Head Coach Bill Belichick
(opening statement)
"First of all, it was a great win by these guys tonight. Really proud of the way the team competed coming off a short week and getting ready for a team that's obviously not only a good football team, but a hard team to prepare for offensively, defensively and in the kicking game, they present a lot of schematic problems. I thought our guys really put a lot of extra time and effort into the preparation and then went out there and competed really hard for 60 minutes. It was a tough, physical game and proud of the way our guys played. We ran the ball pretty competitively, stopped the run competitively, took advantage of our scoring opportunities and just played a good solid 60-minute football game, which is what it takes against the Ravens. So really proud of the way the guys competed and I think we just got to continue to work hard and grind away and see if we can improve and do some things better next week than what we did this week. But we'll just keep making steady progress and we're definitely headed in the right direction here. So great to win, but look forward to the challenge of getting ready to go again next week and developing some consistency here."
(on dealing with the rainy conditions)
"It got progressively worse as the game went along. It wasn't bad at the beginning and then just a little precipitation, a little rain there at the end. But, again, we practice in that during the course of the year and handle the wet ball and all that, so whatever we get, we get. I thought that the hardest part was really the, Jake handling the ball on the punts and the field goals. Those are tough plays. But just in general, David and Cam on the shotgun snaps and the ball handling there, they did a good job on that. Gunner, ball handling there. Some of the Ravens had some trouble with that, but I thought overall we executed those pretty well, which was good. It was good."
(on the Patriots' run defense)
"Yeah, I thought overall we played the running game fairly well. Jackson got a few yards outside and on some quarterback scrambles that were really pass plays. But overall Ingram, I think he only had a few yards, Dobbins only had a few yards, Edwards, had a couple of cutback runs that hurt us and Jackson scrambled around a little bit, got a few yards there. But yeah, overall, certainly played much, much better than we did last year. John or Lawrence Guy and Carl Davis, Cowart, Adam, Wise, those guys did a nice job of really taking care of things inside and, as always with the Ravens, a lot of problems come on the edge of the formation. So it was challenging for us, but overall we were at least competitive on it."
(on Jakobi Myers earning the trust on the trick play)
"Well, he can throw it, so I mean, I think you saw that. He made a nice pass and a great catch by Rex."
(on how much the game was determined at the line of scrimmage)
"Well, the Ravens threw for a couple hundred yards and they converted some third downs and all that, so, you know, it certainly wasn't all runs, but that's a big part of it. You try to play the running game well against the Ravens and try to get them off track and create some longer yardage situations, but again, they're a well-balanced offense. They have a good quarterback. They have a good running game and really have good receivers and good tight ends, so they're not an easy team to stop. But I thought we were competitive in all areas and ultimately made enough plays to win, but it's not easy. Like I said, they're a good offense."
QB Cam Newton
(on the trick play touchdown)
"I think Jakobi has always been able to throw it. And I was teasing with him before the play was called. I said, 'Don't panic now.' He said, 'I got to take off my gloves. I got to take off my gloves. I got to do it so they won't recognize nothing.' So he took off one glove. He takes off another one. I'm like, 'What are you doing?' He says, 'I got to take off another one, bro.'And he did pretty good without being able to, say, warm up or anything. And the height was cover on that play, which was me. Goes to show you the respect in the passing game. But he did a great job. And Burky, only thing he knows how to do is just score touchdowns and he just made a big play for the team."
(on the amount of poise to throw that pass in those conditions)
"Once a quarterback, always a quarterback. I'm pretty sure Julian Edelman is somewhere smiling and, but nervous at the same time, if you know what I mean."
(on the difficulty of handling the ball in a torrential downpour)
"We had a couple close calls with trying to gather the snap. Obviously it was a factor for them. But having the mentality to stay mentally tough throughout that whole tsunami it felt like, we just wanted to make sure that we do great things while we have the football, protecting the football, making great decisions. It affected just a throw or two for me. But just being in manageable situations kind of helps too."
(on not turning the ball over)
"That's big. That's extremely big for to us play complementary football in those situations not only, you know, to score, it's the timeliness of those scores. Like you said, right at the end of the half, for J.C. to get a much needed pick to stop their surge, trying to score before the half and for us to come back, getting the ball back and capitalizing on that, I think we have done that two weeks in a row and that's just to keep the momentum in our favor. So for us, those are big momentum shifts and we got to just keep it throughout the game. We just got to find ways to score when we get inside the 5 like that and I know we will."
(on the Patriots' rushing attack)
"Yeah, listen, everything that coach coaches throughout the week, it tends to come up and I'm beginning to think he either has like a Staples easy button or a Buffalo Wild Wings button or just a straight direct line to the football gods because he's, like, a football whisperer when it comes to anticipating what the game's going to be like, how we need to win, and things like that. I'm extremely impressed with that. But for me, trying to find ways to keep this team in a manageable situation offensively is one of the things that I have to keep doing and keep doing a better job of."
(on Belichick predicting it would come down to the line of scrimmage)
"Well, we have our keys to victory and week-in and week-out, Coach hammers it in each and every day with reminding us about, you know, If we're going to win, this is what we're going to have to do. And I'm just excited that the offensive line was able to, like you said, impose their will and play a great team and this was going to be a great test for us and we knew that and for our guys not to back down, but take it more upon themselves as a challenge, and obviously they did a good job."
RB Damien Harris
(on his career-high 121 rushing yards)
"It's huge. Helps me build confidence to continue to go out there and try to do my job. I wouldn't have had any of the success that I had tonight without the guys up front, and that's first and foremost. I have to give all that to them. They've been so good all year and they've really been the anchor of our offense and they're what makes us go. I can't even put it into words how important our offensive line is to our team. All the credit in the world of those guys. I love all those guys. They made my job a lot easier, so I'm incredibly thankful to have that offensive line to run behind. I'm incredibly thankful to be a New England Patriot. I'm kind of overcome with emotion right now. So, I'm sorry if I'm a little too excited but, you know, I am on cloud nine right now. That was a tough game in that kind of weather. Ever since I've been here I've been hearing all these stories about New England weather around November, so I guess that was my first my first taste of it and I loved every second of it. So I'm just super happy right now."
RB Rex Burkhead
(on his trick play touchdown catch)
"It's something we've been working on, definitely. Just kind of try to sneak out there, and I saw the linebacker coming out with me. I didn't know if a guy was over the top too, so I was kind of surprised when Jakobi threw it. And he threw an absolutely perfect pass right in there for me to make the easy catch. That just shows how great of an athlete Jakobi is. I've been one of his biggest fans ever since he's gotten here. He's just a playmaker and has no fear, has all the confidence in the world to go out there and make a play. He did that there and it was big-time moment for us in the game."
(on what it means to win a game like this)
"It was huge. That's a great team that we played tonight, give them a ton of credit. I mean, in all three phases they're very well coached. Offensively, defensively, special teams even. They definitely are a great team and it was huge for us. We were hoping to build off of our win last week against the Jets and we really had a great week of preparation and practice and stacking days on top of each other. So we had confidence going into the game, as long as we executed, controlled the line of scrimmage and were physical throughout the game, we knew we could come out victorious. And that's what we did."
(on the importance of ball security in the rain)
"Yeah, very. Like you said, we always preach about it. Always keep it at the highest importance. Especially with the Ravens. I think they're number one in the league in getting the ball off the other team and turnover ratio and all that. We knew that's something that they always preach, that's an important thing for them. Even without the weather, and you add that factor in and we even make sure we hold onto the ball even more. Especially when it was kind of monsooning there at the end, the rain was really coming down, that was a big focus for us as running backs."
DB J.C. Jackson
(on getting an interception in five straight games)
"I mean, I'm a playmaker, man. I know how to play the ball pretty well. I feel like I become the receiver. When I go up for the ball, I become the receiver and I make a play on the ball, every chance I get."
WR Jakobi Meyers
(on the touchdown pass)
"It was something we practiced over the past couple weeks, just never know when it's going to come up. I'm surprised that it came up during the rain game, but you know I still got a little bit. And I know I had Rex out there. I mean Rex is a playmaker. A former basketball player I mean, I trust Rex. Put the ball in the sky, let him take a chance on the ball. So, I just put the ball up there, he did the rest."
(on if there was any hesitation to throw the pass)
"Nah, I was throwing that up regardless. Once I saw what back we had in and when I saw the leverage he had on him, I knew I was giving him a chance regardless"
DB Adrian Phillips
(on the game plan against Lamar Jackson and the Ravens)
"Yeah it was mainly just keep the ball out of his hands. If he did keep the ball, get him down as quickly as possible. We knew they were an offense that loves to run the ball and they love to get to the edge of the defense. That was pretty much our whole game plan, do not let them get to the edge. They ended up getting to the edge a couple of times. Mainly just keep those guys contained and make them play behind the sticks and that is what we did. We did that with a variety of different looks and it ended up working out well for us because they could not pick up on it."
(on how the weather was a factor for the Ravens' offense)
"They like to run the ball so I do not know if it really affected them that much. I know that they had a couple of bad snaps, I want to say four of them, that they wish they could have back. Other than that, that is perfect for their offense. For a team like them, you want it raining out there, you want the bad weather games because now it plays into what they do. Once we ended up taking the lead it ended up working out badly for them because they had to throw the ball and it was hard to catch in that weather. Once we took the lead it ended up helping us a lot."
