Bill Belichick's take

OAKLAND, Calif. – Patriots coach Bill Belichick opened his post-game press conference with the following comments:

“It was a good win for our team today. I was really proud of the way the guys played. We talked about, going into the game, how important it was to get off to a fast start. They really came out, the opening kickoff, those first three possessions, we got some big stops on defense, the offense took advantage of the field position we got on defense and special teams and converted those into points. That was really huge for us. I’m really happy for several guys, LaMont [Jordan] and Randy [Moss] of course. They did a great job all week of helping us get prepared and I thought they both had some big plays in the game today and played very well. I’m glad they’re on our football team. They certainly helped us. The offensive line did a terrific job. We ran the ball well. The backs ran hard. I just can’t say enough about Matt Cassel. I’ve been through that myself a couple years ago, I know what that’s like. I thought he did a great job in his preparation, his focus, and showed a lot of commitment to the team. He carried us a long way today. He deserves all the accolades he gets. It was a tough situation for him but he really stood up and met the challenge and played well in not the greatest conditions out there. We’re back at it now, we have another big game coming up against Arizona. We’ll have to gear it up for them. But it’s great to come out and win these two on the West Coast, and we’ll head back to Foxborough and get ready for the Cardinals.”

Can you comment on Wes Welker, and some of his big catches, early on third down?
“Offensively, we had a lot of guys who had a lot of big plays for us. Wes and Randy, and certainly the backs. Wes has been a clutch player for us all year, and he did it again. A lot of man-to-man coverage as the Raiders always do – Rob [Ryan] and Al Davis, they have their defensive scheme, they try to get up on the receivers tight. It’s really up to those guys to get free and get away from them. They did a good job on that. I thought [offensive coordinator] Josh [McDaniels] had a great game-plan ready, and the offensive staff, those guys did a great job getting the players ready and putting us in position where we could make some plays. The players went out and made them.”

You had the three backs really getting involved. Was it a point of emphasis to spread it around?
“No, we were out there, and we had a lot of plays on offense just the way the game went. I thought all the backs ran well. They all have different styles but they’re all productive. We just tried to use everybody a little bit.”

Sammy Morris, when he stays healthy, seems to have big games for you?
“Sammy is a good player, a good back, he catches the ball well, he runs hard, he has good quickness and plays with good power. He does a lot of things well. All of our backs have been productive. They have different styles, different ways of doing it, but they gain a lot of yards for us.”

You mentioned LaMont and Randy did a great job for you leading up to the game. How do?
“They’re familiar with this team and we haven’t played them since ’05. They’re familiar with the team, their players, their tendencies, some things like that. It was helpful. They gave us some insight on how different guys played, what their strengths and weaknesses were, and that helped us in preparation too. Also, I thought we had a real good week of practice. This was LaMont’s best week in quite a while, he’s been out. He had a little bit of time last week. Randy had a great week too.”

You mentioned the fast start. Do you think last week, against Seattle, was any kind of wake-up call?
“You never want to start the game down 14-3, like we did last week. We talked about that this week, and we watched film of several games. We watched the Baltimore game, we talked about the San Diego game, we watched the Atlanta game. There were some teams that were able to get on top of the Raiders early. We felt like if we were ready to go, and did a good job in the three different phases, we might have those opportunities as well. The first kickoff, we got them inside the 10, forced a punt, had good field position, capitalized on it. Stopped them again, short punt, good field position again capitalized on it. We were able to turn those opportunities in all three areas – offense, defense, special teams, we played a good complementary game for the first 8-10 minutes of the first quarter. That was huge for us. We talked about it all week and the guys were really focused and prepared. They did a great job executing.”

Did you sense anything in the week leading up to the game that Randy had a little extra excitement coming back here?
“I don’t know, Randy practices well all the time. He really does. He’s a good practice player. He’s a good game player. He’s always excited to play. He always looks forward to the plays we have in that game-plan and the way they play their coverages, and how to attack it, and the opportunities that he has as well as the rest of the offense. I don’t mean it like this was something that was unusual. He had a real good week of practice and he played well. But he practices well every week, he really does. I think offensively, we had some opportunities to move the ball and scored points, and we took advantage of it.”