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New England Patriots Links 10/17/11 - Brady Finds A Way Through; Unclogs Cowboys' Kitchen Sink

By Marima
<em>This is the picture in the dictionary beside the word "clutch".</em>
This is the picture in the dictionary beside the word "clutch".

Aaron Hernandez talks about that last drive after the game.

"I had an in-route and [Rob] Gronkowski had an out-route and he's a great player so he drew the safety's attention and I came around and Tom [Brady] made a great throw and I just had to make the catch."

"When you have a quarterback like Tom [Brady] anything can happen as long as there's time on the clock. He had enough time to get it done."

"We just got a lot of good players out there. We got Wes [Welker], Deion [Branch], Chad [Ochocinco], me, [and Rob] Gronkowski – so many weapons. It's tough to cover all of us especially when you have a quarterback who is going to put it in the right spot."

"We just knew it was time to step up. The type of players we have - everyone knows we have to step up and everyone stepped up."

Rob Gronkowski mentions the two-minute drill and the mental toughness on that great, great team victory.

"It's crazy - it's a lot of mental toughness. It's a lot of focus going down [the field]. That's your last chance going down and you got to do everything 100 percent. You can't make mistakes because if you do, that could be the game – just one little play. You definitely have to be mentally focused."

"Just the mental toughness, definitely. We just kept going out there. Even though we didn't have that many good drives, we had a chance at the end still and we accomplished it. The defense played amazing. Their mental toughness was off the charts. They were physical all game and making plays and stopping them all the time."

Andre Carter responds to questions about how the defense needs to improve, and how it felt to get two sacks.

"I think usually just those long drives. The long drives have been a sometimes killer for us. It's starting to show more in the second half, toward the end of the second half. And maybe a little bit toward the end of the third quarter. So that's just something we've got to keep working on and continue to get better and we'll be in the right direction."

"It felt great. One thing that people don't understand, especially when it comes to sacks – sacks and coverage, everything else, it just comes hand in hand. So it's just something that we always talk about and discuss. It was just a blessing and I thank God and I just thank the 10 guys who were around to do their job. When the opportunity presented itself to make a play, we made a play."

Brandon Spikes on that final defensive stop and the defensive effort Sunday.

"It was critical. All week have been trying to say that when there is sudden change, you have to stand up and answer. I think we did that. Overall on defense, guys flew around, we had some problems with tackling but getting all those hats to the ball, we took care of it."

"It's just having our teammates backs. Sometimes things aren't going to go the way we want them to, and we just have to be there and do our job. Like I said, we were there to stand up and we got the job done. Anytime we get the opportunity to go out there and there is a sudden change, we want to come out holding them to three or getting the ball back and giving it to the offense."

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