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Bill Belichick praises Tom Brady

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January 15, 2012|By Zuri Berry

FOXBOROUGH -- Bill Belichick was chipper in his postgame interview following the Patriots 45-10 drubbing of the Denver Broncos in the AFC divisional playoff.

The team put up a whopping 509 yards of offense and held the Broncos to 252 yards. But it was the center piece of his team, Tom Brady, that was the jewel of the game.

Brady threw for 363 yards and six touchdowns, both franchise records, in leading the Patriots out in its fastest start of the year en route to the win. The Patriots scored their first touchdown 1:51 into the game. They got two quick scores to end the first half too, including a 61-yard touchdown pass to Deion Branch with 1:57 left in the half and then a 19-yard TD pass to Rob Gronkowski with five seconds left in the half.

"That was huge. We got the first touchdown and then we were able to get the stop there on defense and come back and we were kinda playing for three with 10 seconds to go," Belichick said. "We still had a timeout and we saved that timeout for the field goal and we kinda took a shot at the end zone. Tom [Brady] hit, of course Rob down the middle."

The coach gave praise to his quarterback for handling the team that played no huddle for a majority of the game.

"Tom, I thought, really had a good night other than the one ball that was overthrown," Belichick said. "He managed the team well. We were in a fast-paced, no huddle the whole game. And as usual he did an excellent job of controlling the formations of the plays."

The coach also gave a little insight on Brady's quick kick, something the team hadn't done for years.

"The quick quick we've worked on for seven, eight years since the last time we did it," Belichick said. "So he's 2-for-2. Two inside the 20. That's the kind of play we work on forever and you never know if it's gonna come up."

Speaking of Brady and the team's output after the last two playoff exits, Belichick said he was happy with the team's execution.

"We had good execution by a lot of guys offensively tonight," he said. "Certainly a lot better than the last couple of playoff games we've had here."