The New England Patriots finished their 2017 regular season with a win over the New York Jets. Here’s what they were saying after the game.

FS Devin McCourty

Q: What was better about what the defense was able to do today on third down against the Jets?

“Mainly execution. We had talked about it during the week. A lot of our third down comes down to individual matchup – just someone winning it whether it's in the pass rush, whether it's in coverage. [We're] just trying to execute that and play better. Most of our breakdowns were a guy makes a good catch or we should be a little tighter or we just missed a sack and the quarterback gets out of the pocket. I thought we just did a better job of executing and finishing those plays.”

QB Tom Brady

Q: With Chris Hogan, James White and Rex Burkhead potentially coming back after missing several weeks, is it going to be a challenge to reincorporate them into the offense?

“Yeah, it’s going to take – I mean, if those guys are able to get out there and play, I think anytime you get good players healthy, it helps a lot. So, there’s a lot of guys, like Brandin Cooks, Danny [Amendola] – they played a lot of football this year and have been out there for a lot of snaps – Dion Lewis has. So, if guys can kind of take some snaps off, I think throughout the week of practice and the games, I think that really pays off. So, you’d like to be able to use everybody, and we have a good roster, especially on offense, and a lot of good skill players. I think it’s got to be more than just two or three guys doing it. If we can get five or six guys healthy and everyone plays a role, then that’s going to be great for offense.”

HC Bill Belichick

Q: What did you see from your defense on third down that prevented them from converting a single third-down attempt?

“I think this is something that we really worked hard on, talked a lot about defensively, especially last week, how we gave up four in a row to start the game. They kept the ball for 15 plays on that first drive. We talked a lot about how much just playing well on that down could change things for us defensively. I forget how many plays we had in the first half but it wasn’t very many. We weren’t out there a lot and our offense had some good drives. Again, it’s just team defense. It’s the rush, it’s the coverage, it’s jamming receivers, it’s disguise. I thought Matt [Patricia] and the defensive staff did a good job of mixing it up and trying to keep the offense off-balance with a variety of calls and looks. But in the end, it came down to the players and their execution.”