Sports: Patriots quotebook

Patriots quotebook

By Compiled by Times staff writer

Coach Bill Belichick, on why his team lost: "Poor play. Just poor play."

Injured guard Todd Rucci, on quarterback Drew Bledsoe: "It is not a good thing to look back and see him on the ground."

Receiver Troy Brown, on the game: "We didn't play well at all. It is amazing we still had a chance to win at the end. They did what they wanted to do. They stuck with their game plan, and we couldn't get them out of it."

Bledsoe, on how he refrains from complaining to his offensive line: "Once in awhile, I will say something to them. A couple of times today, I did. You're going to get hit. When you are playing a defense the caliber of the one we just played, they are going to get their shots."

Bledsoe, on whether the offensive line will get better: "It will. You have to take into account the kind of players we just played against. Warren Sapp is one of the best to ever play in his position."

Bledsoe, on the last play of the game: "What we were trying to do was fill a post corner to Terry (Glenn). What we wanted him to do got mis-communicated, so it just ended up being a bad play."

Bledsoe, on the Bucs secondary: "I don't know if their secondary has any better speed than anybody else. It's their front seven that are exceptionally fast."

Belichick, on whether he expected a better offensive performance: "We had some trouble in pass protection. Tampa (Bay) mixed it up. They blitzed some, they covered some. They kept us off-balance. I have to give them credit."

Belichick, on his first game as a head coach in some time: "It's not too enjoyable when you don't win. That is true every week. It's a bottom-line business."

Larry Whigham, on forcing Karl Williams' fumble on the opening kickoff: "The adrenaline was flowing. With the great defensive team we were playing against, we knew it would be hard for the offense to score a great deal of points. Fortunately, the guy carried the ball kind of loose."

Bledsoe, on getting three points out of the kickoff fumble recovery and none on a 39-yard punt return by Brown: "That's frustrating. When you go into a game against a team like Tampa Bay, you know they are going to play a field-position type of game. When you start out the game and our special teams give us good field position, you just know you have to capitalize on those situations. To have those two opportunities and just come out with three points is probably the story of the game."

Bledsoe, on his quarterback sneaks: "It was a call at the line. The second time, it was a mistake. We thought that at times, second and long, third and long, they left the middle wide open. We felt it was a play that could be a first-down conversion for us -- 6, 7, 8 yards. Anything longer, obviously we'd be getting into some speed issues."

Bledsoe, on his touchdown to Glenn: "We thought we had set up chances to throw the ball deep to Terry because we thought we had a speed mismatch (on Donnie Abraham). Unfortunately, we didn't get that done earlier. It could have changed the complexion of the game."