Postgame Transcript – WK8 NYJ – Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick
Head Coach Bill Belichick
Opening statement…
It’s a really good day for our team today. This is a typical tough division game down here. Give the Jets a lot of credit. It’s a good football team. They really played well defensively. They gave us plenty of problems. We had trouble that last quarter and a half really doing much. They’re really well-coached. A good front. C.J. Mosley was all over the field. I don’t know how many tackles he had. It seemed like he must have had 15 or 20, but we hung in there and got enough plays out of all three units: offense, defense and special teams. (We had) some big turnovers defensively and a big play by (Jabrill) Peppers recovering the onside kick. It’s the kind of play they beat Cleveland with in Week (Three). Good division win on the road. Good Jets team. They do a good job. Like I said, defensively, they’re tough. We knew that coming in and they certainly played to it. Good to get out of here with a win in the division and we’ll move on. I’m proud of the way the team stepped up on a short week and got the win today.
On what he saw from Mac Jones and the offense today…
It was a big halftime swing – a 10-point swing really. We got the field goal at the end of the half on the last play and then started the third quarter with points. I thought Mac did a good job today. He got the ball out quickly. We gave up some pressure but I thought he did a good job taking care of the ball. And (Rhamondre) Stevenson is obviously just a tremendous back. He makes a lot of yards on his own making solid yards after contact. I thought Mac did a great job, Stevenson, Jakobi (Meyers). Some guys really stepped up for us and made some plays offensively that we needed. Again, good team defensive effort all the way around. We had some good pass rush, turned the ball over, tacked better. We gave up a couple of big plays, but other than those, we played pretty competitively. (They’re) a good fourth quarter team. Nobody is better than the Jets are in the fourth quarter. To hang in with them in fourth quarter, we knew that was going to be a challenge, and it was. We stepped up to it, so that was good.
On what it means to get his 325th victory…
I’ll be able to talk about that when it’s over. We’ll add them up at the end. It’s good to come down here and win. I’m happy for our team and appreciate all the great players we’ve had who’ve won those games. We had a couple of them in the locker room besides our players. Guys like (Devin) McCourty and (Matthew) Slater, (Jerrod) Mayo, Troy Brown. Those guys won a lot of games for us, for me, so those are team wins.
On special teams…
Nick (Folk) was great as usual. He put it right down the middle. I thought we covered well. Marcus (Jones) did a good job with ball handling. We had an explosive play on punt return. We had a good play on a kickoff return on the miss at kickoff. We got it back up to the 35. I thought we took advantage of some opportunities. That’s the best special teams unit in the league, the Jets, at least statistically. They played to it. They’re tough, but I thought we stepped up there and battled them and made our share of plays in the game.
On if Jack Jones got his hands on the missed field goal…
I couldn’t tell you. With my eyes?
On if he was impressed with Jones’ toughness or decision making…
Decisions for sure. Mac’s tough. There’s never any doubt about that. Mac’s a tough kid. I thought he made some good decisions, managed the game well, managed our team well. That’s what a quarterback’s job is to do is to help the team win. That’s what he did.