits time at the end of the week, so he’s ready to go on everything. That’s the kind of guy he is – it doesn’t matter what it is: offense, defense, special teams. I’m always happy to see him have success, because I think if anybody deserves it in this league, he does, as hard as he works, as competitive as he is, as tough as he is, he just always does things right. It’s good see things working out for a guy like that. He’s a great team player.”
Is there any specific message you leave the team with heading into the bye week?
“I think we’re at the same place as we’ve been every week. There are still things we need to do better. We need to keep improving as a team. I think we’ve made progress over the first five weeks of the season. But we have a long way to go. We’re not there yet. ...”
