FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady took eight hits in Sunday's victory over the Miami Dolphins. That was an alarmingly high total for the team, but Patriots coach Bill Belichick didn't think twice about keeping Brady in the game late in the fourth quarter with the team leading 35-17.
In fact, Belichick scoffed at the suggestion that he should have pulled his star quarterback in a testy response at his postgame news conference.
"It's easy for you to sit there and say the game is out of hand," Belichick said. "But if you watch games in the National Football League, a lot can change in a hurry. The only time I think the game is in hand [is] when they're not going to have enough possessions to get the points they need. Sorry, we just see that one totally differently."
Brady remained in the game when the Patriots took over with 4 minutes, 58 seconds remaining and had the 18-point lead. He handed the ball off three times.
When asked about pulling Brady, Belichick first said, "What? On the kneel-downs? What difference does it make?"
Brady, who tossed four touchdown passes as the Patriots won their seventh straight, had come on for three kneel-downs to run out the clock.
As for the eight hits he took, Brady called it an "aggressive game" while noting the Dolphins have "an aggressive defense."
"I definitely took some shots," he said. "They're a tough D-line. They've obviously made a lot of investments in that group and those guys play really hard. They got some good shots on me, but I'll be back at it and ready to go Wednesday."