There were things Bill Belichick liked – the Patriots’ mental toughness and resiliency in a division rival’s stadium.
There were things he didn’t like – the defense’s first drive and the lack of consistency.
He name-dropped a few players and handed out some compliments in his news conference after New England’s 40-32 win over Buffalo.
But it’s just Week 2 and there’s work to do, despite the offense rolling up 507 yards of offense and the defense creating three turnovers.
“Certainly a lot of things we could do better,” he said after the game Sunday. “We left a lot of plays on the field. So we just have to keep trying to coach better and play better, play with more consistency. We had a good week of preparation. We were ready to go. We did a lot of things well, but there’s certainly a lot of things we need to do better, so concentrate on that.
“I think there’s a lot of things we can do better, everybody can do better. I didn’t think it was that spectacular by anybody but it was good enough. But we got a lot of room to improve.”
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Bills coach Rex Ryan came right out and said in his postgame news conference that he was outcoached by Belichick.
“You know, we did a horse [expletive] job and it’s my responsibility,” Ryan said.
Belichick responded to Ryan’s comments by shifting the focus.
“Our players went out there and played and made the plays to win the game,” Belichick said.
Belichick said he was pleased that each phase of the game showed its worth: Tom Brady and the receivers racking up 466 yards, the defense sacking Tyrod Taylor eight times, and Danny Amendola adding key returns to go along with Stephen Gostkowski’s four field goals.
“Everybody contributed,” he said. “We played hard as a team. We prepared hard. We got something to show for it. We came up here, scored 40 points and we’re 1-0 in the division.”
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Listen to Belichick’s full postgame news conference:
Rachel G. Bowers can be reached at rachel.bowers@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter@RachelGBowers.