Bill Belichick addresses the media Monday.
It's a short night, so suffice it to say, we are running a little bit on fumes here this afternoon, but good fumes. It was a real solid effort by our players last night. I'm really proud of the way they played. The Steelers are a good football team. It's tough to go into Pittsburgh and win there. But it was a solid effort by our team all the way around. We got good work from all three phases – good complementary football. We were able to take advantage of field position that we had, that we created defensively with the offense and vice versa. In the end, it was just a few more plays last night. It was a good feeling, but it's really time to move the page, turn the page and move onto the Colts. It should be another big challenge this week. We certainly know what their about and the success they have. So it's going to be on to Indy. It already is onto Indy. It'd be nice to sit around and celebrate this one for a while, but there's just no time for that.
Vince Wilfork made some interesting comments yesterday on the physical play of the defense against the Steelers and credited the game plan.
"I totally 110 percent agree [that this was our most physical performance of the season], because the calls we had in allowed us to be aggressive," Wilfork said. "From the coaches to the players, we never second-guessed out there when we made a call. When a call got sent in, it was just, everybody was so tuned in and knew exactly what they needed to do and it allowed us to play aggressive and hard."
"When we got this game plan, it was like, 'Man, I love it. I love it,'" Wilfork said. "Like I said, it allowed us to play physical and play aggressive. And that's how we played."
TEAM TALK
- Erik Scalavino tells us what's ahead for Colts Week.
- Monday Press Conference - Bill Belichick (26.50 min. video) Plus transcript.
- Patriots Today - Pats rise up in Pittsburgh. (4.15 min. video)
- Patriots Today - Gronk shines in Pats' win. (2.31 min. video)
- Locker Room Uncut - Reaction from the winning locker room. (3.39 min. video)
LOCAL LINKS
- Ian Rapoport analyzes the Patriots' pass rush from Sunday's game and how it worked so well.
- Ian Rapoport charts how the Pats pass rushers got the job done.
- Mark Farinella notes the Patriots defense admitted they couldn't wait to play Sunday, especially after being humbled the week before.
- Shalise Manza Young reports better practices were the difference between Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
- Brian MacPherson reports that Belichick didn't pull out any new tricks against Roethlisberger, the defenders just executed the game plan well.
- Bob Ryan writes Coach Belichick is happy, but don't expect him to get all gooey over his team's stunning conquest of the Steelers.
- Chris Gasper writes that 'Brady should have come out postgame in hospital scrubs after the way he operated against Steelers's vaunted defense'.
- Tedy Bruschi breaks down the Patriots impressive win with five observations.
- Tom E. Curran says Belichick is just fine with Brady's leadership style.
- Beth Teitell talks about Tom Brady's new deal, ditching Nike for Under Armour.
- Mark Farinella focuses on Rob Gronkowski's stellar performance Sunday.
- Mike Reiss takes a closer look at the Patriots defensive plan against the Steelers.
- Mike Reiss analyzes the snaps played by offensive skill-position players in Sunday's 39-26 win over the Steelers.
- Mike Reiss notes that Sunday was Bill Belichick's 138th win, which moved him into an 11th place tie with Paul Brown on the all-time coaching wins list.
- Mike Reiss looks at the Patriots season breakdown in sacks allowed per pass play. They now rank 6th in the NFL.
- Mike Reiss looks at the positional groupings utilized by the Patriots in their 39-26 win over the Steelers.
- Mike Reiss reports the Patriots are tied for fifth in the NFL in turnover differential.
- WEEI Patriots Monday Highlights: Brandon Meriweather - Vince Wilfork - Bill Belichick.
- WEEI highlights Boomer Esiason on the Dennis & Callahan show.
- Ron Borges Week 10 Patriots Report Card.
- Mark Farinella lists his Hots and Nots from the Steelers game.
- Ian Rapoport Patriots Notebook: Belichick says Tom Brady is just as intense at practice as he was shown to be during the Pittsburgh game; Belichick publicly shrugged off the cheap shots at Brady after the whistle; A good week of practice made all the difference; Welker had his strongest game of the season; Pats-Steelers drew the highest local ratings, even with the game decided before the 4th quarter.
NATIONAL NEWS
- Tim Graham (ESPN) Should Patriots top Power Rankings again?
- Mike Chappell (Indy Star) Colts-Patriots: Simply the best.
- Indy Star Manning vs. Brady: Who has the edge?
- Dan Shaugnessy (SI) Pats' Belichick in midst of finest coaching job of his career.
- NFL.com Drive of the Week: Tom Brady guides the Patriots on a 10-play, 78-yard scoring drive to start the 3rd quarter on the road vs. the Steelers. (5.15 min. video)
- Jerome Bettis (SI) Predicting how divisions will shake out with seven weeks remaining.
- Michael Lombardi (NFL.com) Still waiting for dominant team to emerge amid surprises.
- Ed Bouchette (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Debacle blueprint of things to come?
- Ed Bouchette (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Steelers' Reed says bad turf contributed to missed field goal.