FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick said the team has plenty of room for improvement following its 16-9 victory over the Oakland Raiders, but he'll obviously take the final result.
"That was kind of a grind-it-out game for us," he said. "I thought the players did a good job of making the plays we had to make here at the end of the game; good situational football, did a pretty good job of handling that. Defensively, any time you can keep a team out of the end zone, you have to feel good about that. We had some good plays in the kicking game. I thought [Matthew] Slater's kickoff return was really a heads-up play. They were trying to pin us down there on that mortar kick and had a couple good coverage plays. Offensively, we were able to score enough points. We missed some opportunities down in the red zone, which we have to convert more of those, but all in all, I thought it was a hard-fought game, like most of them are in this league. I think our players hung in there and kind of ground it out. Good to be 2-1."
A few other soundbites from Belichick:
On Vince Wilfork's game-sealing interception, the third of his career: "Second one against Oakland too, right? That was a huge play. We were in a three-man rush there and kind of trying to take away any shot play into the end zone and the play got batted around the middle. We all know the kind of athletic ability Vince has and hands. He's done that before; making one-handed grabs, so this was easy. He got two hands on it. But it was a huge play. It was a big turnover for us. Defensively we didn't get a lot of real good turnover opportunities in this game but that was one. We capitalized on it. That was the difference. Once again, to have the edge in turnovers is a big key to winning in this league. That was a big one."
On six accepted penalties for 59 yards: "It was one of the best things we did today. We had fewer penalties in all three phases of the game. That was certainly a positive. We need to play more that way. It wasn't perfect but that was an improvement in all three areas."
On the defensive pass interference call against Logan Ryan: "We'll have to take a look at that DPI call. I'm not sure about that one. But yeah, Logan competes hard. He's played well for us -- this year and last year when he's had the opportunity. He's tackled well, competes hard, tough kid. He made some big plays for us; he always does that. ... I had a good look at it. I'd just say I don't know about that one."
