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New England Patriots Links 12/20/10 - Patriots Win Close Shave At the Razor

By Marima

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<em>Kyle Arrington gets some help from Devin McCourty as he celebrates his first pick six of the season</em>.
Kyle Arrington gets some help from Devin McCourty as he celebrates his first pick six of the season.

Tom Brady comments on Dan Connolly's kickoff return.

That was the longest kickoff return ever and the longest ... I've never seen anything happen so slow in my life. It was an unbelievable play. I can never imagine anything like that is going to happen. That really was a big play in the game. If it happens, we've got to take advantage of it and Danny [made] that heads-up play, smart. They won't be kicking to him anymore, I'll tell you that.

Bill Belichick offers his post-game comments following the Patriots win over the Packers.

I think you have to give the players a lot of credit today for playing 60 minutes, fighting through some adversity and coming out with a win at the end, making enough plays to win. It certainly wasn't one of our better games and obviously I've got to do a lot better job preparing the team than what I did this week. We couldn't handle a lot of the basic things that they did and that was disappointing, but we had a few big plays there. It was a game of big plays and fortunately we were able to make a few more than they were and we got a couple good plays there at the end from the defense and the offense set us up with the lead there on the drive before. In the end it worked out, but we obviously have a lot of work to do. I think we need to play better than this or our season won't last much longer.

 Vince Wilfork responds to a question about the pressure by the Patriots defense to force the stop.

It is something that we always talk about as a defense, offense or whatever situation. As a defender, I love being in situations like that. It gives you a chance to win a ball game. I think we came up big. This game wasn't perfect [but] at the end of the day W's are what count. Good teams find a way to win, especially in December. I tip my hat to Green Bay because they came out here fired up and played a hell of a ball game. [Matt] Flynn did a hell of a job. Looking at this week he ran the offense pretty well. We weren't shocked that he was going to come out and perform well it was just all about us executing. At times we did it well and at times we didn't. Like I said, good football teams find a way to win. You saw today, people rose to the occasion. When the offense needed to score they scored, and when we [defense] needed to make a stop we made a stop. Special teams came up big so I am not sad [with] a victory. I am not worried about how we won, but there are things that we can clean up and get better at. We won, we will look at corrections and move on because we are going to have to win more ball games than this if we want to get where we want to be.

TEAM TALK

LOCAL LINKS

  • Shalise Manza Young recaps the Patriots sweat-it-out win over the Packers last night.
  • Ian Rapoport says the Patriots didn't win any style points in their sixth victory in a row.
  • Karen Guregian reports the Patriots know they have to play better, more disciplined football if they want to extend their season.
  • Greg A. Bedard notes the Patriots' comeback victory includes a warning.
  • Bob Ryan wonders what does it take for the Patriots to lose a game? The answer has a lot to do with the ability to make big, game-changing plays.
  • Steve Buckley focuses on Dan Connolly's rumbling, stumbling, bumbling 71-yard punt return.
  • Ron Borges asserts the Patriots won last night only because Tom Brady would not let them lose.
  • Tom E. Curran notes the Patriots are vulnerable when they're not playing at peak efficiency.
  • Mike Reiss offers his first impressions following the Patriots win over the Packers.
  • Kirk Minihane wonders if this defense can win a Super Bowl.
  • Christopher Price lists his ten things we learned Sunday: Patriots just good enough in win over Packers.
  • Mike Reiss has the top five storylines from last night's win at Gillette.
  • Tom E. Curran gives us five thoughts from Patriots 31, Packers 27.
  • Mike Reiss looks at the snaps played by offensive skill-position players in Sunday night's 31-27 win.
  • Mike Rodak notes last night's loss was a "tough one to swallow" for the Packers.
  • Mike Reiss and Mike Rodak list their Three up and Three down from last night's win.
  • Dan Duggan offers the Best and Worst of yesterday's game.
  • Ian Rapoport Patriots Notebook: Tully Banta-Cain thought the "Hands to the face" penalty was "bull", but he earned his redemption with the game-ending strip sack of Matt Flynn; Kyle Arrington was beat early by a slant route and picked off Flynn when the situation presented itself again; Packers players shared the view that the Patriots weren't a great team; Devin McCourty shook off his rib injury to stat for last night's game; The league is looking into the Jets' Mike Westhoff making a "frivolous" claim against the Patriots; Pats offense was on the field for only 19 minutes, 12 seconds.

NATIONAL NEWS

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